10 Hidden Details You Never Noticed In Metallica Tracks
5. Marilyn Monroe, Big Swings, The Misfits, Marianne Faithfull And "The Memory Remains"
Speaking of ReLoad, its first single, "The Memory Remains", dropped in mid-November 1997, just one week before the record hit shelves.
Existing as a song that tackles topics like declining fame and becoming a jaded, "washed up" ex-celebrity, this is territory rife with cultural references, so much so that it could almost get its own list.
Primarily (and most apparently) is the inclusion of Marianne Faithfull on backing vocals. As a singer who had her commercial peak in the '60s and '70s (as well as huge pop-cultural relevance as she was dating Mick Jagger during that period), she was a perfect fit for the track's subject matter and possessed a dark, eery, haunting tone to perfectly punctuate "The Memory Remains"'s regretful tones.
This topic of remaining lost in prior success may (or may not) also be why James Hetfield references by name his own band's beloved 1984 cut "Fade to Black" during the bridge.
Faithfull also lets out a slightly obscure spoken-word segment during her own unsettling, hummed outro, which twice states "Say yes or, at least, say hello." This is a Marilyn Monroe quote from the film The Misfits (1961), made wholly appropriate by the fact that that movie was Monroe's last ever on-screen role before her tragic suicide.
And, for one final touch regarding this song, have you ever wondered how the band achieved the effect in the music video of swinging round and round a square room without falling off their platform?
The effect was made by actually keeping the swinging platform perfectly still, and instead attaching cameras to the outside walls, which were circling around the band while they stood in place.
So, yeah, this song has a lot going on...