Black Sabbath

Released: August 20, 2002

Songwriter: Bill Ward Geezer Butler Tony Iommi Ozzy Osbourne

[Verse 1]
What you gonna do?
Time's caught up with you
Now, you wait your turn
You know there's no return
Change your empty rules!
You join the other fools!
Turn to something new!
Now, it's killing you!

[Verse 2]
First, it was the bomb
Vietnam napalm
Disillusioning
You push the needle in
From life, you escape!
Reality's black drape!
Colours in your mind!
Satisfy your time!

[Instrumental change]

[Verse 3]
Oh, you, you know you must be blind
To do such things like this
To take the sweet that you don't know
You're giving Death a kiss
Poor little fool now

[Verse 4]
Your mind is full of pleasure
Your body's looking ill
To you, it's shallow leisure
So drop the acid pill
Don't stop to think now

[Bridge]
You're having a good time, baby
But that won't last
Your mind's all full of things
You're living too fast
Go out, enjoy yourself
Don't bottle it in
You need someone to help you
Stick the needle in, yeah

[Guitar Solo]

[Verse 5]
Now, you know the scene
Your skin starts turning green
Your eyes no longer seeing
Life's reality
Push the needle in!
Face Death's sickly grin!
Holes are in your skin!
Caused by deadly pin!

[Verse 6]
Head starts spinning 'round
You fall down to the ground
Feel your body heave
Death's hand starts to weave
It's too late to turn!
You don't wanna learn!
Price of life is high!
Now, you're gonna die!

From their start as a heavy blues-rock band called Earth in 1968, Black Sabbath survived over four decades with a total of 19 studio albums and numerous hits, but only “Paranoid” reached the top 10 UK Singles Chart, putting together one of the greatest rock bands of all time and setting the standards for music in their genre.

Virtually every single heavy metal band has cited the early Black Sabbath albums as a major musical influence and Black Sabbath have at least played some part in laying the foundations for most of heavy metal’s sub-genres, including thrash metal (“Symptom of the Universe” and “Into the Void”), doom metal (“Black Sabbath”) and stoner metal (“Sweet Leaf”). The band also explored many rock sub-genres, including hard rock (“Paranoid”), blues rock (“N.I.B.”), psychedelic rock (“Planet Caravan”) and, of course, the traditional heavy metal, being one of the precursors of this genre.

They were ranked by MTV as the “Greatest Metal Band” of all time and placed second in VH1’s “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock” list. Rolling Stone magazine ranked them number 85 in their “100 Greatest Artists of All Time.” They have sold over 70 million records worldwide. Black Sabbath were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006. They have also won two Grammy Awards for Best Metal Performance.

more tracks from the album

Past Lives

From the album

Past Lives (2002)

Black Sabbath popular songs

Hand of Doom [Past Lives]Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath

Past Lives