One (Metallica song)

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"One"
File:Metallica - One cover.jpg
Single by Metallica
from the album ...And Justice for All
B-side "The Prince"
Released January 10, 1989
Format
Recorded One on One Studios
(Los Angeles, California)
Genre
Length 7:27
Label Elektra
Writer(s)
Producer(s)
Metallica singles chronology
"Eye of the Beholder"
(1988)		 "One"
(1989)		 "Enter Sandman"
(1991)
Music video
One on YouTube
Music sample
"One"
noicon
Alternative cover
One (Live) cover
One (Live) cover

"One" is an anti-war song by the American heavy metal band Metallica.[1] It was released as the third and final single from their fourth studio album, ...And Justice for All (1988). "One" was also the band's first Top 40 hit single, reaching number 35 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song hit number one in Finland.

Metallica performed "One" for the 1988 Grammy Awards show broadcast from Los Angeles. The next year the song won a Grammy Award in the first Best Metal Performance category.[2] The song is one of the band's most popular pieces and has remained a live staple since the release of the album, making this the most played song from the album ...And Justice for All.

A video for the song was introduced in January 1989 on MTV. It portrays a World War I soldier who is severely wounded—blind and unable to speak nor move—returned home as a supposed vegetable case to wait helplessly for death. His only hope is to devise a way to communicate with the hospital staff.[3] Shot in black and white by director Michael Salomon, the video's story is intercut with scenes taken from the 1971 anti-war film Johnny Got His Gun. Due to routinely being required to pay royalty fees to continue showing the music video, Metallica bought the rights to the film. The video was ranked No. 1 on MTV soon after its introduction.[2]

Song

"One" was written in November 1987 by Metallica's principal composers James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. The song was released in 1989 as the third and final single from the album. For the first 17 seconds of the song there are a series of sound effects with a battle theme, an artillery barrage and helicopter are heard and continues slightly over a clean tone guitar intro by Hetfield before Kirk Hammett comes in over the top with a clean-toned solo. Ulrich's drums come in and continues until each chorus, when the guitars become heavy and distorted before returning to clean. There is a second solo by Hammett halfway through the song, before lyrics cut out and the song gradually gets more heavy and distorted until the "machine gun" guitar build up (played alongside double bass drums) before the next, often highly praised, guitar solo by Hammett, and a final dual solo by Hammett and Hetfield. The song begins in 4/4 time, and later 3/4 as well as 2/4.

In 1991, James Hetfield told Guitar World that he wrote the song's opening B-G chord change (he miscalls it a 'modulation') based on an idea prompted by the Venom song "Buried Alive" from their second studio album, Black Metal.

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I had been fiddling around with that B-G modulation for a long time. The idea for the opening came from a Venom song called "Buried Alive". The kick drum machine-gun part near the end wasn't written with the war lyrics in mind, it just came out that way. We started that album with Mike Clink as producer. He didn't work out so well, so we got Flemming to come over and save our asses.

The song starts off in a soft melodic setting, but it develops through multiple sections into heavier and faster speed metal sounds,[4] leading up to a technically complex tapping solo by Kirk Hammett,[5] and a dual guitar section by Hammett and James Hetfield.[1]

Concept

The song is based on the idea of a soldier losing all of his limbs and being unable to hear, speak, or see, set to a World War I backdrop. In an interview in New Zealand in 1989, Ulrich describes the movie Johnny Got His Gun as having a similar theme, and this was the reason it was incorporated into the video.[6]

Live performance

"One" is a favorite of many Metallica fans, and therefore is a fixture of the band's live performances. When played live, the song is usually played with guitars tuned down by one semitone (a permanent fixture of their studio and live work since the post Metallica era, save for Death Magnetic in the case of the former) and is preceded by pyrotechnics and the same sounds of war such as machine guns, and bombs exploding as heard on the recorded version. The song also features heavy strobe lighting during the heavier half of the song, namely before the Hammett solo.
The song was also featured on S&M, Metallica's album of live performances in collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Kamen. Another mentionable performance was at the Grammy Awards 2014, having pianist Lang Lang accompanying the band on an acoustic grand piano.

Track listing

Music video

"One" was the first Metallica song for which a music video was created. The music video, directed by Bill Pope and Michael Salomon, debuted on MTV on January 20, 1989. The video, shot in Long Beach, California, is almost entirely in black and white, and features the band performing the song in a warehouse. It features dialogue and several scenes from the 1971 film adaptation of Johnny Got His Gun. Timothy Bottoms can be seen starring as Joe Bonham, the main character in the novel.

Three versions of the "One" music video were made; the first (the longest, album version) contained scenes of both the band and scenes from the movie. The second was simply a shortened version of the first and the third, often known as the "jammin' version", lacked scenes from the movie (the song and video fades at the last bridge in the third version).

Like many other music videos from Metallica, "One" puts great emphasis on the performances of the band members as musicians, with many shots of Hetfield, Newsted and Hammett's hands picking and fretting. The video features the band members in a typical early Metallica fashion: playing (as if in rehearsal) in some sort of warehouse, in tight formation around Ulrich's drum kit, and dressed in casual street clothes and with long untamed hair.

In the music video, it can be clearly seen that both Hetfield and Hammett are playing ESP guitars; Jason Newsted is on a 5-string Wal bass. It is also clear that Newsted is playing bass with his fingers at the start of the song, but later switches to a pick.

Two of the three versions of the "One" music video appear on 2 of One, a VHS released on July 1, 1990 and both would again be featured on the band's 2006 music video compilation DVD.

The music video was ranked 38 on Rock on the Net: MTV: 100 Greatest Music Videos and number 1 on Fuse's No. 1 Countdown: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Special Edition.

Chart positions

Chart (1989–1994) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[7] 5
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[8] 23
Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)[9] 1
Germany (Official German Charts)[10] 31
Ireland (IRMA) 12
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[11] 3
New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[12] 13
Norway (VG-lista)[13] 4
Spain (AFYVE)[14] 14
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[15] 3
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[16] 22
UK Singles (Official Charts Company 13
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 35

Covers

Other appearances

  • "One" is featured in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, where it is mostly remembered as one of the most difficult songs to appear in the series, mostly due to the fast-paced solos that comprise the second half of the song. The song appeared once again in Guitar Hero: Metallica, with its difficulty toned down.
  • In 2008, Shout! Factory released a film adaptation of the stage play Johnny Got His Gun; the DVD release included the music video for "One" and the original film.
  • "One" is sampled in the songs "Like This" on Feed the Animals, the 2008 album by artist Girl Talk and Eminem on the song "Same Song and Dance" from the album Relapse.
  • "One" was featured in an episode of Beavis and Butt-head.
  • "One" was the walkup music for Oakland Athletics closer Grant Balfour until he left the team following the 2013 season. When Balfour entered the game to this song, raucous Oakland fans would wildly punch the air and headbang; this was known as "Balfour Rage".

Honors

Personnel

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grxxc7_nLJA
  7. ↑ "Australian-charts.com – Metallica – One". ARIA Top 50 Singles.
  8. ↑ "Ultratop.be – Metallica – One" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
  9. ↑ "Billboard Hits of the World peak". Google Books. Retrieved January 17, 2012.
  10. ↑ "Musicline.de – Metallica Single-Chartverfolgung" (in German). Media Control Charts. PhonoNet GmbH.
  11. ↑ "Nederlandse Top 40 – Metallica search results" (in Dutch) Dutch Top 40.
  12. ↑ "Charts.org.nz – Metallica – One". Top 40 Singles.
  13. ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – Metallica – One". VG-lista.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ "Swedishcharts.com – Metallica – One". Singles Top 60.
  16. ↑ "Swisscharts.com – Metallica – One". Swiss Singles Chart.
  17. ↑ "100 Greatest Guitar Solos". About.com. Retrieved December 8, 2005.
  18. ↑ "Rock 1000 Countdown 2009". The Rock 1000. Retrieved September 11, 2009.
  19. ↑ MacDonald, Patrick (January 12, 1990). "Soundgarden Nomination: The Growth of Local Rock". The Seattle Times. Retrieved December 17, 2009.

External links

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