Motorbreath (Live at The Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, CA – March 10th, 1985)

This song was written completely by James Hetfield. It's about people in life who sit and waste time and how they will accomplish nothing. It's the only Metallica song credited solely to Hetfield.

"Motorbreath" first appeared on a demo tape the band made on July 6, 1982 called No Life 'Til Leather. The studio time came courtesy of the owner of Rocshire Records, who wanted to sign them based on the explosive songs he heard them perform in their live sets. What he didn't realize that the songs Metallica played live that he really liked were covers, mostly of the British metal band Diamond Head. Disappointed, he let the band have the demo and released them from any obligation. Metallica dubbed about 300 copies of the reel-to-reel master onto cassettes and sent them to every metal tastemaker they could think of. The fanzines wrote glowing reviews, and copies of those copies started to circulate, giving the band some renown not just in their home turf of Los Angeles but also in San Francisco, where the metal scene was much more vibrant.

The band still had their original bass player, Ron McGovney, and guitarist, Dave Mustaine, when they recorded the original demo version of this song. By the time they recorded it for their debut album, Kill 'Em All, both had been sacked, replaced by Cliff Burton and Kirk Hammett.