Metallica: The Frayed Ends of Metal (Paperback)

by Chris Crocker (Author) "Heavy metal was born the first day a guitar was used not as a musical instrument, but as a deadly weapon..." (more)
Key Phrases: metal collided, heavy metal kids, metal scene, Cliff Burton, New York, San Francisco (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Ever since the late 1960s, when Steppenwolf sang of "heavy metal thunder" and Led Zeppelin's bowdlerized and amplified version of the blues reached the top of the album charts, metal music has bubbled under the surface of mass popular success. After thoroughly absorbing the sounds of traditional metal bands, Metallica added the rough edge of punk music to the mix and created a sound that eventually forced the staid old fogies of the Grammy Awards to establish a new category for hard rock/metal performance. Metallica's rise was unaided by hit records or record company hype, and they even bypassed Music Television until they were established as the premier headbanger band. This is a refreshing story of hard work, determination, and talent succeeding on its own terms. Most libraries will not have material on this subject in book form. Recommended.
- Dan Bogey, Clearfield Cty. P.L. Federation, Curwensville, Pa.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"They'll be the new kings of rock. Just you wait and see."--Sammy Hagar

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (December 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312086350
• ISBN-13: 978-0312086350
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #89,800 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Do Your Research, December 4, 2004

By	Aaron Dawe (Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Where to begin? This book is so poorly researched that it's embarrassing. There's basically a factual error every other page that I can spot without having to look it up, that it makes me question just how much else the author got wrong.

One excellent (and totally inexplicable) example of his sloppiness is in his descriptions of the No Life to Leather versions of Jump in the Fire and The Four Horsemen (which wasn't called that on the demo in the first place) using the lyrics from the Kill'em All album! Even when the book was written, it wasn't hard to track down copies of the songs from NLTL and if you're going to write a book about something the band has released, at least make an effort to listen to the material available - especially something as pivotal as this was for the band.

This error is further compounded in a later chapter when he mentions Dave Mustaine forming Megadeth and releasing a version of The Mechanix on their first album Killing is My Business, a song he claims Metallica only played briefly. Funny, The Mechanix was the early version of The Four Horsemen on NLTL. Metallica has played this song many times. Judging from the author's description of The Mechanix in the book (describing it as having a classical piano and bass intro), he confused it with Last Rites/Loved to Death. How anyone could get this confused and have it published absolutely baffles me. The writer is a moron. And there's a lot more where this came from.

The quotes are probably the only reliable items in the whole book, but it seems that they mostly come from a couple of articles published previously in magazines (a lot from the Guitar Player Apr 89 issue in the first half of the book). It's probably not the author's fault that he couldn't interview the band directly, but in tandem with the poor fact checking, this comes across as pretty weak.

If you want to read up on Metallica's early years, KJ Doughton's Metallica Unbound is superior in every way to this piece of crap. Nicer book, better pictures and at least he knew the band personally.

The only positive note I can leave with is that at least Crocker didn't fall for the bogus tale that Metallica got their name by combining their two favourite things - metal and vodka. I can't believe that anyone seriously believed that one, even though it was printed in a few magazines in the early '90s.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars WEAK, June 2, 2000

By	Gergellor (Supimpalândia) - See all my reviews

The writer made no attempt to hide the fact that he never ever talked with Metallica people. The book is entirely based on quotes from the band's member on rock magazines, fanzines and MTV interviews. He did a good job linking this interviews, nothing more than that. He also made a ridiculous short introduction to rock scenario at the time of Metallica's beginning. The overall result is a weird kind biography, even knowing that is unauthorized. He has a good writing style, no doubt about that. But all the facts are well known (of ourse, theyu were taken from magazines! )

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for any Metallica fanatic!, April 6, 1999

By A Customer

THE WHOLE UNADULT-RATED STORY BEHIND THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL BAND.IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE BIRTHPLACES, DATES, OR EVEN PREVIOUS BANDS, THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU. IT EXPLAINS IN DETAIL THE OFTEN MISLEADING STORY BEHIND CLIFF BURTON'S DEATH. THIS BOOK COVERS EVERYTHING FROM KILL'EM ALL TO THE BLACK ALBUM AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. IT TAKES ABOUT THREE OR FOUR HOURS TO REALLY FINISH THE BOOK IN-DEPTH. IF YOU HAVE EVER WANTED TO KNOW HOW THE SNAKEPIT WAS CONSTRUCTED, READ THIS BOOK. HAS COOL FOTOS OE EVERYONE...EVENTHE LATE GREAT CLIFF, AND THE ONCE AWESOME DAVE MUSTAINE. THIS BOOK RULZ!