The Shortest Straw

Drawing straws is a game of chance where everyone pulls a straw, and whoever draws the shortest straw is the loser. In the '50s and '60s, it was a popular way of choosing someone for an unpleasant task, like cleaning the bathroom or sitting in the middle seat. The person in this song has had a straw pulled for him, and it's the shortest one - in other words, he's been screwed.

The lyric is largely political, referencing the Red Scare that took place in the US government starting in the late 1940s, lasting well into the '50s. A coalition led by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee went looking for Americans with communist ties in the interest of national security. In many cases, this resulted in suppression of free speech and dire consequences for those targeted, not unlike the happenings in the authoritarian communist countries they opposed. The Red Scare has gone down in history as a witch hunt engineered for political propaganda. "The Shortest Straw" is a warning that it could happen again.

Metallica mainstays James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich wrote this song, which appears on their fourth album, ...And Justice For All. This was one of the most challenging times for the band, which was reeling from the 1986 tour bus accident that killed their bass player, Cliff Burton. Their new bass player, Jason Newsted, was a worthy replacement but not yet in a position to assert himself, so there was nothing he could do when they mixed his bass so low that's it's nearly inaudible. Newsted did have some creative input on the album, co-writing the song "Blackened." He had much more of a voice on Metallica's next album, The Black Album.