James Hetfield’s favourite lyric of all time
Metallica was never a band known for their mind-bending lyrics. Although James Hetfield could certainly make people feel something every time he stepped up to the microphone, it’s hard to look at some of the group’s early lyrics and not see them as caveman-levels of primal, especially when they sing about headbanging on tunes like ‘Whiplash’. But if Hetfield has learned anything from being in the metal limelight, he knew that lyrics like this hard rock gem were all that he needed.
Because looking through most hard rock songs, it’s generally about finding words that fit the riff rather than the other way around. Artists like Bob Dylan may pour over certain syllables every time they go into making a record, but if there’s a good melody already on top of everything, Hetfield always felt it was better to write to fill in the syllables than sacrificing the sound of the melody.
And that’s not to say that some of his lyrics haven’t been phenomenal. Some of the tunes on their twin Load albums detail the most harrowing moments in his life, and even if the melody does feel a bit choppy, a song like ‘Blackened’ off of And Justice For All is a good look at what happens when the world goes dark when no one is looking to protect the environment.
At the same time, Lemmy would never write those kinds of songs. Throughout his time in Motörhead, the bassist made it a priority to write about what he knew, whether that was life on the road, his ways with women, or his ever-growing dependence on speed. Then again, a few other Motörhead songs encapsulate what the band is about quite like ‘Overkill’.
‘Ace of Spades’ might be the pop version of what the group could do, but this is ground zero for where thrash metal officially started. Aside from the massive double bass performance from Phil Taylor that blew the doors wide open for Lars Ulrich, the lyrics are what struck a nerve with Hetfield, being a celebration of everything that rock and roll should be with lines like “Only way to feel the noise is when it’s good and loud/so good I can’t believe it screaming with the crowd}”.
When asked about his favourite lyrics for HMV, Hetfield said that single line from Lemmy said it all for his career. And once you start looking back at Metallica’s history of being the ultimate road dogs, the bassist practically wrote their unintentional anthem in that one song.
Outside of having the fantastic double kick pattern that would come to define thrash metal, Hetfield’s vocal cadence owes a lot to Lemmy as well. The frontman never claimed to have the nicest set of pipes in the world, but since he heard Lemmy barking on a lot of early Motörhead releases, it wasn’t that much of a leap to see him go from a humble rhythm guitarist to the vicious bulldog that he could be on And Justice For All.
And that’s before even getting into how much Lemmy lived by that one line as well. Looking back on their reputation for being one of loudest bands in the world, Lemmy made it a point to have a bass tone that could compete with almost any guitar player that came his way, which generally meant putting boatloads of distortion on top of everything and making sure that the Earth was shaking every time he launched into a song.
But if that was an experiment for Lemmy, it was practically gospel once Metallica started out. Outside of the songs on Kill Em All featuring blistering guitars, Hetfield’s approach to lyrics are so on the nose that Lemmy could have justifiably claimed to have had a writing credit for his inspiration alone.
So when Hetfield got to trade lines with Lemmy onstage, it wasn’t a case of simply jamming with one of his idols. It was a way of paying tribute to the one who helped everyone dream of playing at punishing volumes and leaving like the kind of rock and roll rebel that Keith Richards only wished he could be.
