Master Of Puppets (song)
Encyclopedia : M : MA : MAS : Master Of Puppets (song)
| Song From Master of Puppets | ||
|---|---|---|
| Album by Metallica | ||
| Released | February 21, 1986 | |
| Recorded | Sweet Silence Studios Copenhagen, Denmark September-December, 1985 | |
| Genre | Thrash metal | |
| Length | 54:41 | |
| Label | Elektra Records | |
| Producer(s) | Metallica, Flemming Rasmussen | |
| Tracks | ||
| ||
At 8:37, Master of Puppets is the longest track on the album. It is also following the tradition of Ride the Lightning in having the title track as the second track, preceded by a shorter, high-speed typical thrash metal track (this also occurs on St. Anger). There are several such track similarities on Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets and ...And Justice for All. Master of Puppets is also notable for its long and complex instrumental section beginning about three and a half minutes into the song.
The song's lyrical meaning is most often recognised as being about heroin and cocaine abuse. There have been disputes, however, that it could also hold a political meaning due to its title. A lyric in the song, " chop your breakfast on a mirror" refers to cocaine abuse. During this song, on the 'Live Shit: Binge and Purge' DVD/Video, Hetfield is seen making a middle finger gesture against his left arm on the line 'fix me, baby!" which clearly resembles syringe use. This is further indication that the song contains meaning of drug use, particularly heroin. On this note, the same gesture is made during 'Harvester of Sorrow' on the line 'Drink up, Shoot in' which is rumoured to have similar lyrical meaning.
The song is a firm favourite among Metallica-fans, received some airplay in its time, and is a popular concert staple. Often in concert, James Hetfield will change the lyrics of the second verse from, "Dedicated to, how I'm killing you" to "Dedicated to, how I'm fucking you." The riff near the end of the song (after the last guitar solo) is taken from David Bowie's "Andy Warhol". Strictly speaking, it makes up less than half of the riff in question in Master Of Puppets.
Before the solo on the song, James Hetfield screams out a verse ("Master, master, where's the dreams that I've been after? Master, master, promised only lies. Laughter, laughter, all I hear or see is laughter. Laughter, laughter, laughing at my cries...fix me!") Cliff Burton, the bass player, in the background can be heard vaguely reciting the verse, in a deep gruff voice.
The song has been ranked as the 3rd greatest Heavy Metal song ever by VH1.
In 2006, metalcore band, Trivium released a cover of the song.
The conservative talk show host Michael Savage uses this track as the opening of his radio show, The Savage Nation.
At Woodstock 94, the funk metal band Primus played the intro of the song
At a 2005 concert, Dream Theater covered this song
External links
- [Master of Puppets] lyrics at [DarkLyrics]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.