It was also the last song that Metallica performed live with former bassist Jason Newsted before he left the band, of which occurred at the VH1 Music Awards on November 30, 2000. Since its release, "Fade to Black" has been a fixture in Metallica's live performances. Ī review by Gina Boldman described "Fade to Black" as "one of the few Metallica tracks to get radio airplay in the mid- to late '80s." But we also got hundreds of letters from kids telling us how they related to the song and that it made them feel better. It's a suicide song, and we got a lot of flak for it, as if kids were killing themselves because of the song. I was pretty depressed at the time because our gear had just been stolen, and we had been thrown out of our manager's house for breaking shit and drinking his liquor cabinet dry. I wrote the song at a friend's house in New Jersey. You could hear every squeak, so I had to be careful. Recording that song, I learned how frustrating acoustic guitar can be. It was pretty much our first ballad, so we knew it would freak people out. James Hetfield commented on the song in a 1991 interview with Guitar World: It begins with an acoustic guitar introduction and becomes progressively heavier as the song goes on, similar to their future songs, "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", " One", and " The Day That Never Comes". The song's lyrics address suicidal feelings. Hetfield later admitted that a break-in to their gear truck resulting in the loss of his favorite Marshall amplifier also contributed to the mood of the song. Deeper than a mere concert film, Fade to Black is a testament to true genius from a man who took hip-hop all the way to the Garden.In an interview on the set of the production MTV Icon: Metallica in 2003, drummer Lars Ulrich recalls how he and vocalist/rhythm guitarist James Hetfield were "obsessed with death" at the time the album and song were produced. Upon its theatrical release, plenty of fans felt the cutaways diminished the impact of the concert, but they add a bittersweet pacing to the film, delaying the inevitable goodbye while flushing out Jay-Z's personality, which could be labeled as "approachable genius." His banter about gangsta rap, his gushing about the genius of Rick Rubin, and the amazing sequence showing the creation of the "99 Problems" track would be sorely missed if edited out of the film. Instead, it drops behind-the-scenes, cutaway segments of the making of the man's final full-length, The Black Album, that are exciting and filled with life. Save a couple heartfelt "I'll miss the game" moments from Jay-Z, the documentary doesn't beat the viewer over the head with any heavy "what a loss" moments. The end of the show is more triumphant than "sad to see him go." That's the amazing thing about Fade to Black. The man himself starts off with a little crack in his voice (choked up?) but soon overcomes it and works the crowd like one of the finest showmen in any genre. The guest list? It's huge, going from Beyonce all the way down to Freeway with Ghostface, Missy Elliot, Twista, Slick Rick, and just about every rapper who's ever even been to NYC turning up for the tribute/party. While not a groundbreaking maverick like Stop Making Sense, Fade to Black displays a keen sense of composition when it comes to camera work, which is all the more impressive when you consider the breakneck speed of the show and the overflowing guest list. Twenty-plus cameras captured the show in fine style for the most part, the exception being what looks like a stunning concert kick-off but the cameras are in too close to really tell. Documenting Jay-Z's "final concert" to a sold-out Madison Square Garden, Fade to Black is an uplifting goodbye to one of rap's true greats, and touching enough to forgive the Who-styled trick the rapper pulled by saying goodbye at the Garden once more after this show.
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