The Metro (song)

"The Metro" is a new wave song written by John Crawford for his band, Berlin. The song has been covered by a number of artists, including System of a Down, Alkaline Trio, John Frusciante and Hannah Fury

The song first appeared on Berlin's breakthrough album Pleasure Victim, released on the independent label Enigma in 1982 and re-released on Geffen in 1983. "The Metro" became the third single from the album, and the second to appear on the Geffen label. It was produced and engineered (as was most of the album) by the band's then-drummer and drum programmer, Daniel Van Patten.

The Berlin recording is known as epitomizing the new wave genre, for showing the genre for what it essentially was: a blending of punk rock and pop, with heavy use of the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 synthesizer.^[1] Terri Nunn said the song, which was a breakthrough hit for Berlin, "defined us and defined that period of music."^[2]

The song's music video was their first MTV hit, in heavy rotation on the young channel in its second and third years. Directed by Dominic Orlando, it was filmed at GMT Studios in West Los Angeles, California (1983). Terri Nunn only sang two lyrics on camera: "I remember hating you for loving me" and "Sorry." The video became a part of the "Berlin Video 45" Geffen-VHS home video, released in 1984.

The single surpassed the Hot 100 peak of their previous cult hit, "Sex (I'm A...)", going to #58, and it remains their third-highest charting single in the U.S. A dance remix of the song received club play in 1983.

Subsequent remixes have been done of Berlin's song, including one by Sigue Sigue Sputnik. A revamped Berlin lineup, led by the original group's Teri Nunn, re-recorded the song around 2000, this version receiving several remixes as well. An acoustic version was made available exclusively on iTunes. One of their signature songs, it was among those performed by a reunion of the original line-up for a live show at The Roxy in Los Angeles which was the culmination of an episode of VH-1's Bands Reunited.

Cover versions

"The Metro" was System of a Down's first cover, performed in 1995 on their Untitled 1995 Demo Tape. This version of the song was slowed to a crawl and had a dark moody sense of playing. Re-recorded by the band for their Demo Tape 4 in 1997, it became less moody and truer to the Berlin original, as the tempo was increased. A third version was sped up greatly and Daron Malakian lent his vocals in parts, appearing on System of a Down's "Lonely Day" maxi single as "Metro". That version also appears on the soundtracks for Dracula 2000 and Not Another Teen Movie. An unofficial video was available on the band's website. Malakian has said on many occasions that his band could have done the song better, but the chances of a new version were low as the band was on "indefinite hiatus" at the time. They have since reformed.

A cover of the song by Alkaline Trio keeps the pace of Berlin's original while altering the melody.

An I Am Spoonbender version of this song exactly replicates the sounds and production style of the original, but completely changes the words and title to become "Where Do Words Go?" IAS leader Dustin Donaldson states their intention: "By changing only the words and by musically rendering an exact replica, it forces notions of illusion/reality. It is an alternate-reality experience of the song. Therefore it isn't really a 'cover', so to speak—it is a 'Teletwin' of the original." It was released on the 1999 EP Teletwin.

Gridlock covered this song on their 1995 demo, Sickness, and it reappeared on their album 5.25 in 1999.

Other covers include versions by John Frusciante, Sleepthief, Bella Morte, Res (of Idle Warship) and Finnish band I Walk the Line. +44 have covered this song during their US tour.

References