Black Sabbath – Iron Man

I hope many of you enjoyed a long weekend!

This is a fun song. Now its popularity has risen to an all-time high with the 2008 Marvel movie Ironman. I know most serious movie fans are not big fans of the Marvel movies. I fit in there also because I don’t like watching a lot of CGI. As a music fan though, I’m glad they are sharing 60s and 70s music to a new generation.

Another song that the riff is easy for beginning guitar players to learn how to play. It was one of the first ones I learned. This was the biggest US hit for Black Sabbath. It got very little radio play but developed a cult following, which led to enough sales to give it a chart position.

Iron Man peaked at #52 in 1971 on the Billboard 100 and #68 in Canada. The song was written by all of the members of the band. It was on the album Paranoid released in 1970. The album peaked at #12 on the Billboard Album Charts, #20 in Canada, and #1 in the UK Album Charts.

They did something smart as far as singles. They followed the Led Zeppelin way of doing it. In the UK they didn’t release this as a single because they had released Paranoid the year before. People would show up in the UK wanting to hear one song…Paranoid… so they limited their single releases there.

Black Sabbath Bass guitar player Geezer Butler: “I was walking down the street one day and thought… ‘what if there were a bloody great bloke made out of metal walking about?”‘ 

EMS VCS3 1970's MKII modular analog classic synthi NO KS keyboard image 1

There is debate on how Ozzy got his voice distorted in the intro. Some say he got that by singing from behind a metal fan. Others say it was him singing through a VCS-3 Synthesizer…they came out in 1969. Another rumor was a  processor called a ring modulator (effects box) ran through a tremolo. Why don’t they just ask Ozzy? Uh…ok never mind! just kidding.

This is the only Black Sabbath album that I owned. I always liked it… Paranoid, War Pigs, Iron Man, and Hand of Doom I liked. One cool fact I read is Frank Zappa surprised Black Sabbath by covering this song because he knew they were in the audience.

Here is a partial list of artists who have covered this song from Songfacts: Marilyn Manson, Alice in Chains, Butthole Surfers, Add N To (X), Busta Rhymes, Therapy, NOFX, Auburn U. Band, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Tim McCarthy, Heavy Voltage, DYS, Tanzwut, EMO, Amoco Renegades, Dead Alewives, Replacements, The Cardigans, The Mats, and Offspring.

Tony Iommi:  “A lot of the words in the songs – a lot of the moods of the songs – are aggressive, especially in the early days – Satanic, if you like… That was the way it felt, so that was the way we played. But it got out of hand. With Paranoid in England, for instance. There was a girl (Hillary Pollard) found dead – a nurse she was: dead in her room with our album on the turntable going round. And it was taken to court saying that it was because of the album that she was depressed and killed herself, which was totally ridiculous, I think.”

Geezer Butler: “If the moral majority don’t understand it they’ll try to put it down, or get other people to read all sorts of things into it … The moral majority sort of people picked up on the Satanic part of it. I mean, most of it was about stopping wars and that side of it, and some science fiction stuff. There wasn’t that much Satanic stuff, and what there was it wasn’t exactly for the devil or anything like that; it was just around at the time and we just brought it to people’s attention.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s7_WbiR79E

Iron Man

I am iron man

Has he lost his mind?
Can he see or is he blind?
Can he walk at all
Or if he moves will he fall?

Is he alive or dead?
Has he thoughts within his head?
We’ll just pass him there
Why should we even care?

He was turned to steel
In the great magnetic field
Where he traveled time
For the future of mankind

Nobody wants him
He just stares at the world
Planning his vengeance
That he will soon unfold

Now the time is here
For iron man to spread fear
Vengeance from the grave
Kills the people he once saved

Nobody wants him
They just turn their heads
Nobody helps him
Now he has his revenge

Heavy boots of lead
Fills his victims full of dread
Running as fast as they can
Iron man lives again

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

89 thoughts on “Black Sabbath – Iron Man”

  3. To this day I can visualize my friends apartment living room, the stereo and watching him put this record on. We were only 12 years old and I had no idea what I was hearing. My then pals were much further along in their musical journey than I was. I’m not much of a fan but I have great appreciation. Every time I hear it, takes me right back. Thanks for the memories!

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    1. No problem! Randy I try to give a variety…from Buck Owens to Black Sabbath lol.
      It takes me back as well. I remember that cover very well…and their debut album with that strange woman on the cover…

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  5. The album was released in UK @ September 1970 and I still recall as awkward 12 year old being asked, at the big family New Year Party (1970 / 71) by my three year older cousin about the music I liked. I have no idea why I remember something so insignificant, but I said something about ‘loud and fast,’ not being sure what bands I should say to look cool.
    She laughed and said, “Like Scottish Country Dance music?” and put the Paranoid album on the record player for me!
    ‘Fairies Wear Boots’ as a track title stuck with me from that night.

    I couldn’t tell you what I did this morning, but that early hearing of Sabbath is SO clear, fifty-three years down the line! 😀

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    1. That would be fun to see! it’s had a brand new life now.
      Like that interview Deke…I checked them out. That Loverboy song and theirs…the riff and sound are kind of similiar…

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      4. hahaha….sad thing is he never caught on to being a music guy as he’s into mountain biking and skateboarding and its his first day of high school today! But that video will last forever …thats a post right there lol

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      5. Well biking and skateboarding are cool. Yea I have things that I like to pull out on Bailey…embarassing moments that are fun for parents lol.

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  7. In Iron Man, this dude goes into the future and witnesses the apocalypse. When he tries to get back to his own time, he encounters a rogue magnetic field, which turns him into a mute, steel creature. Unable to talk, he still tries to warn people about the impending end of the world, but sadly he is mocked for his troubles. Angry and bitter, he eventually causes the devastation he’d warned everyone about. Ultimately the would-be hero becomes the villain.

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      1. Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler wrote the lyrics, but the idea started with Ozzy Osbourne. Butler was fascinated by what might happen to a man who’s suddenly transformed into a metal being. He still has a human brain, and wants to do the right thing, but eventually his own frustrations at the way humanity treats him drives this creature to taking extreme action.

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  9. What comes through so many of the comments is Music = memories. Most people ( those who have a musical soul) have life landmarks locked into certain songs- the intro, a scratch in the vinyl you had in a 45 that when you hear it now- now in your newly carpeted sat in your expensive deeply luxurious sofa in the new house you go ‘something is missing,’ and are transported back to 65 Coleridge Street. Your skinny ass sitting on a sprung brown sofa, worried about an erupting pimple RIGHT on the bridge of your nose, listening to this song that Bernie just put on that is great- except for that bloody scratch at the beginning… Who’d ever imagine then that would stick in the mind now? But that is music.

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    2. I agree…where they were at that time. Sometimes the memory is better than the song. Like Chevy Van…takes me back to a place instantly…it’s cheesy but the memory isn’t.

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      1. Oh gawd yeah, that is one cringey song, talk about some adolescent kid’s late night yearning. I disliked it right from first hearing- ‘Made love in my shitty van’ is how I hear it.

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      7. Yea I remember it on the radio constantly while riding along with my sister.
        Off topic…but I saw a video of Jack White today and a tear came to my eye…right after Loretta Lynn died he did this song in Nashville at a tribute…you can tell he almost lost it singing her song Van Lear Rose that he produced. I know you like him so…

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      8. ❤ had to grab the kleenex for this one. Jack appreciates the old music and he honored her honored her well with this song. I think of the coal miners and how few "diamonds in the coal" they see.

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    3. WELL-SAID, Ob. Songs are history markers for me, just like photos in a photo album. I can remember Ted’s stereo system set up on a big wall unit in their tiny house and Ted cranking this album up when my friend and I were visiting her sister.

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      1. Memory is played back instantly!
        I see you offer up ‘Wildfire.’ Well Lisa, let me dip into the d(r)eck… I’ll see your ‘Wildfire’ and top that with ‘Shannon’ by the aptly named (at least for this song) Mr Gross.

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      2. It makes me wonder how memory works when it clicks into place with a few notes.

        I’m a little embarrassed to say I kind of like “Shannon” even if no memories come to mind. I’m going with the big guns now with “Seasons in the Sun” by Terry Jacks 🙂

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      3. Terry Jacks ‘Seasons In The Sun.’ Oh, no Lisa I can’t top that. It is … ugh… The only song I’ve heard that gets so sickeningly lachrymose is the Beautiful Souths knowingly painful version of ‘Artificial Flowers.’ But Terry is the whiner- sorry, ‘winner.’

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  10. I’m not going to lie, this is not my favorite group. I don’t listen to them, and I ignore the Osbornes, period. But if I were going to listen to one of their songs, this would be the one. It got a decent amount of airplay in the KC region.

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    1. This one and Paranoid are the two I’ve heard all of my life. Bailey was 8 in 2008 and he loved the movie Iron Man of course…so I got blasted with it then also.
      I have to admit also…I do like variety…so Buck Owens to Black Sabbath…it makes me giggle a little but people seem to like it. If I fall into a rut…I usually post something unusual for me.

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  13. My friend’s brother in-law had “Paranoid” and a kickass stereo set that we listened to it on. That album, along with anything Alice Cooper did were genuinely felt to be “the devil’s music.” I felt guilty listening to it but at the same time was thrilled by the taboo aspect. This album and Alice Cooper were a big turning point for music in my memory. It was drifting away from wholesome fun and into a harsher tone.

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    1. Yes they were a game changer along with Led Zeppelin…things started to change then.
      I had this album and yes…those seventies stereos… you can’t beat them for sound. Now they go for a fortune.

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      1. I have a quadraphonic (sp?) out of this world good stereo system on my bucket list. It’s right up there with the time machine. I would love to have a home theater / music listening room set up with acoustics and cushy recliners right in the middle of the room. My idea of heaven.

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      2. Oh yes…I’ve always wanted to hear one of those. Some bands released albums and tapes in that format…great idea but it didn’t last long. I know what you mean…I want a really good sound system. Those have been lost with computers.

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  15. Like everyone else, this song takes me back. In my case, early high school. The class was Black Music Appreciation and some kids convinced the teacher that Black Sabbath was an all black group. It was my introduction into heavy metal. I’m sure the teacher knew she’d been duped, but she let us listen. I remember Sweet Leaf playing the first day, and Iron Man the next before we moved on to studying the intricacies of black gospel and soul. The seventies were a blast.

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  16. With the exception of Led Zeppelin, I never liked any other hard rock or metal bands of the 70s and 80s, so never listened to bands like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, KISS, Motorhead, et.al. Just not my musical thing…

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  18. For some unknown reason, my middle brother and I really got into Ozzy during middle school. This was the early 90s, and we’d visit Sam Goody to buy a new Ozzy cassette tape every month. We never listened to Sabbath. We just dug Ozzy with Randy Rhoads and Zakk Wylde. I sometimes go back and listen to it when I go on jogs. Fun, dark, metallic noise, and no one can replicate Ozzy’s voice. My fave album was “No More Tears.”

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    1. The only Ozzy stuff I really like is this early stuff because I like the sound of the records at that time. You know…that is the reason I am picky about modern music…sometimes it’s not the song but that cold digital sound.

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      1. I hear yah. My dad’s jukebox plays Beach Boys and The Rolling Stones. Quick question: I remember a Stones’ B-side track called “Sticky Sticky.” It’s a terrible song, haha! But, I still remember it!

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      11. I’ll wait to hear back from my dad, but he had Sticky Sticky on his jukebox, and I remember as a kid just hating it. What is the 1910 Fruitgum Company (and why did my dad have that awful song in his jukebox?)

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      13. From my dad:

        “Bern, Yes, it’s an awful song. I will check when I am home but I think it was a B side song on a 45 rpm record. The A side or the HIT side was 1-2-3- Red Light by The 1910 Fruitgum Company.
        You can find that on your phone. In 1968 and 1969 there were lots of “Bubble Gum music” songs to offset the serious anti-war songs. Believe it or not, the #1 song in 1969 was Sugar Sugar by the Archies…. The epitome of BUBBLE GUM music.”

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      14. Yep…your dad is 100 percent correct! I’m posting a bubblegum song today…”Come On Down To My Boat”…although I do like it!

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