I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
You've seen right through distorted eyes
You know you had to learn
The execution of your mind
You really had to turn
The race is run, the book is read
The end begins to show
The truth is out, the lies are old
But you don't want to know
Nobody will ever let you know
When you ask the reasons why
They just tell you that you're on your own
Fill your head all full of lies
The people who have crippled you
You want to see them burn
The gates of life have closed on you
And there's just no return
You're wishing that the hands of doom
Could take your mind away
And you don't care if you don't see again
The light of day
Nobody will ever let you know
When you ask the reasons why
They just tell you that you're on your own
Fill your head all full of lies
You bastards
Where can you run to?
What more can you do?
No more tomorrow
Life is killing you
Dreams turn to nightmares
Heaven turns to hell
Burned out confusion
Nothing more to tell, yeah
Everything around you
What's it coming to?
God knows as your dog nose
Bog blast all of you
Sabbath bloody Sabbath
Nothing more to do
Living just for dying
Dying just for you, yeah
You know you had to learn
The execution of your mind
You really had to turn
The race is run, the book is read
The end begins to show
The truth is out, the lies are old
But you don't want to know
Nobody will ever let you know
When you ask the reasons why
They just tell you that you're on your own
Fill your head all full of lies
The people who have crippled you
You want to see them burn
The gates of life have closed on you
And there's just no return
You're wishing that the hands of doom
Could take your mind away
And you don't care if you don't see again
The light of day
Nobody will ever let you know
When you ask the reasons why
They just tell you that you're on your own
Fill your head all full of lies
You bastards
Where can you run to?
What more can you do?
No more tomorrow
Life is killing you
Dreams turn to nightmares
Heaven turns to hell
Burned out confusion
Nothing more to tell, yeah
Everything around you
What's it coming to?
God knows as your dog nose
Bog blast all of you
Sabbath bloody Sabbath
Nothing more to do
Living just for dying
Dying just for you, yeah
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More Featured Meanings
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
In the Black Box book, Geezer Butler explains: "The lyrics to 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath' were about the the Sabbath experience, the ups and downs, the good times and bad times, the rip-offs, the business side of it all. 'Bog blast all of you' was directed at the critics, the record business in general, the lawyers, the accountants, management and everyone who was trying to cash in on us. It was a backs-to-the-wall rant at everyone."
@bryan2071 . This highly generic explanation entirely fails to explain the anger and despair that this lyrics powerfully convey. The Lawyers , Business side of events surrounding the band at time of release are however relevant. There were three changes of label at the time of the album's release, the last of which, Warner Brothers, I believe were not sympathetic to the original message of Geezer's words which lawyers believed would affect marketability. In the manner that Snowblind was about cocaine addiction. Sabbath's subject matter is principally based on real and specific events. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath is a direct reference to the Bloody Sunday Derry massacre and the whitewash the British public was subjected to in its aftermath. I'm saddened that Geezer felt pressurised to compromise his explanation at a later date when his lyrics were, I felt, always more powerful than U2's take on the same subject matter.