The album suffers from a poor production in my opinion, but it´s a fantastic album anyway. This particular song is what I consider to be the best performance ever layed to tape by Mr. Ian Gillan and considering his talents and all the albums in wich he was involved and all the songs he recorded, it´s saying a lot. Magnificent singing here.
I got to see BLACK SABBATH when Ian Gillian was sporting the Vocals at the Civic Center in Portland Maine, forgot the year, sorry, it was Soooo awesome seeing SABBATH doing "Smoke on the Water " great FREAKING concert, couldn't see Ian's face because his hair was down to his Heavy Metal Belt Buckle, "The Devil and the Priest Can't Exist If One Goes Away " Powerful Words, thank you a 1000 MUCHLY'S ✌️🤪🚀from SPACE RANGER JYM 9/26/24
holy shit....I was a teen when I first heard this song...couldn't wait for the album to be released. This song literally gave me nightmares. I LOVE this song. The arrangements, execution , production. amazing. still one of the creepiest songs ever made though.
Thank you for reply. In SCARABUS album, all guitar was played by Ray Fenwick, who becomes the central of FORCEFIELD with Cozy Powell later. Of course, in FORCEFIELD Ⅱ, Tony Martin sings so well. I like all contents, especially i love Heartache and Carrie.
Thank you for uploading. Indeed superb songs, but the vocal part of Disturbing The Priest is partially reuse of Scarabus, the title track of SCARABUS by IAN GILLAN BAND released in 1977. （Scarabus has been uploaded on RU-vid.） Let's try getting to the sky♪ Let's try Scarabus pie ♪
Members of Black Sabbath were (unknowingly) rehearsing next to the place where a group of church members were rehearsing church choirs. So the priest knocked on the door and asked if they can keep down a little bit. Hence the name of the song.
Thematically speaking I'd say that it's making the argument that priests are just as much a conduit for the devil as they are to God and that placing your faith in such a man to protect you from evil is foolish because they're just as corruptible as the rest of us and can arguably do worse because they're operating from a position of trust and authority. Narratively, the song reads as being from the perspective of a child looking for guidance from their priest and catching them in the middle of doing something unspeakable, with the rage in the priest's eyes being permanently embedded in their memory (and possibly some implication of the point of view character either being the victim of child abuse, or walking in on the priest abusing someone else, or possibly dissociating and hoping that an adult will come and stop it). It's all very dreamlike and indefinite, so it could be PTSD flashbacks at a much later point in time.
I took it to mean keep looking at the child's eyes when he cries because the eyes hold the truth. It might be a child like you see on the cover of this album, not innocent. This dovetails with the theme in the rest of the song of the prescence of opposites in a synergistic relationship. Crying innocent child hides evil, a priest needs the devil to exist so people need him. Nothing more than that. I dont see this "abused child" you saw.
