Looped in the Head: Ronnie, Metallica
- rohansonalkar
- May 9, 2015
- 2 min read
The truth is that most people tend to link Metallica only to Nothing Else Matters, The Unforgiven, Enter Sandman and other popular shit. All killer riffs and timeless tunes, no doubt, but there’s more to the pioneers of heavy metal than just songs on which couples would run around hugging and doing Barbie stuff every time when the lyrics would go, “every day for a something new”. Please. Stop. And suck donkey ass.
Stashed between “The Thorn Within” and “Outlaw Torn”, the kick-epic-ass last song of the 1996 released album “Load” sits the thirteenth delivery, Ronnie. Apt number for a song about an insane teen with a gun, Ronnie starts off with a riff that no would’ve heard ever before on a Metallica number, and that’s what makes it so special. The cunningness of the notes may remind you of a few Motorhead classics, the song progresses with dark grey heaviness and then a splash of red breaks through when James starts singing:
“Story starts. Quiet town. Small time boy. Big time frown.”
As a teenager, I remember locking myself in my room, turning the volume up of the stereo while this song played on. I sat in the corner, with lyrics in my hand and sang along. Then when the lyrics got in me, I used to walk back and forth across the room wishing some band, any band, would cover “Ronnie” in any of the concerts. That day never came. The song played on. The heaviness of the riffs team up with cold lyrics, “Now they call pray, blood stains wash away.” The song talks about Ronnie losing his way, talking alone by himself, walking to a quiet town and staining the sun red. “He said lost my way, this bloody day, lost my way.”
The song doesn’t have much of a solo, but with a tone as grungy as the one used here, you don’t miss the signature Hammet solos. Past midway, the song changes course into a rather serious and a dramatic territory, the drumming pattern changes to build the entrance to an imminent surprise and the riffs get crunchier than ever. That’s when James starts the spoke lyrics, “Yeah, well all the green things dies when Ronnie moved to this place.” Immaculate insanity: “When he pulled that gun from his pocket, they all fall down, down, down.”
In true sense this song isn’t like any other Metallica song. The album wasn’t like any other Metallica album either. Metallica’s heavy metal aggression had deformed into this grungy, almost alternative hammer. Several of my friends found it hard to accept this change, but Metallica stayed on, played on.
And Ronnie will always remain a classic Metallica to me.
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