Home (ego death and self-control cybernetics)
>Shock Wave seems to be more about some sort of spiritual possession than drugs
>Over the Mountain seems to me to be about finding magic within yourself ("don't need no astrology, it's inside of you and me")
>Little Dolls is about how we make our own destinies in life - there are no voodoo dolls that force bad luck unto us.
>SATO seems to be just a simple song about Sailing Across The Ocean in search of gold, possibly inspired by Ozzy reading about pirates or something like that.
Flying High Again is about LSD, not pot.
Fairies Wear Boots has an explicit reference to tripping.
>I thought bassist Bob Daisley wrote the lyrics to "Over the Mountain"?
> Rhoads wrote the guitar work on Over the Mountain. What's interesting is that Ozzy doesn't appear to have any reliable FAQs or "unofficial websites" on line. Most have glaring errors. One, for example, lists Daisley as a member of the band for six months in 1987. Another is called the "Unofficial Randy Rhodes[sic] Tribute Page" 'nuff said. The FAQ tells a story that is patently inaccurate, closing with "The chances of Black Sabbath getting back together is nil. Sorry."
>Of course, I'm not disputing that Daisley wrote the lyrics or that the particular song is about LSD, but if somebody is going to claim to be an "expert" I suspect they'll be able to provide that information as well as a reference wherein one can check for accuracy.
>Ozzy was never known as a great lyricist. Geezer Butler wrote 99% of the Black Sabath lyrics. Daisley appeared on several of Ozzy's studio albums but never toured with him. His name is listed on the credits for Ozzy's songs. Also when Daisley worked briefly with Black Sabath, another band member, I believe it was Ray Gillen, referred to him as the guy who wrote all of Ozzy's lyrics.
It seems like the first two Ozzy albums had lyrics written by an excellent writer, and the rest of the Ozzy albums had lyrics written by an average writer.
Blizzard of Ozz -- Bill Daisley, Osbourne, and Rhoads are listed in every song credits list, and are listed as the producers. Bill played bass, harmony vocals, and gongs.
My Diary of a Madman CD doesn't list the liner notes, and my vinyl copy is in storage.
>Ozzy was never known as a great lyricist. Geezer Butler wrote 99%
of the Black Sabath lyrics.
Butler played bass, as well as writing the lyrics.
>Daisley appeared on several of Ozzy's studio albums but never toured with him. His name is listed on...
>Daisley filled in on some live shows. I've seen him, but can't remember
which shows it was. In any case, Ozzy's greatest music definately owes a lot. If
you compare the lyrics off Diary of a Madman, with the triteness of, say
"Crazy Babies" or "Psychoman" it's pretty easy to see that
the band was working harder, including Daisley, in the early Ozzy solo years.
Daisley played bass, as well as writing the lyrics.
>Butler is, in my opinion, vastly underrated in the world of hard rock and metal. Not only did he write some of the most influential and loved songs in the genre, he's an absolutely badass bass player.
>Cliff Burton was the only one who ever even came close to doing what Geezer did. Geezer was the Hendrix of bass, and he gets not much recognition.
Cliff Burton was essential to Metallica. He played bass.
Ride the Lightning is the greatest Metallica album. Cliff Burton was still in Metallica for the next album, Master of Puppets, which is not as good. I think that Ride the Lightning would have been their peak album even if Cliff were still alive.
This is the set list and my review for Black Sabbath, from the Incubus, Pantera, and Black Sabbath show at the Key Arena in Seattle, Washington, January 12, 1999.
The final words, spoken clearly, from Pantera's singer as they left the stage: "Drop acid."
Intro/lead-in: cut-and-paste audio/video segments of various heavy Sabbath riffs, spliced together.
War Pigs
N.I.B.
Fairies Wear Boots
After Forever
Electric Funeral
Into the Void
Snowblind
Dirty Women
Black Sabbath
Iron Man
Children of the Grave
Encore:
Paranoid
Recording:
Changes
Pantera was *tight*. Sabbath was in some ways heavier and richer than Pantera. Sabbath was a little loose, even sloppy, in a few parts. Ozzy often seemed to wander around the stage mumbling, so his vocals often faded in and out. They varied a lot more than Pantera. Sabbath often came together into super-heaviness, but several times they seemed a little like guys who hadn't played together for years.
I was surprised they played After Forever. One consideration for playing this song is that it is emphatically pro-Christianity, thus disarming those who would simply portray Sabbath as endorsing Satanism. I was also surprised they played Dirty Women -- I wondered how the girls next to me felt about it, and was reminded of the odd vibes caused by the familiar yet surprisingly sexist lyrics at the Page and Plant show. Iron Man was boring, the low point -- too familiar, and I would rather have heard some other heavy, less cliched songs. It was somewhat hard to predict what songs they would play, because there are so many well-known, excellent, heavy songs. They did not play any mellow songs.
Iommi's sound for this show was a good, glassy, contemporary Metal sound -- very different than the raspy, buzzy sound of the classic albums. His playing style was his classic style, but his amp tone was entirely different and far less distinctive than his signature tone. Iommi himself said that his current tone is smooth, not buzzy like his classic sound; see the current Vintage Guitar magazine with Tony Iommi on the cover. Iommi had good rapport with the audience on the extreme right side of the stage -- he smiled, nodded, and waved to us several times. Near the start, Ozzy introduced the band members, and for Iommi, got down and "worshipped" him with outstretched hands.
It was a great show. Very heavy.
The first band to have been called "heavy metal" is the Byrds (from an interview in Mondo 2000 magazine). The first band widely considered to be heavy metal is Blue Cheer. They can also be considered acid rock.
The phrase "never say die" can refer to eternal life. It can also refer to resisting ego death. Writing acid rock lyrics is a matter of packing multiple possible meanings into words and phrasings, to be extracted by the tripping listener. But not just *any* meanings -- specifically, odd usages that carry double-entendres to religious, mystic, and altered-state phenomena. I wrote a sort of thesaurus or metaphor list of about 30 categories of acid-rock phrases.
[This is a particularly good acid rock song, dense with allusions to true, heavy mystic psychedelic phenomena. Read such lyrics one line at a time, isolating each line.]
There's no reason
For you to run
You can't escape the fate [inescapability of fate - standard mystic
altered-state theme]
Of the chosen one [grandiose paranoia]
Black moon rising
In a blood-red sky
It's time to realize
That you're gonna die [ego death is just around the bend]
Feeding your body is your answer
That's what you plan to do
Floating in time you cheat this [death's] master [can't die, since time is
halted]
You're on your own [solipsism]
Going through
When your mist has taken over your mind [blurring of psychedelic perception]
And you think you're on your own [solipsism]
Don't believe you are the only one here
Look around - you're not alone [now you feel your power being controlled by
God/ground of being/fate]
Feel the forces of another world [higher world, the ground of being, the
block universe]
Ghostly shadows fill your mind [ego is but a mental image, not a substantial
power-weilder or power source]
Evil power hanging over you
As you freeze your life in time -- [time-stopping - common LSD/mystic theme]
Look behind you [look at awareness itself, behind the ego-construct]
Somebody's calling
Some one is near [a deadly insight is near]
Feel yourself falling [ego as controller-king falls from his throne]
Crawling with fear [terror of ego-death and loss of (ego's) control]
You tell yourself you're dreaming [sense of unreality]
You realize you're screaming
You know that this shouldn't happen to you
You tell yourself that it just can't be true
But there is nothing you can do [all your doings are already preset, no
separate inner 'you' agent to do them]
Ahhhhh
Ghostly shadows from the other world ghost (rhythm)
Evil forces in your mind
Trapped between the walls of life and death [entrapment: common LSD/mystic
theme]
Frozen in the lands of time [frozen in spacetime block universe - common
LSD/mystic theme]
-- Look behind you
You feel yourself falling [like Icarus. Can't sustain too-high,
transgressive consciousness]
You're at the end of the line [pressed up against the ultimate logical
consistency, ego death occurs]
Your body is calling
But your senses are blind
Cold cold feelings are running through your brain
Ice cold fingers
Crawling through your veins [temperature and humidity perception shifts are
common in LSD peak along with insight of entrapment]
Ice-T sings a verse on one of the newer Black Sabbath songs, called "Illusion of Power". That sounds like an LSD allusion. I suspect that Ice-T's creative power an genre-busting innovation has come partly from LSD. LSD phenomena point to a sort of loss of control, a perceiving of our power as essentially illusory, an epiphenomenon.
The following Black Sabbath lyrics are deliberately designed to trigger a very bad trip when a teenage boy hears them at home while on LSD.
I see it on the TV, it's playing on my mind,
Everything I see has got something to do with killing my brother.
Just another mind game? or maybe it's a sign,
When the child with a gun holds it up to the head of his brother.
Well that ain't nice, gotta get a grip, gotta get a hold on life,
Gotta get a grip cause you're gonna slip, yeah.
Somebody tell me, where did we lose?
Where's the point that we lost the control to live with each other?
_________________
It's good to see that they are highlighting the classic techniques of double-entendres alluding to psychedelic phenomena in their recent albums. _Divine Intervention_ is Slayer's first heavily acid-influenced album. It makes sense that the two bands would collaborate now. They now have a common interest which Slayer was innocent of before.
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 walk 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 cold and bright
Wall of Sleep is lying broken
Sun shines in, you are awoken
Finished with my woman 'cause she couldn't help me with my mind
people think I'm insane
All day long I think of things but nothing seems to satisfy
Think I'll lose my mind if I don't find something to pacify
Can you help me - occupy my brain?
Oh yeah
I need someone to show me the things in life that I can't find
I can't see the things that make true happiness, I must be blind
Make a joke and I will sigh and you will laugh and I will cry
Happiness I cannot feel and love to me is so unreal
And so as you hear these words telling you now of my state
I tell you to enjoy* life I wish I could but it's too late [sung "end
your"]
[LSD is chemical/electric ego death]
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 sties
Turns people into clay, radiation minds decay
Robot minds of robot slaves lead them to atomic rage
plastic flowers, melting sun, fading moon falls upon
dying world of radiation, victims of mad frustration
Burning globe of oxy'n fire, like electric funeral pyre
Buildings crashing down to a cracking ground
Rivers turn to wood, ice melting to flood
Earth lies in death bed, clouds cry water dead
Tearing life away, here's the burning pay
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!
Goin' home, late last night
suddenly I got a fright
Yeah I looked throught the window and surprised what I saw
Fairy boots were dancin' with a dwarf, all right now!
Fairies wear boots and you gotta believe me
yeah I saw it, I saw it, I tell you no lies
Yeah Fairies wear boots and you gotta believe me
I saw it, I saw it with my own two eyes, well all right now!
So I went to the doctor, see what he could give me
he said "Son, son, you've gone too far.
'cause smokin' and trippin' is all that you do."
[Here we have a hard-core drug user, who trips on LSD "all the time". Tripping on LSD and smoking pot are *all that he does*.]
I'm looking through a hole in the sky
I'm seeing nowhere through the eyes of a lie
I'm getting closer to the end of the line
I'm living easy where the sun doesn't shine
I'm living in a room without any view
I'm living free because the rent's never due
The synonyms of all the things that I've said
Are just the riddles that are built in my head
Hole in the sky, take me to heaven
Window in time, through it I fly
I've seen the stars disappear in the sun
The shooting's easy if you've got the right gun
And even though I'm sitting waiting for Mars
I don't believe there's any future in cause
Hole in the sky, take me to heaven
Window in time, through it I fly
Yeah
I've watched the dogs of war enjoying their feast
I've seen the western world go down in the east
The food of love became the greed of our time
But now I'm living on the profits of pride
I hide myself inside the shadows of shame
The silent symphonies were playing their game
My body echoed to the dreams of my soul
This god is something that I could not control
Where can I run to now?
The joke is on me
No sympathizing god is insanity, yeah
Why don't you just get out of my life, yeah?
Why don't you just get out of my life now?
Why doesn't everybody leave me alone now?
Why doesn't everybody leave me alone, yeah?
Obsessed with fantasy, possessed with my schemes
I mixed reality with pseudogod dreams
The ghost of violence was something I seen
I sold my soul to be the human obscene
How could it poison me?
The dream of my soul
How did my fantasies take complete control, yeah?
Why don't you just get out of my life, yeah?
Why don't you just get out of my life now?
Why doesn't everybody leave me alone now?
Why doesn't everybody leave me alone, yeah?
Well I feel something's taken me I don't know where
It's like a trip inside a separate mind
The ghost of tomorrow from my favorite dream
Is telling me to leave it all behind
Feel it slipping away, slipping in tomorrow
Got to get to happiness, want no more of sorrow
How I lied, went to hide
How I tried to get away from you now
Am I right if I fight?
That I might just get away from you now
Sting me!
Well I feel something's giving me the chance to return
It's giving me the chance of saving my soul
Beating the demigod, I'm fading away
I'm going backwards but I'm in control
Feel it slipping away, slipping in tomorrow
Getting back to sanity, providence of sorrow
Was it wise to disguise
How I tried to get away from you now
Is there a way that I could pay
Or is it true I have to stay with you now?
How I lied, went to hide
How I tried to get away from you now
Am I right if I fight?
That I might just get away from you now
Suck me!
I'm really digging schizophrenia the best of the earth
I've seized my soul in the fires of hell
Peace of mind eluded me, but now it's all mine
I simply try, but he wants me to fail
Feel it slipping away, slipping in tomorrow
Now I've found my happiness, providence of sorrow
No more lies, I got wise
I despise the way I worshipped you yeah
Now I'm free, can't you see
And now instead I won't be led by you now
Free!
[compare the Pink Floyd: Dark Side: brain salad song]
Everybody's looking at me, feeling paranoid inside
When I step outside I feel free, think I'll find a place to hide
Tell me people, am I going insane?
Tell me people, am I going insane?
Every day I sit and wonder how my life it used to be
Now I feel like going under, now my life is hard to see
So tell me people, am I going insane?
Tell me people, am I going insane?
So I'm telling all you people, listen while I sing again
If I don't sound very cheerful, I think that I'm a schizo brain
So tell me people, am I going insane?
Tell me people, am I going insane?
You are nonentity, you have no destiny
You are a victim of a thing unknown
A mantle picture of a stolen soul
A fornication of your golden throne
Crazy,but that's how it goes
Millions of people living as foes
Maybe it's not too late
To learn how to love
And forget how to hate
Mental wounds not healing
Life's a bitter shame
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train
I've listened to preachers
I've listened to fools
I've watched all the dropouts
Who make their own rules
One person conditioned to rule and control
The media sells it and you live the role
Mental wounds still screaming
Driving me insane
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train
I know that things are going wrong for me
You gotta listen to my words
Yeh-h
Heirs of a cold war
That's what we've become
Inheriting troubles I'm mentally numb
Crazy, I just cannot bear
I'm living with something that just isn't fair
Mental wounds not healing
Who and what's to blame
I'm going off the rails on a crazy train
Wine is fine but whiskey's quicker
Suicide is slow with liquor
Take a bottle drown your sorrows
Then it floods away tommorows
Evil thoughts and evil doings
Cold, alone you hang in ruins
Thought that you'd escape the reaper
You can't escape the Master Keeper
'Cause you feel life's unreal and you're living a lie
Such a shame who's to blame and you're wondering why
Then you ask from your cask is there life after birth
What you saw can mean Hell on this earth
Now you live inside a bottle
The reaper's travelling at full throttle
It's catching you but you don't see
The reaper is you and the reaper is me
Breaking laws, knocking doors
But there's no one at home
Made your bed, rest your head
But you lie there and moan
Where to hide, Suicide is the only way out
Don't you know what it's really about
Mother please forgive them
For they know not what they do
Looking back in history's books
It seems it's nothing new
Oh! Let my mother live
Heaven is for heroes
And hell is full of fools
Stupidity, no will to live
They're breaking God's own rules
Please let my mother live
Father, of all creation
I think we're all going wrong
The course they're taking
Seems to be breaking
And it won't take too long
Children of the future
Watching empires fall
Madness the cup they drink from
Self destruction the toll
I had a vision, l saw the world burn
And the seas had turned red
The sun had fallen, the final curtain
In the land of the dead
Mother, please show the children
Before it's too late
To fight each other, there's no-one winning
We must fight all the hate
Now I feel the time is right
Love will flow like wine tonight
Give your love and it will come to you
If you feel that you and me
Could escape and hold the key
To a paradise that's true and free
Steal away, steal away
Steal away - the night
Now I've met your honesty
You are here and I am free
Broken chains have fallen all around
Point my finger at the fools
Broken chains and broken rules
Let it be rebellion rules tonight
Steal away, steal away
Steal away - the night
Can it be a dream come true
Now that I am here with you
Tearful eyes of joy is something new
Run away with me tonight
Dream the dream, light the light
Happiness is what you give to me
Steal away, steal away
Steal away - the night
1981
Ozzy Osbourne - Vocals
Randy Rhoads - Guitar
Rudy Sarzo - Bass
Tommy Aldridge - Drums
(Osbourne - Rhoads - Daisley - Kerslake)
Over the mountain take me across the sky
Something in my vision, something deep inside [emptiness of innermost ego
entity]
Where did I wander, where d'ya think I wandered to [where did self/ego
structure go?]
I've seen life's magic astral plane I travel through. [astral plane = mystic
altered-state dimension]
I heard them tell me that this land of dreams was now [concern with
epistemology of perception, to see is to dream]
I told them I had ridden shooting stars
And said I'd show them how. [how to trip and maintain]
Over and over always tried to get away
Living in a daydream only place I had to stay [epistemology of perception]
Fever of a breakout burning in me miles wide
People around me talking to the walls inside [schizophrenic solipsism]
Don't need no astrology it's inside of you and me
You don't need a ticket to ride with me - I'm free. [ticket = blotter dose,
free = tradition of giving free doses]
Over and under in between the ups and downs [up to peak, down again; and
manic depression]
My mind's carpet magic ride goes round and round. [magic ride, common circular
motif of mystic state]
Over the mountain kissing silver inlaid clouds [clouds = blurry perception,
translucency]
Watching my body disappear into the crowd. [separate self-sense yields to a
feeling of cosmic unity]
Don't need no astrology it's inside of you and me [inner, not outer,
journey]
You don't need a ticket to ride with me - I'm free.
(Osbourne - Rhoads - Daisley - Kerslake)
Got a crazy feeling I don't understand [lsd is a psychotomimetic]
'Gotta get away from here
Feelin' like I shoulda kept my feet on the ground [you're in for 10 hours of
madness now, can't back out]
Waitin' for the sun to appear [tripping lasts all night, must try to survive
until the sun comes up]
Mamma's gonna worry
I been a bad bad boy
No use sayin' sorry
It's something that I enjoy [what is? tripping.]
'Cause you can't see what my eyes see
(I can see it, I can see it)
And you can't be inside of me, flying high again
I can see through the mountains watch me disappear [ego construct is
suspended in altered state]
I can even touch the sky [kiss the sky]
Swallowing colours of the sound I hear [crossing of senses; senses all
perceived as equiv. mental constructs]
Am I just a crazy guy. (You bet). ["crazy" = lsd, throughout Sabbath
lyrics]
Mamma's gonna worry
I been a bad bad boy
No use sayin' sorry
It's something that I enjoy
If you could be inside my head
You'd see that black and white is read ["do interp/reading of these
lyrics"]
Flying high again
Flying high again
Flying high again
Flying high again come on and join me. [mystic joining of all in unity]
Flying high again
Flying high again
Flying high again
Flying high again come on and join me.
Daddy thinks I'm lazy he don't understand
Never saw inside my head
People think I'm crazy but I'm in demand
Never heard a thing I said. [listen with your 3rd ear]
Mamma's gonna worry
I been a bad bad boy
No use sayin' sorry
It's something that I enjoy
Flying high again
Flying high again
Flying high again
Flying high again
(Osbourne - Rhoads - Daisley)
How many times can they fill me with lies and I listen, again
Twisting the truth and they're playin' around with my head O.K.
The things they will do and the things they will say
When they don't really understand
Tears fill my eyes when I hear all the cries
For the reason today.
And they don't really know even what they're talkin' about
And I can't imagine what empty heads can achieve.
Leave me alone don't want your promises no more
'Cause rock'n'roll is my religion and my law
Won't ever change, may think it's strange
You can't kill rock'n'roll it's here to stay.
Looking through eyes of time mirrors reflecting their stories untrue
Promises promises, telling me all of my glories overdue.
How many times have I heard it before
And I'll probably hear it again
King of a thousand knights, pawn in a table fight
Losing to you.
And they don't really know even what they're talkin' about
And I can't imagine what empty heads can achieve.
Leave me alone don't want your promises no more
'Cause rock'n'roll is my religion and my law
Won't ever change, may think it's strange
You can't kill rock'n'roll it's here to stay.
Even the rhymes that they give me in times of confession ain't true
Outcome is obvious all for them none for us meaning you too.
The things they will do and the things they will say
When they don't really understand.
Fear of rejection I need their protection
I'm making a stand.
And they don't really know even what they're talkin' about
And I can't imagine what empty heads can achieve.
Leave me alone don't want your promises no more
'Cause rock'n'roll is my religion and my law
Won't ever change, may think it's strange
You can't kill rock'n'roll it's here to stay.
Leave me alone don't want your promises no more
'Cause rock'n'roll is my religion and my law
Won't ever change, may think it's strange
You can't kill rock'n'roll it's here to stay.
(Osbourne - Rhoads - Daisley)
Watching time go and feeling belief grow
Rise above the obstacles.
People beseech me but they will never teach me
Things that I already know. (I know)
Dreams that I have shattered may not have mattered
Take another point of view.
Doubts will arise like though chasing a rainbow
I can tell a thing or two. (That's true)
You've got to believe in yourself or no one
Will I believe in you
Imagination like a bird on the wing
Flying, free for you to use
(OK baby).
I can't believe they stop and stare
And point their fingers doubting me
Their disbelief suppresses them
But they're not blind it's just that they won't see.
I'm a believer, I ain't no deceiver
Mountains move before my eyes
Destiny planned out I don't need no handout
Speculation of the wise.
In acid-rock lyrics, there are two layers: the superficial layer, and the second layer, which uses double-entendres to allude to altered-state phenomena such as time-stopping, perceptual strobing, concretization of perception, suspension of ego as a cognitive structure and activity, merging into unity, helpless puppethood relative to the ground of being, perception of spacetime as a rigid, predetermined block, and loss or instability of self-control. In the song "Little Dolls", voodoo is the superficial level; the occluded level of meaning is about psychedelic loss of control and feeling of being controlled by a higher power or underlying level of the universe; that second level of meaning is revealed and communicated when the listener is on LSD, experiencing those sort of phenomena.
(Osbourne - Rhoads - Daisley - Kerslake)
Writhing and screaming the pain just won't go
He'll show you no mercy.
Your image in his hands it's useless to try
Escaping his curses. [terrifying encounter with fatedness - a common mystic
theme]
The pins and needles prick the skin of little dolls.
Tortured and flaming you give birth to hell
Living a nightmare.
It's a pity you'll pray for your death
But he's in no hurry.
The pins and needles prick the skin of little dolls.
No where to run - your fate is in his hands [sense of being a puppet of God]
Your time has come - you'll live to his command [your future actions are
pre-set, you don't originate control]
I'm warning you - the worst is yet to come
The killer who - remains a mystery
I that believe in the stories of old - would never fight it.
Demons and curses that play on our soul
Like something ignited.
You never imagined such a fate could follow you
(You never thought it was true)
And when it's your time I wonder how you'll do
Your kind of trouble's running deeper than the sea [as deep as the ground of
being which produces all actions]
You broke the rules [altered state suspends the mental rules and constraints of
action]
You've been a fool [fool to take LSD -- or, your previous stable ego-state was
foolish ignorance]
The little doll is you yeah!
No where to run - your fate is in his hands
Your time has come - you'll live to his command
I'm warning you - the worst is yet to come
The killer who - remains a mystery
Writhing and screaming the pain just won't go
He'll show you no mercy.
Your image in his hands it's useless to try
Escaping his curses.
[Following verse, note that acid makes you see that self-steering /
self-control is epiphenomenal, fate is all powerful
compare rush - Twilight Zone, "you wake up lost in an empty town, wondring
why no one else is around, look up to see a giant boy, just become his brand
new toy, no escape no place to hide, here where time and space collide" --
this is a dense string of references to phenomena that you will confront on
LSD)
No where to run - your fate is in his hands
Your time has come - you'll live to his command
I'm warning you - the worst is yet to come
The killer who - remains a mystery
(Osbourne - Rhoads - Daisley - Kerslake)
Now I'm back out on the streets again
It never rains unless it pours
Try to get back on my feet again
I hear the raging thunder as it roars
Tonight tonight is it just a rhapsody
Or am I right
Tonight tonight is it all a mystery
I just can't fight no more.
I hear the questions surface my mind
Of the mistakes that I have made.
Times and places have left behind
And am I ever gonna make the grade.
Tonight tonight is it just a rhapsody
Or am I right
Tonight tonight is it all a mystery
I just can't fight no more.
As I beat my head against the wall
Running around in circles in vain
I'm feeling three foot tall
You don't understand I'm fading away.
Don't want your pity or your sympathy
It isn't gonna prove a thing to me
Good intentions pave the way to hell
Don't worry when you hear me sing.
Tonight tonight is it just a rhapsody
Or am I right
Tonight tonight is it all a mystery
I just can't fight no more.
These are both entirely plausible interpretations:
Sailing Across The Ocean
Sailing the Acid-Trip Ocean
There is a desirable ambiguity between these two. Such ambiguity is the rule in acid-rock lyrics. It is likely that such ambiguity or flipping was intended, or else the title would have been simply spelled out.
A = Acid would be a highly desirable coding, for this subject matter. When you want to refer to "acid" in a hidden way, using the abbreviation 'A' would be perfect. What would be the purpose of abbreviating the title "Sailing Across the Ocean"? The purpose of abbreviating the title "S... Acid T... O..." would be to encode and hide the word "acid".
S sailing satan
A at acid
T the trip
O ocean
I have thought a lot about this and the only plausible expansion I've found is Sailing the Acid Trip Ocean, which is perfectly plausible. If *I* can't figure out this abbreviation, with all my background in acid-lyrics interpretation, then it's unreasonably difficult. I have not asked about this in the Sabbath newsgroup.
The song describes a peak of an LSD session conducted by a veteran tripper who has become obsessed with issues of self-control and loss of control. He is trying to gain self-control and cure himself of the standard mental-mode of self-defeating thinking. He is caught in perpetual mental arm-wrestling and is trying to think his way to a better system of thinking. He knows that the ordinary way of thinking is subtly fraught with this same problem. But this problem is intensified to the breakdown/breakthrough point in the alcoholic who uses full-intensity psychedelics (ten hits of LSD) in his arsenal frequently, over a period of years, in the struggle to stop self-defeating thinking and gain full control over his own thoughts and actions.
This pattern and dramatic quest for self-mastery applies not just to alcoholics, and alcoholism is not alluded to in the album's story; this pattern of struggling and the quest for a breakthrough, a "way of thinking", applies to general control-aholics, such as a Zen monk struggling to control his own thoughts and control his own self-control. It's a satanic quest for total self-determination, to really be one's own governor and controller, one's own creator of thoughts and actions. Psychedelics seem to extend the promise of such independence of thinking and actions, but at the peak, one experiences a radical freedom, or rather, a crazy lack of constraint, belonging to a "little doll", a helpless puppet that is completely a product of the all-encompassing, timeless, predetermined block-universe (compare the song Twilight Zone, by Rush).
As far as creativity, composition, and inspiration, Randy Rhoads is Ozzy's best guitarist. There was a magic chemistry between Ozzy and Rhoads, and I am not just referring to the LSD. I rate the first two Ozzy solo albums as 10, and all the rest as 5. The first two will always remain classic albums; the rest will be forgotten. Diary of a Madman is also a philosophically important album, as it is a coherent drama that deals heavily with using psychedelics to investigate the problematic nature of self-control, a topic of serious personal interest to Ozzy, an alcoholic.
I very much would like to know who in the group was involved in this way of using LSD. Did Randy Rhoads often play guitar while on LSD? Was this just Ozzy's trip, since he has definitely struggled with alcoholism, which is essentially self-control wrestling?
Who wrote the Black Sabbath lyrics - the drummer?
There are many great, less well known Sabbath songs. Shockwave is one of the most heavy acid-trip songs, from Never Say Die. The Sabotage album as a whole is their most artistically interesting. One of their sludgiest songs is Into the Void, from Master of Reality. I really like the song about intoxicating flowers near the beginning of the album "Black Sabbath".
I would have to list all their songs and rate them (as I have done with the Pumpkins) to determine the best ones.
I will research "S.A.T.O." as a maritime term. Again, the standard form of acid-rock lyrics is to subtly encode and hide the allusions to LSD and its phenomena. Why name a song in such an obscure, confusing way? To play with meanings, hide meanings, and open up another potential layer of communication.
On the album Caress of Steel, Rush has an extremely philosophically important song comparable to SATO: "No One at the Helm". It is about the loss of control by the cybernetic steersman at the peak of an LSD trip. That song is the most important and significant song ever written, as far as philosophy, mystic experiencing, and psychedelics. (And that album is the overall most important album for that intersection of topics; that song is the heart of that album.) Rush's first widely received album, 2112, was a reaction to the fans' lack of understanding of the great album Caress of Steel. Anyone who wants to appreciate 2112 *must* understand Caress of Steel and why Rush was so upset by the lack of appreciation of it by "the average" - the average rock fan.
In addition to Diary of a Madman and Caress of Steel, the other album that is one of the top 3 LSD-oriented albums of all time is Metallica's Ride the Lightning. The title is a direct allusion to tripping hard, and an injunction to do so. The electric chair is LSD. There is just one song that is somewhat out of place on that album: Creeping Death. The others all have dense allusions to psychedelic phenomena. Ride the Lightning is Metallica's only significantly LSD-oriented album, though Master of Puppets has some allusions, including the album title. On the liner notes of Master of Puppets, Metallica thanks Rush for "all their help", which likely included training in acid phenomena. As far as the Rush albums through Grace under Pressure, Rush remains the group that is most dedicated to acid mysticism, acid philosophy, or acid enlightenment.
[Why is this title abbreviated if it merely expands to Sailing Across the Ocean? There's hidden coding; it also means Sailing the Acid-Trip Ocean.]
(Osbourne - Rhoads - Daisley - Kerslake)
Now I find peace of mind
Finally found a way of thinking [looking for a logically coherent mental
operating-system, not like egoic OS that permits the perpetual
self-control-wrestling of alcoholism]
Tried the rest found the best
Stormy day won't find me sinking
I can't conceal it like I know I did before
I got to tell you now the ship is ready [ship = doses]
Waiting on the shore. [sung "shelf"; LSD is waiting on the shelf]
Dare to look face the test on the eve [peak of trip = the test of
self-control]
When you set sailing
What you've learned what you've earned [learned in previous trips and
tribulations]
Ship of joy will stop you failing. [could mean Jesus will protect you]
I can't conceal it like I know I did before [what *is* he concealing? reveal
it]
I got to tell you now the ship is ready [what is concealed here?]
Waiting on the shore. [sung "shelf" (this time, or previous time)]
Wind is high so am I [on large LSD dose]
As the shore sinks in the distance.
Dreams unfold seek the gold. [dreams unfold - trip-sequence unfolds]
Gold that's brighter than sunlight. [bright light of pure awareness feeding
back]
Sail away see the day
Dawning on a new horizon [tradition of staying up all night tripping. Rebirth]
Gold's insight shining bright [LSD is a fountain of transcendent valuable
insight]
Brighter than the sun that's rising. [pure awareness]
3000 sails on high are straining in the wind [mental integrity strained, major
cognitive restructuring]
A raging sea below is this voyage coming to an end. [violently rippling,
discontinuous perception. "coming to an end" is ambiugous - success,
failure.] [risk total instability of self-control]
On Speak of the Devil, Ozzy says "are we all crazy yet?! everybody get crazy!" That means "has the LSD kicked in yet, bringing temporary quasi-insanity?"
(Osbourne - Rhoads - Daisley - Kerslake)
Screaming at the window
Watch me die another day
Hopeless situation endless price I have to pay
Sanity now it's beyond me there's no choice
Diary of a madman
Walk the line again today
Entries of confusion
Dear diary I'm here to stay.
Manic depression befriends me [acid triggers manic depression]
Hear his voice
Sanity now it's beyond me
There's no choice.
A sickened mind and spirit
The mirror tells me lies
Could I mistake myself for someone
Who lives behind my eyes
Will he escape my soul
Or will he live in me
Is he tryin' to get out or tryin' to enter me.
Voices in the darkness
Scream away my mental health
Can I ask a question [prayer to God]
To help me save me from myself
Enemies fill up the pages
Are they me
Monday till sunday in stages
Set me free
Home (ego death and self-control cybernetics)