Black Sabbath

Released: July 1, 1980

Songwriter: Bill Ward Geezer Butler Tony Iommi Ozzy Osbourne

Producer: Patrick Meehan

[Verse 1]
The world today is such a wicked place
Fighting going on between the human race
People got to work just to earn their bread
While people just across the sea are counting their dead

[Verse 2]
A politician’s job they say is very high
For he has to choose who’s gotta go and die
They can put a man on the Moon quite easy
While people here on Earth are dying of all diseases

[Guitar Solo]

[Verse 3]
A woman goes to work every day after day
She just goes to work just to earn her pay
Child sitting crying by a life that’s harder
He doesn’t even know who is his father

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

Wicked World [Live at Last]Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath

Past Lives