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Metallica: the beginnings |
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METALLICA is a mega-band of heavy metal from 80s and 90s, whose name became a face of heavy metal for many fans and musicians. There are only few bands in the history of rock that reached such height as Metallica, and I doubt that today someone else has such fame and popularity as them. In short fifteen years this band turned from a bunch of basement amateurs into a national sensation. Most importantly Metallica never compromised their music for anyone in show business. Their music always was their self-expression, their faith. In this story, I will try to tell how Metallica began.
Metallicas beginning as many other things in this world owes to someone being at the right place in the right time. Im talking about one of the founders of future legend its drummer, Lars Ulrich, who was born in faraway Denmark. This fact is interesting, because only two famous performers of heavy metal were ever born in Denmark: King Diamond and Ulrich himself. Lars was born in a suburb of Copenhagen on December 26, 1963 in family of famous at that time tennis player, Torben Ulrich. Due to this, problem of Larss profession was solved at early age. At the beginning little Lars constantly traveled all around the world with his dad to different championships and tournaments, and later took up tennis himself. By the time Lars was ten, he was in the top ten of Danish junior league, and would only keep advancing. Both Lars and his father were thinking that his future was set as a tennis star. However, that soon changed. In February of 1973 young Lars accidentally wound up at a concert of Deep Purple. He was taken there by his fathers friend old hippie and fan of hard rock. Lars himself had little interest in that kind of music. What he saw, however, turned his world upside down. A week later, Lars brought home his first vinyl disc album Deep Purple 71 Fireball. Lars also got into Sweet, Uriah Heep, Slade, Thin Lizzy, and Black Sabbath all the British rock-elite. Black Sabbaths concert in 75 inspired other people too, so Copenhagen at the time had plenty of teenagers jumping with some heavy music and trying make guitarists of themselves. Lars, on the other hand, chose a very different instrument for himself the drums. More and more often you could see him spending time with two sticks and a bunch of boxes instead of his tennis racket. Lars finally got real drums for his 13th birthday after bugging his grandmother for several months. One time going around his favorite of music stores, Lars found out “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” or “NWOBHM” that changed his life again. In fall of 79 Lars finally met a real, live rocker drummer of Motorhead, Phil Taylor. Larss parents at the same time were trying to find a way to deal with their sons growing music obsession. They decided on moving to America, where they were sure, it would be easier for Lars to concentrate on sport and continue his promising career in that field, because of all the different tennis tournaments going on in there. So in the middle of 1980 the whole family moved across the ocean to California. Their new home became a place called New-Port Beach, several miles to the south of Los-Angeles. Larss parents sold his drums in Denmark before the move and made him start on tennis again. That didnt work, however. Two months after the move, Lars got himself his own drums, and this time there was nothing his parents could do to keep him away from them. Lars had a problem with America, though: nobody
even heard about the music he was so crazy about. There was nothing heavier than Van Halen on the west coast at that time. It is easy to understand how lonely Lars was in his passions. Everyone considered him completely crazy and hopelessly focused on his drums and foreign heavy metal. In the beginning of 1981, however, Lars got lucky he finally met a common thinker, a guy named Jeff Warner, who played the guitar and also liked British rock. Right after they met, both agreed to devote all their free time to heavy metal. In the end of February they met Lloyd Grant, a skilled black guitarist, who was ten years older than Lars and Jeff. Even though it didnt cause any trouble, after several weeks of training together, the three broke up. Lars and Lloyd had some purely communication problems, and Jeff, disappointed by what happened, left too.
Now back to 63, when on August 3, James Allan Hetfield was born in Los-Angeless suburb, Norwalk. Unlike Lars, James Hetfield started taking on music at very early age his father Virgil made him take fortepiano lessons. All those lessons made Beethoven, Mozart, and all other classics, Hetfields “enemies”. With that set of mind, James didnt really try with the piano and interest himself with theory part; he just banged the keys to make some noise. Interestingly enough, Jamess older brother considered him to be skilled enough and accepted him into his own band The Bitter End, where he himself played the drums. Gradually James got into heavy metal as much as Lars did.
Story of the third member of future band Metallica, story of Ron McGownie, can be summed up in only one saying: “Tell me who your friends are, and Ill tell you who you are.” Ron was growing a perfect boy, until he met with Hetfield. Ron didnt share Jamess music passions, but in time James infected him with them, and Ron decided to start playing the guitar, too.
James started two bands one after another: Obsession, and Syrinx, but neither lasted that long. In 1980 Jamess mother died and he moved to Brie with his brother. There he met with guy named Hue Tanner and formed a band called Phantom Lord. The band wasnt really one, it was James and Hue sitting and playing together. They didnt have a bass player, so James offered Ron that place. Ron wasnt a bass player, he didnt even have a bass guitar, but James didnt care, he decided to teach Ron and he did. Phantom Lord, however, wasnt doing all that good: Hue Tanner, as good as he was as a guitarist, finally decided to go into music management. Couple of days after Hue left, James brought a drummer named Jim Mulligan, who was his former classmate, and a new guitarist, Troy James Hetfield still wanted to be only a vocalist. After all these changes a new band was formed Leather Charm. This band, however, played a very different kind of music from what Hetfield played before: Leather Charm played the real glam-rock. For the first time they wrote three of their own songs: “Hit The Lights, “Handsome Ransom” and “Lets Go RocknRoll”. First one was included in Metallica debut album and the other two later made one song “No Remorse”. Leather Charm itself, didnt last long either: they didnt play any concerts and Mulligan wanted to played more progressive music. Nevertheless, Leather Charm because an ugly prototype of future Metallica.
But without Lars Ulrich, METALLICA wasnt destined to be. This way we come to a moment when James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich finally meet each other. When Leather
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