Lars Ulrich has listened to one song more than any other: “92,00 times”
According to leaked documents, there came a point in the Vietnam War when President Lyndon B Johnson’s primary motive for remaining actively involved was “to save face”.
Operating on the advice of Henry Kissinger, this would perpetuate countless losses of life, on both sides, and cast an irreparable stain on American society. Counterculture rallied against such mindless death, and in many ways, it was easiest for the British bands to lead the charge for peace from afar.
For instance, when the National Guard opened fire on a group of unarmed protesters at Kent State University in Ohio, killing four and severely injuring nine in a salvo of 67 shots, polls revealed that the majority of the US public found the protestors, simply strumming their lutes and singing for peace, at fault.
Unlike their American counterparts, the second wave of British invasion bands didn’t have to answer to that mob; they could happily offer a voice of foreign counterpoint on the debate. More often than not, they readily did so.
One of the most epic wails for peace on this front would come from Ian Gillan and Deep Purple with their scintillating rally cry to stop the mindless violence with the stunning ‘Child in Time’. “The song basically reflected the mood of the moment, and that’s why it became so popular,” Gillan would later claim.
That says a lot about the ‘mood’. The track is a dramatic, orchestral piece of rock that roars out of the speakers like ‘1812 Overture’ powered into overdrive by napalm. The fact that this track accurately captured the mood is more indicative of the ‘lightning in a bottle’ times we were dealing with than any new bulletin.
While the specifics of the Vietnam War contained within the track might now render it a time capsule, the adrenalising blast that the song offers remains as potently visceral as ever. Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, the man partly responsible for birthing thrash metal – a genre that similarly offers a blitzkrieg in response to hardship – has consumed the cold splash of water of ‘Child in Time’ like coffee.
The drummer cites the song firmly among his all-time favourites and recalls the life-changing moment when his father took him to see the band play live at the tender age of nine. He went into the show a boy, he left as god knows what. From thereon, Ulrich became determined to seize the thunderous potential of rock ‘n’ roll, and he’s used ‘Child in Time’ to serve as a perpetual reminder of that ever since.”
This is their most iconic moment,” he told Rolling Stone regarding the rollicking 1970 hit for Deep Purple. “I’ve heard it 92,000 times, and it never sounds anything less than great.” If you’re to take that remark at face value, then that means that the Metallica man has spent 650 days, 14 hours, and 40 minutes listening to this harrowing, near-11-minute epic. So, in short, perhaps we shouldn’t take it at face value, and perhaps accept that he has simply listened to it a lot, and it has defined his sensibilities along the way.
