Jan 15 2009
Metallica Elected to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Heavy Metal band Metallica have been elected to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
There was a time around 1986 when Metallica were my favourite metal band and Ride the Lightning was my favourite album. At the time Metallica was at the forefront of the thrash metal movement and that was the music I loved them for.
But times changed and Metallica changed. Here we are twenty-odd years later and Metallica are going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But let’s face it, Metallica were NOT elected because of their first four albums, but in spite of those first four albums.
I’ve already ranted about what a load of crap the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is once today, so I will not bore you with that again. But one look at who is getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and who is not will tell you that Metallica are only going because of their success after the “Black” album.
I remember a video made when Wayne Gretzky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The video started with his trade to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988, completely ignoring the only period of his career where he had team success, leading the Edmonton Oilers to four Stanley Cup championships, and the years when he scored the majority of his points.
I’m sure the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will give Metallica the “Gretzky treatment” when they induct them on April 4th, making sure to ignore the period when they made their best albums and wrote the songs that still make up the bulk of their live setlists.
Word. I think the Black album was 2nd to last (St. Anger being last) as far as content. I know sales tells a different story however.