Best Black Sabbath lyric from the first six albums?

[Christina]

I would really like to explore the narrative of Iron Man - the motivations of the Iron Man, the attitude of the people he once saved, the relative merits of heavy boots of lead in a campaign of violence and terror. And to finally answer the cyborg/robot question regarding the Iron Man himself.

In order to explore fully, you're going to have to take this motif all the way back to those boring Greek plays they made us read in history class ... you know the ones where that chorus was always bitching "I told you so" any time one of the characters mistakenly had sexual relations with their mother, or came home from some war and found their best friend schtupping their wife?

[Wes]

Wes, between the "heavy boots of lead" and being "turned to steel in the grave magnetic field" (there's a rhyme for you, AC), Iron Man was even more ungainly than Ozzy himself. 

Yeah, pair the heavy boots of lead with the line "can he walk at all, or if he moves will he fall?" and the one thing we know for sure about the narrative is that the Iron Man has some huge-ass feet, or some Frehley-style moonboots taken to the next level.

The issue of him being turned to steel in the great magnetic field is what gets me hung up on the robot/cyborg issue. We have to assume that he was made of flesh before the great magnetic field turned him to steel; I guess he could have been a rock monster or something, or made of electricity, but that seems like the kind of detail Sabbath wouldn't glossed over. So if you're flesh but get turned into steel/iron/lead, are you a robot now? Or is this some kind of shady cyborg deal, like how the Terminator was supposed to be a cyborg, even though he totally wasn't a cyborg, just a robot with some skin on top?

Christina, I do agree, as you suggest, that hubris is at the heart of "Iron Man". The most damning lyric in the whole song is "We'll just pass him there/Why should we even care?" I mean, come on, this guy travelled time for the future of mankind, and you just walk by and think "who cares about this jerk?" No wonder he had his vengeance from the grave, killing the people he once saved.

[Chris L]

No one ever mentions "Faeries Wear Boots."

Yeah, no one. 

Ahhhh Sabbath lyrics.  What I love about 'War Pigs' is that they rhyme "masses" with "masses".

I hate hate HATE when musicians/poets/whoever rhyme the same words in a rhyme scheme. That drives me effing crazy.

I like that one just because it's such a quintessentially Sabbath point of view on the whole antiwar dealy (as people called it back then)

[buffcoat]

No one ever mentions "Faeries Wear Boots."

Yeah, no one. 

Ha ha I don't remember the lyrics at all!

[masterofsparks]

No one ever mentions "Faeries Wear Boots."

Yeah, no one. 

Ha ha I don't remember the lyrics at all!

I don't think many people do. I don't really pay much attention to them at all. I'm actually a huge fan of their track "Planet Caravan," whose words are almost indecipherable because of the weird vocal effect being used (I think it's a Leslie).

[Christina]

Christina, I do agree, as you suggest, that hubris is at the heart of "Iron Man". The most damning lyric in the whole song is "We'll just pass him there/Why should we even care?" I mean, come on, this guy travelled time for the future of mankind, and you just walk by and think "who cares about this jerk?" No wonder he had his vengeance from the grave, killing the people he once saved.

Yah. The robot, tired of the laughter and the scorn, breaks away from the shackles of the Cassandra Complex & exacts his revenge. It's really quite metal.

[Wes]

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath came up on shuffle this morning and, while it doesn't count as a best lyric, the best delivery of any line in the first six Sabbath albums has to be the goofy way he says "you bastards!" on that.

[nec13]

I think "Children of the Grave" is their most poignant and introspective song. The following lines are particularly moving.

"Children of tomorrow live in the tears that fall today
Will the sun rise up tomorrow bringing peace in any way?
Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear?
Can they win the fight for peace or will they disappear?"

This is a song that should be played at every anti-war march.

As an aside, does anyone here know what the letters N.I.B. stand for?

[masterofsparks]

As an aside, does anyone here know what the letters N.I.B. stand for?

The story I've heard is that they don't stand for anything, but are a reference to the industrial accident in which a "nib" was cut off the ends of two of Tony Iommi's fingers.

[KickTheBobo]

I think "Children of the Grave" is their most poignant and introspective song. The following lines are particularly moving.

"Children of tomorrow live in the tears that fall today
Will the sun rise up tomorrow bringing peace in any way?
Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear?
Can they win the fight for peace or will they disappear?"

This is a song that should be played at every anti-war march.

As an aside, does anyone here know what the letters N.I.B. stand for?

According to Rat Salad it stands for "Nativity In Black". Basically a love letter from Lucifer to a woman he is seducing.

[KickTheBobo]

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath came up on shuffle this morning and, while it doesn't count as a best lyric, the best delivery of any line in the first six Sabbath albums has to be the goofy way he says "you bastards!" on that.

I LOVE the "You BAS-TARDS!" line and regularly screaming along with it while shaking my fist when it comes on the stereo.

[Chris L]

Wes, between the "heavy boots of lead" and being "turned to steel in the grave magnetic field" (there's a rhyme for you, AC), Iron Man was even more ungainly than Ozzy himself. 

Yeah, pair the heavy boots of lead with the line "can he walk at all, or if he moves will he fall?" and the one thing we know for sure about the narrative is that the Iron Man has some huge-ass feet, or some Frehley-style moonboots taken to the next level.

The issue of him being turned to steel in the great magnetic field is what gets me hung up on the robot/cyborg issue. We have to assume that he was made of flesh before the great magnetic field turned him to steel; I guess he could have been a rock monster or something, or made of electricity, but that seems like the kind of detail Sabbath wouldn't glossed over. So if you're flesh but get turned into steel/iron/lead, are you a robot now? Or is this some kind of shady cyborg deal, like how the Terminator was supposed to be a cyborg, even though he totally wasn't a cyborg, just a robot with some skin on top?

Christina, I do agree, as you suggest, that hubris is at the heart of "Iron Man". The most damning lyric in the whole song is "We'll just pass him there/Why should we even care?" I mean, come on, this guy travelled time for the future of mankind, and you just walk by and think "who cares about this jerk?" No wonder he had his vengeance from the grave, killing the people he once saved.

Maybe it's time for us to spitball a plot for "Iron Man 2?"