Master of Puppets (song)

"Master of Puppets" is a song by American thrash metal band Metallica, released on July 2, 1986, as the only single from the album of the same name. It was also issued as a promo single in the US by Elektra Records.[2]

"Master of Puppets"
Single by Metallica
from the album Master of Puppets
B-side"Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" (7")
ReleasedJuly 2, 1986
Recorded1985
StudioSweet Silence Studios, Copenhagen
GenreThrash metal[1]
Length8:36
Label
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
Metallica singles chronology
"For Whom The Bell Tolls"
(1985)		 "Master of Puppets"
(1986)		 "Harvester of Sorrow"
(1988)

The song was recorded during October–December 1985 at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark.[3][4]

The song was bassist Cliff Burton's favorite song on the album, as he said when the album was released. The song is one of the band's most famous and popular songs, frequently played at concerts.

Background and composition

It is the second and title track of the album, preceded by a shorter, high-speed typical thrash metal track, "Battery", a similar sequencing heard on Metallica's second (Ride the Lightning) and fourth (...And Justice for All) albums. "Master of Puppets" is also notable for its extensive use of downpicking and long instrumental section.[5]

According to Dave Mustaine, Lars Ulrich composed the song's opening riff, while Mustaine was still a member of Metallica.[6]

(However, this seems to contradict most other accounts of the song's composition history, including such told in various official biographies of Metallica, which claim the authorship of this particular riff to be Cliff Burton's.

Ostensibly, in the cited interview, Mustaine either wanted to refer to some other riff and mistakenly hummed that of "Master of Puppets" instead, OR he was unaware at the time of witnessing Ulrich's playing that it was merely practicing something that Burton had already invented.)

A riff from David Bowie's song "Andy Warhol" (at 0:48) is quoted in "Master of Puppets" (at 6:19). It is an homage made by Cliff Burton and Kirk Hammett to whom Bowie was a huge influence.[7]

Lyrical meaning

The song, as lead singer James Hetfield explained, "deals pretty much with drugs. How things get switched around, instead of you controlling what you're taking and doing, it's drugs controlling you."[8]

Live performances

The videos Cliff 'Em All, S&M and S&M2 include live performances of "Master of Puppets" in its entirety. A shortened form appears in Cunning Stunts. Both versions can be seen in the video portions of the Live Shit: Binge & Purge box set.

"Master of Puppets" is the band's most played song, first played on December 31, 1985, at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium for a crowd of 7,000.[9] As of MDY, the song has been performed 1,718 times.[10] During the band's World Magnetic Tour, additional live performances were filmed in Mexico City; Nîmes, France and Sofia, Bulgaria. These performances were released on video in November 2009 (Mexico and Nîmes) and October 2010 (Sofia).

The French electronic music duo Justice also played a version of this song on their first live album A Cross the Universe, which was released on November 24, 2008. The last song on the live album named "Final" contains a fairly large sample of "Master of Puppets".

Reception and awards

VH1 ranked the song as the third greatest heavy metal song ever.[11]

In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at number 22 in its 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks list.[12]

Martin Popoff's 2003 book The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time ranked the song at number 2. Popoff composed the book by requesting that metal fans, musicians, and journalists nominate their favorite heavy metal songs. The author derived the final rankings from a database tallying almost 18,000 votes.[13]

The song also ranked number 1 on a 100 Greatest Riffs poll conducted by Total Guitar magazine.

The readers of Guitar World voted the song as ranking at number 51 among the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos. Lead guitarist Kirk Hammett's solos for "Fade to Black" and "One" ranked significantly higher on the same list.

In 2020, Metal Hammer ranked the song number 1 on its list of the 50 best Metallica songs of all time.[14]

In 2021, it was listed at No. 256 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Best Songs of All Time,"[15] and in 2023 was ranked at number 2 on their "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time" list.[16]

Accolades
Year Publication Country Accolade Rank
2003 Martin Popoff United States The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time[13] 2
2005 Q Magazine United States 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks[12] 22
2006 VH1 United States 40 Greatest Metal Songs[11] 3
2012 Loudwire United States 10 Best Metallica Songs[17] 1
2014 Rolling Stone United States Readers’ Poll: The 10 Best Metallica Songs[18] 2
2019 Metal Hammer United States The 50 best Metallica songs of all time[14] 1
2021 Kerrang United Kingdom The 20 greatest Metallica songs – ranked[19] 2
2021 Revolver United Kingdom Fan Poll: Top 5 Metallica Songs[20] 1
2023 The A.V. Club United States Essential Metallica: Their 30 greatest songs, ranked[21] 4
2023 Entertainment Weekly United States The 15 best Metallica songs[22] unranked

Usage in media

"Master of Puppets" is featured in a scene of the 2003 film Old School and is heard as actors Luke Wilson and Will Ferrell play characters who are busy kidnapping people off the street to join their new fraternity.[23] The song was featured in the opening credits for the film Zombieland: Double Tap.[24] The song also appears in a trailer for the game Marvel's Midnight Suns.[25] The song is also used in a purchasable emote in Fortnite: Battle Royale.

The song is featured in the fourth season finale of the Netflix series Stranger Things, where the character Eddie Munson is seen playing the track in the Upside Down to attract the Demobats. The band said they were "blown away" by the scene.[26] Like with Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill", which was also featured in the season, the song regained popularity and started charting again following the release of the finale, notably entering the U.S. and UK charts for the first time since the song's original 1986 release. It then peaked at number four in the Netherlands.[27]

Track listing
French 7" single
No.TitleLength
1."Master of Puppets" (7" Edit)3:27
2."Welcome Home (Sanitarium)"4:06

Personnel

Credits are adapted from Master of Puppets's liner notes.[28]

Charts

Certifications
Certifications for "Master of Puppets"
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[51] 2× Platinum 140,000‡
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[52] Gold 45,000‡
Italy (FIMI)[53] Gold 25,000‡
New Zealand (RMNZ)[54] Platinum 30,000‡
Portugal (AFP)[55] Platinum 40,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[56] Gold 400,000‡
United States (RIAA)[57] Gold 500,000*
Streaming
Greece (IFPI Greece)[58] Gold 1,000,000†

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
† Streaming-only figures based on certification alone.

See also

References
  1. Cush, Andy (November 3, 2016). "Metallica's Lars Ulrich Thinks He Might Get Too Old to Perform "Master of Puppets"". Spin. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
  2. "Metallica - Master Of Puppets". Discogs. July 2, 1986.
  3. Gulla, Bob (2009). Guitar Gods: The 25 Players who Made Rock History. ABC-CLIO. p. 103. ISBN 9780313358067.
  4. Brannigan, Paul; Winwood, Ian (2011). Birth School Metallica Death. Vol. 1. Da Capo Press. p. 195. ISBN 9780306821868.
  5. "The meaning of Metallica's Master of Puppets". Radio X. Retrieved September 28, 2022.
  6. "Dave Mustaine of Megadeth". Songfacts. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
  7. To Live is to Die, the life and death of Metallica’s Cliff Burton, by Joel McIver, second edition, Jawbone Press, 2016, p.265.
  8. Hetfield, James (1988). "Interview with Metallica, from Vol. 6, No.8" (Interview). Interviewed by Pushead. Thrasher Magazine. Archived from the original on January 5, 2008. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
  9. Brannigan, Paul; Winwood, Ian (2011). Birth School Metallica Death. Vol. 1. Da Capo Press. pp. 199–200. ISBN 9780306821868.
  10. "Metallica Tour Statistics | setlist.fm". setlist.fm.
  11. "VH1 40 Greatest Metal Songs". VH1. Archived from the original on November 18, 2007. Retrieved January 30, 2008.
  12. "Rocklist.net...Q Magazine Lists."
  13. Popoff, Martin (2003). The Top 500 Heavy Metal Songs of All Time. ECW Press. ISBN 9781550225303.
  14. "The 50 best Metallica songs of all time". Louder Sound. Metal Hammer. January 16, 2019. Archived from the original on February 15, 2020. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  15. "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. September 15, 2021. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  16. "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. March 13, 2023. Archived from the original on March 13, 2023. Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  17. Armstrong, Chuck (October 8, 2012). "10 Best Metallica Songs". Loudwire. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  18. "Readers' Poll: The 10 Best Metallica Songs". Rolling Stone. May 14, 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  19. Law, Sam (May 7, 2021). "The 20 greatest Metallica songs – ranked". Kerrang. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  20. Enis, Eli (November 4, 2021). "FAN POLL: TOP 5 METALLICA SONGS". Revolver. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  21. Reesman, Bryan (April 17, 2023). "Essential Metallica: Their 30 greatest songs, ranked". The A.V. Club. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  22. Loftus, Johnny (June 9, 2023). "The 15 best Metallica songs". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  23. Metal Hammer (July 3, 2022). "This Will Ferrell comedy used Master Of Puppets nearly 20 years before Stranger Things". Louder. Retrieved July 9, 2022.
  24. Dee, Jake (October 16, 2020). "10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Zombieland 2: Double Tap". Screen Rant. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  25. Campbell, Kyle (June 9, 2022). "Marvel's Midnight Suns trailer reveals October release date". USA Today Sports Weekly. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  26. Calvario, Liz (July 6, 2022). "Metallica 'blown away' by 'Master of Puppets' scene in 'Stranger Things'". NBC News. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
  27. "Metallica's 'Master Of Puppets' Enters Billboard Hot 100 Chart For First Time Thanks To 'Stranger Things'". 101.5 KGB. Retrieved September 3, 2022.
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