The book that inspired Metallica classic ‘One’
In the 1980s, Metallica drove their flag assertively into the heart of the burgeoning metal scene. Heavy metal music is a relatively esoteric corner of rock ‘n’ roll, with its devoted fans and artists forming an impermeable oil slick on the lake of popular music. The fact that Metallica have reached a wider audience with their contribution to metal is a testament to James Hetfield’s unique songwriting prowess and the band’s collective musicianship.
Much of the band’s success can be attributed to Kirk Hammett’s deft eye for killer solo riffs. Over the course of his four-decade run with the group, he has forged a signature style through lightning-fast licks, heavy wah pedal use and flawless picking. Combined with Hetfield’s thrashing rhythm style and immersive lyrics, we have a perfect storm and quite possibly the greatest metal group of all time.
Sonically, Metallica were mostly inspired by their heavy rock forebears of the 1970s, especially Led Zeppelin. In an interview, Hetfield once discussed some of his favourite Metallica songs. He picked out ‘Fixxxer’, ‘Bleeding Me’ and ‘The Outlaw Torn’ as salient moments and landed on ‘The Unforgiven II’ as a proud personal achievement. “Wow, we’re professional now, it sounds… it’s almost like Jimmy Page,” he said. “We were entering the realm of [Led] Zeppelin at that point … pretty proud of that too”.
Beyond their more obvious sonic lineage, Hetfield uses a broad bool of inspiration for his unique lyrical concoctions. For instance, ‘The Unforgiven’ was inspired by both Clint Eastwood and Chris Isaak and for ‘Enter Sandman’ it was European folklore that tickled the inspiration glands.
As it turns out, Hetfield is no stranger to a good read too. ‘One’, the third and final single from Metallica’s fourth studio album of 1988, …And Justice for All, was inspired by Dalton Trumbo’s popular 1939 anti-war novel, Johnny Got His Gun. The endlessly bleak single the Metallica’s first to chart in the US, reaching number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100, and remains a fan favourite to this day.
In the lyrics, Hetfield and Lars Ulrich told the harrowing story of a critically injured World War I soldier. Having lost his jaw and all of his limbs and left unable to hear, speak, or see, he begs God to set him free with death. The same premise is set out at the beginning of Johnny Got His Gun, in which the severely injured soldier drifts between fantasy and reality in his mind. After forming a bond with a young nurse, he attempts to communicate with the medics by hitting his head against his pillow in Morse code, spelling out “help”.
The official music video for ‘One’ was made using clips from the novel’s 1971 movie adaption. Watch below.
