Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
Peace Sells (1986)
There was a lot going on in the music world in the 1980s: New wave, synth pop, post punk, hardcore punk, indie rock, funk rock, hair metal. It was great. Another subgenre that popped up even as bands like Motley Crue and Poison were slathering on the foundation and eyeliner was thrash metal, which was as much a reaction to the pop metal that was becoming a best seller as it was a counterpoint to the buttoned-down conservatism of Ronald Reagan's presidency.
The sound combined the traditional metal of bands like Judas Priest, Motorhead and Iron Maiden with the speed and aggression of hardcore punk acts like Black Flag, Bad Brains, the Misfits and the Dead Kennedys. In the U.S., it was Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, and Anthrax. Metallica was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by singer-guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, later adding guitarist Dave Mustaine and bassist Ron McGovney. The band replaced McGovney with Cliff Burton and then in April 1983, replaced Mustaine with Kirk Hammett.
While Metallica became the first thrash band to gain notice, Mustaine was bitter and decided to form a faster and heavier band. After reading a pamphlet by California senator Alan Cranston that discussed "the arsenal of megadeath," Mustaine wrote a song called "Megadeth," which was about the annihilation of power. He formed a band called Fallen Angels, but eventually the name changed to Megadeth. After several lineup changes, the group was made up of Mustaine on vocals and lead guitars, Dave Ellefson on bass, Gar Samuelson on drums and Chris Poland on guitar.
The band signed to Combat Records, which gave them $8,000 to record their debut album. Megadeth spent half the money on drugs, booze and food and then fired the original producer and finished the album themselves. Killing is My Business...and Business is Good! came out in June 1985; it included a cover of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'," sped up and with different lyrics. Years later, songwriter Lee Hazlewood complained about the changes and threatened legal action until the song was removed from pressings released from 1995 to 2001.
Megadeth got $25,000 from Combat to record its second album, but ended up signing with Capital Records. Poland and Samuelson were struggling with heroin addiction, and both were fired after the subsequent tour. The group's second album Peace Sells...but Who's Buying? came out in late 1986, featuring political commentary and complex arrangements.
Samuelson had encouraged Mustaine to write more political lyrics, and when Mustaine read an interview in which Patti Smith said, "Peace sells, but nobody's buying it," he had the idea for a song. He didn't have any paper so he wrote the lyrics on the walls of the rehearsal building the band was living in. With "Peace Sells," Mustaine lashed out at the image of metal bands as being dumb.
"What do you mean I don't believe in God?/I talk to him every day/What do you mean I don't support your system?/I go to court when I have to/What do you mean I can't get to work on time?/Got nothing better to do/And what do you mean I don't pay my bills?/Why do you think I'm broke? Huh?/If there's a new way/Oh, I'll be the first in line/But it better work this time."
Mustaine came up with the song's distinctive bass intro, which later was used as the introduction to MTV News, but the band received no royalties because the clip was so short.
"What do you mean I hurt your feelings?/I didn't know you had any feelings/What do you mean I ain't kind?/I'm just not your kind/What do you mean I couldn't be the president/Of the United States of America?/Tell me something/It's still "We the people," right?/If there's a new way/Oh, I'll be the first in line/But it better work this time."
In 1986, the Cold War was at its peak, with the threat of nuclear war seemingly imminent. The song's refrain of "Peace sells, but who's buying?" was particularly unusual for metal, although Iron Maiden's "Two Minutes to Midnight" from two years earlier covered similar ground.
The song's video was a hit on MTV and featured quick cuts of Megadeth playing live and war footage, although it was banned in the U.K. because of the flashing images at the end. The album hit #76 on the Billboard 200 chart and Megadeth opened for Alice Cooper in early '87 before beginning a headlining tour.
Since then, the band has released 14 albums and had many lineup changes, with Mustaine being the only constant. His bitter feelings over being kicked out of Metallica lasted for decades, highlighted by interview footage included in the Metallica-produced documentary Some Kind of Monster in 2004. Mustaine and the Metallica members finally made up in 2010 during a tour of the "Big Four" thrash bands: Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer.
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