Black Sabbath

Released: November 4, 1981

Songwriter: Dio Geezer Butler Tony Iommi

Producer: Martin Birch

Slipping away, just a heartbeat from disaster
Nothing could make me stay, close your eyes and I'll be gone
Turn the page, yeah, time to start another story
Slipping away, slipping away, time to move along

No reason to stay
Oh, when I'm slipping away

Take a look at yourself, you've been running in a circle
Round and round you go, you're a start without an end
Start a new life, yeah, from the city of the gypsies
Running away, slipping away, right behind the plow

Slipping away
Slipping away
Nobody to pay
Look out, 'cause I'm slipping away

Rockin' the glass, I won't leave you my reflection
A future without a past, no more road to take me back
Come if you will, just don't question my direction
Running away, slipping away, we can find the sun

Slipping away
Slipping away
Got nobody to pay
And you're slippin' away

No more running in a circle
It's time to move along
Round, round, round we go
A start without an end
So I'm slipping away
Slipping away

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

The Rules of Hell

From the albums

Mob Rules (1981)
The Rules of Hell (2008)

Black Sabbath popular songs

Slipping AwayBlack Sabbath

Black Sabbath

The Rules of Hell