The greatest love song of all time: Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters

People often think, rock and love, have nothing to do with each other, and that rock should be or is only about rage, depression, the devil or something sick. But the reality is different, there are many great rock love songs.  

Maybe I am biased, because I love rock, and I love Metallica, but I do think people should explore the greatness behind the song. So, let’s do that, I’m going to talk about, what makes Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters, not only one of the greatest songs and one of the greatest ballads (rock and not) of all time, but what makes it THE love song.

The song starts with an amazing acoustic guitar intro: iconic, soft and slow. Playing the piano myself, I realized is somehow similar to Moonlight by Beethoven. This intro leds us to believe that the song is sad, no one imagines a love song to be that obscure, like if we were to talk about death or depression. The drums enter in the same way, slow, not so heavy and not so loud. But let’s talk about the lyrics.

So close no matter how far, couldn’t keep much more from the start. Forever trusting who we are, and nothing else matters. Never open myself this way, life is ours we live it our way, all this words I just don’t say, and nothing else matters. Trust I seek that I find in you, every day for us something new, open mind for a different view, and nothing else matter. The vibe of the song stays the same, not loud, not heavy, slow but powerful. We can see in the lyrics they never talk about love, it doesn’t seem that way anyways, but once you figure it out, they’re really powerful, what I really like is that’s not the usual “I love you, and want to kiss u”,  its raw emotion, its poetic, it’s a situation where you feel love like you haven’t, and there’s an amazing beauty to that, but it’s also extremely hard to deliver a song of this style in such lyrics.

Never open myself this way… The feeling we get when we are in a great relationship, truly doesn’t matter who we are, when we are loved and understood, we can express ourselves in a genuine way.

Never cared for what they do, never care for what they know, but I know…

I feel like this is an amazing way to show love, doesn’t matter how people see you, what they talk about you, only them know who you are, and that’s the only thing that matters for them. Who wouldn’t want to be loved like that?

So close, no matter how far, it couldn’t be much more from the heart, forever trusting who we are, and nothing else matters. This part of the song it’s about how James was talking on the phone with his girlfriend while he was on the studio, they were together and they felt so close, despite being kilometers apart, they were trusting each other, and their relationship.

Never care for what they say, never care for games they play, never care for what they do, never care for what they know… Almost the same as the last lyrics, a little different, but the same idea, a relationship is only us two, and we shouldn’t care about what people talk, think or want.

Then we get to the first solo, James’s solo, in the middle of the song which is amazing, and really gives the song dimension and depth without breaking the initial vibe of soft and slow, kinda mysterious, and feels like the relationship is growing stronger. The strings gives it an angelic vibe, it makes the song a little softer. But we still don’t know where the song will lead us.

We have a small verse in between solos, same lyrics we’ve analyzed, so let’s talk about Kirk’s solo, much more powerful, the vibe of the song kind of ends, and a new song starts. The lyrics end in a powerful, louder tone, with way more emotion, and gives the queue for the solo to start, and be stronger and more “rock-like”

The song ends almost how it started, acoustic guitar, slow, and the lyrics feel almost whispered. Intimate.

Now that we have analyzed the music, and the lyrics, I would like to share more of what this song makes me feel, and why do I think it’s the best love song of all time.

The story behind how it was written, and why it was written, how it came about is amazing. They were on the studio, James was miles apart but talking on the phone the studio had, he started writing this song, which feels almost like a letter. This wasn’t intended for the album, but Lars convinced him to add it. And thanks to his encouragement we have a GREAT love song. We NEED more songs like that, where we can really tell or isn’t obvious it’s about love, it’s not cheesy, its real.

And in a world so fake, realness is craved.

Keep Rocking x Paulina