Which Metallica song opens with an eight-bar phrase from "America" in West Side Story?
Answer
Don't Tread on Me
Metallica's song "Don't Tread on Me" opens with an eight-bar phrase from "America" in West Side Story.
The borrowed musical phrase appears in the instrumental introduction to the song on The Black Album. "America" was written for Leonard Bernstein's musical West Side Story, whose original stage production opened in 1957. Metallica used the recognizable melody as an introduction before moving into the song's heavy-metal arrangement.
The song's title also connects directly to the album artwork. “Don't Tread on Me” is the motto associated with the Gadsden flag, whose coiled snake inspired the snake image on The Black Album's cover.
Metallica released the track as a promotional single on August 29, 1991, but it was not one of the album's five commercial singles. The song was not performed live until the band's 2012 European tour, when the group played the Black Album material in reverse order to mark its anniversary.