Metallica--'One'
Metallica's music is famously belligerent and confrontational, but ...And Justice for All is the album where they really went to war. On their 1988 release, Metallica directed their considerable hostility towards the justice system, oppressive world leaders, Christian Scientist parents, conventional time signatures and song structures, corruption, and the standards that Metallica had previously set for themselves as a metal band. ...And Justice for All found Metallica at their most experimental, with song lengths averaging over seven minutes, bizarre production that almost completely mixed out new bassist Jason Newsted, and tracks like 'Blackened' and 'Dyers Eve' ranking among their fastest and heaviest. Nothing on the album sounded radio-friendly at all, especially during the commercial prime of Def Leppard and Bon Jovi. But that all changed when Metallica released the single 'One,' a song which felt, sounded, and (thanks to Metallica's first-ever video) looked like nothing else that was on the market at the time.
Inspired by Dalton Trumbo's antiwar novel, Johnny Got His Gun, Metallica bought the rights to the book's 1971 film adaptation to make a dark, unpleasant video that incorporated film dialogue with black & white footage of the band performing in a sparse room. The lyrics followed the book's protagonist, a soldier in World War I whose encounter with a landmine has left him without arms, legs or face and unable to speak, see or hear. "I can't remember anything," solemnly begins singer James Hetfield, "Can't tell if this is true or dream." As the verse continues, the soldier realizes his situation, and he silently cries out for help:
"Now that the war is through with me, I'm waking up I cannot see, That there is not much left of me, Nothing is real but pain now"
"Hold my breath as I wish for death--Oh please, God, wake me"
The song's antiwar message was well-received, but the narrator's begs for euthanasia were targeted by conservatives and music censorship groups as being pro-suicide. With a hit song, Metallica were perceived as an ever greater threat than before.
The song's hard-hitting second movement is musically and lyrically as chilling as the film clips. When Metallica performs this song, the "landmine" line is often accompanied by explosive pyrotechnics, which recall the atrocities of war and not the celebratory atmosphere at most rock concerts with fireworks.
"Darkness--imprisoning me/All that I see/Absolute horror/I cannot live/I cannot die/Trapped in myself/Body my holding cell"
"Landmine--has taken my sight/Taken my speech/Taken my hearing/Taken my arms/Taken my legs/Taken my soul/Left me with life in hell"
Even when they had a hit single the world still wasn't quite ready to embrace Metallica--...And Justice for All famously lost the first-ever Metal Grammy Award to the distinctly non-metal Jethro Tull. But Metallica had helped set the ball rolling, and a heavier, darker, socially conscious form of rock was ushering in the '90s.
Guns N' Roses--'Civil War'
Following up Appetite for Destruction with Use Your Illusion I and II was kind of like if The Clash had directly preceded Sandinista!, or if Rubber Soul was followed up with The White Album, and if those were the only two albums by the Clash or the Beatles that ever existed. After selling 15 millions records with a debut that was louder, raunchier, and better than even the best records by AC/DC, Aerosmith and Van Halen, Guns N' Roses unleashed a 2-CD monster that was as excessive, out of control and over-budget as the bands' lifestyles. Full of speed-metal thrashers, tortured power ballads that approached the ten-minute mark, Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney covers, tossed-off industrial experiments, Stones-inspired blues-rock, and enough hardcore punk to outdo their subsequent punk covers record, it was, as Slash put it, like a grenade that everyone was struggling to hold the pin in. Brilliant and baffling, Use Your Illusion I and II is an achievement that has yet to be equaled by anyone.
The first sign of what was to come on Use Your Illusion was the song 'Civil War,' a bleak epic that appeared on a Romanian benefit album organized by George Harrison. 'Civil War' alienated most people who heard it, including G n' R fans who liked the lascivious rock of 'Welcome to the Jungle' or the sweet pop of 'Sweet Child o' Mine', and especially anyone who bought the benefit album for the songs by Van Morrison, Eric Clapton and Elton John. Beginning with the most famous quote from Cool Hand Luke and Axl whistling 'When Johnny Comes Marching Home,' it destroyed listeners' previous conceptions of Guns N' Roses within seconds.
"My hands are tied/The billions shift from side to side/And the wars go on with brainwashed pride/For the love of God and our human rights/And all these things are swept aside/By bloody hands time can't deny/And are washed away by your genocide/And history hides the lies of our civil wars."
Recalling the themes of 'War Pigs' on the song's chorus:
"And I don't need your civil war/It feeds the rich while it buries the poor/Your power hungry sellin' soldiers in a human grocery store, ain't that fresh/I don't need your civil war"
The song's rejoinder of "The way we've always done before," and references to Vietnam showed that songwriters Axl, Slash, and Duff McKagan knew that the people in power were not learning from the mistakes of previous world leaders, and that the religions and human rights that war was declared in the name of were nowhere to be found in the heart of the conflict. Guns N' Roses use simple language and are really a political band, but I can think of a few world leaders who'd be better off had they listened to Use Your Illusion.
G n' R are often contrasted with the grunge icons that took their place in Amercia's consciousness, but for better or worse, songs like 'Civil War' challenged rock audiences as much as In Utero or Vitalogy. Whether it was a bold new direction, career suicide, or both, the band imploded shortly thereafter.
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