Philosophical Analysis: "One" - Metallica

This is how I interpret the song:

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reply to post by Sahabi

There's not one thing in this existence that is immune to 'change'.

stillness? being still can also be said to be doing nothing. Stillness I see as being Nothingness and that is immune to change so I agree but reason being because I see the words describing the state of being.

Forces will keep moving and changing yes,

but when they arrive to the stillness they cannot go through or even attempt as the force may become still so the force keeps doing what it has always been doing and moving, it simply moves around the stillness.

Just had to add this to even your absolute statement


Brilliant breakdown of the lyrics,

mind blown because your thread was a little activity in understanding and looking at something from another view I did with these lyrics as well and literally have the same understanding as you have shared.

Funny, I always got the impression this was about a guy who got blown up in a battle in Vietnam or something. The gunfire and bombs in the intro and the direct description of the guy kinda give it away. I got the album when I was 11, but wasn't til years later that I saw the video which inspired me to watch the movie Johnny Got His Gun

The movie is very powerful; a bit slow overall, but mentally haunting and a very effective anti-war piece.

Bonus: The later 'black' album is actually named "Don't tread On Me" and has a barely noticeable Gadsden snake on the cover:

8675309jenny
Funny, I always got the impression this was about a guy who got blown up in a battle in Vietnam or something. The gunfire and bombs in the intro and the direct description of the guy kinda give it away. I got the album when I was 11, but wasn't til years later that I saw the video which inspired me to watch the movie Johnny Got His Gun

The movie is very powerful; a bit slow overall, but mentally haunting and a very effective anti-war piece.

Bonus: The 'black' album that this song was released on is actually named "Don't tread On Me" and has a barely noticeable Gadsden snake on the cover:

"One" was not on the black album, it was on …and Justice for All.

FraggleRock

8675309jenny
Funny, I always got the impression this was about a guy who got blown up in a battle in Vietnam or something. The gunfire and bombs in the intro and the direct description of the guy kinda give it away. I got the album when I was 11, but wasn't til years later that I saw the video which inspired me to watch the movie Johnny Got His Gun

The movie is very powerful; a bit slow overall, but mentally haunting and a very effective anti-war piece.

Bonus: The 'black' album that this song was released on is actually named "Don't tread On Me" and has a barely noticeable Gadsden snake on the cover:

"One" was not on the black album, it was on …and Justice for All.

Damn you're right. Maybe explains why I remember hearing One when I was like 8!

winofiend
Holy wow.

no 'talica by this stage were not so deep. The song has nothing to do with awakening or enlightenment.

en.m.wikipedia.org...

its based on this 1971 anti war movie.

This is how people over analyse everything and how things are made into things they are not.

edit on 21-11-2013 by winofiend because: (no reason given)

Regardless of what the band intentionally wrote it about, the things the op speaks of are all encompassing. Therefore anything in existence can be an analogy to it, it's about perspective. Also the op said perhaps unintentionally they did it. Without any of the 5 senses could you still say this thing is this and this is not? No, because their wouldn't be a this nor would their be a subject.

winofiend
Holy wow.

no 'talica by this stage were not so deep. The song has nothing to do with awakening or enlightenment.

en.m.wikipedia.org...

its based on this 1971 anti war movie.

This is how people over analyse everything and how things are made into things they are not.

edit on 21-11-2013 by winofiend because: (no reason given)

lol, at this stage you say ?

Taking a deeper look at all of there songs, names of songs, it appears they were into a lot of deeper things than it appears you can even comprehend.

Funny how a bunch of guys in these bands seem to know more about ancient gods, amazing powers, incredible musical medleys that trigger peoples minds, when they were 20 years old!

I am not sure how you come to such bizarre conclusions, but I think, PROGRAMMING and brain segmentation are at work, as they ALWAYS ARE when people make such incredibly weak statements,

It is only after these first epic albums, that they appear to not write about conspiracy, aliens, mind control, and everything else you claim that these people saw in movies, and the fact that they compiled them this early in there lives, well.......

reply to post by Sahabi



Great interpretation OP! Other posters have posted about Metallica's intentions when writing the song, but music and lyrics are meant to mean different things to different people.

As you can probably tell by my username, I freakin' love Metallica. I must confess, I'm partial to the first four albums, but I don't share the sentiment that "Metallica sold out." Every band must evolve and I'm glad Metallica did. Many metal heads were born because of Metallica's more popular records, and I think that was great for the scene.

\m/

reply to post by Sahabi


"One"
- Metallica


This song and many others are the creation of Donald Marshall.
If you are unfamiliar with him, read up on;

donaldmarshall.proboards.com...

This is updated daily.

To understand his story is to unlock many 'hidden' meanings throughout music and movie. You will find that this song is not so deep because all it tells of firsthand experiences.

Interpretations;

"I can't remember anything, can't tell if this is true or dream."
This is a side effect of cloning when they do not release your memories. (they = illuminati members at the cloning center)

"Deep down inside I feel to scream, this terrible silence stops me."
They can remote control your body. Turn you off while they do whatever, sometimes horrible things.

"Now that the war is through with me, I'm waking up I can not see,...
that there's not much left of me. Nothing is real but pain now"
This is waking up in your bed after being hurt at the cloning center.

"Hold my breath as I wish for death. Oh please God wake me."
These are thoughts you will have while being helpless during your REM sleep cycle. This is when they are able to transfer your consciousness to a clone.

"Tied to machines that make me be, cut this life off from me."
This is a reference to the cloning machines that make duplicates over and over...and the desire to be free of them. Lots of members wish for this. One of the most obvious is Briney Spears' video called 'break the ice'.

"Now the world is gone I'm just one."
This references being taken from your natural body and isolated at the cloning center.

"Darkness, Imprisoning me! All that I see, absolute horror! I can not live!
I can not die! Trapped in myself, body my holding cell!"
This is what it is like. It is a bad place with twisted things being done to people that you have to endure. He says 'i can not die' because once they kill your clone they can just put your consciousness into another one. If you have seen 'south park', kenny IS donald marshall. They even say it in episode 1 of season 3 calling kenny 'donny' which is donald.

"Landmine, Has taken my sight! Taken my speech! Taken my hearing!
Taken my arms! Taken my legs! Taken my soul!
Left me with life in hell!"
These are the horrors of the cloning center.

It sounds out there, I can understand that if you are reading this and are not familiar with the material. Read the forums for any and all material regarding the matter if you want to know. He explains things better than I could.

Here you go song facts.

www.songfacts.com...

You can interpret the song how you see fit, but there is only one real fact about the song and Wino was spot on.