Black Sabbath

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i just wrote a paper on war pigs

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can you post it?

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Seriously. Black Sabbath is one of my favourite bands - they were real revolutionaries.

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You must be the only person who thinks that

[chezlaw]

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Snowblind

Vol.4 probably favorite album.

First band I saw live.

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Did you get to see them before Ozzy left? I saw them in London shortly afterwards.

chez

[rohjoh]

War Pigs

[newhizzle]

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i just wrote a paper on war pigs

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can you post it?

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this is just the first draft and was thrown together in like an hour, i plan to make it better, plus it gets kinda crazy at the end

The song War Pigs, by Black Sabbath, was first released in 1970, but its content is still very relevant today. The first verse of the song is about war itself. The second and third are about corrupt politicians who incite war, for the purposes of this essay these will be referred to as one verse. The last verse is a view into the future when the day of judgement is upon us.

The song in my mind represents the war happening right now in Iraq. Politicians like George Bush have created this war for no practical reason. A large portion of the American population has been brainwashed by the propaganda telling us that there is a moral reason to be there and that the war is not simply for financial reasons.

In the first verse of War Pigs, Ozzy depicts the destruction that war causes, and the evil minds that plot it. “Generals gathered in their masses, just like witches at black masses,” he says. This shows the evil that is conspired by generals in war. He relates them to witches coming up with their evil deeds. He then says, “Evil minds that plot destruction, sorcerers of deaths construction.” This is conveying the point that the evil minds of war leaders do nothing but plot destruction and death.

The next line, “In the fields the bodies burning, as the war machine keeps turning,” is a depiction of war itself. In the battlefields, blood is spilled and bodies are burned, but the war goes on. The next line refers to the soldiers who are trained to believe that the cause they are fighting for is sincere, “Death and hatred to mankind, poisoning there brainwashed minds.” The soldiers go through intensive training and are fed propaganda to swing their emotions and make them fight with passion. If they make it back, their minds may be permanently poisoned by the death and hatred that they have experienced, this is known as shell shock or post-traumatic stress disorder.

The next verse relates to the present time more than any other part of the song. Ozzy says, “Politicians hide themselves away, they only started the war.” This reminds me a lot of the situation we have now with George Bush. He starts a war that we have no business fighting and then goes on vacation for some ridiculous portion of his time in office. At the same time his administration is spreading all sorts of propaganda to convince the American people that Saddam Hussein did something to hurt us and has weapons kept away that he plans to use to destroy us.

Then Ozzy says, “Why should they go out to fight? They leave that role to the poor.” Politicians will never fight a war themselves in our time. During the American Revolution, politicians did fight against the tyrant rulers, because they truly believed that their cause was righteous. The war that we are in now is going on mostly for financial reasons. The politicians offer incentives to the poor to fight for them, such as scholarships for kids who cannot afford to pay their way through college. It is very rare to find the children of a war-inciting politician fighting their father’s cause instead of getting an education.

The second part of this verse begins to predict the future and elaborates more on the cowardice and corruptness of the war pigs. “Time will tell on their power minds, making war just for fun,” now Ozzy is predicting that eventually all evil powers will get what is coming to them in the end. Also this relates to the present situation, the Iraq war is not just for fun though. In times of war the stocks of weapon companies go up and a lot of dirty politicians have invested in these companies. If there was no war, their investments would go to waste. There is also valuable oil in that region, but for some reason since we have overtaken it, oil prices have only gone up. And of course, there is the fun part of our president finishing a job that his father started.

Next the Ozzman says, “Treating people just like pawns in chess, wait till their judgement day comes.” Again he is alluding to the fate that awaits the evil ones. These rulers do use people just like pawns in chess, worthless, expendable lives meant to be wasted to fight a cause that they have no personal interest in. The lower class in our society does not matter. They are the perfect tools to trick into fighting the wars of the elite.

The final verse is a depiction of the judgement day that is coming if the war pigs do not change their ways. “Now in darkness world stops turning, ashes where the bodies burning,” Hell on earth has begun. “No more war pigs have the power, hand of god has struck the hour,” the corrupt leaders have now lost their reign, they are helpless and at the mercy of god. “Day of judgement god is calling, on there knees the war pigs crawling,” the war pigs have abused their powers and now must accept their fate. “Begging mercy for their sins, Satan laughing spreads his wings,” they beg for mercy from god, but now they must answer to Satan for their sins.

I would assume that this song was written about the Vietnam war or just about war in general, but its wisdom still applies very much today. Our presidential administration has some serious bad karma coming its way.

[youtalkfunny]

I suppose that I'm the only one who liked the Dio years.


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He then says, “Evil minds that plot destruction, sorcerers of deaths construction.” This is conveying the point that the evil minds of war leaders do nothing but plot destruction and death.

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I often regret that I never went to college.

But then I find out what they're doing there, and I start to feel like I didn't miss anything at all.

[ripdog]

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I often regret that I never went to college.

But then I find out what they're doing there, and I start to feel like I didn't miss anything at all.

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Don't kid yourself--regret it. I met some of my best friends in college, had a blast, and learned an amazing amount in the process. It was an awesome experience.

[ChipWrecked]

Planet Caravan.

[youtalkfunny]

I know, but every time I ask a college kid, "What are you studying in school?", they always say something like, "Studying the economy of Peru", or "Writing a paper on Sabbath," or "We're re-defining negative space."