Those were the days.

I'm jealous. Growing up in Arkansas in the 80s my first concert was Heart. Oh well, I did get to see Cheap Trick play the same arena a few years later and Black Flag a few more years later at a venue several blocks away. Does that rock?

Noddy Holder @ 3:

I'm jealous. Growing up in Arkansas in the 80s my first concert was Heart. Oh well, I did get to see Cheap Trick play the same arena a few years later and Black Flag a few more years later at a venue several blocks away. Does that rock?

In more ways than you know.

My first concert was Nine Inch Nails.

I always thought it was... "can you help me. fucking up my brain" oh yeah.. As in can you get me some drugs or something to fucking change my mind etc.

Blue Suede Shoes

Chldren of the Grave

And of course, War Pigs

I agree with Squid about "War Pigs". I almost never post here on C&L (maybe twice), but I'm a daily reader; and I have to admit I'm surprised to see Sabbath as a musical feature. As a 33-year old life-long metalhead, I'm impressed.
For any one who cares, there are plenty of good metal songs with an anti-war theme. A few are:

"Disposable Heroes" - Metallica
"Now You've Got Something To Die For" - Lamb Of God
"Clenching The Fists Of Dissent" - Machine Head
"Take No Prisoners" - Megadeth
"2 Minutes To Midnight" - Iron Maiden

There are plenty more - I just tried to include the ones by more well-known metal bands.

Keep up the good work, C&L.

yesyesyes @ 6:

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I think that would be a head up an ass, but that's just a guess.

I still remember the first time I heard Sabbath's 'Master of Reality' ...changed my whole way of looking at things.

Fairies Wear Boots.

I've often thought that hard rockers did the best ballads, mainly because of this song: http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=MQBT5Gwp2A0 From Master of Reality. One of my top 10 favorite songs.

When I was a kid I worked at the local Sheraton Hotel when Black Sabbath played our dinky little town. They stayed at the hotel and I got to run room service for them. God they were great. Ate a ton of Rice Krispies and were great tippers. I still have the hotel napkin Ozzy wrote "Happy Holidays" on. Nope, it wasn't Christmas: it was Black Sabbath. One of my fondest memories of that time.
Jewel

redwood, I agree, that is a very nice song indeed.

1st concert = U.K.

"dodging gunfire"?

And as with Machinae Supremacy singing fast in english but with a swedish accents,
the lyrics people havnt a clue as to the true words, lots of missing or wrong words (lines) on the lyrics websites.

When I was 13 we lived in Portland OR. My dad was a insurance executive and had to go to LA on business and took me along. As he was getting hammered I snuck out and found Whiskey A Go-Go and slipped in. The Doors were on stage performing The End. I got caught before the song ended but the experience changed me.

Old Stoner @ 29:

When I was 13 we lived in Portland OR. My dad was a insurance executive and had to go to LA on business and took me along. As he was getting hammered I snuck out and found Whiskey A Go-Go and slipped in. The Doors were on stage performing The End. I got caught before the song ended but the experience changed me.

I sure do hear ya, OS!

I saw the Doors at a small venue right after they'd left the Whiskey, on what had to be their first national tour. Their single was still "Break On Through," a regional hit, on the Left Coast, but I'd already heard "Light My Fire" once on the radio. They performed almost the entire first album and finished with "The End." The atmosphere was so thick--even though the place was NOT sold out!--you could cut it with a knife; it was the closest I think I've ever been to actual sorcery. They were magnificent.

To this very day I don't quite believe what happened that night...

I saw Black Sabbath on their Sabbath Bloody Sabbath tour and the backup was Boston. their first lp was just releades. Boston blew the freaking doors off the place they totally rocked. Sabbath was kind of a let down but still put on a great show. OT When I went to see Joe Cocker once his backup singers, all hot ladies, basically carried him onstage he was so drunk and could barely stand much less sing. LOL His version that night of "You are so Beauitful" was pathetic and hysterically funny at the same time.

What? No Sweet Leaf?

Black Sabbath was a promising band, but they had a lousy lead singer.

The impression I got was whenever Ozzy opened his mouth the band had to pull back.

Both because he couldn't keep up with them

Or his dinner down.

ysbaddaden @ 37:

Black Sabbath was a promising band, but they had a lousy lead singer.

The impression I got was whenever Ozzy opened his mouth the band had to pull back.

Both because he couldn't keep up with them

Or his dinner down.

So very true, especially as the band achieved more and more success throughout the mid-to-late 70s. I thought their work with Ronnie James Dio on Heaven and Hell to be among their best, but maybe I just have a soft spot for riding tigers and bi-syllabic pronunciations of "fire."

On the subject of kicking ass and taking names, these guys seem to have picked up where old-school Sabbath left off. Less thinly-veiled protesting, and more Norse mythology, though, but interpret it how you will:

"Freya"
A sword of fire and an axe of cold
Vision of the Sibyl has foretold
Armies gather on the battle-plain
All will fall and earth will die in flame

Here on the battle-plain
We will die in flame

In falcon's feathers soaring overhead
Choosing warriors among the dead
Twilight written in the runes of crones
Freya weeps upon her golden throne

Upon her golden throne
We wait for her alone
Call us unto you hall
Take us into your thrall

The battle rages, but they fight in vain
When all is done it must begin again

39 Zeitgeist Embittered

I like the fire and ice imagery, it's very Nordic. Jotunhem the land of the Giants was in some regions pure ice and others very rocky (could be both at the same time?)

Nifleheim the home of the dead not carried away by the Valkyries (the falcon of the lyrics) was presided over by the daughter of the Trickster God Loki (no he wasn't the mellow dude sort.) Her name was Hel. The land was seen as very cold and icy, but surrounded by fire. This was the symbolism of the Viking cremation, so they would refer to those who have died as those who had passed through the fires of Hel.

Mutspell however, is a land of fire, where a fire demon resides, who will run free during Ragnarrok, and be one of the many dangers destroying the world and the Gods, until Balder returns from the dead and starts a new pantheon of Aesir.

Two incongruities in the lyrics though. Vikings had their version of Sybils of course, called the Wyrd Sisters, but Sybils per se were Greek prophetesses (maybe Roman.) Tha's where the English word weird comes from. However, the Wyrd Sisters may be more comparable to the Greek's Fates. Both are groups of three.

I'm not sure if Freya is connected to the Valkyries or not. Usually they're more identified with Odin, the God of Battles. However, I seem to remember that She did have a cape of Raven's wings, that Loki "borrowed" for one of his misadventures. However, that's usually interpreted as being a shamanistic device, making Freya a Goddess of Prophecy, although Odin after his hanging from the divine tree Yggdrasil could make much the same claim. However, most interpretations that I've read don't make this cape a chthonic psycho-pomp device. On the other hand, necromancy was one of the most common forms of prophecy, by consulting the shades of the dead like the Biblical Witch of Endor (source for the name Endora?).

King Arthur in the tale of the Dream of Rhonabwy in the Mabinogion had a mantle (cape) of invisibility called Gwyn. It was white with the design of red-gold apples in the corners. That way he could spy on battles unseen. This seems to be turning the Emrys or Dux Bellorum (if you think him historical), into something like could be called the Luck of Battle.

Interesting thing though for me was the Morrigu of the Irish had battle-goddesses whose names were Maev, Nemed and Babv. Ravens were considered their tokens. And of course Odin had his pet ravens, who spied on Midgard for him, along with other ravens, so he knew what men were up to.

Of course the last lines of the lyric is a reference to Valhalla where the heroic dead fight during the day, and even die in battle, but all is restored to normal by night while their in their feasting halls. This was also suggested in the tale of the Dream of Rhonabwy with the battle of chieftains and ravens, somehow linked to the board game Emrys Arthur and Owain were playing called Gwyddbwyl.

mudshark @ 35:

What? No Sweet Leaf?

"Sweet Leaf" is awesome. When you have a song you hate stuck in your head, "Sweet Leaf" will bust it right out of there.

I saw Black Sabbath perform in the gym at Union Catholic HS, Scotch Plains, NJ in 1971. It was incredible! They literally blew the fuses out.

Those were the days, my friend...

"Into The Void" is a prophetic song that may tell us whats going to happen if we do not stop prodding Russia in to a conflict.