Let me tell you a two-line story.

When I was little and fascinated by cellars and attics (like 99.99% of children...), one of those many times I found myself rummaging through boxes covered in dust, beneath an incredible pile of Marvel and D.C. Comics belonging to my uncle, I discovered several vinyl records, including, wonder of wonders, one with a black cover and a strange little man dressed like some kind of astronaut wielding a sword that to me, passionate about certain kinds of films, looked like Sandokan's. Do I really need to tell you which record I found in my hands?
I don't think so, but suffice it to say that my first contact with the world of Rock and Metal happened when I was six, in that dark and scary cellar that seemed to my eyes like some mysterious recess.

My uncle, who had so much patience in keeping me at bay (and never once chaining me to the home radiator to keep me still), after I broke his ears asking and asking again about that devilish and malevolent record, decided to let me listen to it, and, with his hands on an old sixties record player, he played a random song for me: "Iron Man".
Since then, that unmistakable guitar riff, those damned words that seemed to me to come from some unknown universe, have been burned into my head, and I still carry them with me, amplified and always connected to what I like to listen to, linking the records that come my way, always and always back to "Paranoid" (I'm speaking of the album, of course).

Now that I own all of the Black Sabbath records and don't keep them stored away like my iconoclastic uncle in boxes in the cellar, thinking back to these things almost makes me laugh, but then, having discovered the immense and pervasive influence that the Sabbath have had on all the Heavy Metal bands that I like, it makes me realize I wasn't the only one, nor was I the first to praise and sanctify them.
And the very history of a certain genre of music stands as witness: practically no Rock band in the world hasn't covered at least one song by the Birmingham band; practically none have resisted playing at least two chords, perhaps in a jam session, perhaps even absentmindedly. And if this means something, even those who support it represent it.

Therefore, I don't need to explain the story of this band that became famous 36 years ago (also because I certainly don't honor myself by possessing such capabilities) with two pillars of a certain Hard Rock tinged with psychedelia and sick atmospheres, because surely, you have heard, read, narrated, and shouted it yourselves from "to" and "from" anyone who chews even just a little bit of Rock'n'Roll.
However, I must say that, as far as I am concerned, the Black Sabbath have always been a totem, a guide, a necessary tool to delve into the grooves and all the sonic introspections of the bands I listen to today, specifically, especially concerning those of the "Ozzy" era. Of course, neither Tony Martin nor Ronnie James Dio did badly (but here, I think I'm blaspheming so I'll cut it short), but you know, Sabbath with Ozzy were something truly transcendental and inexpressible.

Millions of fans around the world, back then, when this double live CD (with two songs played in the studio by the entire band) came out, couldn't believe their eyes and ears. The surprise was immense, and so was the emotion for many who, just to name one, when I rushed to my CD store to buy it, the owner spread his arms in dismay, telling me that just on the day I found myself there, he had sold 30 copies and had run out of the CD.
Another story were my curses in Cyrillic and Aramaic, so abundant that they convinced the poor man behind the counter to have an express courier bring 50 more copies for the next day, which, naturally, ran out even before there was time to display one in the window.
And rightfully so, I would say: in this double live album, all the most acclaimed songs are enclosed, the most famous ones that, in short, made the history of Black Sabbath and then Hard Rock - Heavy Metal.

"War Pigs" greeted by a roar of screams from the audience, with its (unfortunately) all too relevant central theme, and then (sorry if I skip some, but it's just to give the idea) "N. I. B.", the classic of classics, performed in an atmosphere that it would be reductive to simply call triumphant, with its inimitable and unmistakable bass line, and Ozzy's voice that at every moment shouts "O Yeah!", as if it were a collective ritual, a curse that manages to trap after at least a million times it has been pronounced.
But there's something for every taste and everyone in this work that, while packaged, you can tell, to pocket a mountain of pounds (as if the Sabbath didn't already have them at their disposal), still manages to excite, and using the healthy and genuine ingredients that make Rock great: passion, sweat, amplifiers, guitar, bass, drums, and a voice that, yes, I agree, is no longer what it was twenty or thirty years ago, is no longer that warm and peculiar one with the very typical "southern" inflection that rallied audiences all over the world, but which is and remains, to be clear, the base and the source, let's never forget, for all that has been played, thought, enriched, sold out, or revalued in music in the years to come.

Ozzy is still the same madcap (perhaps a little more muddled, but you know, "the wolf may lose its fur but not its vice") and always takes the occasion to show himself as the showman he is: he rallies, moves from side to side of the stage as if possessed (maybe a bit catatonically, but the thought alone will do the rest...), shouts, screams, launches his famous "Fucking" dozens of times, and keeps the atmosphere high with his call and response with the audience. Of course, he's at home, since this Live was recorded in Birmingham, but the passion and the involvement of the people gathered there feel genuine, and among these people, you can imagine glimpsing the somewhat elderly gentleman with a belly and beard, and the teenager wearing a Megadeth shirt in the front rows.
But the Sabbath aren't just Ozzy, rather, it is Ozzy himself who makes us understand, introducing from time to time his companions of a lifetime: Geezer Butler on bass, Bill Ward on drums, and Toni Iommi on guitar, certainly with his outdated mustache and calm, collected demeanor, even though from his fingers come the riffs that make you dream, the ones you never forget and no one will ever think of setting aside.

A separate note then for the two studio songs recorded in Los Angeles: they are nothing memorable, nor particularly special, but damn! Would you believe that behind the instruments and microphones of these two tracks are figures who have changed the history of music?
I say, logically, nothing special, essentially because the terms of comparison that "Selling my Soul" and "Psyco Man", must entail are with genre pillars that have feared no competition for all these years, let alone for those to come.

And so, if you can, and you want to be moved again, in memory of some old spit of a memory, even insignificant, buy the Live, or better yet, find the entire Sabbath discography. It's really worth it.

Tracklist Lyrics and Videos

01   War Pigs (08:32)

Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of death's construction
In the fields the bodies burning
As the war machine keeps turning
Death and hatred to mankind
poisoning their brainwashed minds
Oh Lord yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight
They leave their role to the poor

Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait 'till their judgment day comes

Now in darkness world stops turning
Ashes where their bodies burning
No more war pigs have the power
Hand of God has struck the hour
Day of judgment God is calling
On their knees, the war pigs crawling
Begging mercy for their sins
Satan laughing spreads his wings
Oh Lord yeah!

02   Behind the Wall of Sleep (04:10)

Precious cups within the flower
Deadly petals with strange power
Faces shine a deadly smile
Back up on you at your trial

Chill and numbs from head to toe
Icy sun with frosty glow
Why'd you go reaching your sorrow?
Why'd you go read no tomorrow?

Feel your spirit rise with the priest
Feel your body falling to its knees
Take your wall of remorse
Take your body to a corpse
Take your body to a corpse
Take your body to a corpse
If you want all remorse
Take your body to a corpse

Now from darkness, there springs light
Wall of Sleep is cool and bright
Wall of Sleep is lying broken
Sun shines in, you are awoken

03   N.I.B. (06:48)

Some people say my love cannot be true
Please believe me, my love, and I'll show you
I will give you those things you thought unreal
The sun, the moon, the stars all bear my seal

Oh yeah!

Follow me now and you will not regret
Leaving the life you led before we met
You are the first to have this love of mine
Forever with me 'till the end of time

Your love for me has just got to be real
Before you know the way I'm going to feel
I'm going to feel
I'm going to feel

Oh yeah!

Now I have you with me, under my power
Our love grows stronger now with every hour
Look into my eyes, you will see who I am
My name is Lucifer, please take my hand

Oh yeah!

Follow me now and you will not regret
Leaving the life you led before we met
You are the first to have this love of mine
Forever with me 'till the end of time

Your love for me has just got to be real
Before you know the way I'm going to feel
I'm going to feel
I'm going to feel

Oh yeah!

Now I have you with me, under my power
Our love grows stronger now with every hour
Look into my eyes, you will see who I am
My name is Lucifer, please take my hand

04   Fairies Wear Boots (06:23)

Goin' home late last night
Suddenly I got a fright
Yeah I looked through a window
and surprise, what I saw
A fairy with boots tried dancin' with a dwarf
All right now!

Yeah fairies wear boots and you gotta believe me
Yeah I saw her, I saw, and I tell you no lies
Yeah fairies wear boots and you gotta believe me
I saw her, I saw her with my own two eyes
All right now!

Yeah fairies wear boots and you gotta believe me
Yeah I saw her, I saw her, I tell you no lies
Yeah fairies wear boots and you gotta believe me
I saw her, I saw her with my own two eyes
All right now!

So I went to the doc' to see what he could give me
He said son, son, you've gone too far
'Cause smokin' and trippin' is all that you do
Yeah!

05   Electric Funeral (05:05)

Reflex in the sky
Warn you you're gonna die
Storm coming, you'd better hide
From the atomic tide

Flashes in the sky
Turns houses into sty
Turns people into clay
Radiation minds decay

Robot minds of robot slaves
Lead them to atomic graves
Plastic flowers, melting sun
Fading moon falls apart

Dying world of radiation,
Victims of mad frustration
Burning globe of obscene fire
Like electric funeral pyre

Buildings crashing down
To Earth's cracking ground
Rivers turn to wood
Ice melts into blood

Earth lies in debris
Clouds cry for the dead
Terrifying rain
Ease the burning pain

Electric Funeral
Electric Funeral
Electric Funeral
Electric Funeral

And so in the sky
Shines the electric eye
Supernatural king
Takes Earth under his wing

Heaven's golden chorus sings
Hell's angels flap their wings
Evil souls fall to Hell
Ever trapped in burning cells!

06   Sweet Leaf (05:11)

Alright now!
Won't you listen?

When I first met you, didn't realize,
I can't forget you or 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-ah!
I want you part of this sweet leaf!
Oh yeah!
Alright, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh try me out
I love you sweet leaf, oh

07   Spiral Architect (05:44)

Sorcerers of madness
selling me their time
Child of God sitting in the sun
Keeping peace of mind
Fictional seduction
On a black snow sky
Sadness kills the superman
Even fathers cry

Of all the things I value most of all
I look inside myself
And see my world
And know that it is good

You know that I should

Superstitious centuries
Didn't time go slow
Separating sanity
Watching children grow
Synchronated undertaker
Spiral skies
Silver ships on plasmic oceans
In disguise

Of all the things I value most in life
I see my memories
And feel their warmth
And know that they are good

You know that I should

Watching eyes of celluloid
Tell you how to live
Metophoric motories
Say give, give, give
Laughter giving, love is showing
me the way
Spiral building architect
I build, you pay

Of all the things I value most of all
I look upon my Earth
And feel the warmth
And know that it is good

You know that I should
You know that I should
You know that I should
You know that I should
You know that I should

08   Into the Void (06:35)

Rocket engines burning fuel so fast
Up into the night sky they blast
Through the universe the engines whine
Could it be the end of man and time
Back on earth the flame of life burns low
Everywhere is misery and woe
Pollution kills the air, the land and sea
Man prepares to meet his destiny

Rocket engines burning fuel so fast
Up into the black sky so vast
Burning metal through the atmosphere
Earth remains in worry, hate and fear
With the hateful battles raging on
Rockets flying to the glowing sun
Through the empires of eternal void
Freedom from the final suicide

Freedom fighters sent out to the sun
Escape from brainwashed minds and pollution
Leave the earth to all its sin and hate
Find another world where freedom waits

Past the stars in fields of ancient void
Through the shields of darkness where they find
Love upon a land a world unknown
Where the sons of freedom make their home
Leave the earth to Satan and his slaves
Leave them to their future in the grave
Make a home where love is there to stay
Peace and happiness in everyday

09   Snowblind (06:07)

What You Get Aint What You See
Things That Don't Come Easily
Feelin' Happy In My Pain
Icicles Within My Brain
(Cocaine)

Somethin' Blowin' In My Head
Winds Of Ice That Soon Will Spread
Death Would Freeze My Very Soul
Makes Me Happy Makes Me Cold

My Eyes Are Blind But I Can See
The Snowflakes Glisten On The Tree
The Sun No Longer Sets Me Free
I Feel The Snow Place Freezing Me

Let The Winter Sun Shine On
Let Me Feel The Frost Of Dawn
Fill My Dreams With Flakes Of Snow
Soon I'll Feel The Chilling Glow

Don't You Think I Know What I'm Doing
Don't Tell Me That It's Doing Me Wrong
You're The One Who's Really A Loser
This Is Where I Feel I Belong

Crystal World With Winter Flowers
Turns My Days To Frozen Hours
Lying Snowblind In The Sun
Will My Ice Age Ever Come?

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