Is Metallica Edging Closer to the RP Revolution?

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Metallica has always been a somewhat apolitical band, letting the music speak for itself. Although they have made political statements over the years in various interviews they have given, they have primarily avoided coming out with any official statements regarding specific policies or the direction of the country. It is mainly through their music and lyrics that we can discover their views on such issues as capital punishment, war, government corruption, censorship, and drugs. Their recent concerts at the Bridge School Benefit, though, indicate that the band has begun to state clearer positions on opposing the war, media manipulations, and a controlling state.

The band members' views on issues regarding collectivism and individualism have largely been expressed in public and private by the two main spokesmen for the band, singer and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich. A number of their personal opinions, which clearly differ from each other, can be discerned from hobbies or statements they have made over the years: Hetfield is an avid hunter, having taken trips around the world to Patagonia and Siberia for the sport, while Ulrich once called Bill Clinton "the smartest guy."

Their opposing views were never clearer than in the 2003 documentary of the band, Some Kind of Monster, when Hetfield has just returned from a stint in rehab and they are discussing continuing with the film-making process or not. Ulrich argues that "If Metallica collectively decides to do this [make the film], we can make it happen." Hetfield responds, "That scares me. Metallica is three individuals and three individuals have to decide what to do… I'd like us to be three individuals instead of us all feeding the beast for the benefit of Metallica." This exchange is significant, because a recent major event in Metallica's history was the battle with file-sharing website Napster, in which the band argued they should be able to control the distribution of their songs over online media and even testified before the Senate urging laws be passed to protect intellectual property rights. Ulrich's collectivist position breaks down when Hetfield asserts his own individuality and personal needs.

The Napster episode was highly publicized, with the band having been quite willing to use the State to defend their claims to control the use of their songs in every available medium. Despite a pro-state battle against file sharing, though, has Metallica recently begun to shift their views of the state? Much time has passed and events have directly affected the band since the Napster case, and it seems they have come out with their clearest political statement in years. This was exhibited in their choice of songs to play at the recent Bridge School Benefit in late October 2007, an event at which Metallica played two consecutive nights. Surprisingly (at least to this longtime fan), they opened each night by playing four cover songs which they had never before performed. The choice of songs, though, gives an indication of what they may be thinking of the war, the state, the media, and their recent experiences with them.

Metallica have been writing songs with anti-war messages for over two decades now. An obvious example, which they played at the Bridge School Benefit, is “Disposable Heroes,” from their Master of Puppets album released in 1986. With lyrics such as “Bodies fill the fields I see, hungry heroes end / No one to play soldier now, no one to pretend,” and “Bred to kill, not to care / Do just as we say / Finished here, greeting death / He’s yours to take away,” the emphasis is clearly on the disconnect that soldiers feel in killing people they do not know for reasons given to them from other people they may not know who care more about an undefined "win" than with any moral considerations.

Similar thoughts are echoed in songs such as “One” about the situation of a soldier who has been left with no limbs to move, or senses to use, or way to communicate with the world, and therefore no real reason to survive, but who also lacks the ability to control his fate. The music video for this release even featured scenes from Dalton Trumbo's 1971 anti-war film Johnny Got His Gun.

A distrust of being controlled and manipulated has also been a recurring theme of Metallica dating back at least to the Ride the Lightning album and the song “Escape,” as well as …And Justice For All's "Eye of the Beholder," to name a couple. The song that was played at the Bridge School Benefit, though, is a clearer example. “The Unforgiven” tells the story of a man who, from soon after he is born, is controlled throughout his life. Although he vows “That never from this day / His will they’ll take away,” his only way to fight back against a life of being controlled is to label his controllers and consider them "unforgiven" for their actions against him. His battle, though he fights it his entire life, results in his finally succumbing to apathy and a regret-filled death. Those controlling the man are never named, but certain lyrics point to a “Brave New World” style State conditioning the individuality out of the man: “The young boy learns their rules," “This whipping boy done wrong," "They dedicate their lives / To running all of his,” and others points clearly to a system that aims to train and control people against their will and diminish their tendencies towards individuality to better serve the state: “He tries to please them all,” alas, to no lasting success.

So, Metallica has demonstrated a consistent attitude of being anti-war and harboring a distrust of the state. To be fair, their image took a big hit on the anti-state position with their battle against file-sharing software company Napster. In particular, Ulrich's appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2000 was made to defend their claim of intellectual property rights and the illegality of sharing music online. But moving on from this divisive event in the band’s history, we can now explore the statements they have made in their choice of cover songs to play at the 2007 Bridge School Benefit. After moving in a decidedly pro-state direction during the Napster debacle, recent experiences point to their moving back in the opposite point of view.

The first song played on both nights was Rare Earth’s “I Just Want to Celebrate.” This song contains a number of pro-individual liberty statements, such as “I put my faith in the people / But the people let me down / So I turned the other way / And I carry on, anyhow.” Just based on the first song, it can be argued that the message may be a defense of the charge against the band every time a new album comes out that they had finally sold out, a charge they have been defending literally since their first album. This is a distinct possibility, because the band has been working on new songs, but it still illustrates Metallica’s emphasis on individual freedom, pleasing oneself, and not caring what the mob thinks.

However, is the line in the song, “Had my hand on the dollar bill / And the dollar bill blew away,” another in a string of celebrities decrying the falling value of the American dollar? Obviously this is a more subtle message than models demanding to be paid in other currencies, and rap stars flashing Euros in music videos, but it is a message nonetheless, especially as Metallica has deep roots in Europe, with drummer Lars Ulrich being born in Denmark, keeping his Danish citizenship, and spending a good deal of his time there with his Danish girlfriend Connie Neilsen.

Nazareth’s “Don’t Judas Me” is a clearer example of Metallica's apparent shift to more pro-liberty positions, and may reflect the band's assessment of the mainstream media and its propaganda. “Treat me as you like to be treated” is obviously pro-liberty enough, but the choice of this song, in the midst of media propaganda about the threat of Iran and a police state out of control with daily taserings and intrusive searches at airports, is especially interesting. “Please don’t headshrink me / Don’t disguise your innuendos / Make no lies to me,” and “Please don’t number me / Don’t betray my trusted promise / Please don’t anger me / I find it hard to bear no fairness / Don’t frustrate me, manipulate me,” could be Metallica’s subtle warning to fans not to trust automatically anyone using a position of power or media exposure as a bully pulpit. It is hard to listen to the song without hearing echoes of a coming national ID card, the betrayal of large parts of the "trusted promise" between the people and their government enshrined in the Constitution, and a media that specializes in propaganda and bad stenography. It is also hard not to hear echoes of particular Revolution by supporters clearly angry at what they are getting from government and has been a constant victim of unfairness.

The use of this song without a specific message stating their views would fit with Metallica’s statements that they feel it inappropriate to use their fame to espouse overtly political positions. As Hetfield himself stated in an interview with the band's official "Metclub" in 2003, "People at interviews ask you u2018what are your views on the war?' Well, as a singer in Metallica, I've got nothing to say about it, because this is not a soapbox for me. I really don't like it when someone uses their opinion just because they're popular." This echoed a similar statement from Ulrich in 1996 regarding the band members' politics that "nobody ever gets to the point of being so pushy that is pushes Metallica in one way or another."

This focus on a media out of control and glorifying in negative messages is carried through to the next song on the first night, Garbage’s “I’m Only Happy When it Rains.” Lyrics such as “You know I love it when the news is bad / And why it feels so good to feel so sad” reflects a view that revels in bad news and a misery loves company attitude. In addition to this being as accurate a summary of neoconservative ideology as one is bound to get, it may reflect the band's own opinion of a negative, exploitative media.

Without a direct statement from the band, of course, the conclusion is left to speculation, but the overall tone of these first three songs seems to show a consistent focus on individuality and a distrust of labeling and easy answers given by a centrally-controlled source, such as the Old Media or the State. Of course, singer and guitarist James Hetfield was himself briefly a subject of the negative news machine, when he was stopped at an airport and reported to be a potentially suspected terrorist, due to his "Taliban-like beard." If someone who sells nearly 100 million records worldwide can be considered a possible terrorist and detained at the airport for facial hair, who is immune? Of course, the message is that everyone is a suspect. The fact that the incident did not happen as described certainly did not deter the rumors from spreading much further than the truth.

The last two songs are more overtly anti-war than the others. The first is “Veteran of the Psychic Wars,” by Blue Oyster Cult. This song may also be a dual statement on the media manipulations and war itself. Obviously, "psychic" wars going on here at home are just as important as real wars in convincing the public that war is useful and going well. Weariness of a war going on far too long, along with an assault on personal liberty and privacy, is the message of lines such as “But the war’s still going on dear / And there’s no end that I know / And I can’t say if we’re ever… / I can’t say if we’re ever gonna to be free,” and “It’s time we had a break from it / It’s time we had some leave.”

The band playing a song that refuses to differentiate between real and "psychic" wars indicates a growing distrust of the government, which has used their recordings to torture detainees in Iraq, who are unused to heavy metal. Ulrich vehemently disagreed with this use of the music, but realized that he could do nothing about his intellectual property being used as a torture device. His statements on the issue, in an interview to the European press, are particularly revealing of his feelings on torture: "I feel horrible about this. No one in Iraq has ever done anything to hurt me, and I don't understand why we have to be implicated in the bullsh–." He seemed no less frustrated when discussing how Metallica's name in particular has been associated with torture when he states, "What about firing up some Venom or some of those Norwegian death metal bands? The problem with that is then it wouldn't be a soundbite. Sometimes Metallica become the token heavy metal band that you can talk about." Ironically, though, he does not invoke his intellectual property rights when discussing the state's use of his music for means he does not agree with: "What am I supposed to do about it, get George Bush on the phone and tell him to get his generals to play some Venom?"

The band’s own personal involvement in the war, through the use of their songs as an “enhanced interrogation” technique, and the false reports spread through the media of Hetfield being stopped at an airport on suspicion of a terrorist-style appearance, may have convinced them to make a stronger statement opposing big war and big government, without violating their decision to get on the official bully pulpit. Metallica have been used as a tool to fight the amorphous war on terror as well as at least one member having his individual rights infringed upon. As the BOC cover song finally asks, “Did I hear you say that this is victory?”

The final cover song that Metallica chose to play at the Bridge School Benefit is Dire Straits’ “Brothers in Arms.” Although the song, throughout most of it, seems to glorify in the camaraderie of being soldiers for a common cause, the emphasis on this concept of “brothers in arms” is turned on its head in the final lines. The song emphasizes the strength of bonds that are formed “Through these fields of destruction,” “As the battles raged higher,” and “In the fear and alarm,” which may indicate that strength is found in becoming closer to those allies with whom one fights a battle. But, the final lines of the song are “We’re fools to make war / On our brothers in arms,” repeating the “brothers in arms” line used throughout the song to show that all humans have common bonds, no matter that “There’s so many different worlds / So many different suns.” When individuals go to war for a state, they are fighting individuals that they have more in common with than they will ever share with the state they are fighting for. Individuals, says the song, hold stronger bonds amongst themselves than they will ever have with an abstract state. This message is emphasized in the performance itself as Hetfield repeats the final lines (“We’re fools to make war / On our brothers”) numerous times until the end of the song.

So, have Metallica’s experiences in the war against terror affected their views on war, liberty, or the state? It certainly seems as if they have, based on their choice of songs to cover for the Bridge School Benefit. The strong collectivist position of the group imploring the state to help them exert greater control over their intellectual property has given way to outright disagreement with state decisions of its own use of that intellectual property, and a pro-individual liberty stance. Although these ideas have been expressed in various Metallica songs throughout their career, never before have they played a set with such a consistent message. In fact, that is the aspect of the shows that strikes the long-term fan immediately. Having read much on the history of Metallica and their personal views and having collected nearly 800 bootleg concerts on CD and 100 on VHS tape (yes, all of Metallica), I can not remember any other concert focusing so strongly on any single message for nearly the entire set. In their choice of cover songs, Metallica seems to have laid out a message stating a new, emphatic, anti-war, anti-state position.

December 7, 2007