"Supernaut" is the fifth song from the album '' Vol. 4'' by British heavy metal band

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. After adopting the Black Sabbath name in 1969 (the band ...

. In an interview with ''Q magazine'',

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his Experimental music, experimental and Lo-fi mus ...

named the "Supernaut" riff as his all-time favourite, along with

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

's "

Cinnamon Girl "Cinnamon Girl" is a song by Neil Young. It debuted on the 1969 album ''Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere'', which was also Young's first album with backing band Crazy Horse. Songwriting Music Like two other songs from ''Everybody Knows This ...

". The song was also a favorite of

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...

and

John Bonham John Henry Bonham (31 May 1948 – 25 September 1980) was an English musician who was the drummer of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Noted for his speed, power, fast single-footed kick drumming, distinctive sound, and feel for groove, John Bonh ...

. When played live, the song frequently featured a drum solo.

Personnel

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and media personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead singer of the heavy metal music, heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which per ...

–

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

Tony Iommi Anthony Frank Iommi Jr. (born 19 February 1948) is an English musician. He co-founded the pioneering Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and was the band's guitarist, leader, primary composer, and sole continuous member for over ...

–

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s *

Geezer Butler Terence Michael Joseph "Geezer" Butler (born 17 July 1949) is an English musician, best known as the bassist and primary lyricist of the pioneering Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Black Sabbath. He has also recorded and performed with Heave ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

* Bill Ward –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

;Technical personnel *Colin Caldwell, Vic Smith –

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

*Patrick Meehan –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

1000 Homo DJs version

The song was covered by Ministry side project

1000 Homo DJs 1000 Homo DJs was a side project of American industrial rock band Ministry. The project released two singles, one of which featured a cover of Black Sabbath's " Supernaut". 1000 Homo DJs began as a side project to release outtakes from Ministry ...

in 1990. It was released as

12-inch The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12) is a type of vinyl (polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a "single" or a few related sound tracks on each surface, compar ...

and

CD single A CD single is a single (music), music single in the form of a compact disc (CD). Originally the ''CD single'' standard (as defined in the Rainbow Books, Red Book) was an 8 cm (3-inch) "mini CD" (''CD3''); later on the term referred to any si ...

. The CD version of the single also contains the songs "Apathy" and "Better Ways", from the band's 1988 debut single, "Apathy." Ned Raggett of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

praised the cover, writing that "the title track is something else again, one of Al Jourgensen's best efforts at creating completely over-the-top industrial death disco. While it doesn't do much in the way of reinterpreting the original Black Sabbath number—no lyric changes, same basic pace—the amped-up guitars, huge drum fills, dancefloor-oriented pounding, and distorted lyrical screaming turn it into a massive, exhilarating crunch." Nevertheless, he stated that the B-side song, "Hey Asshole", was "consisting of little more than a shouted loop of the song title and a crunching rhythm as background for an extended rant by a character playing, indeed, an asshole of a cop."

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. T ...

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

recorded the original vocals for the "Supernaut" cover. His vocals were not officially used because Reznor's label

TVT Records TVT Records, originally Tee-Vee Toons, was an American record label founded by Steve Gottlieb in 1984. Initially created to release the '' Television's Greatest Hits'' series of classic TV theme tune compilations, the label would expand into ra ...

refused to allow his appearance on the release. An oft-repeated story tells that instead of recording new vocals, the band's frontman

Al Jourgensen Alain David Jourgensen (born Alejandro Ramírez Casas; October 9, 1958) is a Cuban-American singer, musician and music producer. Closely related with the independent record label Wax Trax! Records, his musical career spans four decades. He is t ...

merely altered Reznor's performance through a

distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...

effect to mask his identity. Both Reznor and Jourgensen dismissed this claim. In a 1992

Prodigy Prodigy, Prodigies or The Prodigy may refer to: * Child prodigy, a child who produces meaningful output to the level of an adult expert performer ** Chess prodigy, a child who can beat experienced adult players at chess Arts, entertainment, and m ...

post regarding "Supernaut", Reznor wrote, " finally told Al to redo it without me. The version that Wax Trax put out is Al, the version on the NIN ootlegsingle is me." Jourgensen made a similar statement in a 2003 interview. When asked whose vocals appear on "Supernaut", Jourgensen replied, "That would be me on the original, on WaxTrax! The later version released on TVT was Trent Reznor... then the remixed version had my vocals on it." The version with Reznor's vocals was eventually released on the compilation album '' Black Box – Wax Trax! Records: The First 13 Years''. The version of the song with Al Jourgensen's vocals was also featured on the Black Sabbath tribute album '' Nativity in Black''.

Track listing

;12" single # "Supernaut" – 6:42 # "Hey Asshole" – 8:09 ;CD release # "Supernaut" – 6:42 # "Hey Asshole" – 8:09 # "Apathy" – 4:36 # "Better Ways" – 5:23

Personnel

* Count Ringworm – vocals on "Hey Asshole" *

– bass, guitar, vocals, vox organ on "Supernaut" *Ike Krull – guitar on "Supernaut" *Officer Agro – drums, vocals, vox organ on "Hey Asshole" *Wee Willie Reefer – drums on "Supernaut" *Viva Nova – vocals on "Hey Asshole" *The Temple Of Drool Choir – vocals on "Hey Asshole" *

– vocals on "Supernaut" ''(uncredited)'' ;Technical personnel *Critter – engineering *Frisky – second engineering

Other cover versions

* Coalesce on the 2007 reissue of their

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...

tribute EP entitled '' There is Nothing New Under the Sun'' and also on the

Hydra Head Records Hydra Head Records was an independent record label specializing in extreme metal music, founded in New Mexico by Aaron Turner (the frontman of Isis) in 1993. It had another imprint, Hydra Head Noise Industries, which specialized in experimental ...

Black Sabbath tribute album '' In These Black Days: Vol. 3''. * Ministry performed "Supernaut" on their 1992 ''

Psalm 69 Psalm 69 is the 69th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul". It is subtitled: "To the chief musician, upon Shoshannim, a Psalm of David". The Boo ...

'' tour, and, as Ministry & Co-Conspirators, recorded it for their compilation album ''

Cover Up A cover-up is an attempt, whether successful or not, to conceal evidence of wrongdoing, error, incompetence, or other embarrassing information. Research has distinguished personal cover-ups (covering up one's own misdeeds) from relational co ...

''. *The joint venture of Los Coronas and Arizona Baby covered the song in their 2011 live album ''Dos Bandas y un Destino''. *

STEMM Stemm may refer to: * Stemm (band), an American metal band * STEMM, abbreviation for Science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine * Stemm, Indiana, a community in the US See also * Stem (disambiguation) Stem or STEM most commonly r ...

(from Niagara Falls) for ''Crossroads'' (2011).

References

{{Authority control Black Sabbath songs 1972 songs Songs written by Ozzy Osbourne Songs written by Geezer Butler Songs written by Tony Iommi Songs written by Bill Ward (musician) 1990 singles Wax Trax! Records albums Trent Reznor Songs about drugs