Iron Man (song)
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"Iron Man" is one of Black Sabbath's best-known songs. It was first released on their 1970 album Paranoid. It was later included on We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll in 1976.
Riff
The song is often learned by guitar due to its simple yet famous riff:
- [Iron Man intro] ([file info])
- *
- * Problems listening to the file? See [Media helpmedia help].
Plot
In the song, a man goes into the future to see what it is like. When he arrives, he sees the end of the world. He decides to go back to his own world to warn everyone, but on his journey back he enters a magnetic field and somehow his body turns to steel, and therefore people don't listen to him or trust him. He is overcome with rage, and brings about the very end of the world that he'd seen. (This is one classic example of a Predestination Paradox.)Covers
It has been covered by Swedish death metal band Mental Break, Japanese heavy metal band Electric Eel Shock, the punk rock band NOFX, and pop band The Cardigans on First Band on the Moon. Rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot made a rap version on his 1988 album Swass. Rapper Busta Rhymes did a remix of the song with Ozzy Osbourne called This Means War for his 1998 album Extinction Level Event (Final World Front). Osbourne also recorded the song with the group Therapy? for a Black Sabbath tribute album "Nativity in Black: Tribute to Black Sabbath", the same version which also in his Prince of Darkness box set. There also exists a version played on jazz instruments by the trio The Bad Plus. In 2006, when Sabbath was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame American metal band Metallica played this song along with "Hole in the Sky" in tribute.Legacy
This song features one of the most popular riffs of all time. It is frequently used in television and movies, including Beavis and Butt-head, School of Rock, Futurama, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Lords of Dogtown and ''Detroit Rock City.In the 2000s "Iron Man" became a staple of American high school marching band music at football games (King of the Hill demonstrated this in flashback sequences showing Bill in his football stardom days).
Bob Rivers used the Iron Man riff for his parody, "I Am Santa Claus". Alice in Chains also parodied the song in a short non-listed track (usually known as "Iron Gland") in their album "Dirt (album)".
This song appears in the PlayStation 2 game Guitar Hero.
A remixed version of the song also plays during the main menu screen of the Xbox game Forza Motorsport.
There is also a doom metal band that goes by the name Iron Man, a former Black Sabbath tribute band
The song "Powdered Milk Man' by The Aquabats parodies the song's intro, where "I am Powdered Milk Man" is said instead of "I am Iron Man"
Awards
In 2000 (30 years after the song was first released), it won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.Iron Man also won spot #310 in The Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Songs Ever Written.
Iron Man was awarded the #1 spot on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs in 2006.
External Links
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