Heaven And Hell

"Heaven and Hell" is the title track to Black Sabbath's ninth studio album, Heaven and Hell. It was written mainly by Tony Iommi, but as with almost all Black Sabbath albums, credit is given to the entire band. The lyrics were written entirely by then-newcomer Ronnie James Dio. The song has been performed by several bands of which Iommi and Dio are members including Black Sabbath, Dio, and Heaven and Hell Ronnie James Dio himself cites it as his over-all personal favorite song of his career, the one that he feels most proud of.[citation needed] In an interview for VH1's "Heavy: The Story of Metal," Dio stated that the song is about the ability of each human being to choose between doing good and doing evil, essentially that each person has "heaven and hell" inside themselves. When the song has been performed live by Black Sabbath, Dio or Heaven and Hell, it's usually stretched out with an extended guitar solo, audience participation, ad libbed lyrics and/or additional lyrics regarding angelic and demonic apparitions and personal judgment. There is also a bootleg version sung by Ian Gillan. Tony Martin also sang it many times live with Black Sabbath as well as with his solo band. Keyboardist Geoff Nicholls, who was a session keyboard player during the recording of this album, is said to have been responsible for this song's famous bass line. The bassline closely resembles the bassline of "Mainline Riders" by Quartz, of which Nicholls was a former member. "Heaven and Hell" was ranked #11 in Martin Popoff's book The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time. Popoff put together this book by requesting thousands of metal fans, musicians, and journalists to send in their favorite heavy metal songs. Almost 18,000 individual votes were tallied and entered into a database from which the final rankings were derived. The song was named the 81st best hard rock song of all time by VH1. The studio version lasts almost seven minutes but live usually includes extended guitar solos, audience participation, additional lyrics, and combined with the song "Sign Of The Southern Cross". * The American doom metal band Solitude Aeturnus covered the song for their album Adagio. * Benedictum covered the song on their debut album, Uncreation (which also featured a cover of Black Sabbath's "The Mob Rules"). * It was also covered by Liechtenstein based gothic metal band Elis. * The song was also briefly covered by Tenacious D for Dio's music video for the song "Push". At the beginning of the music video, Jack Black and Kyle Gass are shown standing on a sidewalk busking and singing "Heaven and Hell" with alternate lyrics. They stop when Dio walks up to them and tells them that he will pay them to play some Tenacious D songs. * Thrash Band Overkill can be heard rehearsing the song at the end of their 1994 album W.F.O.. * A live version from Dio's A Special from the Spectrum was featured in the 2005 documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey. * The song was featured in the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

[Instrumental Intro 00:00-00:33] [Verse 1] Sing me a song, you're a singer Do me a wrong, you're a bringer of evil The Devil is never a maker The less that you give, you're a taker [Chorus] So, it's on and on and on It's Heaven and Hell Oh well, yeah [Verse 2] The lover of life's not a sinner The ending is just a beginner The closer you get to the meaning The sooner you'll know that you're dreaming [Chorus] So, it's on and on and on Oh, it's on and on and on It goes on and on and on Heaven and Hell, I can tell Fool, fool [Post-Chorus] Oh-oh, oh Ooh-ooh, ooh Yeah-yeah, yeah [Verse 3] Well, if it seems to be real, it's illusion For every moment of truth, there's confusion in life Love can be seen as the answer But nobody bleeds for the dancer [Chorus] And it's on and on, on and on and on And on and on and on and on and on [Instrumental Break 03:18-04:45] [Guitar Solo] [Bridge] They say that life's a carousel Spinning fast, you gotta ride it well The world is full of Kings and Queens Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams It's Heaven and Hell, oh well And they'll tell you black is really white The moon is just the sun at night And when you walk in golden halls You get to keep the gold that falls It's Heaven and Hell, oh no Fool, fool You've got to bleed for the dancer Fool, fool Look for the answer Fool, fool, fool [Instrumental Outro]