Metallica - Ride The Lightning | We Agree on the Worst Track for Once

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[Music] welcome to the worst of the best podcast
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you wanted the best well they didn't freaking make
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it so here's what you get from Canada Ryan and Jason
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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welcome to the worst of the best podcast I am your host and with me today returning host guest host whatever you
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want to call it but always my brother Jason welcome to the show thank you brother happy to be here yeah well let's
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get right into it we're doing another Metallica episode and this is something that's near and dear to both of our hearts as brothers and back in our youth
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this is a band that we kind of experienced together and shared many interest regarding this band together
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and experiences with this band together and I mentioned in my master puppets album that I did with Doug check that
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out if you haven't already if you're coming on to this episode because you saw we're doing Metallica and then you're like oh they did Master puppets
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as well it doesn't really matter which order you listen to it even though ride the Ling did come up before master
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puppets I think the discussions are irrelevant to the chronological order of the albums to a certain degree if you
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heard that one I'll try my best not to repeat myself too much I did mention in that episode Jason that you you were the
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brother or essentially the person that I'm pretty certain introduced me to Metallica or to the point where your
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love of them and your love of Mega Death got me on that heavy metal train that I wasn't on before you I think you were
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the Pioneer in our family of that music I think it might have been so was it Mega Death that you got into first or
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was it Metallica it might have been Mega Death it might have been Rust in Peace yeah that's what I think yeah I'm pretty
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sure now that it was rest in peace first yeah then mat later and not far later no
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yeah you know we started dipping our toes into the metal scene early '90s far as the history of Metallica Mega Death
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we were a little bit later on the scene because they were both established artists we were introduced to Mega Death
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with rust and peace and then Metallica with and justice for all so it's at that
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time era that we started to listen to them then and then as you would you
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start introducing yourself to the back catalog exactly these bands and then move
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forward with them if you haven't already those are listening to this episode check out Jason and I talking about Mega
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Death album we did an episode on rpes and Countdown to Extinction that was you right yeah okay so I saw you look at the
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cam like did I I'm actually wondering did we do three Mega Death no just the two just just those two okay do you
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remember that it was you that introduced me to specifically to the album master of puppet so we already had justice for
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all we were both listening to it ad naum I was listening to it daily on my paper roote it was his on Non-Stop repeat
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Justice Just I mean that album was it was just like it was nonstop never
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skipped a song it was just incredible and then like you're saying we went to the back catalog and keep in mind
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listeners Jason and I were born in 75 and 77 respectively NO3 oh sorry I was
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thinking of Ruben's age my bad yes so you were 73 I was 75 there was no internet at the time of course where
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this came out so it was kind of like Word of Mouth we got metal azines and so we kind of had to do your own little
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kind of research and sometimes bands would say on their albums check out our other albums from the and they show the
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titles or we go to the record store and just look at the back early releases so these songs were not on the radio these
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albums were not on the radio they're not radio friendly songs as far as the
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genres that you would hear the lengths of these many of these songs yeah they're too long for radio
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play yeah Metallica was Word of Mouth and that was quote unquote the underground because it was just people
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saying hey check it out hey I'll lend you a tape I'll make you a tape here check them out check them out they toured and toured and toured and they
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had no videos until one right specifically with the back catalog was
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always interesting when when we were teenagers discovering a band like Metallica and kind of being like treated
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like oh you know we're big Justice for All fans of course like oh they have three other albums Studio albums before
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this one that's weird and we go back and it's kind of weird to listen to these quote unquote older elas which at the
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time was only like three or four years previous when you're 14 or 15 years old thinking back to when you're 11 or 12 it
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seems like a eons ago but now it's like it's just weird to think that they pumped out so much in so little time
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Jason they were so young when they made this album James Lars and Kirk were 21
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Cliff Burton was 22 that's unbelievable yeah I'm looking here like the album coming out in 84
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84 yeah I know it's weird I was like 11 so you're 11 when it came out and I was
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nine yeah yeah at least my 11th year yeah you know when you're 15 13 years old whatever it is you look back at be 9
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or 11 you think that's eons ago I remember even thinking then oh man we're listening to an album from the early 80s
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' 8s medal or whatever it was kind of weird but now it's it just blows my mind how I guess how old this album is quick
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math year it's 37 years old boy in many ways it could have been done today oh
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yeah I mean they're 21 and here we are 37 years later and it literally sounds
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like they could have made this yesterday that's why this album and master and many ways kill them all kill all was of
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course their debut album and it's I know this is blasphemy because there's a lot of people who just there's people the
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funny thing about Metallica is with every album they've ever released they have haters even from
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day one they have had such divisive angry fans and so maybe because of you and I coming in I guess midcareer in a
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way or early to midcareer you know we were introduced to Justice we went back listened to the back catalog and then we
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were still fans I I know you have been and I've been fans of their load reload it doesn't bother us like I don't get
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weirded out about the haircuts or the change to some hard rock sounds versus because as they've aged we've aged right
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and their interests have changed their what they want to do has changed back in the day Jason when they released Ry the
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lightning there were fans of Kill Them All who thought they went a little bit soft you know with the Fade to Black but
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when they did the Fade to Black song there were people who were upset that they were doing a power ballad they were criticized for it even back then well as
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I was Rel listening to this album this week and kind of refreshing my mind as to what I will pick um as the song What
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struck me was the maturity between kill them all and Ride the Lightning there is
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a leap in their sound and in their cohesive sound for an album and if you
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think about the sound that they have for Ride the Lightning and then there's a cohesive sound for master puppets and
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there's a cohesive sound for and justice for all kill them all it's a little bit bouncing around a bit yeah it's not as
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cohesive this is a very very cohesive sound the lyrically is light years ahead
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R the lightning light years ahead from Kill Them All it's not just a refresh it's a pretty big evolutionary jump in
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their sound and their approach through music well it's interesting that the jump from Kill Them All to ride I think
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it's the same jump we experience from Ry to master yes yeah I've been thinking
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the same thing yeah exactly there's still a lot of thrash in this album the first track Fight Fire with Fire
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introduces that right away but again for our Metallica listeners people who are huge fans Jason and I we've been
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listening to these guys for three plus decades as we've just said but even because of that I don't know everything
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and I'm not one of those guys that knows everything you know what did James hfield eat for a sandwich when he was recording R the lightning there's people
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who know that kind of stuff yes yeah so if you're coming to this I'm glad you brought that up because I'm not going to
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pretend I'm a historian I approach these as a fan an observer of their music
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we've been to many of their concerts I can't right now I couldn't even tell you times I've seen them six seven times
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maybe even more nine probably yeah you well you've done security at their shows too yeah yeah we are fans who for the
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most part grew up with them but we're not historians so let's not get hung up on yeah those little nitty-gritty Petty
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absolutely we're this is an episode that we'll be talking about the music and kind of what it means to us just how we
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how the song makes us react because how this works if you're a first time listener to our show we take the best of
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something Metallica I would almost say every one of their albums is to me it's it's a highlight for different reasons
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so but a lot of Metallica historians and fans would argue that even their first three albums specifically master puppets
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and Ride the Lightning or their top albums it's a argument for another day but this is a top tier thrash metal
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Pioneer album no matter what side the fence you are on regarding Metallica today or yester Year's this album has
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been cataloged as a album that has stood the test of time quite frankly but just
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because something is the best of or something that is the of the highest quality not everything is created equal
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so this album has eight tracks not every track is a 10 out of 10 or even if every
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track was a 10 of 10 there's still going to be something subjectively that one person might enjoy more than another so
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that's all we're doing today ladies and gentlemen is Jason and I independent of each other I don't know his pick he does not know mine but there's probably a
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song I would assume well there has to be because that's the name of the show that is the worst of the best regarding this
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album there is a song that has been that way for me for three and a half decades we'll get to it we'll get to it during
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our discussion we're going to play little bits of each song the kind of we just do the beginning just so if you're
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not familiar with the album it gives you a bit of taste of what the album sounded like what music sounded like what the
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energy was like and of course we encourage everyone to listen to the whole album or to any songs that they want to hear the whole song of but this
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is not a album listen episode this is not a whole song listen this is just us saying hey this is this part this is
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that part of each song what we think of it we'll give a little anecdotes throughout the way so here we go without
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further Ado the first track is Fight Fire with Fire this is right out of the
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gate the most thrash song I think this is are segue and they did this for
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battery we talked about this for master puppet I think they opened this with a little bit of don't worry thrash fans we
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know we're going to sound a little bit different on this album we know we got a little bit of a different sound a little bit more polished sound it's not as
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thrashy as our Kil all we're trying to you know expand ourselves as musicians but they gave us a thrash metal song
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right off the bat but before it goes into the thrash metal it starts with an acoustic little diddy let's check it out
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[Music]
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now before it kicks in I shared this story on the Master of Puppets episode where I was at the concert I think this
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was my third time seeing them live this would have been I think it was
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1990 no would have been 200000 because my wife at the time was pregnant with Logan and she wasn't a big Metallica
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fanatic but she of course knew you know some of their slower stuff more recent stuff you know Black Album stuff so she
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just came to the concert with me but she's pregnant with Logan who's now 21 and she heard the beginning part of the
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song and she turned to me and said oh this is a nice song I just said I just I just turned said well just wait 10
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seconds and this is what she heard when that 10 seconds was over
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[Music]
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[Music]
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to to [Music] you world coming
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to love it I love that I remember listening to
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this That acoustic kind of LED zeppin beginning and then it just goes into
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that thrash there was a power to that transition yeah absolutely and we should
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know that old lyrics were written by James heeld like Master puppet both Lars
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and James they're the composition dudes they go through all their boxes of tapes
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at the time wrists that they had piecing together hey let's build songs off this build songs off that they're
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the bosses and I know a lot of people criticize Lars for his maybe his rhythm Theory not being as good as Neil perz
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from Rush like to me I've always loved Lars I love all the band members and I think Lars is eccentric I think he's
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equally as eccentric as he is talented as he is weird and that's what I love about him he's fidgety bounces off the
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chairs when he does interviews but the guy's passionate about this band and I without his passion where this band
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where he feels the band could have gone we wouldn't have them to he was a promoter of the band James was very quiet very shy he didn't want to do
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interviews he Lars was the frontman truly of getting this band out there promoting them getting them on tours and
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circuits and what have you I know people sometimes criticize his drum technicality I'm like I know I I've
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heard oh he's a horrible drummer he might screw up live like anybody would live from time to time I mean even the
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greatest athletes screw up from time to time of course under pressure or just
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fatigue yeah he sounds fine to me yeah I
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couldn't do what he's doing I enjoy the experience of their music specifically live I enjoy the experience too much to
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try and find fault in what I'm enjoying doesn't seem to serve a purpose to me but it does yeah we've always known
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Metallica being like you and I when we got into them they've always been I guess successful in the sense of like oh
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they've always just been Metallica they've just now you know they're mega mega millionaires today and right ly so they've been doing this for four decades
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the Tour of the World they've multi-million dollars or multi-million sales they've done it all as big as you
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can get yeah but back when they wrote This Album it's hard to you know yes they were young but not only were they
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young they were poor the record companies report that they were working with here Mega Force records was the
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record that they recorded this album with they didn't have the funds for this they were sleeping in the studio they didn't have money for a hotel it's just
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weird to think they were were a Garage Band still when they wrote this album yeah it's fascinating and I love these
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stories of the Bands back in the 80s 70s 80s 90s where they really did have to
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fight their way to the top like ACDC says was a Long Way to the Top If you want to rock and roll many of these
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bands did not have the first your YouTube star and you know what I mean like yeah they were completely unknowns
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to the world and they had to claw their way to the top to become known that kind
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of well Rocky storyline of these bands that we've enjoyed is part of the lore and what
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makes even the stuff even more rewarding to listen to well said during the recording of This Album to they were
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they opened for a band called raven like it's just funny they were
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they were opening for the them and Anthrax were both opening for this band who are still together today but they
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were like a metal band from England called raven I kind of feel bad for those bands cuz you know like there was a time that Metallica open up for them
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but now it's like probably watch them open up and go we're going to be completely eclipsed by there has to be
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that there has to be a bit of them say o they're bringing a hole you'd have to be blind because they're playing this music
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at those opening shows yeah what I also like about Metallica their lyrics aren't about gratuitous sex and stuff like that
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even though their music might be to some listeners ears like harsh or whatever but this is talking about nuclear warfare talking about Humanity being
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destructive with their behavior blow the universe into nothingness nuclear warfare shall lay us to rest of course
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this was a lot of the fears of the 80s just talking about how their people don't settle down we're going to we're
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going to have our lungs filled with gas and hot Winds of death yeah and the other thing they're not talking about
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his Wizards and sling dragons hey come on Ronnie James Deal come on I was
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thinking the that's exactly what I was thinking I mean even a lot of those early metal stuff they're like it's
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fantasy novel LS which they obviously had their place because there's very successful album artists who to
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participated in that but they stayed very clear from those things kind of political emotional turmoil political
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turmoil Global turmoil even family turmoil so yeah it's a very different
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approach to their lyrics which again I think helps them stand the test of time
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he doesn't age the way that some of those other types of lyrics might age good I like it the next song is the
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title track Ride the Lightning [Music]
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right someone else controlling me in the air in the electric chair got
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be happening to me you got to say I'll take up from
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you last before my eyes now it's time to
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Die James you know singing a 21-year-old years singing and it should be noted that after kill all well he didn't want
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to sing during kill all for that album but he did and during the recording of
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Ride the Lightning it was not his intention or his desire to be the singer for the band he was really uncomfortable
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at the time being both the Rhythm and some sometimes Le guitarist but basically the Rhythm guitarist lyric writer he didn't want to sing he didn't
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feel comfortable with his vocals and singing in general so you know who they asked to sing for the band at the time I'm sure if you tell me yeah I don't
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mean to put you on the spot this is also a question for The Listener too John Bush of Anthrax and armored Saint Fame
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oh John Bush was specifically asked to sing for Metallica and he turned it down at the time because armored Saint at
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that time was were doing pretty well I mean they're still currently a band he and he still performs with them the John
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bush then did four albums with Anthrax speaking of Anthrax but at the time you know you have to keep in mind these guys
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are living in the studio right and armor Saint was already not living in the studio I can see John just saying I
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gotta okay get going here you know I'm not going to leave my band or and to sing for you guys but what an interesting Journey that would have been
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and people if you want I would recommend that when Metallica did the 30th Anniversary performance in front of some
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fans John Bush came and Sayang The Four Horsemen with Metallica it was really
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cool to see what could have been type performance it was really fun and they mentioned the story on stage so it's all
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good they're all of course friends and get along well it's just at the time he's turned it down but John bush is singing there yeah I know I'm sure he's
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thinking oh what could have been I could have about three more zeros at the end of my bank statements oh he I'm sure he
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has I'm I'm sure he's thought Ian you well you'd be an idiot not to think had I stuck around but you never know maybe it was the James singing you know what I
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mean you never know what connects with fans maybe it was the James singing that okay well number one he's the main
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Lyricist yeah I always find The Lyricist will sing their own song probably better
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than anybody else will sing it it's like when I'm not sure if you listen to audio you listen to audio books I listen to
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audio books typically I prefer the author not always but often I'll prefer
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the author to read their own book because they will know in their own
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minds where they wanted things to be emphasized or how was to be raised the
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pacing of the book or the story right and the information that they're sharing so I think at the end of the day if
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James is writing these lyrics he's connecting right he's connecting with the Z it's always better when the
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subject of the biography if of course if they're live and well do the reading of the biography like Seinfeld Jerry
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Seinfeld's done a couple books it wouldn't be anywhere funny if somebody else was reading Jerry's voice like
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right ex it has to be his voice the song Ride the Lightning is about a convicted murderer who's been sent to the chair
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even though he didn't commit the crime so the lyrics that we're hearing in the song is what's going through the person's mind the name of the song came
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before anything else that was given by Kirk Hammet he was reading the book Stephen King's The Stand which I've read
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it's a great book this is what Kirk Hammet had to say to Rolling Stono he said there was this one passage where
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this guy was on death row and he was waiting to quote Ride the Lightning I remember thinking wow what a great song
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title I told James and ended up being the song and the album title so so
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that's that's Kirk's contribution that's actually very cool story yeah Amazon
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Prime just came out with a short series The Stand yeah great book The TV's show
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had of course had mixed reviews as every Stephen King does because he's such a prolific writer it's always better if
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you don't know the book it's probably you probably enjoyed the show more than those who read the books there's a transition here in the song that I
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really really like it slows down a little bit you get some Kirk's amazing guitar solo work and then it kicks into
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like a thrash guitar solo was just insane to [Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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speed this part here a
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[Music]
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it's always hard to stop when it starts that I love that Sol think has a pretty
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good speed Sol going on here and then it slows down just and then it just ramps up like the energy the lightning the
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he's really riding that charge yeah yeah Kirk Hammet is a phenomenal guitarist he
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not come straight to mind for many people and he gets lost in the mix of the size and power of Metallica As a
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band but boy is he good unbelievably good there is not a bigger Bal ban in
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the world who's bigger no Kirk for some reason it's odd I think it's he's so quiet and so I would say humble but he
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is humble but he's so unassuming in some ways he just yeah he's pretty soft soft
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that's yeah he soft spoken he is very very childlike when he speaks very soft spoken very whispery boy fingers can
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just he has a lot of soul and his role in the in the band is the leag guitars and soul writer it's James Lars with a
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riffs the composition James with the lyrics and singing they do go to Kirk hey dude you're the solo guy and it's
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all Kirk he comes up with these amazing Souls yeah especially when you watch them live and then all of a sudden
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you're like wow look at him go yeah you're right he's not talked about enough even though he is no listen to
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that song 2021 yeah I know I don't I don't get it I I look back in the one
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it's just like wow yeah and it's original material people often say oh
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he's not the best guitarist because you know the technical this or that it's one thing for to watch a 14-year-old on
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YouTube play eruption or to play Ry the lightning or whatever and you think oh
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well maybe it's not that hard it's not about the difficulty of the composition it's the fact it's in a composition they
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wrote it I don't care that people can it it doesn't mean it's difficult or not difficult the idea is what you just
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heard and what we're about to hear in other past episodes or whatever your artist that's great that people cover songs and enjoy the music that's
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wonderful but I hate when people say because a 14-year-old can play and maybe it's not that difficult that doesn't
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mean anything they didn't write it that 14y old didn't write this album yes it's the fact that they've
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come up with these things yes the imagination and the talent to put them
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together and put in a studio out an album yes connected it's always yeah
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there's a reason why we're talking about this 37 years later and the reason why it's rated so high as it is is because
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yeah they wrote this this is their composition there's no cover songs on this album lately I've been making that
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point when people talk about oh van Hillen or Eddie wasn't the best guitarist he wasn't the first one to tap
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and I'm like yeah but he the songs that they wrote he wrote and it connected to
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a lot of people so that's the point the point is he put together the songs that connected not about being the first or
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the fastest you the next song J this is not my worst pick and I want I say this because I have something to say about
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the song For Whom the Bell TOS in all of Metallica's catalog this is a hot take maybe or maybe not maybe people agree
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with me for whom the bell TOS it has one of the best intros and buildups of All Metallica
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songs but has the most nating boring outro it's insane that
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they can have a song that is builds and builds and builds goes into the chorus no funny enough there's no guitar soul
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in the song it has an outro that is long and boring and I skip it every time interesting and I wonder if there's
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another Metallica this is my channel to anyone that actually goes on the social medias let us know in the comments either on Twitter or on our Facebook
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page or wherever is there another Metallica song that has such an amazing intro with a 180
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outro to me it's a bit of a hot take I hear what you're saying I have felt similar I just haven't put it into we
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contr about it but yeah okay so here's the intro
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[Music]
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a great grooving based by Cliff eh exactly yeah
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[Music]
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I absolutely love that it just the grind the marching yeah this you can picture
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the the soldiers marching off to war for who yeah over the hills and stuff and
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like you say Cliff Burton's Bas in there just just a crazy grw Bas and it was
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actually Cliff Burton it was his push to change the sound from kilol he felt that
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hey guys we can do more than just the thrash it makes sense with songs like this with you hear that it's almost like
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a groovy if anything kill them all it's a little bit anemic they thickened up the
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sound it's much thicker yeah they filled it out it's heavier less thrash more
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heavy yeah right now it amps up just a little bit more coming up big huge intro before the lyrics kicking
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[Music]
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[Music]
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make fight on the hill in the early [Music]
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days it pretty much just repeats now that chorus and Mar is on incredible A+
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intro I mean basically two minutes of buildup James comes in then there's no
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guitar solo and then I'm just going to sample just a little bit of this kind of painstaking outro it's just it's just
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repetitive and nothing happens [Music]
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and that was only 15 seconds they do for about a minute and a half minute at the show when they do it live I know Lars
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likes it because he gets to stand up he does little he does his stand up and bashes the drums and he like Lars loves
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to stand up what he can and yes this is actually quite a crowd favorite It is
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Well rightfully so but I find yes especially the beginning and then I love um the lyrics on this song are pretty
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strong like they're pretty powerful lyrics take a look to the sky just before you die it's a last time you will
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yeah and it echoes out he does it Echo out yeah last time you will I I love the
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song but you're right that outro uh is a little bit weak for sure so according to
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Kirk Hammet Burton regularly played the intro base riff when the pair of them were hanging out in their hotel room
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Cliff used to carry around an acoustic classical guitar that he detuned so that he could bend the
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strings anyway when he would play that riff I would think that's such a weird a tonal Rift that isn't really heavy at
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all Kirk goes on to say I remember him playing it for James and James adding that accent to it all of a sudden it
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changed hear James singing he kind of sings like it's almost like he has this weird Cockney accent when he's singing
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it sure yeah such a crazy Riff to this day I think says Kirk how did he write
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that whenever I hear nowadays it's like okay Cliff's in the house so there you go MH yeah so obviously it's a fan
32:49
favorite so we actually owe Cliff the Riff part of that that's a cliff riff that's a cliff riff buildup to this day
32:56
the boys bless their hearts they just miss clip so much eh I suspect yes I
33:01
mean like any major loss in our lives they're Miss and you know there's going to be that hole that will never be
33:08
properly filled and maybe it just has a lot to do with what if Cliff was still around what what could have been yeah or
33:16
what should have been actually of course the song title was based from Ernest hem wi's novel of the same name but the
33:23
first time this was ever in print that we can find was from
33:28
a poem in 1623 by John Dawn who wrote send not to know For Whom the Bell Tolls
33:36
it tolls for thee and then hway took that and named his book about the Spanish Civil War the precursor to World
33:43
War I yeah cool stuff so Cliff thank you brother we loved it there's been an
33:49
age-old argument discussion alternate universe discussion is what would Metallica sound like today had Cliff
33:54
never died I suspect there's a few albums that would sound different I would yeah I think there would be all
34:00
right the next song is the one that divided fans right away from their kill them all we talked about before Fade to
34:05
Black it's their first Power ballad as you could say it's not a love song but it's a ballad in the sense it's slower
34:11
Tempo but it's that great buildup song it has a slow beginning I don't know why
34:17
fans would cry foul here but some of them did because the outro to this song Here's completely different than For
34:22
Whom the belto the outro is A+ again though the maturity of the lyrics and
34:27
the depth of what they're investigating philosophically or about life and how life is finite I mean
34:34
speaking of Cliff Burton yeah um life is finite yeah at some point along the way
34:41
we all do Fade to Black yeah
34:47
[Music]
34:53
[Music]
35:22
[Applause] [Music]
35:31
life and SS will fade away drifting father every
35:38
day getting lost Within Myself nothing matters no one
35:47
else I have lost the will to
35:55
live I have lost the to live nothing more to give now before people start
36:01
saying oh boy James you know he's 21 years old what's he upset about what's he worried about well this song was uh
36:08
written shortly after their equipment was stolen in 1984 and James hfield wrote the lyrics
36:14
in response to one of his amps being stolen Not only was it this amp his favorite but it was the first amp he
36:20
ever owned so it had a lot of sentimental value to him so the song is about losing everything and wondering if
36:25
it's worth going on speaking of him singing and him being self-conscious about his singing uh
36:32
abilities he's singing here yeah and you can tell he's lowering his voice he has
36:37
a high octave in his younger years but you can tell he specifically he's he's trying not trying hard but
36:44
he's making an considered effort that he's lowering the tone and for the song yeah the words are drawn out y this
36:51
beautiful actually well and you can see why it might have jaded fans just what what what this and maybe for us coming
36:58
in later and listening to a back catalog we had so many songs to catch up with
37:04
this would have been one song out of 30 rather than one song out of eight yeah
37:10
we were used to that as well with the song one we already were used to the slow beginning buildup yeah to hear one
37:16
or two slower songs along the way in a mix of 30 others would not have shocked
37:22
us or made I would not have thought anything of it I'm really enjoying his singing here Jason newad who replaced
37:28
Cliff Burton noted that this was his favorite Metallica song and that it had a lot of sentiment of valy to him and at
37:34
the end of Jason new's final performance while playing the song he was in tears
37:39
sure yeah it's that powerful lyrically it's it's deep I mean obviously him losing his amp I mean inspired him but
37:48
this definitely isn't about the no no it's not it's the idea about loss loss yeah
37:54
inspired him to go a little bit deeper yeah it's uh strong it's a strong song
38:00
in the last two verses the person the narrator in the in the song realizes life is too good to let go but by that
38:07
time it's too late no one but me can save myself but it's too
38:20
late no one to
38:27
[Music]
38:47
I and then the next lyric that comes right after what we just heard or what I
38:52
just read yesterday seems as though it never existed death greets me me warm
38:58
now I'll just say goodbye goodbye and then it kicks into that incredible solo
39:04
outro and when we hear a little bit of Kirk solo work he improvised in the studio the solo and as it went on what
39:11
we hearing is bit of improvisation from Kirk he was just just thought incredibly
39:17
depressing thoughts during the solo to get the sound that he got from
39:22
it seem never
39:29
yeah be War now I will just say goodbye
39:37
[Music]
40:04
[Music]
40:23
[Music] oh [Applause]
40:39
this is the power ballad for Ry lenning and Welcome Home Sanitarium is the kind of the power Bell for that album and
40:45
just like a welcome home fate of black has the danger of getting boring it runs into the danger of maybe being
40:52
overplayed at concerts and be boring but for whatever reason well the reason is this amazing song it doesn't ever get
40:59
boring it's the depth of the lyrics yeah it's a story as old as man kind it's
41:06
something that we all might struggle with from time to time I wonder if you've truly lived life if you have
41:12
wondered if it's worth the carry on if that makes sense yeah right so we all have those moments right at some point
41:17
we grapple with this idea what was it all for what is it that I'm supposed to
41:23
be striving for it's the story as old as time that's why it will not go old he
41:29
sings it very nicely and that transition to the end the way that that last verse
41:34
is sung kind of that feeling of Anguish all right next song sa two flip over
41:40
your LP we've got the song Trapped Under Ice I do own the lp oh nice there you go
41:46
good stuff yeah vinyl nice I enjoy vinyl say Jason you ready to flip it over yep
42:08
[Music]
42:18
I don't know I let as hell w it up the lock in the air ring St ring down to the
42:26
car bre the I can't take
42:33
anymore and [Music]
42:45
my the solo work in by Kirk I love it 30 seconds in we're hearing a solo right
42:51
off the bat that there's probably guitar bling yeah a blistering solo there's probably players that wish they could
42:57
done that solo once in their career you know what I mean like just oh hey let's just throw this in before James starts singing and it's just like oh and then
43:03
he goes with another guitar Soul it's a really fun little song and there's nothing really overly thought out
43:10
regarding the meaning of the song it's literally about somebody trapped on layer of ice desperately trying to live
43:15
but nobody can hear his screams because he's Trapped Under Ice it's also a metaphor for the pain suffering that
43:21
people can feel possibly a result of profound loneliness or alienation but I'm thinking depression yeah yeah sure
43:27
you're trapped under a feeling of emotion I've always listened to the song literally it's just a
43:34
scary yes that's the way I've listened to it too I just got caught up in a uh
43:40
an avalanche and I'm truly stuck in ice and I'm kind of
43:46
suffocating or slowly fading out and I have no way to reach out for assistance
43:51
nobody knows I'm in this position I'm dying alone it's always been a kind of a
43:57
scary thought the way it's played and the way James sings it it it does have that Panic yeah it's a very panicked
44:04
feeling wasn't my favorite song when I was growing up the idea when this was made back when LPS were being made
44:11
regularly for bands this was definitely a good way to begin the side tube because you're like it's another like f
44:17
fire with fire energy type song a bit of thrash again it's like okay guys you know we just gave you fate to Black now
44:23
we're going to give you kind of a you know headbanger so to speak I would like to know when was written I don't know if
44:28
you have any info on that I'm curious to know if it is kind of a carryover from
44:33
kill them all because it has that more thinner kind of sound thinner guitar solo sound that's a good call I don't
44:40
know I don't have any information on that I've taught my head so next song well speaking of being trapped
44:46
ironically the next song is called Escape I never connected the two one's
44:52
being trapped and then your Escape yeah the Escape yeah then the one after that is creeping dead so maybe they didn't
44:57
make it after all even though that has nothing to do that has nothing to do with it but it is kind of an interesting trapped down ice and then the Escape
45:06
[Music]
45:21
yeah feel the pain my life bab I know I'm my
45:27
[Applause] [Music] no dance but I'm so much stronger I'm to
45:33
do it to escape from the true B World down
45:39
a [Music]
45:45
destiny bring [Music] up my how to be
45:55
fre what with my mind they just
46:02
see no need [Applause] [Music]
46:11
[Music] to it's interesting with this song I
46:16
always found with the chorus it it's a very different sounding chorus than all the other songs it almost has like a
46:23
melody type chorus or uh even James singing you could almost if you changed
46:30
the guitar work or something almost like a pop song type sound to it very R Radio friendly type core sound if you take
46:36
away the guitar sound sure I'm kind of reading the lyrics here as we were going
46:41
along and he's 21 here right y so he's talking about growing up leaving the the
46:47
home maybe referencing some rough spots in his of his youth getting away from
46:52
the uh the pressures of expectations from his parents I'm just guessing right
46:59
but it seems obvious to me that that's I know better and I'll be better off without my parents influence the the
47:06
natural transition from being a teenager to adulthood makes me wonder if Trapped Under Ice previous song is him feeling
47:15
trapped in a home environment that he wasn't I think he might have had a good relationship with his mom I think or no
47:21
he didn't the song um the The God That Failed was about the fact that God didn't save his mom from cancer or
47:27
something like that oh he might love his mom but it doesn't mean that the family or home Dynamics were all that positive
47:34
any I I don't want to project that his home life was horrible but if it wasn't him I'm sure somebody in the band or
47:40
somebody people he knew it was you know and there were like you said they were young they started playing when they
47:46
were teenagers they were already playing the band idea these young teenagers already pretty they were very heavy
47:51
alcohol at the time so they left the home drinking and playing the bands who knows just teenagers in general I mean most of us we want want to break free
47:57
from our home environment we want to break out onto our own be our own people he's obviously referencing you know
48:03
don't tell me what to do I don't care now because I'm on my side you know I see through you feed my brain with your
48:09
so-called standards I mean it sounds like a little bit of a push back again you know a little bit of rebellion
48:15
there's a moment that they thought they were done with the album so they came to L said look we need one more song you
48:21
guys need to record one more song the album isn't finished so this is where the studio comes in says you guys don't have enough here seven songs you need an
48:27
eighth song James is like what so they wrote this last minute this was one of those songs that was written in the
48:33
studio just like okay here you go here's your eighth song interesting Kirk also said the
48:39
reason why they don't play this live it's in the key of A they just find that the key OFA doesn't work really well for
48:45
the band for one reason or another interesting so for those who are musically minded might know what talking
48:51
about I have heard that James typically sings in E typic
48:57
again I'm not a musician I don't know what that really means and I could be wrong but I
49:03
remember much of their music is in around e because that's James vocal
49:10
ability and Kirk said that playing the song is more of a novelty than anything else interesting I wonder how many times
49:15
they have played it live there's probably somewhere where we could Google that you know I've never seen it live no
49:22
all right the next song is speaking of live this creeping death from this album
49:27
ride the lioning played quite a bit fight five the fire sometimes I mean I saw it played live but not as much anymore the concert Staples are
49:34
definitely For Whom the batt TOS fade the black and creeping death but I swear Jay when we saw them live we also saw them play called culu the last song I
49:41
think we saw that too when we were live I think they played older instrumentals when we saw them in 1990 for the first time because they played a three-hour
49:46
show go back and look at the set list for that and find out the next track is creeping death fan favorite everyone
49:53
knows it it's probably close to one of my most favorite songs that they've ever done I absolutely love this song and
50:01
what I love about too it's biblically accurate is the song is about the
50:06
children of Egypt when uh the Pharaoh had the children of Egypt and would have let him go for Moses peoples the plagues
50:12
were come and there finally the last plague was uh the angel of death going door to door and killing firstborn son a
50:19
little bit of nostalgia here Jason newstead really pushed this song to new
50:25
level live if you ever watch it live and he was able to become more active on stage his little contributions to this
50:32
song Live every time I listen to the song I think of him and his contributions yeah because when it comes
50:38
to the die die yeah he and they extend that die die and then I won't say it but
50:45
the way he finishes off the die his last die little expletive puts an exclamation
50:51
mark on this interesting uh interesting side chapter from T's career the Jason newad side chapter
50:57
it's too bad it's too bad it didn't work out for him James is King I'm sorry it's just the way it goes he wasn't happy
51:03
about it's if you're a Metallica that's all you're doing that's the way James is [Music]
51:11
so I can listen to that all day yeah me too
51:17
[Music]
51:47
want to Ser to the bar to is every word
51:56
no one the deliver wait something must be done 100
52:04
[Music]
52:13
years so [Applause] let let me I you
52:23
to so let me r let me down to kill
52:35
the the part that Jason was talking about is uh right here Jason newad we
52:40
get the crowd going say the crowd go die it's it's pretty fun to watch I implore
52:46
anybody that's listening to this find a live version with Jason newstead they extend this dive chant and the crowds
52:55
absolutely love participating in this and Jason brought it to a whole new level as well now did we see them live
53:01
for the first time in 91 or 92 I believe the concert was 92 but it was for the album released in 91 that's right so we
53:09
I got it here Jason we saw the May 23rd 1992 they played 23 songs and that
53:14
included the 10th song being a Justice medley so they played more they played I of the holder black and Freight Dan
53:20
sanity justice for all so that probably took 10 minutes there at least so the songs we played at our concert Jason
53:26
Enter Sandman creeping death Harvester of Sorrow Welcome Home Sanitarium sad but true wherever I may ro wor s that sorry
53:35
give away for my Black Album Wherever I May Roam base solo Through The Never The
53:40
Unforgiven Justice medley drum solo guitar solo Nothing Else Matters For Whom the Bell TOS Fade to Black Whiplash
53:47
Master of Puppets Seek and Destroy one last Crest and my evil battery Stone Cold
53:52
crazy that's a really memorable show for us well we were front row for a little
53:59
bit wow like there was a yeah we started off I think on row 23 no we were row
54:05
four four was it four yes oh we were fourth row this was back in 1992 they
54:11
didn't have they had seats sort of but they were like these benches that were nailed into a portable floor and they
54:16
were just like rows of benches we're in our spot like row four seat spot area 22
54:23
and 23 whatever it was it was me and Jason I hear this like crunching crazy metallic type bending sound and floor is
54:31
shaking I turn over to my right there's this big harly Davidson riding biker
54:36
dude and he's about three or four rows back and he's swinging back and forth
54:43
the bench that he's on ripping the hinges out of the floor back and forth he's probably 300 lb I can see the bolts
54:50
coming out and he's tearing the bench off the floor and everyone's like yeah
54:55
that's a greata idea and then everyone started tearing there was a pile there was a pile of chairs benches like in the
55:03
middle of the floor every like we don't need the stinking seating PL that was a
55:08
really bad idea it was because we knew the crowd was going to go crazy there's no opening act so they played a three-hour show no opening act lights
55:15
went down the uh the music from The Good Bad and the Ugly comes on the band's coming up to see you know the crowd
55:21
psyched up and the moment the first cord of enter s man kicked in the whole
55:26
everyone was kind of sort of Milling in their area the moment the music kicked in lights come on and Salon kicks in
55:32
everyone from us behind like behind me and Jason pushed to the front and I'll never forget the feeling of my feet
55:40
lifting off the ground I was lifted off the ground by the swell of bodies and I
55:46
was slammed to the front of the barricade I had to have my arm across my chest to avoid my ribs being cracked
55:53
from the pressure of people pushing and shoving I think that song was over when Jason and I were already covered in
55:59
sweat the heat from the bodies now speaking of creeping death we which we just heard that was the second
56:04
track played I remember thinking I might make it to the third song but I said okay I'll do this for this song I can't
56:12
remember how many songs I lasted because I had a girl on my back too she was on my back she was elow me in the side of
56:18
my head to get to the front I like what is going on and like I can't do three hours of this onslaught of physical
56:23
violence I was only like 15 16 years old old but I remember being right in front of Jason newad jamesfield was there too
56:30
and James newad he was already sweating I just will never forget his sweat from his long hair hitting me in the face
56:35
that's how close I was it was insane remember when the first chords of Ender samon began and like you say like it
56:43
just this tidal wave of people picking us up and the lady behind us yelling at
56:50
me can you sit down yeah remember turned around here I said you
56:58
have to tell the 15,000 people behind us to sit down and that's the last I
57:04
remember of her and we were swept it was a tsunami of people and remember you
57:09
fell across one of the benches yeah my left leg started to bend sideways yes and the pan I was I was like Jesus Jesus
57:16
my leg's gonna break and obviously I didn't have enough strength to push everyone my leg was about to break I could you fell over the bench cuz we
57:22
were being pushed like a tital wave your leg going across that bench and you saying that and I looked down and then I
57:29
created like a human bridge over you to protect your leg from snapping I was so
57:36
scared I was so it's gonna break right I literally thought I thought literally your leg would have broken so I created
57:43
like a human bridge over your leg so you can kind of get your leg off from going
57:48
across that bench a few songs in and then you like kind of helped escort you
57:54
to the side and you end up staying on the side there you were like I'm going back in you're always crazy you're crazy
58:01
you've always been a bigger kid too and like Jason you're crazy but I wasn't worried about you at all because I just knew like you're just insane and so like
58:08
well he'll be fine but yeah I just all I did was I took one of the chairs from the pile put the chair I stood on top of
58:13
the chair I was back about 20 feet I was like this is fine I'm close enough and I was I was out of Harm's Way and everyone
58:18
wanted to mosh and and destroy each other where where where you were I was like you're insane I remember helping you like escort you to the to your spot
58:26
end up staying for the rest of the show and then turning around looking at that
58:31
floor it was unbelievable like Urban Jungle was insane and the lack of oxygen
58:36
on the floor oh yeah there was no oxygen but that was back in the day when concert didn't feel
58:42
safe no that one wasn't that was insane yeah I think how young they were they
58:47
were only at this time this 92 eight years so they were just 29 years old themselves wow I know that's
58:54
unbelievable anyway right so here's that part really quickly the [Music]
59:05
[Music]
59:20
die that's awesome I remember the part you're talking about now J yeah J yes once you see
59:26
yeah I'll never get over that song that was great stuff yeah doesn't get boring it should be boring it should get boring
59:32
but it's it never feels overplayed it's a crowd favor the crowd gets to do the Die part and and they extend that die
59:38
like it's a good the whole crowd just doing it for about a minute minute and a half it just the whole and everyone just does it
59:46
makes me laugh because you have 20,000 people chanting die I don't know such a feel such a feel
59:52
good song nothing brings a crowd together like chanting d ironically calmed the crowd down at that point
59:58
probably because everyone had to stop okay so the album closer interesting enough is what they would call an instrumental and for the purpose of the
1:00:05
show we've said before with other album reviews that we've done is that instrumentals don't count for worst pick only if all members aren't involved make
1:00:13
that clear so the call of culu old members are involved there's just no singing This is a full track everyone's
1:00:19
involved so it could be up for Worse song on the album in theory Sure y
1:00:27
[Music]
1:00:36
[Music] love that part right there that wow
1:00:41
that's SP yeah space yeah [Music]
1:01:05
now we talked about this on our master puppets episode but it's worth repeating here this is a song where you put these
1:01:10
same Keynotes musical notes in a symphony this is a symphony song and this is very obvious why this song is
1:01:16
played on their Symphony and Metallica albums SNM albums there's a reason why this one fits so nicely it's a
1:01:22
symph it's it's it's Symphony I mean I'm not really a complete fan of these
1:01:28
instrumentals but it's probably their the best one it's a tough call yeah it's a good call uh yeah and the cliff bur
1:01:35
space groovy distorted they distorted I think it was on a w pedal yeah let's he
1:01:42
a little bit more your it is an8 minute song but we'll just play a little bit more
1:01:52
[Music] oh
1:01:59
[Laughter]
1:02:10
[Music]
1:02:20
[Applause] [Music]
1:02:28
incredible guitar work by Kirk interesting choice but a great choice to end the album with that called culu my
1:02:34
mistake I didn't hear this at that concert I swear I've heard them play this live at one of the six shows I saw them but have to do some research but
1:02:41
well that is the end of the album again the tracks are Fight Fire with Fire Ride the Lightning R the Bell TOS fade the
1:02:47
black Trapped Under Ice Escape creeping death and the call of culu 1984 incredible album I think you and I
1:02:56
we'll say this album stands a test of time it pioneered a lot of bands and sounds it's been imitated but never
1:03:02
replicated Jason though are all eight songs cre equal is there one song that
1:03:08
for you easy easy I wonder if it's the same as mine uh which song for you is
1:03:13
the worst of this album yeah this song can escape my pick Escape it sounds like
1:03:22
they phoned it in talking to my business partner that I was going to be doing this podcast I said Escape it just seems
1:03:29
kind of boring is the lyrics to me are a little bit lame and kind of immature in
1:03:37
their in their tone the struggle of a teenager to me that's how what it what it sounds like to me I I could be
1:03:44
projecting my own thoughts and feelings about what they're talking about I have no idea but it sounds like Oh I'm a
1:03:50
teenager breaking into adulthood and I know better than you and so there
1:03:56
doesn't really hold a lot of water for me and it's interesting go to find out they threw it in last minute now you and
1:04:02
I used to read many oh my pick is the same no big surprise there but funny
1:04:08
enough it was that way for me from back in the day I remember when I first heard oh that's kind of a weird song a
1:04:13
different sound doesn't mean it's bad I mean the worst song on on on this album
1:04:18
is much better than 99% of what's released today bands wish they could play this and compose this but this does
1:04:24
feel knowing the too makes kind of sense like oh we better throw something together it does seem a little bit
1:04:30
generic James sings a little bit odd he sings a little bit almost like with an English Cockney accent as well on that
1:04:36
one of note I swear I read this somewhere heard this somewhere back in the day I think James himself said he's not a fan of this song himself that
1:04:43
didn't change my feeling on the matter I've liked things that people who've created don't like I agree with James
1:04:48
and he probably knows it was phoned in they rushed it maybe didn't even have time to really flush it out completely
1:04:55
it would have been a really small album at uh seven songs considering it's
1:05:01
almost call culu is a 9 minute song and the album is only 47 minutes long with
1:05:06
Escape I can see why the the record company says no you need at least one more song you imagine making an LP with
1:05:15
three songs on one side and four on the other and yeah there's nothing wrong with the catchy cores and that's not the
1:05:20
problem with the song it it does have a mainstream sound it's probably easier to digest
1:05:26
as a modern day Metallica fan now than back then I just think over the years they have done better Melody songs
1:05:33
better you could argue this is their first Black album song yeah one day we should do our Black
1:05:40
album worst song one day oh yeah we'll get there all right all right Jason well
1:05:45
there you go remember in front of every Silver Lining there's a cloud and you can't escape it you can't escape it
1:05:51
today Jason we found it together we agreed side note for a while there Ride
1:05:56
the Lightning was the one that I had a hardest time getting into but over the time it's built a lot side not 2 Dave
1:06:02
Mustang that was his last credit song to help write oh yeah and I agree Ry the lightning was not maybe if we did this
1:06:09
back in 1995 yeah I would say oh yeah like late 80s early 90s I might have
1:06:15
chosen Ride the Lightning yes interesting yeah but I love it now and maybe as we' gotten older and we're kind
1:06:21
of past the stage of life that escape sounds like is writing about I I don't
1:06:27
connect with the lyrics I don't think the lyrics of that song have aged well yeah I think that's the biggest problem
1:06:33
for me all right till next time guys we'll talk to you later bye Gator Productions
1:06:41
[Music]
1:06:56
n [Music]

Metallica - Ride The Lightning | We Agree on the Worst Track for Once
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