I had made mention in a couple of posts about a sort of history lesson post involving Metallica that I was going to write and I was half right. This post is going to be giving a bit of a history lesson regarding Metallica, but it is also going to be talking about how gay Metallica is. Or, rather, how Gay Metallica is. Yeah, that one’s going to be needing a bit of explanation. Hold on.

James Hetfield: flaming.

When people talk about satire, there’s really only one major name that crops up for most people: Jonathan Swift. Which is a bit of a shame, as Swift was part of a group of writers, known as the Scriblerians, which featured a number of notable writers, such as John Arbuthnot (who actually invented the character John Bull), Alexander Pope (one of England’s most celebrated poets), Thomas Parnell and John Gay. Yeah…I think you might be able to sense where this one is going.

Gay. John Gay.

Gay wrote The Beggar’s Opera, a musical play with strong satirical elements that lampooned England’s upper class by contrasting them with the thieves and whores of the lower class. Gay drew upon contemporary music when writing his Opera, eventually coming up with 69 different pieces for the finished work. Wanting to make his work familiar and accessible, Gay used a wide range of tunes, ranging from fiddle tunes to more sophisticated arrangements. Now, what in the hell does any of this have to do with Metallica? Well, one of the songs in particular was the Irish folk song, “Whiskey in the Jar”, a song that has been covered by Thin Lizzy and was in turn covered by Metallica.

Eww! Lars’ tongue is touching Kirk’s tongue!

While I’m sure that a number of folks already knew that “Whiskey in the Jar” was an Irish folk song, I’m pretty sure that there aren’t that many who knew of the connection between a well known 18^th century satirist, the song, which has been dated back to 1650, and Metallica.

What’s even more interesting, is the influence that The Beggar’s Opera has had on popular culture all the way up to the 20^th century. The Beggar’s Opera was adapted by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, bringing us The Threepenny Opera, of which another popular tune, “Mack The Knife” has become a standard for many singers in the past century or so.

So yeah, nothing too mind blowing or earth-shattering with Metallica, but it was something I had always found interesting. The joys of being an Arts major! Har har har!

How creepy! And phallic!