Black Sabbath – Swinging the Chain

It's against my uniform
To be a civil judge
All the songs are history now
'Bout rock stars and their grudge
Let us cast our minds back
To thirty years or more
You took up all the vandals
Will Hitler beat 'em all?

And we're sad and sorry
Really sorry that it happened that way
Yes we're sad and sorry
But why'd you have to treat us that way?

Compare ourselves with others
And cover them in sin
Oh, God what a terrible
A terrible state we're in
There must be some way out of here
A compromise that's right
If we cannot work it out
We're gonna have to fight

Yes we're sad and sorry
Really sorry that it happened that way
Yes we're sad and sorry
We cannot go on in those days

I'm talking about my brothers
Yeah, I'm talking 'bout sisters as well
I wish you good luck
Good luck!

Oh, but the world's still on fire
Chain the hope you take on, liar
This fire
We're on fire, we're on fire, yeah


Lyrics submitted by matthallo

"Swinging the Chain" as written by John Osbourne Anthony Iommi

Lyrics © T.R.O. INC.

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Swinging the Chain song meanings
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6 Comments

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  • +2
    General CommentThis is a great song. It was sung by Bill Ward, the drummer, even tho ozzy was in the band at the time. Sounds great.
    matthalloon May 09, 2004   Link
  • +1
    General CommentThis song is on the last Black sabbath record - I think they knew thy will split up

    "Yes we're sad and sorry
    Really sorry that it happened that way
    Yes we're sad and sorry
    We cannot go on in those days"

    says its all. Its Sabbaths good bye song. A very good dood by song!
    roboknobon December 13, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Commentyes there is another 10 but but 1970-78 is what was called black sabbath, im pretty sure that even toni has said that black sabbath will only ever be ozzy, geezer, ward and himself, yes theres been variations of them and they were "fun" to do but the music that invented a genre and changed the world was the original 4
    JohnnyBladeon December 17, 2009   Link
  • +1
    My InterpretationThis is an amazing and well written song. Clearly the band is drawing comparisons between in-fighting in Black Sabbath and World War II when Englishmen were forced to fight their distant German cousins. "We're so sorry, we're sorry that it happened this way."
    fone101136on March 27, 2017   Link
  • 0
    General CommentCorrect me if I'm wrong, but I believe there are another 10 Black Sabbath after NSD...
    Songmeaningsuseron May 18, 2008   Link
  • 0
    Lyric CorrectionIt's plainly:

    "We're so sorry"

    not

    "We're sad and sorry"

    The stretched-out "sooooooo" probably makes it sound like "sad and" to some people but it doesn't sound that way to me.
    gregorybrianon August 21, 2010   Link
    • 1 Reply

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