What's Spinning, Vol 11
Time to Ride the Lightning
Overcast days that threaten snow, demand that you just listen to some thrash metal. So why not spin the greatest to ever do it.
As a kid I was a computer gamer and the great thing was having multiple CD-ROM drives. One for the game I was playing and one to play music on. Many an evening and afternoon was spent jamming out to this album.
Did it get any better than Doom, Quake, or Baldur's Gate, paired with Cool Ranch Doritos, Mountain Dew, and Metallica? Probably not as those were the glory days of the mid 1990s. I was living the high life for sure.
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This was the band's second album and it was tenuous at best if they were going to make it. The band was struggling in a big way. Their equipment was stolen at a show in Boston in January of 1984 and had to borrow equipment from other bands. They slept on fans' couches, ate one meal a day, and overall morale was very low. These struggles were the basis of the song, Fade to Black, which was written by front man James Hetfield.
Fleming Rasmussen flew the band to Copenhagen to record the album.
Members of the band was never musically literate. Rasmussen and roadie, Flemming Larsen, taught Lars the timing and beat duration and these lessons improved the quality of his drumming immensely.
They ended up dropping the Megaforce label and as luck would have it an Elektra label employee saw one of their shows and encouraged the chairman and head of promotion to see the band's show at the Roseland Ballroom. The label was very impressed and signed them the following day.
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Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Elektra, 1984
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Music Trivia: Robert Ludwig who was famous for his RL pressing of Led Zeppelin II, did the mastering of the Elektra release.
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