What does Master of Puppets mean?

Metallica: Master of Puppets Meaning

Tagged: Drugs [suggest]
Album cover for Master of Puppets album cover

Song Released: 1986


Master of Puppets Lyrics

End of passion play, crumbling away
I'm your source of self-destruction
Veins that pump with fear, sucking darkest clear
Leading on your death's construction

Taste me, you will see
More is all you need
Dedicated to
How I'm killing...

  1. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 17th 2011 !⃝

    The song is about drug addiction and a past members problems with them.

  2. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 6th 2011 !⃝

    'End of passion play, crumbling away
    I'm your source of self-destruction
    Veins that pump with fear, sucking darkest clear
    Leading on your death's construction'

    How you inject the drugs into your veins and it kills you faster.

    'Taste me, you will see
    More is all you need
    You're dedicated to
    How I'm killing you'

    About how once you've tasted drugs you'll want to come back to them and just keep doing them.

    'Come crawling faster
    Obey your master
    Your life burns faster
    Obey your master
    Master'

    You'll find yourself a slave, or puppet, to the drugs and your life will end quicker, and you will crawl back to them

    'Master of puppets, I'm pulling your strings, yeah
    Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams
    Blinded by me, you can't see a thing
    Just call my name, 'cause I'll hear you scream
    Master
    Master
    Just call my name, 'cause I'll hear you scream
    Master
    Master
    Hell Yeah!'

    How you will be blinded by the drugs and your dreams will become impossibilities and you will screw up your mind

    'Needlework the way, never you betray
    Life of death becoming clearer
    Pain monopoly, ritual misery
    Chop your breakfast on a mirror'

    How you will use needles to inject and how you usually snort cocaine off of a mirror

    'Hell is worth all that, natural habitat
    Just a rhyme without a reason
    Never-ending maze, drift on numbered days
    Now your life is out of season'

    This part is basically about how you will get lost in a maze created by the drugs and dying from them

    'I will occupy
    I will help you die
    I will run through you
    Now I rule you, too'

    How when you are addicted, it's hard to stop, it will control you and kill you faster.

  3. quickandead
    click a star to vote
    Sep 15th 2010 !⃝

    Master of Puppets is plain and simply about speed. Not coke, speed. Best song about it ever written by boys playing metal and living it in the crank capitol of the world.

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 10th 2010 !⃝

    The "master" refers to drugs and the song says that nothing good comes out of taking drugs and how they can control your life

  5. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Mar 2nd 2010 !⃝

    “Master of Puppets” is a song by heavy metal band Metallica. This song talks about drugs (specifically cocaine), and how they ruin one’s life. James Hetfield, the lead vocalist, explained that it, “deals pretty much with drugs. How things get switched around, instead of you controlling what you're taking and doing, it is drugs controlling you." The “Master” in the song refers to drugs that control the user, who is the “puppet”. This is evident in the lyrics,” I’m pulling your strings, Twisting your mind, smashing your dreams, Blinded by me, you can't see a thing”. This shows how drugs alter your thinking, destroys your dreams, and makes you blind to your long-term goals. The first stanza is written in the point of view of the drug. It says how using drugs is basically a slow suicide. What drug he is talking about is not directly stated, but the listener can infer that it is heroine, “sucking darkest clear” or cocaine (chop your breakfast on a mirror). Cocaine is sniffed from a mirror because it makes a good flat surface and makes small bits of cocaine easy to spot. This song also talks extensively about the powerful addiction of drugs. For example, “Taste me you will see, more is all you need” shows the addictive nature of drugs. It also talks about how drugs ruin people’s lives. Not only does it cause death (“I will help you die”), it also moves them further from their goals (“smashing your dreams”). According to the song, their lives are ruined and the want to be free from the addiction but they can’t (“Fix me”). Overall, this song tells about the dangers of using drugs.

    -SuperBarnie

  6. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jan 31st 2010 !⃝

    You fools! This song is definitely about a disciple of an Indian Guru. At first, the disciple is reassured by his Guru that if he calls for help, the Guru will come. When the disciple was in need and called to his Guru for help, he expected help but instead, all he heard is laughter. The disciple cries helplessly to his Guru "FIX ME!". Then, finally, the Guru comes and again reassures his disciple just like he did at first. Only the second time, the Guru is clouded in doubt because now, after being let down, the disciple feels that this reassurance is filled with false promises and lies. This time, however, the Guru is answering the disciple's cry of "FIX ME!" by giving him the answer that he needs, in the way that he needs it. So finally the song ends happily, because the Guru has fixed the disciple's doubts and fears.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  7. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 28th 2009 !⃝

    This song could easily mean about how drugs can kill you, but I always thought the album was about the United States Government sending people out to war just to get killed whilst the Government bath in their money. Because you'll notice, on the album cover, the army helmet hanging off the gravestone furthest to the left. Also on the album cover, notice the two puppet hands controlling the dead soldiers.

    I think ...And Justice For All covers this more though, but in the actual Master Of Puppets song lyrics, on the verse just before the solo - Laughter, laughter, all I hear or see is laughter. Laughter, laughter, laughing at my cries. And also at the end of the song all that laughter. What could that mean?

  8. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 21st 2009 !⃝

    dam, there's alot of retards that make guesses of what this means. but it's really about james and his addiction to alcohol. Alcohol is the master. And most the people that get a taste. want more and more and are unable to control it. I'm definitly a puppet to this wonderful master. Alcoholica 4 life! From a true metallica fan. Peace!

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  9. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 9th 2009 !⃝

    this is about james' addiction to substances...wanting more and more(Taste me you will see More is all you need Youre dedicated to How Im killing you)feeling like a lowly addict who cant stop and getting closer to the end(Hell is worth all that, natural habitat Just a rhyme without a reason Neverending maze, drift on numbered days Now your life is out of season)

  10. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 27th 2009 !⃝

    I think this song is about James Hetfield felt like a puppet by a larger person,so now he saying all the stuff that he would do if he was the Master of Puppets.Boy,I'm glad he's not the Master,we'd be slicing our breakfast on a mirror.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  11. funsuka017
    click a star to vote
    Sep 13th 2008 !⃝

    Yea this is song is most likely about drugs due to such lines like "chop your breakfast on a mirror" but there are a few lines in here that make you think it could of been about the horrors of war, such lines like "I'm crawling faster, obey your master" referring to crawling soldiers need to do in the midst of battle and fighting without a reason and to just obey your selfish government and "pain monopoly" I thought could be referring to the selfish goals of money for our government and willing to sacrifice the pain and suffering of America's young men...i don't know just what I first thought the song was about until I saw ALL of the lyrics

  12. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    May 30th 2008 !⃝

    The song is clearly about drugs. Any decent Metallica fan could see that. I don't know if anyone reading this is a Star Wars fan, but the lyrics almost reminded me of Darth Vader and the Emperor the first time I heard it, the Emperor being the Master and Vader being the Puppet.

    But yes, the song is undoubtedly about drugs. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to do some research.

    --Saint J--

  13. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 31st 2007 !⃝

    The song is about anything that can forcibly take over your life, including drugs, alcohol, the government etc. The only way this could be about his penis is if James is a sex addict (I mean, more than typical for a guy.) Since he recently got out of rehab, and only has three kids, I think that the penis idea is just that, DICK.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  14. Surfer_Coyote
    click a star to vote
    Oct 8th 2007 !⃝

    James has 3 kids, and he made them the old fashioned way. I'm sure Francesca can tell you that his penis works just fine. Maybe you felt the need to share your own problems with the world. There's help for that you know.

    When I was younger I thought the song was basically about following any kind of bad influence, but there are lines that definitely scream drugs. Especially, the white kinds you chop up on a mirror with a razor blade.

  15. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Oct 5th 2007 !⃝

    No... you are all wrong... It's about a "Snowhite and the seven dwarves", it is obvious that the Snowhite is "Master" and she is the boss in the house, as for dwarves - they are puppets. It's so easy to figure out, all you need to do is to think deeper...




More Metallica songs »


 


Latest Articles

 


Submit Your Interpretation

[ want a different song? ]




Just Posted

Happy? anonymous
Rock Show anonymous
Don't Go anonymous
Tek It anonymous
Don't Leave Me anonymous
Chop Suey anonymous
Taking Over Me anonymous
All The Good Girls Go To Hell anonymous
Wingriddenangel anonymous
I Spoke to The Devil in Miami anonymous
This Woman's Work anonymous
Action! Not Words anonymous
Everybody Loves Me, Baby anonymous
Fall in to Sleep anonymous
Lemon Boy anonymous

(We won't give out your email)