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Ozzy Osbourne – “Suicide Solution”
From the album Blizzard of Ozz.

Wine is fine but whiskey’s quicker

Suicide is slow with liquor

Take a bottle and drown your sorrows

Then it floods away tomorrows

As a 10-year-old, just getting acquainted with the madness of Ozzy Osbourne, all it took was one of Randy Rhoads incendiary riffs and Ozzy’s unique voice and I was completely enthralled. Ozzy manages to surround himself with incredible talent. Depending on which story you believe, Ozzy wrote this song about Bon Scott, or Bob Daisley wrote it about Ozzy. Either way, this is an absolute classic.

Alcoholism is ugly. It is easy for everyone involved to play the victim – none more obvious than the drinker himself. There does come a point though, where the harsh words, erratic behavior and every other ugly side effect an alcoholic will put you through will not hurt anymore. This comes after years of anger, resentment and frustration. Frustrations that you don’t mean more to someone than a six pack of beer or a bottle of booze. After time, when they have made it clear they want no help, and see nothing wrong, you wait around to watch him die. Your hands are tied. You had nothing to say that mattered in life, why should it matter in death?

Now you live inside a bottle
The reaper’s traveling at full throttle
It’s catching you but you don’t see
The reaper is you and the reaper is me

It’s strange to feel cheated. Cheated by the drunk who can escape all the problems with just a few drinks. That’s the point, right? Escape. Because you can’t deal with anything. Meanwhile everyone around you deals with everything.

I have addictive tendencies. The few times I drank – it felt incredible. I was funny, maybe even charming. The next morning I desperately wanted to feel that way again. I didn’t have to be me. After a turn at the hospital, morphine was even better. A ride on a completely different planet.

Without taking myself there, I have seen the other end. It can’t be fun. It is full of blackout nights, embarrassed mornings, broken hearts and burnt bridges – and that is just the minor problems. It’s not worth it. How can it be worth it?

Wine is fine but whiskey’s quicker
Suicide is slow with liquor
Take a bottle and drown your sorrows
Then it floods away tomorrows

As much as I love this song – it is incredibly difficult to listen to. The reaper is you and the reaper is me. We all get to live and die with that.