WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.759 Usually when we talk about a massively successful 00:00:02.759 --> 00:00:05.419 record going platinum, you know, there's this 00:00:05.419 --> 00:00:07.860 expectation of total control. Right. Yeah. Like 00:00:07.860 --> 00:00:10.259 you picture these state of the art studios, a 00:00:10.259 --> 00:00:13.880 team of producers, meticulously tweaking every 00:00:13.880 --> 00:00:16.640 single knob, endless months of writing. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:16.760 --> 00:00:19.199 The whole corporate machine. Exactly. And a band 00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:21.199 that just has everything perfectly mapped out. 00:00:21.309 --> 00:00:25.429 But in 1987, Metallica completely shattered that 00:00:25.429 --> 00:00:27.929 illusion. They recorded a masterpiece that was 00:00:27.929 --> 00:00:31.530 born entirely out of chaos, a tragic death, and 00:00:31.530 --> 00:00:33.630 a skateboarding accident of all things. Yeah, 00:00:33.729 --> 00:00:36.289 it's wild. So we are taking a deep dive today 00:00:36.289 --> 00:00:39.149 into a record that just bucked every industry 00:00:39.149 --> 00:00:42.710 rule. We're looking at Metallica's 1987 release, 00:00:43.070 --> 00:00:46.929 the $5 .98 EP, Garage Days, re -revisited. It 00:00:46.929 --> 00:00:48.950 is such a compelling case study, honestly. We 00:00:48.950 --> 00:00:51.310 aren't just looking at, you know, a simple collection 00:00:51.310 --> 00:00:53.289 of cover songs here. No, not at all. We're looking 00:00:53.289 --> 00:00:55.990 at a real -time snapshot of a band in absolute 00:00:55.990 --> 00:00:58.509 crisis. They're fighting against intense label 00:00:58.509 --> 00:01:00.549 pressure, they're battling the retail industry, 00:01:00.710 --> 00:01:03.149 and honestly, just trying to figure out how to 00:01:03.149 --> 00:01:06.189 simply function as a band again. Right. And to 00:01:06.189 --> 00:01:07.930 really understand this, we need to set the scene 00:01:07.930 --> 00:01:11.370 for you. If you were a fan following the band 00:01:11.370 --> 00:01:15.329 back then, what did 1987 actually look like for 00:01:15.329 --> 00:01:16.989 them? Because, I mean, they weren't just taking 00:01:16.989 --> 00:01:19.750 a casual break between albums. Oh, no, not even 00:01:19.750 --> 00:01:23.310 close. It was incredibly heavy, both musically 00:01:23.310 --> 00:01:25.549 and emotionally. Let's just put ourselves in 00:01:25.549 --> 00:01:27.890 their shoes for a second. They had just suffered 00:01:27.890 --> 00:01:31.450 a profound tragedy. Their bassist, Cliff Burton, 00:01:32.189 --> 00:01:35.230 died in a horrific tour bus accident in Sweden. 00:01:35.689 --> 00:01:38.439 Which is just... Dressed clean imaginable, and 00:01:38.439 --> 00:01:40.700 that alone is enough to end most bands' rights. 00:01:40.700 --> 00:01:43.620 But they made the really difficult decision to 00:01:43.620 --> 00:01:46.260 carry on, and they recruited his successor, Jason 00:01:46.260 --> 00:01:49.659 Neustad. So you have a band that is deeply grieving, 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:52.359 trying to integrate a brand new member, and on 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:54.480 top of that, the music industry machine, it just 00:01:54.480 --> 00:01:56.560 does not stop. Right, the calendar doesn't care 00:01:56.560 --> 00:01:58.599 if you're grieving. Exactly. But I've got to 00:01:58.599 --> 00:02:01.900 ask, why was Burton's loss so specifically paralyzing 00:02:01.900 --> 00:02:05.180 to their creative process? Obviously losing a 00:02:05.180 --> 00:02:07.159 friend is awful, but musically, couldn't the 00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:09.099 other members just, you know, write the guitar 00:02:09.099 --> 00:02:11.300 and drum parts like they always did? Well, that 00:02:11.300 --> 00:02:14.139 overlooks how crucial Cliff Burton was to their 00:02:14.139 --> 00:02:16.340 actual songwriting architecture. Oh, really? 00:02:16.539 --> 00:02:18.560 Yeah, he wasn't just standing in the back playing 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:21.259 root notes on the bass. Burton was the member 00:02:21.259 --> 00:02:24.199 with the absolute deepest understanding of musical 00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:26.479 theory. I didn't know that. Yeah, he was the 00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:29.280 guy introducing classical harmonies into thrash 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:32.219 metal. He taught the other guys about counterpoint 00:02:32.219 --> 00:02:34.879 and melody. So when he died, they didn't just 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:37.759 lose a bass player. They lost their musical compass. 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:40.599 Wow. Trying to replace Cliff Burton, it wasn't 00:02:40.599 --> 00:02:43.259 just replacing an employee. It was literally 00:02:43.259 --> 00:02:45.419 like trying to replace the engine of a car while 00:02:45.419 --> 00:02:47.520 it's bombing down the highway at 90 miles an 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:50.219 hour. OK, let's unpack this. They have lost their 00:02:50.219 --> 00:02:52.479 musical engine. They have a brand new bassist. 00:02:52.780 --> 00:02:55.860 And yet. The calendar is just forcing them forward. 00:02:56.199 --> 00:02:58.219 Relentlessly. The source material notes they 00:02:58.219 --> 00:03:00.759 were facing mounting pressure to perform at the 00:03:00.759 --> 00:03:04.199 1987 Monsters of Rock Festival at Castle Donington. 00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:07.280 A huge deal. Massive. And to make matters even 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:11.060 more stressful, their UK label, Vertigo Records, 00:03:11.419 --> 00:03:14.560 was aggressively demanding news material to coincide 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:17.560 with that festival appearance. Imagine starting 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:20.419 a high -stakes new job, like News Dead did, right? 00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:23.219 Oh, man. And the boss just says, hey, we need 00:03:23.219 --> 00:03:26.180 a massive presentation immediately, while half 00:03:26.180 --> 00:03:28.400 the team is in mourning. Yeah, the clock was 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:30.560 aggressively ticking. And, you know, they genuinely 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:33.080 tried. They tried to write new original music 00:03:33.080 --> 00:03:35.479 with Jason Newstead to meet that demand. Right. 00:03:35.659 --> 00:03:38.159 But the creative, well... Given the emotional 00:03:38.159 --> 00:03:40.699 toll and obviously the loss of Burton's compositional 00:03:40.699 --> 00:03:43.699 skills, it was just completely dry. Just nothing 00:03:43.699 --> 00:03:46.039 there. Yeah, all they managed to produce from 00:03:46.039 --> 00:03:48.400 those initial songwriting attempts was a single 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:50.819 rough demo for a song called Blackened. Which 00:03:50.819 --> 00:03:53.000 is a great song, but it's just one demo. Exactly. 00:03:53.139 --> 00:03:54.699 And just when you think they might be able to 00:03:54.699 --> 00:03:57.219 build some momentum off that one track, disaster 00:03:57.219 --> 00:04:00.360 strikes again. James Hedfield, the frontman and 00:04:00.360 --> 00:04:03.419 rhythm guitarist, he gets on a skateboard, falls 00:04:03.419 --> 00:04:05.740 and literally breaks his arm. Yeah, you can't 00:04:05.740 --> 00:04:08.419 make it up. But wait, I have to ask, if he's 00:04:08.419 --> 00:04:10.780 the singer, couldn't he just, you know, sing 00:04:10.780 --> 00:04:13.400 and let the lead guitarist Kirk Hammett handle 00:04:13.400 --> 00:04:15.360 all the guitar work in the studio while his arm 00:04:15.360 --> 00:04:18.040 healed? What's fascinating here is that to assume 00:04:18.040 --> 00:04:21.040 that is to misunderstand how Metallica's specific 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:24.660 sound is actually engineered. OK, oh, so. Well. 00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:27.920 James Hetfield's right hand, his picking hand, 00:04:28.180 --> 00:04:31.620 is the literal driving force of the band. He 00:04:31.620 --> 00:04:34.180 uses this technique called rapid downpicking. 00:04:34.300 --> 00:04:36.639 Right. So instead of strumming up and down like 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:39.220 a normal guitar player, he strikes the strings 00:04:39.220 --> 00:04:41.959 in a continuous, aggressive downward motion. 00:04:42.019 --> 00:04:44.439 That sounds exhausting. It is incredibly physically 00:04:44.439 --> 00:04:47.379 demanding, and it creates this highly percussive 00:04:47.379 --> 00:04:49.920 machine gun -like rhythm that basically defines 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:53.579 thrash metal. Oh, I see. So Hammett is a brilliant 00:04:53.579 --> 00:04:56.449 lead player. obviously, but he couldn't replicate 00:04:56.449 --> 00:04:59.389 Hetfield's specific rhythm attack. With a broken 00:04:59.389 --> 00:05:01.790 arm, Hetfield couldn't downpick. The band was 00:05:01.790 --> 00:05:04.089 physically paralyzed. So they're completely boxed 00:05:04.089 --> 00:05:06.189 in at this point. They can't write because they're 00:05:06.189 --> 00:05:08.129 grieving and missing their primary arranger, 00:05:08.290 --> 00:05:10.389 and they can't even play the one new song they 00:05:10.389 --> 00:05:12.170 did write because the rhythm guitarist is in 00:05:12.170 --> 00:05:17.410 a cast. How on earth did this physical limitation 00:05:17.410 --> 00:05:19.870 force them to change their entire creative strategy? 00:05:20.079 --> 00:05:22.300 Well, it shifted their strategy by forcing them 00:05:22.300 --> 00:05:24.980 to basically abandon the idea of a new album 00:05:24.980 --> 00:05:27.199 entirely. They just scrapped it. Yeah, they had 00:05:27.199 --> 00:05:31.459 to. But they still needed to gel as a unit with 00:05:31.459 --> 00:05:33.720 Newstead, and they still had the label breathing 00:05:33.720 --> 00:05:36.759 down their necks for a release. So instead of 00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:39.199 trying to force new material, they returned to 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:41.540 their roots. Sweet sense. They decided to record 00:05:41.540 --> 00:05:43.800 covers of some of their absolute favorite bands 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:46.600 from the late 70s and early 80s, specifically 00:05:46.600 --> 00:05:49.259 punk rock and bands from the new wave of British 00:05:49.259 --> 00:05:51.079 heavy. heavy metal. Wait, before we move on, 00:05:51.240 --> 00:05:52.779 for those of you who aren't deeply entrenched 00:05:52.779 --> 00:05:55.360 in metal history, what exactly is the new wave 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:58.439 of British heavy metal? Or NWOBHM as it's spelled 00:05:58.439 --> 00:06:01.180 out. Why did that specific sub -genre matter 00:06:01.180 --> 00:06:03.420 so much to them? Right, so the new wave of British 00:06:03.420 --> 00:06:05.259 heavy metal, it was this movement in the late 00:06:05.259 --> 00:06:08.600 70s featuring bands like Iron Maiden, Diamondhead, 00:06:08.819 --> 00:06:11.579 and Def Leppard. Okay, the legends. Exactly. 00:06:12.060 --> 00:06:15.579 They essentially took the dark, sludgy heaviness 00:06:15.579 --> 00:06:18.939 of early Black Sabbath, right, but they stripped 00:06:18.939 --> 00:06:21.899 away the blues influences and they injected it 00:06:21.899 --> 00:06:24.920 with the speed and the totally DIY energy of 00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:28.649 punk rock. For Metallica, these British bands 00:06:28.649 --> 00:06:31.370 were the absolute blueprint. They're going back 00:06:31.370 --> 00:06:34.290 to the source. Yeah. Doing covers of these specific 00:06:34.290 --> 00:06:37.029 bands was a brilliant pressure release valve. 00:06:37.490 --> 00:06:39.750 You don't have to worry about composing the perfect 00:06:39.750 --> 00:06:42.949 riff or writing profound lyrics. The song already 00:06:42.949 --> 00:06:45.689 exists. It already works. Exactly. Right. Your 00:06:45.689 --> 00:06:48.170 only job is to play it and inject your own energy 00:06:48.170 --> 00:06:51.269 into it. It totally removes the stress of creation 00:06:51.269 --> 00:06:53.230 and just leaves the joy of playing together. 00:06:53.410 --> 00:06:55.439 So they have the songs picked out. They're going 00:06:55.439 --> 00:06:58.139 to run backward to the stuff that made them love 00:06:58.139 --> 00:07:00.160 playing music in the first place. But there's 00:07:00.160 --> 00:07:02.579 a logistical problem. To rebuild their chemistry, 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:04.699 they needed the right environment. Right. And 00:07:04.699 --> 00:07:07.000 they didn't go to some plush studio in the Hollywood 00:07:07.000 --> 00:07:10.060 Hills. They went to a literal garage. A literal 00:07:10.060 --> 00:07:13.040 garage. Specifically, drummer Lars Ulrich's garage 00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:15.769 in El Cerrito, California. Yeah, but remember, 00:07:15.889 --> 00:07:18.350 this is a heavy metal band playing at absolute 00:07:18.350 --> 00:07:21.709 breakneck speeds. You can't just plug in a double 00:07:21.709 --> 00:07:24.509 kick drum kit and massive amplifiers in a quiet 00:07:24.509 --> 00:07:27.129 residential neighborhood without the police shutting 00:07:27.129 --> 00:07:29.389 you down in about five minutes. Wait, clarify 00:07:29.389 --> 00:07:31.709 that for me. What exactly does a double kick 00:07:31.709 --> 00:07:34.470 drum setup do to the sound? Why does that guarantee 00:07:34.470 --> 00:07:37.670 noise complaints? So a standard drum kit has 00:07:37.670 --> 00:07:41.089 one bass drum operated by a single foot pedal, 00:07:41.290 --> 00:07:43.769 right? Right. A double kick setup uses either 00:07:43.769 --> 00:07:46.050 two bass drums or a double pedal on a single 00:07:46.050 --> 00:07:49.050 drum. It allows the drummer to play rapid fire, 00:07:49.290 --> 00:07:52.350 machine gun, 16th notes with both feet. Oh, wow. 00:07:52.689 --> 00:07:54.970 Yeah, it literally shakes the foundations of 00:07:54.970 --> 00:07:57.750 a building. It produces this massive, booming, 00:07:58.009 --> 00:08:00.029 low end frequency that just travels straight 00:08:00.029 --> 00:08:02.189 through standard residential walls. Which brings 00:08:02.189 --> 00:08:04.790 us to the new guy, Jason Neustead, and how they 00:08:04.790 --> 00:08:07.689 solve this noise issue. Because before joining 00:08:07.689 --> 00:08:09.730 the band, Newstead actually had experience working 00:08:09.730 --> 00:08:12.250 as a construction worker. He did, yeah. So the 00:08:12.250 --> 00:08:15.149 band hands the new guy some tools and tells him 00:08:15.149 --> 00:08:18.240 to hang drywall. and soundproof the drummer's 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:21.160 garage so they can rehearse, hold on, making 00:08:21.160 --> 00:08:23.180 the new guy hang drywall while the rest of the 00:08:23.180 --> 00:08:26.339 band watches. That sounds less like, you know, 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:28.199 grounding sweat equity and more like straight 00:08:28.199 --> 00:08:31.279 up toxic workplace hazing. I mean, it absolutely 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:33.179 looks like hazing on the surface, especially 00:08:33.179 --> 00:08:35.360 when you consider that on the liner notes of 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:38.759 the actual EP, Newstid is officially credited 00:08:38.759 --> 00:08:42.490 as Master J New Kid. Oh, man. Master J, new kid. 00:08:42.649 --> 00:08:44.769 Yeah. But you really have to view this through 00:08:44.769 --> 00:08:47.889 the psychological lens of four guys in their 00:08:47.889 --> 00:08:51.389 early 20s who just endured massive, massive trauma. 00:08:51.429 --> 00:08:53.230 That's a good point. They didn't have therapists. 00:08:53.289 --> 00:08:56.110 They had each other. Having Neistat physically 00:08:56.110 --> 00:08:58.330 build the room they were going to play in wasn't 00:08:58.330 --> 00:09:01.210 just about cheap labor. It was a profoundly grounding 00:09:01.210 --> 00:09:04.649 exercise. It creates literal and figurative sweat 00:09:04.649 --> 00:09:07.590 equity. He wasn't just stepping into a preexisting 00:09:07.590 --> 00:09:10.809 machine. He was physically building the foundation 00:09:10.860 --> 00:09:14.200 of their new era with his own hands. That actually 00:09:14.200 --> 00:09:16.059 makes a lot of sense when you frame it as trauma 00:09:16.059 --> 00:09:18.919 bonding. So once that room was built, they rehearsed 00:09:18.919 --> 00:09:21.120 the material there before taking it to Los Angeles. 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:24.019 And they recorded and mixed the entire thing 00:09:24.019 --> 00:09:28.980 over just six days. Six days. Six days at A &M 00:09:28.980 --> 00:09:31.600 and Conway Studios. And they intentionally kept 00:09:31.600 --> 00:09:34.480 it raw. The liner notes proudly declared that 00:09:34.480 --> 00:09:38.179 the EP was not very produced by Metallica. Yeah. 00:09:38.279 --> 00:09:41.240 Doing all of this, the manual labor, the rapid 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:43.440 -fire six -day recording schedule, the totally 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:47.019 raw self -production, it stripped away all the 00:09:47.019 --> 00:09:48.860 corporate polish that was starting to surround 00:09:48.860 --> 00:09:50.759 them at that point in their career. It was a 00:09:50.759 --> 00:09:52.899 reset. It was exactly the reset they needed. 00:09:53.139 --> 00:09:56.389 And that raw DIY ethos... didn't just stay in 00:09:56.389 --> 00:09:59.210 the garage, it completely dictated their track 00:09:59.210 --> 00:10:01.370 list. The way they selected the songs they were 00:10:01.370 --> 00:10:03.710 gonna record is just a perfect reflection of 00:10:03.710 --> 00:10:06.470 that loose mentality. For example, the source 00:10:06.470 --> 00:10:08.509 material notes, they were in the middle of rehearsing 00:10:08.509 --> 00:10:10.370 a song called White Lightning by the British 00:10:10.370 --> 00:10:12.950 metal band Parallax. But while they were playing 00:10:12.950 --> 00:10:15.909 it, the lead guitarist, Kirk Hammett, just randomly 00:10:15.909 --> 00:10:19.029 starts playing a completely different riff. He 00:10:19.029 --> 00:10:21.789 plays the riff for a song called The Wait by 00:10:21.789 --> 00:10:24.659 the post -punk group Killing Joke. And instead 00:10:24.659 --> 00:10:26.879 of stopping him and demanding they stick to the 00:10:26.879 --> 00:10:30.840 schedule, the band just pivots. They decide right 00:10:30.840 --> 00:10:33.190 then and there, you know what? Let's record the 00:10:33.190 --> 00:10:35.830 weight instead. That's incredible. That kind 00:10:35.830 --> 00:10:38.649 of organic left turn is only possible when you've 00:10:38.649 --> 00:10:40.769 completely removed the pressure of making a perfect 00:10:40.769 --> 00:10:43.309 album. Right. If studio time is costing you thousands 00:10:43.309 --> 00:10:45.889 of dollars an hour, you don't casually abandon 00:10:45.889 --> 00:10:48.029 a song you've been rehearsing for weeks. But 00:10:48.029 --> 00:10:50.350 when you're self producing in six days, you just 00:10:50.350 --> 00:10:52.710 follow the energy in the room. Yeah. They also 00:10:52.710 --> 00:10:55.250 consider tracks like Signal Fire by the Japanese 00:10:55.250 --> 00:10:58.169 band Bow Wow. And I'm no fool by Gaskin, but 00:10:58.169 --> 00:11:01.690 ultimately drop them. But the most chaotic, creative 00:11:01.690 --> 00:11:03.929 decision has to be what they did with the Misfits 00:11:03.929 --> 00:11:06.649 covers. Oh, yeah. They took two completely separate 00:11:06.649 --> 00:11:09.230 Misfits songs, Last Caress and Green Hell, and 00:11:09.230 --> 00:11:11.350 just mashed them together into a single track. 00:11:12.230 --> 00:11:14.409 Musically, how do you even take two songs that 00:11:14.409 --> 00:11:16.730 were originally recorded five years apart featuring 00:11:16.730 --> 00:11:19.669 entirely different vibes and smash them into 00:11:19.669 --> 00:11:23.639 one cohesive track? It requires finding the connective 00:11:23.639 --> 00:11:26.559 rhythmic tissue. Like, Last Caress is almost 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:29.840 a twisted pop song. It has this catchy, upbeat, 00:11:30.039 --> 00:11:32.779 almost 1950s -style chord progression. Yeah, 00:11:32.940 --> 00:11:35.639 it's weirdly catchy. Exactly. And Green Hell, 00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:38.820 on the other hand, is a blistering, aggressive, 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:42.240 hardcore punk track. Total opposite. So what 00:11:42.240 --> 00:11:44.840 Metallica did was match the tempo. They played 00:11:44.840 --> 00:11:47.159 last caress much heavier and way faster than 00:11:47.159 --> 00:11:49.519 the original. They ramped up the energy so that 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:51.639 when they transitioned directly into the chaotic 00:11:51.639 --> 00:11:54.059 speed of green hell, it feels like a natural 00:11:54.059 --> 00:11:56.940 escalation. Instead of train wreck. Right, rather 00:11:56.940 --> 00:11:59.820 than a jarring car crash. It's an exercise in 00:11:59.820 --> 00:12:02.419 pure musical instinct. And that instinct carried 00:12:02.419 --> 00:12:04.419 over to the business side, too. Here's where 00:12:04.419 --> 00:12:06.330 it gets really interesting. They didn't just 00:12:06.330 --> 00:12:09.190 take this punk rock anti -establishment attitude 00:12:09.190 --> 00:12:11.429 into the recording booth, they took it directly 00:12:11.429 --> 00:12:13.809 into the retail stores. They sure did. This is 00:12:13.809 --> 00:12:15.570 where we have to talk about the pricing gimmick. 00:12:16.470 --> 00:12:19.370 They officially named the release the $5 .98 00:12:19.370 --> 00:12:22.730 EP, with the specific goal of stopping retailers 00:12:22.730 --> 00:12:25.570 from overcharging their fans. They even slapped 00:12:25.570 --> 00:12:27.870 a giant sticker right on the front of the original 00:12:27.870 --> 00:12:30.389 cassette release that read, if they try to charge 00:12:30.389 --> 00:12:33.779 more, steal it. If we connect this to the bigger 00:12:33.779 --> 00:12:37.000 picture of the 1980s music industry, you really 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:39.860 have to appreciate the absolute logistical nightmare 00:12:39.860 --> 00:12:42.200 this caused. I can't even imagine. You have a 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:44.960 major label, Electra Records, distributing a 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:47.159 release that explicitly encourages consumers 00:12:47.159 --> 00:12:50.100 to commit retail theft if the store manager decides 00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:52.639 to mark up the price. But why did they feel the 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:54.720 need to dictate the price in the actual title 00:12:54.720 --> 00:12:56.960 of the album? Couldn't they just ask the label 00:12:56.960 --> 00:12:59.679 to suggest a retail price? Well, in the 80s, 00:12:59.899 --> 00:13:01.820 independent record stores and major chains had 00:13:01.820 --> 00:13:04.279 a lot of leeway to mark up highly anticipated 00:13:04.279 --> 00:13:07.259 releases. Because this was a short EP, it was 00:13:07.259 --> 00:13:10.460 only about 25 minutes of music. Metallica felt 00:13:10.460 --> 00:13:12.759 it was fundamentally unfair for fans to pay the 00:13:12.759 --> 00:13:15.940 price of a full hour -long album. By embedding 00:13:15.940 --> 00:13:18.600 the price into the title, they literally weaponized 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:21.129 their own album art against the retailers. But 00:13:21.129 --> 00:13:24.509 that title created massive headaches across different 00:13:24.509 --> 00:13:27.629 formats because physical media wasn't universally 00:13:27.629 --> 00:13:31.049 priced in 1987. Precisely. Compact discs were 00:13:31.049 --> 00:13:33.250 still a relatively new technology back then. 00:13:33.289 --> 00:13:35.669 Right. The raw materials and the manufacturing 00:13:35.669 --> 00:13:38.669 plants required to press CDs were far more expensive 00:13:38.669 --> 00:13:41.830 than those used for, you know, duplicating cheap 00:13:41.830 --> 00:13:44.980 plastic cassette tapes. Sure. The wholesale cost 00:13:44.980 --> 00:13:47.820 of a CD to the retailer was often higher than 00:13:47.820 --> 00:13:51.500 $5 .98. So when the official American CD version 00:13:51.500 --> 00:13:54.879 was released, they literally had to amend the 00:13:54.879 --> 00:13:59.330 title of the ET. It legally became. the $9 .98 00:13:59.330 --> 00:14:02.070 CD just to reflect the economic reality of that 00:14:02.070 --> 00:14:04.789 specific format. Imagine having to legally change 00:14:04.789 --> 00:14:06.730 the name of your art just to match the physical 00:14:06.730 --> 00:14:08.789 plastic it's printed on. Yeah, it's absurd. And 00:14:08.789 --> 00:14:10.250 what happened when this hit the international 00:14:10.250 --> 00:14:12.110 market? The currency differences alone must have 00:14:12.110 --> 00:14:14.769 been a nightmare. Oh, it got incredibly complicated. 00:14:15.090 --> 00:14:17.730 In Australia, the label decided to keep the original 00:14:17.730 --> 00:14:21.389 title $5 .98 EP. But obviously, Australian currency 00:14:21.389 --> 00:14:23.730 values were completely different. So the label 00:14:23.730 --> 00:14:26.649 had to add a separate, highly contradictory sticker 00:14:26.649 --> 00:14:29.519 to the Australian... release, clarifying that 00:14:29.519 --> 00:14:32.299 $5 .98 was just the name of the record and not 00:14:32.299 --> 00:14:33.899 the actual price you're supposed to pay at the 00:14:33.899 --> 00:14:37.639 register. Please pay 15 Australian dollars for 00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:41.299 the album titled $5 .98. Exactly. That completely 00:14:41.299 --> 00:14:43.419 defeats the anti -establishment purpose of the 00:14:43.419 --> 00:14:46.299 title. Totally. But the UK pressings had an entirely 00:14:46.299 --> 00:14:48.379 different set of problems that actually altered 00:14:48.379 --> 00:14:51.399 the track last write. Yes they did. To understand 00:14:51.399 --> 00:14:54.179 this, we have to look at the strict legal definitions 00:14:54.179 --> 00:14:56.840 of music releases in the UK at the time. Wait, 00:14:56.860 --> 00:14:59.220 before we get into the UK dropping a track... 00:14:59.230 --> 00:15:02.190 What exactly define an EP back then? Why did 00:15:02.190 --> 00:15:04.830 the length matter to the lawyers? Right. So an 00:15:04.830 --> 00:15:08.129 EP stands for Extended Play. It's basically a 00:15:08.129 --> 00:15:10.990 middle ground between a standard two -song single 00:15:10.990 --> 00:15:13.330 and a full -length album, which is called an 00:15:13.330 --> 00:15:16.230 LP or a long play. Got it. In the UK, the official 00:15:16.230 --> 00:15:18.629 charts company had very mathematically rigid 00:15:18.629 --> 00:15:21.649 rules about runtimes. If a release went over 00:15:21.649 --> 00:15:24.450 a specific minute mark, it was legally classified 00:15:24.450 --> 00:15:27.159 as an album. Oh, I see. And that changed how 00:15:27.159 --> 00:15:29.639 it charted, how it was taxed, and how it was 00:15:29.639 --> 00:15:33.200 priced. The UK industry instituted these rules 00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:35.759 to prevent bands from packing singles with filler 00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:38.840 audio just to manipulate the album charts. So 00:15:38.840 --> 00:15:40.799 because of the runtime of these five covers, 00:15:41.059 --> 00:15:43.200 what did they have to do? They actually had to 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:45.720 completely omit the track, the weight from the 00:15:45.720 --> 00:15:48.600 UK pressings. Wow. Yeah. They dropped an entire 00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:51.600 song just to ensure the total runtime squeezed 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:54.340 in under the legal definition of an EP. It is 00:15:54.340 --> 00:15:57.139 amazing how much chaos a handful of cover songs 00:15:57.139 --> 00:15:59.759 recorded in six days can cause in corporate boardroom 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:02.179 across the globe. It really is. But the band 00:16:02.179 --> 00:16:04.059 wasn't just trolling the retail industry with 00:16:04.059 --> 00:16:06.120 their pricing and their stickers. They were also 00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:08.259 trolling their musical rivals right on the record 00:16:08.259 --> 00:16:10.720 itself. Oh, absolutely. The Deep Dive source 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:13.480 material points out this incredibly bizarre outro 00:16:13.480 --> 00:16:17.600 tacked onto the very end of the EP. It is a wildly 00:16:17.600 --> 00:16:20.580 off -key, intentionally awful, chaotic segment 00:16:20.580 --> 00:16:23.899 of Iron Maiden's massive hit, Run to the Hills. 00:16:24.539 --> 00:16:26.690 Why target Iron Maiden? It really highlights 00:16:26.690 --> 00:16:29.330 the simmering feud and a major cultural shift 00:16:29.330 --> 00:16:31.190 that was happening in heavy metal in the mid 00:16:31.190 --> 00:16:34.620 1980s. Okay, tell me more. Iron Maiden represented 00:16:34.620 --> 00:16:37.659 the established vanguard -like, the polished, 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:40.879 highly theatrical old guard of British metal. 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:44.679 They had massive stage setups, a giant zombie 00:16:44.679 --> 00:16:47.639 mascot, and these soaring operatic vocals. Right, 00:16:47.820 --> 00:16:50.919 very grandiose. Exactly. Metallica, on the other 00:16:50.919 --> 00:16:53.259 hand, represented the aggressive, rising American 00:16:53.259 --> 00:16:55.960 underground. They played much faster, way more 00:16:55.960 --> 00:16:58.200 abrasive thrash metal, and they performed in 00:16:58.200 --> 00:17:00.200 dainty jeans and t -shirts. So by intentionally 00:17:00.200 --> 00:17:02.980 butchering one of Iron Maiden's most famous polished 00:17:02.980 --> 00:17:05.299 songs on tape, they were essentially planting 00:17:05.299 --> 00:17:08.900 a flag. It was a very deliberate, petty jab at 00:17:08.900 --> 00:17:11.039 the old guard saying, we don't care about your 00:17:11.039 --> 00:17:13.619 rules or your polish. Exactly. It's the ultimate 00:17:13.619 --> 00:17:16.160 garage band inside joke that they accidentally 00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:18.759 broadcast to the entire world. So what does this 00:17:18.759 --> 00:17:21.950 all mean? Which brings us to the aftermath. We 00:17:21.950 --> 00:17:24.430 have a paralyzed songwriting process, a broken 00:17:24.430 --> 00:17:28.349 arm, a soundproof residential garage, an EP stitched 00:17:28.349 --> 00:17:30.829 together from spontaneous jams, international 00:17:30.829 --> 00:17:33.529 retail pricing chaos, and a petty jab at a rival 00:17:33.529 --> 00:17:36.130 band. A lot of moving parts. Yeah. How did this 00:17:36.130 --> 00:17:38.509 project actually perform with the public? Incredibly 00:17:38.509 --> 00:17:40.490 well, which is kind of the ultimate irony of 00:17:40.490 --> 00:17:42.490 this whole story. Despite the rough production, 00:17:42.609 --> 00:17:44.309 the fact that it was entirely covers and all 00:17:44.309 --> 00:17:46.250 those industry headaches, it actually peaked 00:17:46.250 --> 00:17:49.049 at number 28 on the Billboard 200 chart. Number 00:17:49.049 --> 00:17:54.079 28. For a raw Unpolished 25 -minute throwaway 00:17:54.079 --> 00:17:57.500 EP. And we didn't stop there. The EP eventually 00:17:57.500 --> 00:17:59.599 achieved platinum certification in the United 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:02.400 States from the RIAA, meaning it shipped over 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:05.420 a million units. Insane. And it went gold in 00:18:05.420 --> 00:18:08.039 Canada. Over a million people bought a record 00:18:08.039 --> 00:18:10.019 that the band themselves admitted was just thrown 00:18:10.019 --> 00:18:13.400 together. But then, after all that success, the 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:15.839 EP basically vanished from the face of the earth. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:19.579 From 1989 all the way until 2018, the original, 00:18:19.660 --> 00:18:23.440 the $5 .98 EP went entirely out of print. Entirely. 00:18:23.579 --> 00:18:25.700 For nearly 30 years, you could not buy a new 00:18:25.700 --> 00:18:28.559 copy of it anywhere, which in the pre -streaming 00:18:28.559 --> 00:18:30.819 music world is the exact recipe for creating 00:18:30.819 --> 00:18:33.380 a holy grail. Totally. Because it was physically 00:18:33.380 --> 00:18:36.539 unavailable for three decades, original cassettes 00:18:36.539 --> 00:18:39.640 and CDs became massive, highly coveted collector's 00:18:39.640 --> 00:18:42.279 items among fans. Now the music itself didn't 00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:46.170 entirely disappear. In 1998, Metallica released 00:18:46.170 --> 00:18:49.130 a double album called Garage Ink, which compiled 00:18:49.130 --> 00:18:50.990 a bunch of different cover songs from throughout 00:18:50.990 --> 00:18:54.089 their career. And they included all five tracks 00:18:54.089 --> 00:18:57.490 from the 1987 EP on it. And in true Metallica 00:18:57.490 --> 00:18:59.630 fashion, they couldn't just cleanly re -release 00:18:59.630 --> 00:19:01.410 the songs. They had to mess with the artwork 00:19:01.410 --> 00:19:04.369 too. The source mentions that for the back cover 00:19:04.369 --> 00:19:08.049 of Garage Ink, they took the original 1987 Garage 00:19:08.049 --> 00:19:10.690 Days photo, and they literally just take pictures 00:19:10.690 --> 00:19:14.309 of their older 1998 faces. over their younger 00:19:14.309 --> 00:19:17.690 1987 faces. Yeah, it maintains that exact same 00:19:17.690 --> 00:19:20.950 DIY cut and paste punk aesthetic that birthed 00:19:20.950 --> 00:19:22.950 the EP in the first place. It's brilliant. But 00:19:22.950 --> 00:19:26.029 fans wanting the original standalone EP format 00:19:26.029 --> 00:19:28.420 had to wait until 2018. That's when the band 00:19:28.420 --> 00:19:32.380 finally reissued the 598 EP, Garage Days, revisited 00:19:32.380 --> 00:19:34.920 on their own blackened recordings label. So they 00:19:34.920 --> 00:19:37.039 finally made it available again across all formats, 00:19:37.339 --> 00:19:39.460 including vinyl, taking to all their own catalogs 00:19:39.460 --> 00:19:41.460 so they never have to fight a label over a price 00:19:41.460 --> 00:19:44.119 tag again. Exactly. This raises an important 00:19:44.119 --> 00:19:46.140 question, though, when we look back at this entire 00:19:46.140 --> 00:19:48.599 sequence of events. What's that? Well, we look 00:19:48.599 --> 00:19:52.380 at this EP as a throwaway project, right? A stopgap 00:19:52.380 --> 00:19:55.039 measure just to appease a label and kill time 00:19:55.039 --> 00:19:58.329 while a broken arm healed. Yet it became completely 00:19:58.329 --> 00:20:01.390 foundational to their legacy. It solidified their 00:20:01.390 --> 00:20:03.529 lineup and reminded them of who they were at 00:20:03.529 --> 00:20:05.990 their core. From Cliff Burton's tragic passing, 00:20:06.269 --> 00:20:09.009 the intense pressure from Vertigo Records, James 00:20:09.009 --> 00:20:11.950 Hetfield shattering his arm, making Jason Newstead 00:20:11.950 --> 00:20:15.130 hang drywall, to legally fighting record stores 00:20:15.130 --> 00:20:18.089 over the price of a cassette tape. It's astonishing 00:20:18.089 --> 00:20:20.849 that this 25 -minute release became a million 00:20:20.849 --> 00:20:23.130 -selling piece of history. It really leaves you 00:20:23.130 --> 00:20:25.650 wondering about the modern music landscape, doesn't 00:20:25.650 --> 00:20:28.690 it? It absolutely does. Today, bands have access 00:20:28.690 --> 00:20:31.630 to infinite digital tracks. They have Pro Tools 00:20:31.630 --> 00:20:33.970 software that can automatically snap a drum beat 00:20:33.970 --> 00:20:36.589 perfectly to a grid, and autotune that can correct 00:20:36.589 --> 00:20:39.029 any flat vocal. Everything is perfectly pristine. 00:20:39.200 --> 00:20:42.119 Right, you can record an entire album in a digital 00:20:42.119 --> 00:20:44.579 vacuum without ever having to face a single limitation. 00:20:45.259 --> 00:20:48.019 But looking at the $5 .98 EP, you have to ask 00:20:48.019 --> 00:20:51.240 yourself, by removing all the physical and logistical 00:20:51.240 --> 00:20:53.920 friction from the recording process, have we 00:20:53.920 --> 00:20:56.740 engineered the happy accident out of music completely? 00:20:56.960 --> 00:20:59.450 That's a great point. If a band today doesn't 00:20:59.450 --> 00:21:02.430 have a literal garage, a strict budget, and a 00:21:02.430 --> 00:21:04.789 broken arm to force them into a creative corner, 00:21:05.190 --> 00:21:07.730 can they ever truly capture that kind of raw 00:21:07.730 --> 00:21:10.009 lightning in a bottle? That is a fascinating 00:21:10.009 --> 00:21:12.750 angle. We spend so much time building the perfect 00:21:12.750 --> 00:21:15.230 digital tools to remove every obstacle from our 00:21:15.230 --> 00:21:17.069 path, but maybe it's the obstacles themselves 00:21:17.069 --> 00:21:19.430 that actually shape the art. Thank you so much 00:21:19.430 --> 00:21:21.650 for joining us today for this deep dive. We hope 00:21:21.650 --> 00:21:23.930 this look into the muddy, chaotic, unproduced 00:21:23.930 --> 00:21:26.450 waters of 1987 gave you something new to think 00:21:26.450 --> 00:21:28.960 about. Until next time, keep digging into the 00:21:28.960 --> 00:21:29.779 stories behind the noise.