Metallica Unsung:
Liner Notes for a Mix of Underrated Metallica

JR notes: Metallica has endured an excessive amount of "hating." A list of the biggest offenders: (1) greedy (and hypocritical) Internet executives who cloaked their motives in phony "music should be free" idealism, (2) selfish downloaders who think that music should be free, but have no problem paying for a Chalupa, and, ironically enough, (3) Metallica's own idiotic fans - a startling number of whom would prefer to put Metallica in an Iron Maiden musical timelock. These fans define creative integrity as a desperate attempt to xerox the music you wrote when you were a teenager - nevermind that every band that ever attempted to do that (Motley Crue, Kiss, Stones, the list goes on) have ended up sounding like irrelevant, bloated old farts. Fortunately, Metallica doesn't need any help defending themselves - they keep on doing things their own way on their own terms, God bless those badass motherfuckers/middle-aged family men.

Extensive ramblings on the Napster controversy, the saddening Metallica/Mustaine fued, and the band's creative highs (Ride the Lightning) and lows (Reload) will have to wait. In the meantime, I'll kick off my Metallica commentary with the liner notes to the mix I call "Metallica Unsung." At the heart of this mix are the songs I consider to be their most underrated. Throw in a few classic live cuts, toss in the songs I'm not sick of currently (after twenty years of Metallica, there are songs that have to be retired for a while), and you've got "Metallica Unsung." As the mix came together, I realized there were a fair amount of cover songs on it. Metallica has never been shy about acknowledging their own creative debts, such as their obvious link to British thrash pioneers Diamond Head. They have even gone so far as to provide legal support to Beatallica, a satirical cover band that plays Beatles songs in the Metallica style. At any rate, it's nice to have some shorter songs to break up this mix, and that means delving into Metallica's covers of the punk rock that influenced their thrash sound. On to the mix.

(1) "Blitzkrieg" - One of the sharpest Metallica cover songs was also one of the first. I got my hands on this song in 1984 as one of two covers on the Creeping Death white vinyl EP. The "can man save itself from man" lyrics are just as relevant twenty years on.

(2) "Die Die My Darling" - It was a bizarre moment when Metallica put out Garage Inc., their double-sided cover song collection, and fifteen years of shelling out for rare cover tracks was rendered irrelevant by one easy-to-buy CD. Garage, Inc. did have some great new tracks on it though, none better than the short-and-not-sweet Misfits tirade "Die Die My Darling." In the end, I was pretty happy with Garage Inc., but it was one of those stunts Metallica uses to buy time away from recording original material (Reload, S&M, and Binge and Purge being the others). The downside to these multi-year delays is that we're left with only eight studio albums over the last twenty one years, and if you consider Load and Reload to be one album disguised as two, as I do, then that's seven studio albums in the last twenty one years, or three years per studio album. While that's got Boston beat, it's not the most prolific track record. (contrast: Hanoi Rocks put out five studio albums from '81 - '84). Of course, you have to take into account not one, not two, but three of the greatest live recordings ever made (Binge and Purge, Cunning Stunts, and S&M), as well as some of the most grueling worldwide tours ever staged.

(3) "Damage, Inc" - My best theory on "Damage, Inc" is that it got buried and subsequently overshadowed by Master of Puppets' mega-opener "Battery." There's no denying the blistering immediacy (and live impact) of "Battery," but I've come to believe that "Damage, Inc" is the better song. It might be their best pure thrash song - a definitive combination of lyrics, rhythm, and fury, all wrapped up in five tight minutes. Metallica's reluctance to play "Damage, Inc" live is baffling, especially since it's one of those "identity" songs... "fuck it all and fuck it no regrets/never happy endings/only dark sets..." damn, play that motherfucker again! For my mixes, I truncate the first minute of the song, which is a silly minute of silence punctuated by random guitar noises. Maybe this tedious intro has kept "Damage, Inc" in relative obscurity.

(4) "Wasting My Hate" - "Battery" obscured "Damage, Inc" on Master of Puppets, and "Ain't My Bitch" obscured "Wasting My Hate" on Load. One of the most underrated songs from Metallica's most underrated album, "Wasting My Hate" is from that "Holier Than Thou" school of overlooked album staples. God, how I'd love to take all those Load-haters behind the woodshed. Who gives a fuck if the band cut their hair and messed around with a little eyeliner? Load was still a brave, diverse album brimming with carefully-crafted gems (and, to be fair, a few tossers). In retrospect, Metallica's haircuts were definitely part of the problem - it fueled the perception that Metallica was preening for trends. Nevermind that the album took enormous creative chances, such as an eight minute brood of self-disclosure called "Bleeding Me" and a country-western song about James' relationship with his mother ("Mama Said"). "Ain't My Bitch" was probably the only song on the album that really felt like a pre-meditated single in that "Enter Sandman" vein. The rest of Load was a beautifully-rendered work of art that deserved every single fucking copy it every sold. The burn of it is that if Load/ had been a commercial failure, fans would now be embracing it as a spurned masterpiece. But the fact that Load sold a ton of records is actually held against it by gobs of close-minded fans - fans who insist that Metallica must put out amazing music without the trial-and-error any great artist must endure. It seems the Metalli-morons have done their damage - Metallica hasn't been playing much from Load lately in their live sets. I will concede this much, though: the magnificence of Load was obscured by the questionable decision to follow it up with Reload. Scraping up tracks from the cutting room floor and calling it Reload was Metallica's creative low point. It's even more galling when you consider that a pared-down "best of" from both Load and Reload might have gelled into Metallica's best album of all time. But that didn't happen, so after all these years, the fight over the best Metallica album is still a face-off between Ride the Lightning ('84) and Master of Puppets ('86), with legitimate arguments on both sides. Nevertheless, Load remains Metallica's bravest and most diverse collection. While "Wasting my Hate" is not the album's standout track, it's still a bruiser that combines the blues-rock power of the Black album with the thrash intensity of … And Justice for All. "Wasting My Hate" should not have been pushed into the margins by the more accessible (but less powerful) "Ain't My Bitch."

(5) "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" (Live) - Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst, who landed on the wrong ("music should be free") side of the Napster debate, and then buried the hatchet with Metallica when his financial interests swung in that direction, announced onstage that "Sanitarium" was his favorite Metallica song. For a guy with some suspect discretion (publicly pledging his lust for Angelina Jolie was maybe not the best way to get into her pants), you can't fault Fred's taste in Metallica, and Limp Bizkit actually performs a very serviceable version of the song. Metallica's Binge and Purge set has a couple great live renditions that revive this classic; at least one of them includes that clinching "Leave Me the Fuck Alone!" line James sometimes snarls when the song kicks into high gear.

(6) Until it Sleeps - "Until it Sleeps" has the distinction of being the last masterpiece from the Metallica studio. After Load ('96), the album on which it appeared, we only have two more studio albums (of original music) to consider. One is 1997's Reload, and the next is 2003's St Anger. In a way, the entire St. Anger record is unsung - not in terms of the final result, but as a ballsy but flawed experiment. I didn't put any songs from St. Anger on this mix, because while it has a dark and vigorous sound, the songs ultimately meld together. St. Anger is Metallica's first mood album, which is both why it is impressive and why it is fundamentally disappointing. When I develop the capability to transfer songs from DVDs to mp3s, I will probably pull a song off the current mix in order to put the DVD version of "Sweet Amber" on it. (On the St Anger DVD, Metallica includes a rehearsal of the entire album, and for some incomprehensible reason, the rehearsal version of "Sweet Amber" kicks a lot more ass than the official version - mostly due to the gang chant chorus). There is a misperception that St Anger, laid down in the midst of James' battle with alcohol and documented in the filming of "Some Kind of Monster," is Metallica's most personal record, but it's Load that contains the most personal (and emotionally powerful) Metallica songs. "Until it Sleeps" is one of them - a direct line into the rage James has wrestled with since childhood: "So tear me open, but beware/there's things inside without a care/and the dirt still stains me/so wash me until I'm clean." "Until it Sleeps" is brave disclosure, and while Metallica's thrasholic fans got distracted by the heavy radio play it received, assuming it meant something bad had happened to the band and, by extension, to themselves, I saw that accessibility as another sign of its power. It's true that much of what is hugely popular is mediocre, but to assume that popularity is always indicative of creative bankruptcy is absurd. Each record has a different time and context; as the songs from Load drop from "overplayed" to "out of circulation," we have the chance to reconsider them with fresh ears. Overall, Load holds up well, and "Until it Sleeps" is Load's heart and soul.

(7) "One" (Live) - Perhaps the biggest tragedy in the Metallica discography is the ill-fated "tin can" production that marred one of their greatest albums, … And Justice For All. If Metallica had emerged from the studio with a better-produced record, it's possible the debate over the best Metallica album would begin and end with Justice. It now stands as a classic with an asterisk. Metallica has since made amends by issuing stupendous live versions of the greatest songs from Justice. Although we are still waiting on an outstanding live version of "Blackened," two of the other monster songs from Justice, "One" and "Harvester of Sorrow," are well-accounted for. The live versions of "One" from Binge and Purge prove why this song has become the centerpiece of Metallica's live set and why it will go down as their finest moment. The part of "One" that still stuns me is the transition to the third section: Lars is pounding out the "rat-tat-tat" machine gun while the rest of the band plays against his rhythm before finally synching up, and heading into legend together.

(8) "Bleeding Me" - Any list of under-appreciated Metallica songs should keep a prominent place for "Bleeding Me." Along with "Until it Sleeps" and "Mama Said," "Bleeding Me" sketched out the dark autobiography that made Load such a hard pill for the macho division of the fan base to swallow. To be fair, most of the "hardcore" fans that dismiss Load also think little of the Black Album, never mind that it was a much-needed change of pace after the dutiful thrash perfectionism of Justice. Justice represented the logical extreme of a certain musical direction; there was no way out except re-invention or regurgitation. Metallica chose re-invention, and some fans have never forgiven them for it. But Metallica didn't feel like becoming parodies of themselves, and so they stuck it to their fans in the best way possible. (Speaking of the Black Album, some readers may be wondering why I didn't choose a song from the Black Album for this mix. There were actually two worthy contenders from that record, "Holier Than Thou" and "Of Wolf and Man," and at some point, it might make sense to take off the live version of "One" and put those two songs in. Had I done this mix a couple years ago, I probably would have, but in the years since, I've played those songs into "semi-retired" status and don't feel like listening to them much. They both deserve honorable mention though). At any rate, "Bleeding Me" will never make a short list of Metallica's best songs, but it's still one of their most ambitious (and lyrically important). "This thorn in my side is from the tree I've planted" might be James' most penetrating line, and the extended length of "Bleeding Me" allows Metallica to explore some dark interiors before bringing the song to a grinding head.

(9) "Mama Said" - The best rock song about a man and his mother will always be Pink Floyd's "Mother," but from where I type, "Mama Said" is a clear second. Not quite a classic, "Mama Said" needed some ironing out it never got. Still, "Mama Said" is James' finest lyrical moment, one of the bravest songs about the bond (and the undertow) between a man and his mother. James sings of his struggle for self-definition, the difficulty of honest reconciliation, the finality of letting go: "Never I ask of you/but never I gave, but you gave me your emptiness/I now take to my grave...." The song peaks with James' plain-spoken cry: "Let my heart go/let your son grow/Mama, let my heart go/or let my heart be still." Anyone who thinks these lyrics are too corny is, in a word, gutless. You can keep your clever nu-metal emotional numbification: I'll take the open expression of real bonds and real sorrow. Metallica is shy about playing this song live - perhaps the country-western twang of Kurt's guitar and the nakedness of the song's lyrics is a little too mind-blowing for the mosh pit. They have played it during their all-acoustic shows, but otherwise, "Mama Said" is one of the most overlooked songs in the catalog.

(10) "Ride The Lightning" - A sonic blast from the album of the same name, "Ride the Lightning" is one of Metallica's most recognizable riffs, and one of the early thrash staples. The electric-chair lyrics weren't the most incisive take on the death penalty ever written, but it *did* establish Metallica's desire to take on more serious subjects beyond the cartoon violence of their debut record Kill 'Em All, an album packed with hyper-masculine teen aggression. Metallica didn't flesh out its lyrical potential until their fourth release (Justice), but "Ride the Lightning" is an underplayed gem that set the tone for what was to follow. ("Disposable Heroes," the first of the anti-war tirades, was the other contender for this spot, but it came in a couple minutes too long).

(11) "Harvester of Sorrow" (Live) - Along with "Blackened" and "One," "Harvester" is one of the three pillars that hold …And Justice For All up for the ages. At the time "Harvester" came out, James was writing about his childhood with intense bitterness, railing against the forces that bound him. I guess "Harvester of Sorrow," the story of a vengeful God that wreaks havoc on abusers of children, would resonate with anyone who felt they were beaten down before they had a chance. But it wasn't until the live albums that the true power of "Harvester" was unleashed. The versions on Binge and Purge are staggering in their sheer ferocity. On the Summer Sanitarium tour of 2003, it was Lars who announced it and dedicated it to all the fans who stuck with them through the hard years. "Harvester" is one of the top five Metallica songs of all time, and it makes this list because many people are not aware of the live versions where it finally earned that distinction. By the way, some fans may be wondering about "Dyers Eve," a hidden classic from Justice that seems to be a worthy option for "Metallica Unsung." This is a strange case indeed, because Metallica has almost disowned the song. They never play it live; maybe even they are bashful about the harshness of the "dear mother/dear father" diatribes ("I've outgrown that fucking lullabye!"). In the end, "Dyers Eve" is just a little unfinished as a song. As great as it is, there's something missing, something that can't be blamed solely on the tinny sound. One more aside on Justice: the definitive version of "Blackened" still doesn't exist. During the Binge and Purge sessions, it shows up only as part of a medley, and that just doesn’t cut it. So "Blackened" couldn't be considered for this mix, as the stilted Justice version can't deliver the way a unleashed live version would.)

(12) "Am I Evil?" - Metallica pays tribute to UK thrash forefathers Diamond Head with "Am I Evil?", a brutal chunk of thrash perfection from the legendary Creeping Death white vinyl EP (1984). Years later, I tracked down a bunch of Diamond Head tunes so I could assess how much Metallica was "inspired" by them versus how much Metallica just stole their sound and ran with it. It turned out kind of like Guns 'N Roses and Hanoi Rocks: you could not have predicted Guns 'N Roses from Hanoi, and you could not have predicted Metallica from Diamond Head. But if you listen with the knowledge of each bands' self-acknowledged creative debt, it totally makes sense. Metallica took Diamond Head and added the "x factor," a crunching intensity that was not within Diamond Head's reach. Metallica just takes over "Am I Evil?," and the song's menacing buildup is perfect. By the time James hits the first line: "My mother was a witch/she was burned alive," you just know this song is gonna rip someone's heart out, dealing a blow to the happy and misguided notion that people are basically good in the process.

(13) "Whiskey in the Jar" - "Whiskey in the Jar" is hardly one of Metallica's most original covers, but it has a charm that holds up. "Whiskey" is an Irish folk song that was popularized in the rock era by Thin Lizzy. This song adds to the "Unsung" mix by connecting to the bluesy, back-to-basics rock that Metallica tapped into on the Black Album, carried into Load and Reload, but lost track of in the St. Anger era. There's nothing wrong with a catchy hook, guys - in fact, it's preferable to grinding your way into obscurity. I hope Metallica comes to the same conclusion, because it's better to be great than to sound cool.

(14) "Stone Cold Crazy" - We wrap the Unsung mix where we started: with a blistering cover (Queen!)that brings Metallica back to the punk attitude of its youth. A little a cappella, a lot of Lars, and a speed-freak number that doesn't let up till its three minutes are up.
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