Metallica's cover game remains strong, with the thrash pioneers having formally unveiled their pretty bangin' Garage Inc. treatment of Elton John's "Funeral for a Friend / Love Lies Bleeding."
As previously reported, James Hetfield and Co. tackled the performance of Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road's opening two-fer as part of a March ceremony that awarded John and lyricist Bernie Taupin the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
The award ceremony was broadcast by PBS on Monday night (April 8th), though, and likewise featured performances from Joni Mitchell, Annie Lennox, and Brandi Carlile.
As for Metallica, they gritted up the original's understated piano intro with some thrash-style cymbal stops and NWOBHM-leaning guitarmonies. Hetfield brought his patented sandpaper croon to Taupin's "Love Lies Bleeding" lyrics, and you'd best believe Kirk Hammett went wild on the wah pedal for his solo. You can see for yourselves up above.
A few years prior to the PBS performance, John showed his love of 'Tallica by hopping on a version of "Nothing Else Matters" for 2021's mega-sized Blacklist project, even telling Hetfield at the time that the Black Album ballad was "one of the best songs ever written."
