![]() ![]() (A live DVD, That One Night – Live In Buenos Aries, Argentina, which can also be seen on YouTube, captures a similar moment.) “It began the love story between Dave Mustaine and Argentina.”Īs the band played the opening notes of Symphony…, the rabid Latin American crowd began to chant along in unison. “The fans embraced us, and we ended up doing five sold-out shows in a row,” he remembers. He references a performance of the song during a Megadeth concert in Buenos Aries in 1994, soon after the country relaxed its laws and began allowing more Western acts to perform. People don't know how we got treated Dave Mustaine “The opening riff, it’s a world-famous riff now, and the cool thing is that it’s taken on a kind of folklore.” “When you write songs that are busy, and then you write something that isn’t but it still satiates you, there’s something to be said for that,” he says. While the primary riff of Symphony… wasn’t as intricate as most of Megadeth’s previous material, Dave says he was never concerned about how the song would be received by the group’s fans. It was like, ‘What’s your primary love?’” You lost friendships you saw relationships go in the trash. If you were in a band, you had to struggle. "Everybody thinks, ‘I can walk around with my tattoos and I’m some bad-ass in a band,’ and all that kind of stuff. “They don’t know the doors that had to be constantly beaten on and kicked down just to get some recognition. “A lot of people who are in our business now weren’t around back then, and they don’t know how we got treated,” he continues. ![]() We had that conundrum – do we keep writing songs like the singles, or do we write songs like the non-singles? After Countdown…, we started to feel the pressure. “You have choices to make – if you’re going to stick to your guns, or if you’re going to take the girl that you brought to the dance home with you, the song that makes you big. “It’s funny when you start to make inroads like that,” Dave reflects. and No.5 in the UK upon its release, and would quickly earn the band their first platinum – and, to date, their only double-platinum – record. In no small part due to Symphony…, Countdown To Extinction debuted at No.2 on the Billboard 200 in the U.S. The clip even made a respectable showing on the channel’s Top 100 Videos of 1992 year-end countdown, where, at No.68, the band found themselves sandwiched between Madonna and U2. The song would peak at No.15 on the UK singles chart, while back home its music video saw Megadeth graduate from the Saturday night wasteland of Headbanger’s Ball into the weekday afternoon playlists of viewer request countdown show Dial MTV. ![]() Symphony… was our first bona fide single – everything else was just songs that we got lucky to get airplay for.” “We’d just pick cool songs and make videos and pray that we’d get on MTV. “Remember, you’re talking about a band that didn’t have singles,” he says. That’s what you pay these guys for, and they can make some pretty sizable improvements if you’re man enough to listen.”ĭave says he followed a similar path when the band’s record label chose Symphony… to be the album’s first single. It doesn’t mean I do what they say, but I listen. "I’ve always listened to the suggestions of the people I work with. I don’t know if it’s the arrogance of the people we’ve worked with, but he’s the only person who ever came back to me with notes on the songs. Before we even went into the studio together, I had given Max the demo tapes. “I can’t take credit for Max Norman’s genius,” Mustaine says. (The demo appears as a bonus track on a 2004 reissue.) Dave is quick to acknowledge the input of producer Norman, who proposed moving the final verse from before Marty Friedman’s guitar solo to the end of the song. Once the song was fully written, Mustaine and his bandmates recorded a demo, which clocks in at 88 seconds longer than the version metal fans around the world would soon come to know and love. Not knowing something is ignorant, and knowing something and choosing the wrong thing is stupid, so you’ve got to ask yourself when things go wrong: ‘Was it an ignorant mistake, or a stupid mistake?’ I don’t try to point out stupidity, and I don’t like to make people feel bad – unless they piss me off.” That’s why I always try and encourage our fans to decide for themselves. “I think that’s evident once people get the facts for themselves. “I don’t think it’s my place to say who’s smart and who’s stupid,” he says. ![]() While its tone is undeniably cynical, he says took care to avoid passing final judgment himself. Lyrically, Symphony Of Destruction – which Dave says was inspired by the classic film and book The Manchurian Candidate – describes the dangers of the ‘Pied Piper’ effect, where citizens blindly “dance like marionettes” to the will of corrupt political leaders. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |