Iron Man (song)

Iron Man is the fourth track from Black Sabbath's second studio album Paranoid.

The song was later released as part of the We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll compilation and released as a single by US label Warner Bros. in 1971.

It barely received any air-time in the US and didn't have a single in Britain, however it did have a cult following, so therefore it got charted.

A new version was performed on the Reunion live album and won a Grammy Award for best metal performance.

About

When hearing the guitar riff for the first time, Ozzy Osbourne said that it sounded "like a big iron bloke walking about". The original title was "Iron Bloke" before Geezer settled on "Iron Man" and he started to write lyrics around that title.

Butler wrote the lyrics about a man who traveled into the future and saw the apocalypse. In the process of returning to the present, he's turned into steel by a magnetic field. He's rendered mute and isn't able to warn people of his time in the future and of the impending doom. His attempts at communicating with them are ignored and mocked.

This causes Iron Man to become angry and drives his revenge to man-kind by causing the same destruction seen in his vision.

Lyrics

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
When he traveled time
For the future of mankind

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

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 turned 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!