. . .
“One” is Metallica’s “Stairway to Heaven”. They’re long and popular ballads, which probably means that after a while they become live nooses. Robert Plant said about “Stairway”, “There’s only so many times you can sing it and mean it”. According to Chapter Inc., Metallica has played “One” live 1232 times. 1232 times! James Hetfield has embodied a limbless landmine survivor 1232 times in front of thousands. What an acting job!
The question is not if Metallica ever phoned “One” in; it’s how often they have. I can’t imagine playing “One” (a) in public (b) repeatedly. Minus over-exposure and cultural baggage, it’s a mighty force. Imagine that your job is to conjure that force, or at least a reasonable facsimile, thousands of times night after night, or else thousands will have felt cheated. You would probably come to hate work. I suppose every hit becomes an albatross around the neck for its band. If so, Metallica are a caravan of ten-ton albatrosses. People only want to hear your old stuff: what a curse.
I myself wouldn’t feel cheated by a live omission of “One”. I wouldn’t want to hear “Hold my breath as I wish for death” amongst thousands. Do they sing along? Do they raise beer cups and elbow their buddies because it’s a song they know? I don’t want to know. “One” is in my headphones now, rapping at my consciousness. The knock is hollow, insistent. “Listen to my story”, it says. “Come to me”. But it’s not easy to come to. It looks weird, top-heavy. The riffs are big, and the vocals are yearning. But the rhythm section sounds tiny. It’s like those guys at the gym who only work out their upper bodies.
For most every other song in this series, I’ve renewed vows, so to speak. But I still resist “One”. Why? Is it just over-play? Can no one appreciate Beethoven’s 5th now? Metal comes with so many fences. There are those others build: “You should not listen to this”. “You are inferior if you do”. “This music is not for you”. Then there are the fences one builds oneself: “I’m not supposed to like this”. “I am X, and this music is not X, so I must dislike it”. I listen to “One” now, and I don’t swoon like I did when I was child. I suppose the first time one hears double bass drums applied as such – that’s a watershed moment that’s tough to top.
The heart may not be willing, but the head is. Distance can yield appreciation. “One” is a masterful tapestry, building on the “blooming” harmonies of “Fight Fire with Fire”, but weaving them into the song’s fabric instead of toggling them on and off. The song moves fluidly. It takes four minutes and 35 seconds to peak at its machine gun passage, but, really, we’re there before we know it. This is “…And Justice for All” perfected, that regal plod pushed into higher potential.
For what seems like a long, complex epic, “One”’s power boils down to one thing: the shoe dropping. The narrator wakes up at its start. He’s disoriented; he “can’t tell if this is true or dream”. He’s miserable, but there’s a glimmer of hope: “Oh, please, God help me”. Well, no. During the instrumental bridge, dread mounts. Then the hammer of realization hits. “Absolute horror”. Game over. The last line: “Left me with life in hell”. To live is to die, indeed.
Musically, the song mirrors this progression. The first half of the song is in B. The second half is in E. One could see the first half as one long B chord resolving to the song’s true key, E. This is the classic chord resolution in Western music, V to I. The V chord (in this case, B) is the state of highest tension, which resolves to the baseline state of the I chord (in this case, E). So this song starts out in a state of tension. The shoe is waiting to drop. And when it does, it’s war. The memories flood back. We’re in a firefight, and there’s no way out, not even death.
Conjure that nightmare again and again? And get paid to do so? Either you lie back and think of England, or you build up fucking heavy psychic damage. Or, you become a great actor.
. . .
“One”
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. . .
METALLICA: THE FIRST FOUR ALBUMS
“Eye of the Beholder”
“…And Justice for All”
“Blackened”
“Damage Inc.”
“Orion”
“Leper Messiah”
“Disposable Heroes”
“Welcome Home (Sanitarium)”
“The Thing That Should Not Be”
“Master of Puppets”
“Battery”
“The Call of Ktulu”
“Creeping Death”
“Escape”
“Trapped Under Ice”
“Fade to Black”
“For Whom the Bell Tolls”
“Ride the Lightning”
“Fight Fire With Fire”
“Metal Militia”
“Seek & Destroy”
“No Remorse”
“Phantom Lord”
“Whiplash”
“(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth”
“Jump in the Fire”
“Motorbreath”
“The Four Horsemen”
“Hit the Lights”
. . .
The song that got me into Metallica and as a result, into “real” heavy metal. Seeing this video on MTV after school was a goddamn epiphany. The first time I (finally) saw Metallica live was in 1996 and “One” was undoubtedly a huge highlight for me, fucking goosebumps…
This is, hands-down, the most interesting article in this series so far. (I doubt it will be topped.) How much more difficult is it to perform an emotional ballad like this night after night than it would be to do a balls-out rocker (e.g. Danzig’s “Mother”)? And do they ever regret doing it?
Like it was for many others my age, seeing the One video was a life changing experience, so much so for me that I would say its one of the most significant events in my life. Were it not for that moment seeing it back in 4th grade, my life would not be what it is today.
So I’ll skip all the details…everyone has their own story about seeing it for the first time.
This song has not worn thin on me over time. I can instantly transport back to my first impression of it whenever I play it. The video is just as dark. the guitar’s are just as mysteriously evil; when I first saw the guitar tab, I said to myself ‘this CANT be the way its played.’ Even though the notes were all there, it didnt sound anything like One to me.
And the KICK DRUM…i fell out of my high chair! thought it must have been some evil motor playing the drums for him, as I was clueless about the concept of 2 bass drums at that age.
Seeign it live is a different experience, and I wouldnt mind them skipping this either.
Nothing will ever be so life changing for me again, in the realm of music. The onyl thing left for me is to have kids who will have the samwe experience as I did.
“I was clueless about the concept of 2 bass drums at that age.”
Same for me, mate, same for me.
Hearing that for the first time, I fell from my chair, gasping for air, speechless for hours: it then dawned on me: who on earth can do that with only one bass drum? There’s GOT to be two. But I’d never seen a kit like this before…
AND like Stairway, this tune will never EVER get old. Playing it live, sure…
“One” was a transformational song for me as well; and it’s lost none of its power. What amazes me about it is the transformation: the lure of creeping dread transformed into a snarling whiplash of bitter recrimination. One of the heaviest songs to ever get mainstream radio rock airplay; as well as a surprisingly complex take on the anti-war ballad by allowing the horror and power of war to seep so thoroughly in. Overplay has definitely worn away some of its edges for people but I still contend that this is Metallica’s masterpiece and one of the finest pieces of metal ever written.
Watching the video again too and I’m struck buy the absolute force of Metallica’s personality at this point. So uncompromising that by dint of popularity alone they were able to force MTV to accept a video so dark and disturbing (and long) into their regular rotation. And the aesthetics, the cold grey steel tone to match the themes, even the sounds. The heavy sampling from “Johnny Got His Gun” and the intersplicing of the film stock is all used to incredible effect as well. A tour-de-force piece of music video as art and re-viewing it (and re-listening to it) now, it makes Metallica’s decline seem all the more inevitable. From the summit there’s nowhere to go but down.
Too bad that machine gun section was already done by Dark Angel in the song Darkness Descends 2 years earlier. With Metallica’s history of stealing, you can’t help but wonder if they nicked that too.
Antrhax did a similar bit on Make Me Laugh from State of Euphoria which was recorded around the same time. Shit that song starts out like the South of Heaven intro, has the One riff, then the verse riff is basically the rhythm guitar part under the solo in Blackened.
Actually, it had been done 19 years earlier, by Hendrix in the song “Machine Gun.”
what he said!
God, that old Hetfield hair was terrifying…this song is so emo…
“One” was the song that got me into Metallica. That intro was part of an edited video that depicted war scenes, and it was the godliest piece of music that I’d heard ever. I went around asking what song it was from. Somehow it sounded too familiar, and I was kicking myself for not being able to remember where I knew it from. After being told that it was “One”, I was like “ah, of course! It’s the same song with that creepy black-and-white video that scared me when I was a kid!”
Sadly, I think that the song has lost its power for me over the years, exactly because of the overplaying that Cosmo talks about. The jangle of harmonies and the machine-gun riffing/drumming turned from being unsettling and disturbing to just annoying and exasperating.
“Disposable Heroes” remains to me Metallica’s best take on war.
Overplaying always ruins good songs for me. One is, amongst other “popular” metal songs like “Paranoid” and “November rain” to name a few, the one I always skip.
Metallica died with Cliff Burton. This thing that keeps releasing music as ‘Metallica’ is a fraud.
This song is especially meaningful to me because the opening riff is the first thing I ever learned to play on guitar. In fact I feel that in large part I owe my guitar playing ability to Metallica’s “first 4″ albums (along with the black album). I spent countless nights and days in my bedroom as a teenager with these albums teaching me how to play. Then came Pantera. then came Slayer. Then I went through a phase where I listened to some “metal” that I now recognize as shit metal. Then I discovered black and death (along with other more obscure styles) and found those to be more enjoyable.
But my point is that like countless others, Metallica was the catalyst that propelled me into a better musician than I ever thought possible. It’s not that I think of myself as an amazing musician or anything, it’s the fact that I can play things now that 15 years ago I never imagined I’d be able to play, and am still able to routinely surprise myself.
If not for Metallica, would it have been someone else that inspired me to pick up the guitar? Probably. But I don’t think any other band could have possibly had that profound of an effect on me during just the right time in my life.
This video scared me in an awesome way when it came out. I finally got to see what all the older, cooler kids were fussing about. It totally lived up to the hype and changed my outlook. Also, check out lars ’s interview with howard stern on youtube. Talks about he and kirk had to take lessons from the joe satriani band in between kea and rtl.
I am really digging this series. I think I’m a bit older then most here, I was well into Metallica when this came out. I loved this album. It was 2 vinyl albums long, but like 2 songs per side. A statement of both their a ability (self indulgent and production issues aside) and their market share (i don’t remember it costing more than a single album).
Fantastic write up. I always wished that they cut out the couple bars (6:25 – 6:36) after the last solo and went straight into the next lead part though.
this is my least favorite song from the first four albums. I guess I just don’t like the vocal lines and overall awkward feel. The intro is beautiful though.
This is one of the ten best metal compositions of all time. Every riff, solo, and transition is stunning and emotionally harrowing. Along with “Raining Blood”, “One”’s kick-drum breakdown is a clarion call for any who loves metal.
Also Hetfield’s voice before his balls dropped (or whatever the fuck happened after this album) has this great high range and an almost distorted texture in the way it was recorded. Not sure how to describe it.
This song also changed my life, musically. I couldn’t fathom that something like this existed, going through such intense sonic sea changes over such a vast span of time (for a song on MTV). Even years later after all the allegedly weirder, more transgressive music I’ve heard–including free jazz, avant-garde classical, and noise–few things rival the head-splitting impact of this song.
I think Hetfeild’s voice on this album (and Garage Days Re-Revisited) is untouchable. Something definitely changed by those two records, and of course, they haven’t sounded like that since. Some of my favorite metal vocals of all time.
I’m betting more of us know how to play this song on guitar than any other song.
I really got behind them when they decided to release a ‘video’. They had previously shunned videos. It moved me and I think it moved folks who watched it. Folks started to take them seriously. I wanted people to watch it and say, “See, they aren’t Satanists! Their words mean something”. Unfortunately after all of this, the self-titled record happened and the videos became performance based (for the most part). Such a shame.
This video cut both ways for me. I was a huge fan at the time, and I was excited to see a video by them. But the video was also a portent of things to come, I think. As I remember it, they did more than just shun videos — they adamantly stated that they would never do one. Isn’t there a section in Cliff ‘Em All where they ridicule the idea of a video? (My copy is a worn VHS and I haven’t watched it in two decades, probably.) In addition, there were several different edits, which also didn’t sit well with me. This was a band that grew on word of mouth and wasn’t going to make any concessions (“Metal up your ass!”) … that was making concessions. Invariably, I caught the radio edit on T.V. and it always pissed me off. In retrospect, the “One” video was a defintely turning point.
They grew up. They changed their minds. I’m sure they would’ve goofed on marrying and having kids back then, too. Honestly, I think Metallica have made fewer concessions than we old school fans accuse them of…
i understand what you are saying. There is, obviously, nothing wrong with growing up and changing one’s mind. But there is a huge philosophical distance between their youthful stance and where they were by the time Bob Rock showed up on the scene. Don’t you remember how they used to trash Motley Crue and all the glam bands? Then they said that wanted to work with Bob Rock because Dr. Feelgood sounded so good? What?
Surely, they matured and realized that not only was metal a lifestyle, but it was also a business. They clearly excelled on the business side and god bless them for it. But the wrinkle is that they claimed they were focussed on art and it seemed that the focus shifted to money. … and I’m sure I don’t need to explain any of this to you, having lived through that era yourself.
The moment at around 6:25 where the disconnected lump appears to be headbanging..
Metallica’s legend percedes them, the way lightning percedes thunder
…the way your comments percede your spelling abilities. Couldn’t help myself
+1 for the unmissable joke!
Shut up. Shut the fuck up, idiot. Stop overanalyzing. Let me have my childhood back!
I remember when MTV “World Premiered” this video. They made a big fuss about it being the full song, extra narrative included, etc. My roommate and a couple of other guys from our dorm floor were interested to see just what a Metallica video would finally look like. It never happened with “Escape” and then they said they would NEVER do a video, so…
We thought there might be three or four of us gathered to watch the premier. To my absolute shock and horror, the entire “common area” in our dormitory was full of students, maybe 25 or more, crammed into that little cinder block room around the only TV on the floor with cable, just to see what all the fuss was about. I mean, there were girls there! Girls that thought Winger and Poison were too rockin’ and heavy metal! The guys on the floor that only liked R.E.M. and U2 were there too. What was going on? Everyone watched in complete solemn silence and quietly left the room afterward. I never witnessed another rock video have that kind of impact on a group of people ever. Thanks, IO, for stirring that truly bizarre memory.
THAT is a cool story.
I listened to this song pretty regularly for years before seeing the video. Once I did, I couldn’t divorce the melodrama in the video from the song, and from that point on it had too much baggage to listen to all the time. Now I just see it as overblown.
Saw a video of a recent live performance of “One.” It totally lacks feeling.
Great story!
Metallica promised to never have a video clip back in the days. When they did one, for a semi-ballad, people were cringing at the daring move. I guess they stuck themselves with the song, using it as their first ever video. Now they’re bound to play it live forever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvW7lEBFw1U
…and by the 1233rd go round* the song has been stripped of all its pathos & urgency entirely, and lives on only as a bloated stadium crowd-pleaser. The first two minutes sound promising enough, but by the time you get to the chorus it’s about as mindless and insipid as seeing U2 play ‘Vertigo.’ Just like its tortured narrator, this song badly needs to be put out of its misery.
*Probably well before, actually.
Still my favorite music video of all time. It’s miserable and extremely creepy, not to mention the fact that Metallica just looks bad ass in it.
This is Metallica’s best song
And when can we expect your take on “Harvester of Sorrow”, Sire?