"Planet Caravan" is a psychedelic song by the English heavy metal band Black Sabbath. Geezer Butler has stated that the song's meaning is floating through the universe with one's lover. The song appears on their 1970 breakthrough album Paranoid. Lead singer Ozzy Osbourne uses a Leslie speaker to achieve the vocals' treble and vibrato effects.
A video was produced for the song. All of the computer-generated visuals for the video were taken from Karl Sims digital animation "Panspermia" produced for the 1991 SIGGRAPH conference. The "Planet Caravan" video has been omitted from recent Pantera music video collections.
Release and reception
The song was released as the second single from Far Beyond Driven, and the follow up single to their hit single "I'm Broken" in 1994 on EastWest Records as a 12" single. It came in a 12" gatefold with a blood-red vinyl. Inside, the vinyl has a band picture with "To our fans: Thanks for the support!! You rule!! We'll see y'all next year!!" in silver. The pictures have also been signed in silver. The single became Pantera's highest charting single in the United States, peaking at #21 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, as well as charting on the UK Singles Chart, managing to peak at #26.[2]
"This is a Black Sabbath song off of the Paranoid album. So don't freak out on us. We did the song because we wanted to. It has nothing to do with the integrity of our direction. It's a tripped out song. We think you'll dig it. If you don't, don't fucking listen to it. Thanks. On behalf of the rest of Pantera, Phil Anselmo '94."
Estonian band Rondellus covered this song in Medieval style, on their tribute album Sabbatum, for voice, lute and psaltery. In their version the lyrics are translated into Latin, and the song has been retitled "Planetarum Vagatio" (literally, "Wandering of the Planets").
Svarti Loghin on their album "Drifting Through the Void".
