Black Sabbath

Released: July 1, 1980

Songwriter: Bill Ward Geezer Butler Tony Iommi Ozzy Osbourne

Producer: Patrick Meehan

[Verse 1]
Well, people look and people stare
Well, I don’t think that I even care
You work your life away and what do they give?
You’re only killing yourself to live

[Refrain]
Killing yourself to live
Killing yourself to live

[Verse 2]
Just take a look around you, what do you see?
Pain, suffering, and misery
It’s not the way that the world was meant
It’s a pity, you don’t understand

[Refrain]
Killing yourself to live
Killing yourself to live

[Guitar Solo]

[Bridge]
I’m telling you, believe in me
Nobody else will tell you
Open your eyes and see the lies, oh yeah
(Smoke it, get high)
You think that I’m crazy and, baby, I know that it’s true
Before that you know it I think that you’ll go crazy, too

[Guitar Solo]

[Outro]
I don’t know if I’m up or down
Whether black is white or blue is brown
The colors of my life are all different somehow
Little boy blue’s a big girl now
So you think it’s me who’s strange
But you’ve never had to make the change
Never give your trust away
You’ll end up payin' ’til your dyin' day

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 albums

Live at Last (1980)
Past Lives (2002)

Black Sabbath popular songs

Killing Yourself To Live [Live at Last]Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath

Past Lives