Meaning Of Metallica , livre ebook

Ecw Press - William Irwin

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89 pages

English

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The Meaning of Metallica provides a close reading of lyrics dense with details and rich with allusions. This indispensable guide will heighten the appreciation of long-time fans and new recruits. The first book to give Metallica's lyrics the care and contemplation they deserve More than 40 years since their formation, and 125 million albums later, Metallica is as relevant as ever. Much has been written about the band, but The Meaning of Metallica is the first book to focus exclusively on their lyrics. Their mighty guitar riffs and pounding drums are legendary, but Metallica's words match the intensity of their tunes. Lead singer James Hetfield writes rock poetry dealing with death, war, addiction, alienation, corruption, freedom, religion, and other weighty topics. Painting a rainbow of emotions with a deft palette, subtle but not obscure, Hetfield's lyrics deserve careful attention. A master of narrative, Metallica makes listeners care about a vast array of characters, from a vengefu

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Publié par	Ecw Press
Date de parution	19 mai 2022
Nombre de lectures	3
EAN13	9781773059198
Langue	English

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The Meaning of Metallica Ride the Lyrics
William Irwin

Contents Introduction: The Ecstasy of Gold Chapter 1: Religion Chapter 2: Addiction Chapter 3: Insanity and Confusion Chapter 4: Death Chapter 5: War Chapter 6: Justice Chapter 7: Freedom Chapter 8: Emotional Isolation Chapter 9: Control Chapter 10: Resilience Conclusion: “This Search Goes On” Acknowledgments About the Author Copyright

Introduction The Ecstasy of Gold
In 1984 my friend Joe taped his Ride the Lightning LP for me. In 1986 I saw Cliff Burton play live. In 1987 I paid $5.98 for The $5.98 E.P. In 1994 I reluctantly cut my Metalli-mullet. Those are my fan credentials. You may go back further with Metallica, or you may have found the band more recently. Metallica fans like to claim OG status, but it doesn’t really matter. What matters is what Metallica has meant to you. I wasn’t there from the beginning with Metallica, but they were there from the beginning for me—the beginning of my struggle within. I am now 52 years old, and Metallica has provided the soundtrack of my life since I was 14. But this book is not about me. It’s not even about what Metallica has meant to me.
This book is about the lyrics of James Hetfield. Some fans focus on the music and don’t pay much attention to the words. I’m not one of them. Fans like me believe Hetfield’s lyrics are worthy of the same attention that Bob Dylan’s receive. As a folk singer, Dylan was recognized as a serious writer from the beginning of his career. By contrast, as a metal musician, Hetfield has not yet received his due for the profundity of his lyrics. This book aims to remedy that situation. Metal fans know that our favorite music provides plenty of food for thought. Yes, the worst of the genre is mindless noise, made merely for commercial gain, but that is true of nearly any genre. More than 80 percent of popular recordings concern romance, and most are trite. Hetfield’s lyrics stand in stark contrast, dealing with death, war, addiction, alienation, corruption, freedom, religion, and other weighty topics. In the few songs that focus on love, Hetfield gives us much more than sweet “Cherry Pie.” Most popular music is just entertainment, something to dance to, something to party with. Metallica’s music is real art, something to experience, something to contemplate.
It’s bold to claim that this book is about the meaning of Metallica. For one thing, the book focuses on Hetfield’s lyrics. Meanwhile, the music may have its own meaning beyond, or in addition to, the words. For another thing, Metallica is a cultural phenomenon that transcends their music. It means something to be a Metallica fan, to be devoted to the band, to have an opinion on the controversies, to feel a sense of community with other fans. This book does not attempt to do justice to that kind of meaning. Perhaps most importantly, Hetfield’s lyrics mean different things to different people. For each of us who has listened closely and thought deeply, the lyrics have distinct personal significance. That kind of individual relevance is priceless, but it doesn’t always translate well when talking to other people. So this is not a book about what Hetfield’s lyrics mean “to me.” Occasionally, I include a personal reference, but only when it helps to paint the bigger picture of what a particular song is about. Likewise, occasionally I discuss how the music reinforces the lyrics.
In addition to the general significance of the songs, the meaning we’re after in this book is the meaning of the lyrics as Hetfield intended. I don’t claim to know that meaning with certainty, and I have not interviewed Hetfield to get him to tell me. It’s not clear that he would always have fully settled answers anyway. For songwriters, lyrics sometimes start without a plan. A phrase or a line comes to the songwriter with a melody, and more is built on that foundation. Hetfield seems to write the lyrics for most songs after the music, and his words display the kind of craftsmanship that shows they have been scrutinized and revised in the composition process. Even if the initial inspiration for a lyric comes without a plan, it is kept with a commitment that solidifies into an intention. It would be fascinating to know more about Hetfield’s composition process and the genesis of certain songs. Where possible, I have made use of interviews in which Hetfield has spoken about specific songs. But, like most songwriters, Hetfield is often cagey and plays things close to the vest. This makes sense because the songwriter’s personal inspiration and personal attachment to a song are not always pertinent to what he intends the song to mean and how he wants the audience to understand it.
Still, it is tempting for fans and critics to play detective and interpret songs in light of what we know about the songwriter. This is fair, but we must often stop short of attributing the views in a song to the songwriter. Hetfield writes and sings the lyrics for Metallica, but often he is giving voice to the point of view of a character. That character may be speaking in the first person as “I,” but that does not necessarily make him Hetfield. The speaker in the song is the narrator. Sometimes we may be on safe ground in saying that Hetfield himself is the narrator, but not always.
In dealing with narrators, we are treating Metallica songs like the poetry they are. This book will not get into rhyme schemes and poetic meter or any of the shit that might have turned you off from poetry in the past. Instead we’ll be looking at the play of words and ideas, the way Hetfield uses imagery and metaphor to excite our curiosity and tell his stories. Rock poetry works well only when you know the music. The lyrics are meant to be heard along with the instrumentation, not read on their own. So I hope that when I quote Hetfield you hear his voice in your head as it pierces through the music. This is a book aimed at fans, but non-fans should find it accessible (even if they can’t hear the music in their heads). The chapters are structured around themes, and the mashup subtitles of the chapters hint at some of the songs discussed. There is thematic overlap for some chapters—you can’t fully isolate the themes of war and death, for example. A natural progression leads from one theme to the next, but readers should feel free to skip around and read the chapters in whatever order they want.
I don’t claim or aim to have the final word on the meaning of Metallica. Far from it. Fans have been discussing the meaning of Metallica’s songs in basements, barrooms, and backyards since the 1980s. And starting in the 1990s the internet connected Metallica fans across the world, facilitating friendly, and sometimes not-so-friendly, discussion. I hope this book catalyzes further discussion and brings more serious attention to Metallica.
No doubt, you’ll find places where you disagree with my interpretation. Here’s my e-mail address: williamirwin@kings.edu. And here’s my Twitter handle: @williamirwin38. I’d love to hear from you. This book is just the beginning.
But now the lights have gone down, and “The Ecstasy of Gold” is playing in the background. So let’s get started.

Chapter 1 Religion
The Creeping Leper Messiah that Failed
By writing about religion James Hetfield exorcised personal demons from his childhood in Downey, California. Virgil and Cynthia Hetfield raised James in the Christian Science church, a denomination that prohibits modern medicine. Hetfield’s father taught Sunday school and was particularly zealous. Meanwhile James witnessed such sights as a young girl giving praise for how the Lord had healed her broken arm, even though anyone could see that it was now mangled.
Despite devotion to his faith, Virgil abandoned his family when James was 13. Three years later James’s mother, Cynthia, died from cancer after refusing conventional medical treatment. James had no choice but to move in with his older half-brother David in nearby Brea, California. No more church for James, at least not for many years. His anger at his parents and his knowledge of the Bible proved potent, though. Whereas other metal bands embraced faux-Satanism to shock and scorn, Metallica steered clear of such clichés. Thanks to Hetfield’s subtle descriptions and reflections on what he had seen and read, a series of songs starting with “Creeping Death” thoughtfully critiques religion.
“Creeping Death” was inspired by scenes from Cecil B. DeMille’s epic film The Ten Commandments (1956). The song tells the story of the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, largely from the perspective of an angry God, seeking vengeance against the pharaoh and the Egyptians for enslaving his people, the children of Israel. The opening verse sets the stage: “Slaves / Hebrews born to serve, to the pharaoh / Heed / To his every word, live in fear / Faith / Of the unknown one, the deliverer / Wait / Something must be done, four hundred years.” One-word lines punctuate this verse and others, allowing Hetfield to hit points of emphasis.
The first word of the song, “Slaves,” is startling. The tone with which Hetfield snarls the word could be mistaken for anger directed towards slaves. But the second line quickly clarifies that the song will be about slaves who themselves are angry and certainly have an angry God on their side. The second line also tells us right away who the slaves are, the Israelites. It goes without saying that the life of a slave was terrible; “fear” does not do it justice. Nonetheless, the Hebrew people have “faith”—another one-word line—in the God of their fathers, the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Why, though, does God wait 400 years to liberate them? The br