THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

52-Metallica-One.

1989-Number 13 single.

Best Bit-At 4.38. The song is about someone who has lost all four limbs, is blind and unable to speak, and is also in constant pain…but apart from that, mustn’t grumble.

Metallica were formed in 1981, in Los Angeles, California, United States, by James Hetfield, (vocals and guitar) and Lars Ulrich, (drums) in total there have been eight different members come and go, and they remain active as a four piece with Kirk Hammett, (lead guitar) who has been a band member since 1983, and Robert Trujillo, (bass) who joined in 2003 completing the current line up. Metallica along with the other mid to late 1980’s groups ‘Slayer,’ ‘Megadeth,’ and ‘Anthrax,’ are known as the ‘Big Four’ of the musical genre ‘Thrash metal,’ which is an extreme sub-genre of ‘Heavy Metal’ music. It was on hearing the 1984 track ‘Metal Thrashing Mad,’ that the term ‘Thrash metal’ was coined by Malcolm Dome, (1955-2021) who at that time was a journalist for the ‘Heavy Metal’ magazine ‘Kerrang!’ Up until that time Metallica referred to their sound as ‘power metal.’

Metallica (see also best songs 730) are one of the best selling groups of all time, with record sales in excess 125 million, which includes Album sales in America of over 58 million to date. Their discography includes 10 studio Albums released between 1983-2016, and 43 singles issued in the same time period. In America on Billboard their last six Albums have all made Number 1, and eight of their singles have reached the Billboard Hot 100 top 40 singles chart, with ‘Until It Sleeps’ from 1996 charting the highest at Number 10. In the UK, 19 of their singles have made the top 40, with ‘Enter Sandman,’ (1991) and ‘Until It Sleeps,’ (1996) both reaching Number 5.

‘One’ is an anti-war song, it was written by James Hetfield, and Lars Ulrich, with the production by Metallica, and Flemming Rasmussen, in total Rasmussen worked with Metallica on three of their studio Albums between 1984-1988. ‘One’ was the last of three singles released from Metallica’s fourth studio Album ‘…And Justice for All’ from September 1988, and tells the story of a soldier in World War 1 that is severely wounded when a landmine blows his arms and legs off, he is also blinded and left unable to speak. Lying helpless in a hospital bed his only way to communicate is by jolting, where he spells out ‘kill me’ in Morse Code.

The lyrics to ‘One’ are based on the 1939 novel ‘Johnny Got His Gun,’ which was written by Dalton Trumbo, (1905-1976) who in 1971 wrote and directed the film ‘Johnny Got His Gun,’ which was based on the novel about a young soldier hit by an artillery shell during World War 1. James Hetfield had been introduced to the book by his older half brother David Hale, and it was a specific passage from the book that inspired the song.’How could a man lose as much of himself as I have and still live? When a man buys a lottery ticket you never expect him to win because it’s a million to one shot, but if he does win, you’ll believe it because one in a million still leaves one. If I’d read about a guy like me in the paper I wouldn’t believe it, cos it’s a million to one, but a million to ONE always leaves one. I’d never expect it to happen to me because the odds of it happening are a million to one, but a million to one always leaves one. One.’

‘One’ was the first single that Metallica made a video for, and was directed by Bill Pope, and Michael Salomon. The video features dialogue and several scenes from the 1971 film adaptation of ‘Johnny Got His Gun,’ for which Metallica had to pay royalties for using the movies clips. This was proving to be very expensive, so instead of pulling the video or continuing to pay, when it came to re-negotiate the license they bought rights to it, which have since seen the original film being made available on DVD by Metallica.

James Hetfield has also said that he got inspiration for the songs intro from the 1982 song ‘Buried Alive,’ by the English Heavy Metal band ‘Venom,’ which is a song about being trapped in a casket while being buried alive. The intro to ‘One’ starts with battle themed sound effects including an artillery barrage, and a helicopter flying during a confrontation in World War 1, but this must be put down to artistic licence, as helicopters were not invented until 1936, which was 18 years after the end of that war.

‘Now that the war is through with me, I’m waking up, I cannot see that there’s not much left of me. Nothing is real but pain now, hold my breath as I wish for death, oh please, God, wake me.’