Fuel - Metallica

Artist: Metallica
Song: Fuel
Year: 1997
Album: ReLoad

This song was one of the first songs that I heard from ReLoad. I thought that I had first heard it during a 1995 concert recording, but looking over setlists, I cannot find a record of that. It wasn't played at the June 30, 1996 Lollapalooza concert I saw them at or the February 7, 1997 concert I witnessed either.

I'm not sure how I heard this song early, but I did, and I loved it. I thought it had the right edge to be old school Metallica merged with their newer sound. I liked the Load album, but for all the wrong reasons. It didn't sound like Metallica in most places. The ReLoad album was a return to form, but the songs weren't all strong. They were essentially leftovers from Load.

"Fuel" stood out from the rest of the songs. It could be thought of as a death song, but the surface was mostly about fast cars. All I know is that the song rocks. Metallica even performed the song on Saturday Night Live, which was odd to see. Their first single, "The Memory Remains" did not seem like a song Metallica should be singing. Change is fine, but this was another oddity. Metallica seemed to lose their way a bit in the late nineties.

For all the duets with outsider music artists and genre hopping, Metallica couldn't stray far from the speed metal that got them there. This showed me that they still had a pulse. They still could rock and the life had yet to be fully sucked out.

Lyrics:
Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire,
oh

Turn on, I see red
Adrenaline crash and crack my head
Nitro junkie, paint me dead
And I see red

I run across through black and white
War horse, war head, fuck 'em, man
White knuckle tight
Through black and white

Oh, when I burn
Fuel is pumping engines
Burning hard, loose and clean

And then I burn
Turning my direction
Quench my thirst with gasoline

So gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I
desire

Turn on beyond the bone
Swallow future, spit out hope
Burn your face upon the chrome

Take the corner, going to crash
Headlights, headlines
Another junkie, who lives too fast
Lives way too fast, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast

Oh, when I burn
Fuel is pumping engines
Burning hard, loose and clean

And then I burn
Turning my direction
Quench my thirst with gasoline

So gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I
desire

White knuckle tight

Gimme fuel
Gimme fire
My desire

Oh, when I burn
Fuel is pumping engines
Burning hard, loose and clean

And on and on
Turning my direction
Quench my thirst with gasoline

Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I
desire, oh
On I burn