Released September 25, 1972
Re-Released February 28, 1996
Re-Released Apr 27, 2004 (Black Box)
Re-Released September 21, 2009
[ Lyrics | Tour Dates ]
2009 CD [ Amazon UK | Amazon US ] | 2011 Vinyl [ Amazon US ]
1996 CD [ Amazon US | Amazon UK ] | 2004 CD [ Amazon US ]
Original CD [ Amazon US | Amazon UK ]
Track Listing
- Wheels of Confusion / The Straightener
- Tomorrow’s Dream
- Changes
- FX
- Supernaut
- Snowblind
- Cornucopia
- Laguna Sunrise
- St. Vitus’ Dance
- Under the Sun / Every Day Comes & Goes
Writing Credits
- All songs written and arranged by Iommi / Ward / Butler / Osbourne
Credits
- Ozzy Osbourne – Vocals
- Tony Iommi – Guitar, Keyboards
- Geezer Butler – Bass
- Bill Ward – Drums
- Produced by Patrick Meehan & Black Sabbath
- Engineered by Colin Caldwell & Vic Smith
- Recorded at Record Plant – Los Angeles, CA
- Original Cover Design by Bloombury Group
- 1996 Remaster by Ray Staff @ Whitfield St Studios
- 1996 Design, booklet notes, and sleeves by Hugh Gilmour
- 2009 Remaster by Andy Pearce & Matt Wortham @ Wired Mawsters
- 2009 Product Management: Jon Richards
- 2009 Project Consultants: Steve Hammonds & Hugh Gilmour
- 2009 Design: Hugh Gilmour
- 2009 Sleeve Notes: Malcolm Dome
- 2012 Digital Remaster by Andy Pearce & Matt Wortham
- 2012 Vinyl Mastering by Greg Moore @ Masterpiece
Catalogue Numbers
- LP Vertigo 6360-071 (UK/EUR 1972)
- LP Vertigo 20.007 (VEN 1972)
- LP Vertigo 6360-071-A (ITL 1972)
- CASS Warner Bros CWX-2602 (CAN 1972)
- CASS Warner Bros M5-2602 (US 1972)
- LP Warner Bros BS-2602 (US 1972)
- LP WWA WWA-009 (UK 1973)
- LP PGP RTB LP-55-5897 (TUG 1975)
- LP Nippon RJ-6025 (JPN 1975)
- LP NEMS NEL-6005 (UK 1976)
- LP Arabella 913196 (FRA 1976)
- LP 7 Records MLF-421 (AUS 1980)
- LP NEMS 16L0146 (SPN 1981)
- LP Ariston ARM-42014 (ITL 1981)
- LP Victoria VLP105/30.469 (SPN 1984)
- LP Castle CLALP199 (GER 1985)
- LP Castle CLACD199 (FRA 1986)
- CD Castle NELCD6005 (UK 1986)
- LP Vertigo 832-703-1 (NETH 1987)
- CD Warner Bros 2602-2 (US 1988)
- CD Vertigo 23PD-136 (JPN 1989)
- CD Vertigo 832703-2 (GER 1989)
- LP SNC C90-31091-007 (RUS 1990)
- CD Essential ESMCD304 (UK 1996)
- CD Teichiku TECW-20145 (JPN 1996)
- CD Castle CMTCD006 (UK 2000)
- LP Sanctuary CMHLP179 (UK 2001)
- LP Earmark 41011 (ITL 2003)
- LP Earmark 41011P (ITL 2003 – Picture Disc)
- CD Sanctuary SMRCD034 (UK 2004)
- CD Rhino R2-73923-D (US 2004 – Black Box)
- CD Strange Days POCE-1100 (JPN 2007)
- LP Sanctuary 2716858 (UK 2009)
- LP NEMS NEL-6005 (UK 2009)
- CD Universal 2716857 (UK 2009)
- LP Rhino R1-2602 (US 2011)
- CD Universal UICY-20107 (JPN 2011)
- LP Sanctuary 3715291 (UK 2012)
Notes
- The original name of this album was to be Snowblind. Warner Bros wouldn’t release the album with that name, so it was changed to the more pedestrian “Volume 4”.
- “The Straightener” on the first song refers to the instrumental part at the end. Most copies of the album/CD do not have that name on the album.
- The same thing goes for “Every Day Comes & Goes” on the final track.
- The song “Changes” was revived and played live in 1995 when Sabbath played Japan on the Forbidden tour when Tony Martin was the vocalist. You can hear that version here (Let me know if this link doesn’t work please).
- “Changes” was covered by Kelly Osbourne (with Ozzy) on her 2003 album “Changes” (formerly Shut Up)
- The duet version of Changes with Kelly Osbourne reached #1 on the British charts in December of 2003.
- Geezer Butler told me that he “whispered” the word “Cocaine!” in the background of the song Snowblind.
- The sessions for the album took place in May 1972 in Los Angeles, and were famously drug-fueled. “We were all absolutely out of our brains at the time,” Butler recalls of how one track was made. “I think Tony took all his clothes off at one point. He was pissing about in the studio when he was stoned. He had this cross [necklace] on and he kept hitting the strings on the guitar. We were all smashed out of our brains and he was like doing this stupid dance in the studio and his cross was banging on the strings. We put some reverb and an echo on it and that was it.” The group titled the track “FX.”
Links
Images
- The following are the back CD images for the 1996 & 2009 releases respectively.
- The following are images from the original cassette tape release of the album in the US from Warner Bros.
- Here’s an old image of an 8 Track of the Volume 4 album from Warner Bros in the 70’s.
Video
- The first video was when Black Sabbath played Changes live in 1995, which was the first time they’d played it in 23 years in concert.
Wheels of Confusion
Long ago I wandered through my mind
In the land of fairy tales and stories
Lost in happiness I knew no fears
Innocence and love was all I knew
It was an illusion
Soon the days went passing into years
Happiness just didn’t come so easy
Life was more than fairy tales and daydreams
Innocence was just another word
It was an illusion
Lost in the wheels of confusion
Running through valleys of tears
Eyes full of angry delusion
Hiding in everyday fears
So I found that life is just a game
But you know there’s never been a winner
Try your hardest, just to be a loser
The world will still be turning when you’re gone
Yeah, when you’re gone!
Tomorrow’s Dream
Well I’m leaving tomorrow at daybreak
Catch the fastest train that I find
Yes I’m leaving the sorrow and heartache
Before it takes me away from my mind
Send me love and I may let you see me
Send me hopes I can fit in my head
But if you really want me to answer
I can only let you know when I’m dead
When sadness fills my days
It’s time to turn away
And let tomorrow’s dreams
Become reality to me
So realize I’m much better without you
You’re not the one and only thing in my heart
I’ll just go back to pretending I’m living
So this time I’m gonna have the star part
Changes
I feel unhappy
I feel so sad
I lost the best friend
That I ever had
She was my woman
I loved her so
But it’s too late now
I’ve let her go
I’m going through changes
I’m going through changes
We shared the years
We shared each day
In love together
We found a way
But soon the world
Had its evil way
My heart was blinded
Love went astray
I’m going through changes
I’m going through changes
It took so long
To realize
That I can still hear
Her last goodbyes
Now all my days
Are filled with tears
Wish I could go back
And change these years
I’m going through changes
I’m going through changes
FX
Instrumental
Supernaut
I want to reach out and touch the sky
I want to touch the sun
But I don’t need to fly
I’m gonna climb up
Every mountain of the moon
And find the dish that ran
Away with the spoon
I’ve crossed the ocean, turned every bend
I found the plastic and the gold at rainbow’s end
I’ve seen through magic and through life’s reality
I’ve lived a thousand years and never found the key
Got no religion
Don’t need no friends
Got all I want
And I don’t need to pretend
Don’t try to reach me
‘Cause I’ll tear up your mind
I’ve seen the future
And I’ve left it behind
Snowblind
What you get and what you see
Things that don’t come easily
Feeling happy in my pain
Icicles within my brain (cocaine)
Something blowing in my head
Winds of ice that soon will spread
Down to freeze my very soul
Makes me happy, makes me cold
My eyes are blind, but I can see
The snowflakes glisten on the tree
The sun no longer sets me free
I feel the snowflakes freezing me
Let the winter sunshine on
Let me feel the frost of dawn
Fill my dreams with flakes of snow
Soon I’ll feel the chilling glow
Don’t you think I know what I’m doing
Don’t tell me that it’s doing me wrong
You’re the one that’s really a loser
This is where I feel I belong
Kiss the world with winter flowers
Turn my day to frozen hours
Lying snowblind in the sun
Will my ice age ever come?
Cornucopia
Too much near the truth they say
Keep it ’til another day
Let them have their little game
Delusion helps to keep them sane
Let them have their little toys
Matchbox cars and mortgaged joys
Exciting in their plastic ways
Frozen food in a concrete maze
You’re gonna go insane
I’m trying to save your brain
All right
I don’t know what’s happening
My head’s all torn inside
People say I’m heavy
They don’t know what I hide
Take a life, it’s going cheap
Kill someone, no one will weep
Freedom’s yours, just pay your dues
We just want your soul to use
You’re gonna go insane
I’m trying to save your brain
Laguna Sunrise
Instrumental
St. Vitus’ Dance
So you think you know
What’s going on inside her head
You think she wants your money
But it’s you she wants instead
When you think about the things
That she did love to go
It breaks your heart but deep down
Boy you don’t want her to go
You feel your love so shattering
You feel you want to die
Just because the one mistake
Of telling you a lie
If I were you I’d try again
And try to make amends
She only thinks of you, you know
I’m talking as a friend
Under the Sun
Well I don’t want no Jesus freak to tell me what it’s all about
No black magician telling me to cast my soul out
Don’t believe in violence, I don’t even believe in peace
I’ve opened the door now my mind has been released
Well I don’t want no preacher
telling me about the god in the sky
No I don’t want no one to tell me
Where I’m gonna go when I die
I wanna live my life, I don’t want people telling me what to do
I just believe in myself, ’cause no one else is true
Every day just comes and goes
Life is one long overdose
People try to rule the nation
I just see through their frustration
People riding their real face
Keep on running their rat race
Behind each flower grows a weed
In their world of make-believe
So believe what I tell you, it’s the only way you’ll find in the end
Just believe in yourself – you know you really shouldn’t have to pretend
Don’t let those empty people try to interfere with your mind
Just live your life and leave them all behind
I WAS 17 YEARS OLD WHEN I LISTEN BLACK SABBATH VOL 4 FOR THE FIRST TIME. IT WAS AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE. I WAS A BIG BLACK SABBATH FAN, SINCE THE HOMONIMOUS FIRST ALBUM, BUT THIS ALBUM WAS DIFFERENT FROM THE 3 PREVIOUS. THE SOUND WAS HEAVIEST AND THE BAND START EXPERIMENTING WITH MORE SOUNDS AND EFFECTS, (LIKE PIANO AND MELLOTRONS) THIS ALBUM WAS THE BLACK SABBATH’S EQUIVALENT TO THE SARGENT PEPPERS OF THE BEATLES. TO MY HUMBLE OPINION, IT IS THE FINEST WORK FROM SABBATH.
IN CERTAIN OCASSION ONE FRIEND OF MINE SAYS: “IF ALL THE HEAVY ROCK ALBUMS MADE IN PLANET EARTH DISSAPEAR, BUT WE KEEP ONLY THE BLACK SABBATH VOL 4, WE CAN RE-CREATE ALL THE HEAVY ROCK SOUND FROM THIS ALBUM”
GOOD FOR YOU, JAMES. I HAD 42 YEARS OLD AND I THINK THAT THE FIRSTS BLACK SABBATH ALBUMS ARE THE BEST OF ALL TIMES. SPECIALLY VOL. 4 !!!
fantastic album! i think this is sabbath at their best. love it!1!
St Vitus Dance, the closest Sabbath got to the early Beatles.
Vol. 4 is my favorite Black Sabbath Album………………..This week!
In the mid to late 1990s Vol.4 was packaged in my part of the US as “Children of The Grave” credited to NEMS/ Dorchester Holdings. The cover art was rather uninspired consisting of a photograph of a child’s doll lying on a tombstone. The other distinguishable feature was a live version of COTG tacked onto the end. It appeared to be of some legitimacy as it was carried in local chain record shops (remember those? )
I had a cassette copy myself and the audio was virtually the same, if a tad compressed
Anyhow, was a bit surprised to see no mention of it here. Otherwise I enjoy the site layout
Happy birthday, old friend.
“Under The Sun” is my favorite Sabbath-tune. In my opinion it is the best example for the doomy and cloomy side of the Sabbath-coin.
Ah yes, but the correct lyric is “People HIDING their real face”, not “riding”.
Not on par with master of Reality, but it’s still amazing. Snowblind, Cornucopia, Under the Sun, St. Vitus Dance, Changes, and any other track (except FX) are all amazing. This album is Tony Iommi at his best. Not much else to say, but go out and buy Vol. 4 if you haven’t already.
I just bought Volume 4 yesterday (warner,2602-2; paid like 6.7 USD). I must say I didn ‘t like it very much -all I had was the album on cheesy mp3s somebody passed me on- but now I’ve just listened to the real thing and oh man, I just love it-even ‘fx’- my favorite is under the sun.
I’ve Always cathegorize the Ozzy Era in 4 different “sub-eras” when it comes to the Music style and their progression.
Era 1 (68-70): The early demos.
Era 2: Black Sabbath. Paranoid & Master of reality
Era 3: Vol 4, SBS & Sabotage
Era 4: technical Exstacy & NSD
Vol 4 is, in my opinion the start of maby the Sabs most talanted Era. Their progression from the more “simple” three first albums to a more progressive sound. Ozzys voice are more “tuned up” and solid, to evolve even more on SBS. The use of more symphonies etc are more common here. It is a really interesting piece of work. It is probably my “most played” record, (though my favourite album is Master of reality). It’s hard to give negative credit to a holy album in my ears, but they took a step from the “dark and evil” into a more straight on Heavy rock sound. Some like it, and some disagree. In my opinion, I think it was the natural way to go for them musically at the time, and felt that they needed this change to their sound. It’s wonderful though that the last track of the album “Under the sun” takes you back to their brilliant original sound and heaviness. (Even cornucopia flirts with their original sound). “Under the sun” is undoubtely my favourite track of the album, next to Snowblind and Supernaut. It’s brilliant… really brilliant.
Spot on. Those 3 albums (Vol 4, SBS and Sabotage) are the high water mark of the Sabbath catalogue.
Black Sabbath didn’t really have a trademark sound until they brought Dio in as a vocalist, basically the albums from 1980 and beyond had a ‘typical’ Sabbath tone whereas every one of the first 4 albums sounded completely different from the other, this wasn’t by design but probably due to having better financial resources, different studios, different moods, input from others etc. On tbe first album they were in the midst of the typical poor bands tour where you’re scraping by from one dive club to another, ironically enough the end result of this simple two day effort ended up being their ‘cleanest’ recording ever…Osbournes vocals were by far the most unique they’d ever be in that they frequently dipped into baritone range, had a very obvious nasal edge ‘accent’ yet had a hiss like ‘rasp’ surrounding everything he said (reminds me of a teen who’s voice is changing or someone with a heavy English accent singing while having the flu)…Butlers tone had lots of sustain, was extremely thick yet had a very nasty edge to it -other well established bassists of that time had far weaker tones in comparison -seems that by Butler using a beat up, partially working 4×12 cab he ended up having tonal characteristics you’d never get from an expensive ‘brand new’ item, this tone combined with bass lines that jumped back and forth between ‘drum-like’ and ‘guitar-like’ made for an amazing foundation…Iommi’s tone on this first album was difficult to describe since it simply wasn’t heard before, of course by 69′ heavy guitar tones were somewhat common however not like his, blatantly superior to anything that came before it, even his use of the common ‘wah’ effect went far beyond that of others (if you doubt this listen to the song Black Sabbath, at around 5:13 turn off the speaker carrying the guitar solo so you can better hear this insane rhythm)…as far as Ward he not only had a very funky use of off beats but was blessed to have a super clean recording of his kit (the highs comming off the cymbals fried the high frequency drivers of our pa system too many times)…..Now to compare this to the next album I’d say the vocals were similar with regards to being like an additional instrument however didn’t have that high frequency rasp, the guitar had a more controlled tone (less lows) however still had a better tone then anyone else, same could be said for Butler’s tone however both the guitar and bass parts and song construction were some of their best, Wards playing on this album was really great however wouldn’t have been as admired if the studio engineers didn’t eq his kick drum to sound so freakin amazing, very few people understand that THIS was the first modern sounding bass drum tone ever, none of the established bands of the time had this modern sound which may explain a part of the reason why this album doesn’t sound dated (as much of the other music recorded in 70′ does)….M.O.R. seemed far less progressive then it’s predecessors and seemed to rely on over the top simple yet heavy guitar riffs, at times it seems as though this album was made on the spot in the studio however amongst the stoner rock crowd this album must be considered ‘a first’. Aside from this album having less of a orchestrated feel I’d say my biggest issue is the drastic change in Osbournes vocal tone, it went from an edgy 3rd instrument to a high, almost whiney afterthought…It kind of seemed the band was straying from the progressive direction they initially had and heading for ultra deep doom and gloom stuff however their next album “Vol. 4” must have caught everyone by surprise since it was so different sounding then anything the band did previous, basically Vol. 4 was a work of beauty meets heavy, the layered guitar parts jump between shimmering to heavy while the riffs themselves are easily some of Iommi’s best work, sadly the bass is too muddy to be clearly heard along with the missing punch of the kick drum while the vocals never went back to their earlier tone, still though this (to me) was Black Sabbath’s last great album -the original album artwork/photos were pretty freakin awesome as well
Vol4 was in my older brothers inherited vinyl collection,along with ac/dc and status quo records,i was around 12 yes old i think when i first listened to this album. That fuzz metal crunching intro to wheels of confusion scared me a lot! The groove,the rolling bass lines,the eerie high pitched nasal vocal lines,and of course the ultra heavy guitar riffing just pulled me in and i was addicted there and then. I needed more,the only other sabs material he had was a tape version of live evil – i didn’t understand the different vocalist situation but i was still blown away by the crushing guitar and bass tones on that tape,it was a different beast but i could spot that guitar anywhere. Anyway, 30 years later that album vol4 is still my top sabs disc and i still have that same vinyl lp. The songs are granite solid metal,the superb drumming,superlative solos,the rumbling bass lines – the blueprint for countless doom and stoner rock bands ever since. This lp has it all,and yes, under the sun is just the most beautifully ugly doom metal track EVER. Vol4 forever…
Did you notice the tracks were arrange differently on the 8 track than on the LP? The song Snowblind followed FX on it. That was totally amazing in that order. You would have the dead silence right after all the sound effects on FX and then suddenly…..Bam! Bam! Bam! Snowblind comes blasting in from the silence. The first time we heard it everyone in the car jumped when Snowblind started. Of course we were all blown away on some of the local Mexican dirt weed. We only listen to the 8 track version after that. The order of the songs seem to make more sense to us for some reason. I was 16 and just got my car when vol.4 came out. My first car and my first eight track.
also, would you happen to have the order of the tracks from the 8 track? I would like to arrange my vol.4 mp3’s in that order for old times sake.
I had my original 8 track stolen and 1975 along with 200 others when I got stuck in the mud in the country and had to walk for help. They stoled my 8 track player and my Stetson also-Bastards!-so if you have that track order I would really appreciate it if you would send it to me.
Thanks!
Sabbath Rules!
Was Vol 4 ever issued in a quadraphonic mix?