Black Sabbath: Iron Man Meaning

Song Released: 1970

Iron Man 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...

1. anonymous

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   Jul 10th 2008 !⃝

   I personally think it isn't about anything more than a fictional character traveling time and getting fucked up in the process. He ends up as some iron monstrosity and no one gives a fuck about him... Although immobile, he's still thinking and is like... "Yo... I tried to help these dicks out and they don't give half a dick? Fuck them..." And slowly, his anger builds up until the time that his iron body is able to move... And when it does, he fucks everyone up with his "heavy boots of lead".

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
2. anonymous

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   Jun 5th 2008 !⃝

   He was turned to steel
   In the great magnetic field
   Where he traveled time
   For the future of mankind
   
   I think doctor who and
   the cybermen
   
   but I don't realy know

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3. anonymous

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   May 30th 2008 !⃝

   This song is really self explanatory. The song is about a man who is turned to steel, because of traveling in time, then takes his vengeance out on the world, bringing about exactly the future he foresaw, etc... Contrary to popular belief, it is not about the comic book character.
   
   --Saint J--
4. anonymous

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   May 20th 2008 !⃝

   You dumbasses keep saying Ozzy wrote it. Look at the damn title for god's sake. I think it might be about the end of the world.
5. anonymous

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   May 10th 2008 !⃝

   Uh...it could always just be Ozzy high on something making up random lyrics...if not...
   
   I think it IS about a soldier, but one left behind in war that didn't want to be. He was ubducted by the enemy troups and was forced to fight his allies "saving the people that he once saved." Then he did something heroic, but people looked away because of the bad things he had already done. When he died, they fealt bad, so the heavy boots of led is about sorrow and the fleeing is about trying to ignore their sadness.
6. anonymous

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   May 5th 2008 !⃝

   The song is about a person who travels into the future and witnesses the apocalypse. On his way back, he gets caught in a magnetic field and is turned to steel (contrary to the song's title) with "boots of lead". When he tries to warn the world about the apocalypse, they cannot hear him for he is made of iron. He is also unable to move. The people shun him, thinking him to be dead, and as his revenge he kills them all. He then realizes that he is the cause of the apocalypse.
7. anonymous

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   May 2nd 2008 !⃝

   It is about Dr. Doom

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
8. anonymous

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   Apr 29th 2008 !⃝

   It was my information from a recorded interview with Black Sabbath, that the song refers to a person who was once real.
   
   As I remember, the song is about a worker who was in the employ of a nuclear facility. The facility in question had a radiation leakage, and the person in question "Iron Man" as you will, was responsible for going in and out of the facility, saving as many people as he could.
   
   However, due to his heroic efforts, he recieved a massive dose of gamma radiation, which killed him. However, his body matter, was too radioactive to go near, and he was burried in a tomb of lead and iron. The only known materials at the time which could withhold gamma rays.
   
   So as the song goes in literal definition as a break down:
   
   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?
   Well just pass him there
   Why should we even care?
   
   The first lines note his mental stability and his radiation as he is dying.
   
   He was turned to steel
   In the great magnetic field
   Where he traveled time
   For the future of mankind
   
   Turned to steel refers to the "Iron Man" being radiated and thus now inhuman as well as radiation poisioning. The magnetic field refers to the plant where the raditaion was spreading. Time refers to his own life, which he slowly killed for the future of others as he went back and forth.
   
   Nobody wants him
   He just stares at the world
   Planning his vengeance
   That he will soon unfold
   
   Nobody could go near him, thus they do not want him. He stares at the world through death, his vengeance being his radiation and what he will soon unfold meaning once he is unburied, whoever does so will too be radiated.
   
   Now the time is here
   For iron man to spread fear
   Vengeance from the grave
   Kills the people he once saved
   
   Since people know, its the time to spread fear. His vengeance from the grave refers to his radiation, which to anynone he once saved, would kill them.
   
   Nobody wants him
   They just turn their heads
   Nobody helps him
   Now he has his revenge
   
   Still noone desires him, and they turn their heads, forgetting his sacrifice. His revenge is that he is forgotten and now noone knows why he is dead. And they forget why he was burried.
   
   Heavy boots of lead
   Fills his victims full of dread
   Running as fast as they can
   Iron man lives again!
   
   His boots of lead refers to his tomb, which once unearthed, fills victims full of dread, sending them running. They now know who he was, and Iron Man lives again.
   
   
   Thats at least what I was lead to believe if anyoen still seeks the definition of this song.
9. anonymous

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   Jan 18th 2008 !⃝

   It's about a robot you dumbasses!!

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10. anonymous

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    Jan 10th 2008 !⃝

    I believe it's his interpretation on Jesus. In his lyrics gets me through he mentions I'm not the anti-christ or the Iron Man.
11. anonymous

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    Jan 1st 2008 !⃝

    Well I think the the song Ironman by Black Sabbath is based on the Marvel Comic Ironman. How at first Tony stark aka Ironman slips into alchoholism and loses his million doller industry Stark Industries. He loses all hope and no one is there to comforte him. All have soon abadoned him even his friends due to Obadiah Stane who took over his company. But soon gets gets the will power to take action and change his life. Now Tony builds new amor and takes down a evil in the streets of New York.

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12. anonymous

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    Dec 12th 2007 !⃝

    It's about A poor black man being oppressed, like Ozzy was as a child. The man gets so mad he travels back in time (he channeled his anger into time space continuum research). Then he kills the corporate fat cats as kids. But one of them has magical white man powers, and turn him into iron. So then he just kills him with iron feet. And feelings.

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13. anonymous

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    Oct 24th 2007 !⃝

    Is it not more simple than that? i.e. That it is a morality tale about how we should treat those different than us a bit better?
14. anonymous

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    Oct 14th 2007 !⃝

    It's about a crazy person. just listen to the song when your baked. ozzy was obviously going through mental problems in the Black Sabbath days. also listen to paranoid. basically its an in the closet crazy person. nobody understands whats wrong with him, "he just stares at the world", "well just pass him there, why should we even care". Its just my interpretation of the song.
15. anonymous

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    Aug 2nd 2007 !⃝

    This song is about all of the members of Black Sabbath's fathers. They all worked in steel factories and lost arms and legs and stuff...so they were pissed and wrote a song.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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