Bleeding Me

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"Bleeding Me"
Promotional single by Metallica
from the album Load
Released	11 March 1997
Recorded	1 May 1995 – 1 February 1996 at The Plant Studios, Sausalito, California
Genre	Hard rock, heavy metal
Length	8:18
Label	Elektra
Songwriter(s)	Kirk Hammett James Hetfield Lars Ulrich Bob Rock
Producer(s)	Bob Rock James Hetfield Lars Ulrich

"Bleeding Me" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica from their 1996 album, Load. It was never commercially released as a single, though a promotional CD containing the album version and an approximately two minutes shorter radio edit was distributed to radio stations in early 1997. That year, it would reach #6 on the Mainstream Rock Charts.

"Bleeding Me" is one of the few Metallica songs that contains a Hammond organ. The track has appeared from time to time in Metallica's live set since its release in 1996, including the live album S&M with the San Francisco Symphony.

Song meaning[]

There is some speculation as to what the song's lyrics are actually about. While there are thoughts of it being about a battle with addiction, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted believes it is about a person being put through mental torture.

Metallica frontman James Hetfield explained what the song is about in a 2001 interview with Playboy:

"Around the time of Load, I felt I wanted to stop drinking. "Maybe I'm missing out on something. Everyone else seems so happy all the time. I want to get happy." I'd plan my life around a hangover: "The Misfits are playing in town Friday night, so Saturday is hangover day." I lost a lot of days in my life. Going to therapy for a year, I learned a lot about myself. There's a lot of things that scar you when you're growing up, you don't know why. The song Bleeding Me is about that: I was trying to bleed out all bad, get the evil out. While I was going through therapy, I discovered some ugly stuff in there. A dark spot."^[1]

In an interview shown on Kerrang! TV, Hetfield remarked on how he thought the other members of the band felt about him and his lyrics:

"How did I know whether the rest of the guys in the band felt as much about the lyrics as I did? I could be singing 'Bleeding Me' with a tear in my eye and the rest of the guys might not have cared."

The inspiration from the song appears to come from a poem by Lord Byron in which he states the following:

"The thorns which I have reap'd are of the tree

I planted; they have torn me, and I bleed.

I should have known what fruit would spring from such a seed."^[2]

Demo[]

The song's demo was an instrumental, also called "Bleeding Me". It was recorded by Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich in Ulrich's home musical studio "Dungeon" on April 7, 1995.

Track listing[]

1. "Bleeding Me" (Radio Edit) – 5:57
2. "Bleeding Me" – 8:18

The most notable differences in the radio edit version is the shortening of various instrumental passages and the ending of the song at the conclusion of the guitar solo.

References[]

External links[]

• "Bleeding Me" at Discogs