The Lyrics That Made METALLICA Cry

August 27, 2011

METALLICA lead guitarist Kirk Hammett revealed to Mojo that he and frontman James Hetfield were both brought to tears during the sessions for the band's upcoming collaborative album with Lou Reed, titled "Lulu". Hammett explained that the outbursts occurred while they were recording a song called "Junior Dad", saying, "I had just lost my father literally three or four weeks previous. I had to run out of the control room, and I found myself standing in the kitchen, sobbing away. James came into the kitchen in the same condition he was sobbing, too. It was insane."

The lyrics to the song "Junior Dad" can be found in Lou Reed's "Pass Thru Fire: The Collected Lyrics" book, which was originally published by Hyperion Books in 2000.

"Junior Dad" lyrics:

Would you come to me
If I was half drowning
An arm above the last wave
Would you come to me
Would you pull me up

Would the effort really hurt you
Is it unfair to ask you
To help pull me up

The window broke the silence of the matches
The smoke effortlessly floating
I'm all choked up

Pull me up
Would you be my lord and savior
Pull me up by the hair
Now would you kiss me on my lips

Burning fever burning on my forehead
The brain that once was listening
Now shoots out its tiresome message

Won't you pull me up
Scalding my dead father has the motor
And he's driving towards
An island of lost souls

Sunny - a monkey then to monkey
I will teach you meanness fear and blindness
No social redeeming kindness

Oh-or-state of grace
Would you pull me up
Would you drop the mental bullet
Would you pull me by the arm up
Would you still kiss my lips
Hiccup: the dream is over
Get the coffee: turn the lights on
Say hello to junior dad
The greatest disappointment
Age withered him and changed him
Into junior dad
Psychic savagery [End of lyrics]

Video footage of Reed and his wife, Laurie Anderson, performing "Junior Dad" in Paris in September 2009 can be seen below.

The lyrics that apparently got to the two metal men were "Say hello to junior dad/The greatest disappointment/Age withered and changed him."

Hammett added, "[Reed] managed to take out both guitar players in METALLICA in one fell swoop, with his amazing poetic lyrics."

James Hetfield's father abandoned his family when James was just 13, an experience that the singer/guitarist has spoken about at length in a new documentary called "Absent".

"Lulu" is due out on November 1 and was secretly recorded in May at METALLICA's studio in the Bay Area. The album is based around music Reed originally wrote for a theatrical production of "The Lulu Plays".

Photo credit: Anton Corbijn

(Thanks: h-a-r-v / DeathMagnetic.pl)

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