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Black Sabbath -Black Sabbath+Info1970HD

3,453 views · Published 7 April 2018 · 6:21 · Indexed 29 October 2026

Channel: 80's Memories Rock and Pop · 2018 · People & Blogs

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Lyrics

What is this that stands before me?
Figure in black which points at me
Turn around quick and start to run
Find out I'm the chosen one, oh nooo!

Big black shape with eyes of fire
Telling people their desire
Satan's sitting there, he's smiling
Watches those flames get higher and higher
Oh no, no, please God help me!

Is it the end, my friend?
Satan's coming 'round the bend
People running 'cause they're scared
The people better go and beware!
No, no, please, no!

"Black Sabbath" is a song by the British heavy metal band Black Sabbath, written in 1969 and released on their eponymous debut album

Released: 13 February 1970 (UK)1 June 1970 (US)
Recorded: November 1969.
Genre: Doom metal
Label: Vertigo (UK) Warner Bros. (US)
Songwriter(s):
Ozzy Osbourne Tony Iommi Geezer Butler Bill Ward.
Producer(s): Rodger Bain.

History
According to the band, the song was inspired by an experience that Geezer Butler had in the days of Earth. Butler, obsessed with the occult at the time, painted his apartment matte black, placed several inverted crucifixes, and put many pictures of Satan on the walls. Ozzy Osbourne handed Butler a black occult book, written in Latin and decorated with numerous pictures of Satan. Butler read the book and then placed it on a shelf beside his bed before going to sleep. When he woke up, he claims he saw a large black figure standing at the end of his bed, staring at him. The figure vanished and Butler ran to the shelf where he had placed the book earlier, but the book was gone. Butler related this story to Osbourne, who then wrote the lyrics to the song based on Butler's experience. The song starts with the lyrics:

What is this that stands before me?
Figure in black which points at me

A version of this song from Black Sabbath's first demo exists on the Ozzy Osbourne compilation album,The song "Black Sabbath" was one of the earliest examples in heavy metal to make use of this interval,and since then, the genre has made extensive use of diabolus in musica.

The riff was created when bassist Geezer Butler began playing a fragment of "Mars" from Gustav Holst Planets suite. Inspired, guitarist Tony Iommi returned the next day with the famously dark tritone.

Black Sabbath is the debut studio album by the English rock band Black Sabbath. Released on 13 February 1970 in the United Kingdom and on 1 June 1970 in the United States, the album reached number eight on the UK Albums Charts and number 23 on the Billboard charts. Black Sabbath is widely considered the first heavy metal album

According to Black Sabbath guitarist and founder member Tony Iommi, the group's debut album was recorded in a single day on 16 October 1969.

The key to the band's new sound on the album was Iommi's distinctive playing style that he developed after an accident at a sheet metal factory where he was working at the age of 17 in which the tips of the middle fingers of his fretting hand were severed. Iommi created a pair of false fingertips using plastic from a dish detergent bottle and detuned the strings on his guitar to make it easier for him to bend the strings, creating a massive, heavy sound. "I'd play a load of chords and I'd have to play fifths because I couldn't play fourths because of my fingers," Iommi explained to Phil Alexander in Mojo in 2013. "That helped me develop my style of playing, bending the strings and hitting the open string at the same time just to make the sound wilder." In the same article bassist Geezer Butler added, "Back then the bass play player was supposed to do all these melodic runs, but I didn't know how to do that because I'd been a guitarist, so all I did was follow Tony's riff. That made the sound heavier." Black Sabbath's music and lyrics were quite dark for the time. The opening track is based almost entirely on a tritone interval played at slow tempo 
Ozzy Osbourne:
I'd been raised a Catholic so I totally believed in the Devil. There was a weekly magazine called Man, Myth and Magicthat I started reading which was all about Satan and stuff. That and books by Aleister Crowley and Denis Wheatley, especially The Devil Rides Out ... I'd moved into this flat I'd painted black with inverted crosses everywhere. Ozzy gave me this 16th Century book about magic that he'd stolen from somewhere. I put it in the airing cupboard because I wasn't sure about it. Later that night I woke up and saw this black shadow at the end of the bed. It was a horrible presence that frightened the life out of me! I ran to the airing cupboard to throw the book out, but the book had disappeared. After that I gave up all that stuff. It scared me shitless.
Black Sabbath personnel:
Ozzy Osbourne – vocals, harmonica on "The Wizard"
Tony Iommi – guitar
Geezer Butler – bass
Bill Ward – drums

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