The roots of “One” came from a 1939 novel by Dalton Trumbo called Johnny Got His Gun. So it was a book, a song, a movie, and now, a blog post.
Listen to the song while you read, for the full multimedia experience: Metallica One on YouTube.
| Time | Sound | Lyrics |
| 00:00 | It seeps in. A slow crescendo of weapon fire, M60 and M16 bursts. An urgent voice of a sergeant calls out informal military commands – “Move!” “Go go go!” Then comes the detonations from grenades, mortars, artillery rounds. A deeper rumble, erupting gunpowder and shrapnel buries the undercurrent of rifle fire temporarily. An aftershock then tucks into the beating wings of an approaching helicopter.The drums of war have quieted. All the hurry-up-and-wait military life has ended, when all the morning push-ups and inspections and flag-waving formations have become secondary to holding onto the spark of life, and when training either saves you or has no relevance whatsoever. “One” starts with the moment when the world erupts with bloody hell and when the madness of men is ruthlessly unleashed. | |
| 00:17 | A brief quiet, then the four notes that sound like an EKG, or the graph that records the electrical voltage of the heart. The wounded man has just regained consciousness in a hospital. This is the emotional base camp toward a raging peak. | |
| 00:35 | The man awakens further, to a lighter but still ominous sound. A nuanced depression. A lost voice in a wasteland, as the wounded man wonders, “Where am I?” | |
| 00:52 | A more frantic sound. An acceleration of thought. A rhythmic beat that sounds like a scared person’s heart. Awareness becomes more lucid to the damaged body buried under medical equipment. | |
| 1:29 | Seeing a white light, his soul begins to depart. But in just a moment he will come back down to his living hell. | |
| 01:43 | Reality is completely unclear. Silent and trying to figure out what’s happening, with no voice to cry for help. Only pain is real and he wants to escape. A description of a nightmare, where the dream can’t be escaped even if he is only locked in sleep. The war devoured him like a machine, or a beast, a living entity that consumes things and spits them out, pushes them out of its exhaust pipe. He’s waking up, and he’s starting to get a little pissed off. | I can’t remember anythingCan’t tell if this is true or dreamDeep down inside I feel to scream
This terrible silence stops me 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 |
| 02:10 | Solace in a prayer, a plea for mercy. He is scared but still coherent enough to ask for God’s help. He still believes in some things, mostly that this can’t be real, and that he will be assisted at some point. God will pinch him, and end the nightmare. The prayerful mood shows the hope dwindling. | Hold my breath as I wish for deathOh please, God, wake me |
| 02:31 | Life-support and hoses stick into him like umbilical cords, as if he’s been put back in the womb unnaturally. Time has progressed. Before he was only aware of his physical pain. Death is better than the misery of laying in the bed. He’s asking someone to finish him. | Back in the womb it’s much too realIn pumps life that I must feelBut can’t look forward to reveal
Look to the time when I’ll live Fed through the tube that sticks in me Just like a wartime novelty Tied to machines that make me be Cut this life off from me |
| 02:59 | His spirit rises for the second time, with hope again. The inner voice is angrier this time, however. The racing thoughts fly off to heaven for respite. | Hold my breath as I wish for deathOh please, God, wake me |
| 03:34 | But heaven is gone. All hope is null and void. The world is gone – he’s cut off. He’s a dot in the universe, just a spec in the vacuum. A separated entity from all other living things. This is the hell of solitude. | Now the world is gone, I’m just oneOh God, help meHold my breath as I wish for death
Oh please, God, help me |
| 03:50 | He thickens and angers, distorted in both body and mind. Now the sounds are grating. His head is on the hotplate now. He’s as tight as a snare drum. | |
| 04:16 | Hi heart rises in pressure, beating faster, twice per second. Nerve-wracking fear of what’s to come, being forever trapped inside himself. A chainsaw sound, then an eerie calm before the storm, a silence. His suffering is the unknown sacrifice of a family and nation. | |
| 04:30 | The chainsaw sound stops and the air crystallizes for a moment. He palpitates so rapidly that he unleashes a scream. | |
| 04:34 | And he worsens further. Much further. The rage is let loose. He’s no longer holding it back. He is mad, afraid, ruined, unstable, enraged. | |
| 04:51 | He can only think in frantic fragments to describe the pain and suffering. He cannot live or die. His body is a prison which he wants to escape, but because of modern medicine, he is trapped in an earthly purgatory. Rage is helpless, utterly useless and cannot possibly assuage his anguish in any way, but yet he must rage because that is all that he can do. He is helpless inside and outside of his head. | Darkness imprisoning meAll that I seeAbsolute horror
I cannot live I cannot die Trapped in myself Body my holding cell |
| 05:08 | Only now do we know for sure what happened to him in the fray. In the skirmish, a landmine took his body and senses. Glory and valor are for the quick and the lucky, not for him. | Landmine has taken my sightTaken my speechTaken my hearing
Taken my arms Taken my legs Taken my soul Left me with life in hell |
| 05:20 | His thoughts run like a wild, starving dog. | |
| 05:43 | A devilish sensation envelops him. He has nowhere to climb. | |
| 06:32 | A mega-dropoff of sleep, then a second awakening, and more of the same nightmare. Rising around him like water to his neck, with his nose barely above the drowning pool. | |
| 06:51 | He makes agonal respirations. The attending physician shouts, “Clear!” His body jerks on the table under the voltage. | |
| 07:20 | Full-throttle to the final heartbeat. Then a silence. The final quiet. His pain is over. |
Related Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_(Metallica_song )
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1870
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Got_His_Gun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_shock
http://www.lyricsforall.com/display/lyric/10597/95853/Schubert/Ave+Maria/
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0208/p02s01-ussc.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/03/25/eveningnews/main683247.shtml
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,104184,00.html
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/General/JohnnyGotHisGun.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocardiogram
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