Iron Man: the beat that gave Iommi his monster
Bill Ward supplied the beat, and Tony Iommi imagined something approaching. In a rehearsal room, Ward began a slow drum pattern, and Iommi found the guitar figure that fits it: the riff of "Iron Man." The monster in the song's world started as a monster in a guitarist's head.
Iommi described the moment to Songfacts' Greg Prato in 2021. "I was in a rehearsal room, and Bill started playing this boom, boom, boom," he said. "He started doing it, and I just went and came up with this thing and thought, 'That's cool.' Bill kept playing it, and I just went to this riff." He added: "I just saw this thing in my mind of someone creeping up on you, and it just sounded like the riff. In my head, I could hear it as a monster, so I came up with that riff there and then." Like many of his riffs, he said, it was one he came up with on the spot.
Guitar Player describes how the opening sound was made. As Ward drummed, Iommi drew a groan from his open low E string by bending it behind the nut, an effect the magazine likens to the creaking doors of an old mausoleum. From there, it was one quick jump to the signature riff. Songfacts adds that the bend creates a wash of sound, and that Ozzy Osbourne's "I am Iron Man" line comes in over it.
The guitar was only half of the song's invention. The lyrics came from bassist Geezer Butler, and Louder reports that the idea began with Osbourne, who suggested something like a song called "Iron Man," or perhaps "Iron Bloke." Butler recalled that this made him think of a lump of metal, which he then put into a science-fiction setting. He was heavily into science fiction at the time, he said, and it was the era of the space race.
The story Butler built is more intricate than the title suggests. A man travels into the future and sees the end of the world. On the way back to his own time he meets a rogue magnetic field, which turns him into a mute, steel creature. He still tries to warn people, but they mock him. Angry and bitter, he eventually causes the devastation he had foreseen, and the would-be hero becomes the villain. Butler said he was fascinated by a man transformed into a metal being who still has a human brain and wants to do the right thing. He also worked in war and politics, along with the rising concern about pollution.
Many listeners assume the song is about Marvel's superhero. Louder says it is not. Marvel had introduced its character in 1963, but Butler had never heard of him in 1970. His parents did not let him read American comics as a boy, and he grew up on the Beano and the Dandy.
"Iron Man" first appeared on Paranoid, Black Sabbath's second album, released in 1970. Songfacts notes that the band was not fond of the album's title song, which they quickly recorded to round out the record. Iommi said as much to Prato: "A lot of people say 'Paranoid,' but the song was written as a filler for the album, it was never intended on being anything else." It became a single because it was short, and because of what it became, he said, most people knew the band by it in those days. He named "Black Sabbath" and "Iron Man" as the songs he relates to most.
Songfacts says the band became stingy with British singles, to discourage casual fans who came for one song, and withheld "Iron Man" in the UK even though it was huge. In America it was issued as the band's second single and reached number 52 in 1972, their highest showing on the Hot 100.
Getting the sound onto tape was hard. Ward told Louder that the song was unlike anything the band had done before, and that the drumming was a real challenge to get right in the studio. The microphones available in 1970 could not capture the power he wanted. He played loud and wanted a big bass drum sound, but all he could get was a dull thud. Producer Rodger Bain and engineer Tom Allom had a tough time making it work, he said, and in the end did an excellent job under the circumstances.
Iommi's ambitions for the band's sound came partly from classical music. Guitar Player quotes him saying he listened to the old classical pieces with their dynamics and wanted something just as dramatic and big. He wanted to create a powerful thing that comes over the listener, like what happens at a horror film.
The song kept growing. In 2008 it was used in the film Iron Man, based on the Marvel character, which delighted Butler. "It was a recognition of just how much the song means," he told Louder. Ward said that in America the song is now part of the culture, heard at most sports events, and that it no longer belongs to the four who made it: "it's now everyone's song."
- Guitar Player, Tony Iommi on Iron Man — www.guitarplayer.com
- Songfacts, Iron Man by Black Sabbath — www.songfacts.com
- Louder, The story behind the song: Iron Man by Black Sabbath — loudersound.com
- Blabbermouth, Tony Iommi on how he came up with the Iron Man riff (Songfacts interview, March 1, 2021) — blabbermouth.net