Not a big surprise here…this song is about marijuana, and makes little attempt to disguise it. The band did a lot of marijuana and many other drugs around this time.
The sound at the beginning is Tony Iommi coughing after inhaling marijuana smoke from a bong and it was looped.
They got the name from a pack of Irish Cigarettes that said “It’s the sweet leaf.” They thought that Sweet Leaf was a great description of marijuana, and the entire band wrote the song together.
The song was on Master of Reality. The album peaked at #8 in the Billboard Album Chart, #5 in the UK, and #6 in Canada.
From Songfacts
The guitar riff was taken from Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention’s “Hungry Freaks, Daddy.” This riff can also be heard at the end of the Red Hot Chili Peppers song “Give It Away” and is the basis for the song “Rhymin’ and Stealin'” by The Beastie Boys.
A Sabbath tribute band from Denmark is named Sweet Leaf.
This has been covered by Next Step Up, Stock Mojo, Garbage, Ancient, Ugly Kid Joe, Butthole Surfers, Mogwai, Stereolab, Agent Steel, Pimpadelic, Cadaver, and Widespread Panic.
Sweet Leaf
Alright now
Won’t you listen?
When I first met you, didn’t realize
I can’t forget you, for your surprise
You introduced me, to my mind
And left me wanting, you and your kind, oh yeah
I love you, oh you know it
My life was empty, forever on a down
Until you took me, showed me around
My life is free now, my life is clear
I love you sweet leaf, though you can’t hear, oh yeah
Come on now, try it out
Straight people don’t know, what you’re about
They put you down and shut you out
You gave to me a new belief
And soon the world will love you sweet leaf, oh yeah baby
Come on now, oh yeah
Try me out baby, alright, oh yeah
I want you part of this sweet leaf, oh yeah
Alright, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh try me out
I love you sweet leaf, oh
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Love it. This sounds really grungy… You wouldn’t necessarily think it was from way back in the early 70s.
I like it because it’s raw…not some processed sounding guitar…turn it to 11 and play….the same the Beatles did on Helter Skelter.
Ha! This was a big song for us back in the day! Funny…I didn’t know that the main riff was taken from Zappa. Cool. I never really got into Frank Zappa that much, but he and his band were great musicians. Zappa is a fantastic guitarist. In fact, he plays beaucoup instruments.
As a musician he was second to none. I’m not a huge fan of his songs but I have to respect him.
Pam I saw Zappa on some late night talk show “playing” a bicycle 🙂
I saw that! also
🙂
Wow! I want to say cool, but I don’t know…
Pam it’s worth a watch…he is on the Steve Allen show before he made it big and was playing a bicycle.
IIRC he was playing the spokes like a xylophone…
They did a lot for heavy metal.
The name makes me think of that Tender Leaf Tea commercial I put in my post last Sunday. “Tea” is another nickname for marijuana…
I’ve heard of blue tea before…Chicago Green…there are so many slangs.
Per the Beverly Hillbillies, Texas Tea is a nickname for crude oil also.
Listening to it again after all these years – they sounded a lot “tamer” today then I thought they sounded back then!
The drugs or the band? lol. Yes compared to today they do sound tamer.
Have never been much of a fan of Black Sabbath, or many of the other hard rock & metal bands of the 70s and early 80s, other than for Led Zeppelin.
Zeppelin was the model…but they did have some awful copies. Many missed the the light/hard approach and just focused on the hard.
Dang, I’ve heard this song many times but never knew the name or that it was about weed. I LOVE THIS SONG. The guitars put me into a trance. Best heard cranked at max, Max 🙂
Glad you liked it!
Definitely Sabbath. You can’t mistake those guitars. I’ve never been much of a Sabbath fan, though I do like Iron Man (’cause I’m a Marvel geek). LOL!
First I’ve heard this.
Paranoid, Ironman, War Pigs are the three that I knew best…I did know this one though.
Max Sabbath! Great track. Iommi was brilliant at creating these riffs that sounded plain gnarly and nasty.
I thought you would like this one. I love the raw guitar sound.
Have you ever heard Ozzy’s version on his live album Speak of the Devil from 82? Ozz sounds nuts!!
Keep on Smoking it! he hollers at the crowd..lol
I’ve heard of the album but not this song live. LOL
Metal and marijuana is an odd mix – maybe describes why Black Sabbath sound different than most metal.
You would think speed wouldn’t you?
I haven’t heard this in years (I think I had the album… but goes back a way!) Not actually much in it that’s druggy, could be about a girl, too…
With the exception of his bong hit at the start there isn’t much in the lyrics .