The Call Of Ktulu (Hetfield/Ulrich/Burton/Mustaine)
The song "The Call Of Ktulu" was Metallica's first instrumental song on which all band
members played together
Album:
Ride The Lightning
Lyrics - Song board
The S&M info:
On CD1 and in the booklet of the "S&M" album the song is entitled "The Call Of The
Ktulu" instead of just "The Call Of Ktulu".
The song live:
The first time the song "The Call Of Ktulu" was performed live was in the "Country Club"
in Reseda, CA on august 30 in '83. Metallica also performed its full version live on
their gigs with symphony orchestras in 1999. Although the full and regular version with no
orchestra was performed live for the last time in Minneapolis, Minnesota in "The First
Avenue" on februray 6 in '85 the song "The Call Of Ktulu" was played live a few times as a
part of the bass or guitar solo in between '92-'93. On the "The Garage Remains The Same"
tour in '99 Metallica put the regular and full version of "The Call of Ktulu" back on their
setlist for two concerts.
The demo:
The work in progress name for the song "The Call of Ktulu" was called "When Hell Freezes Over".
The Grammy Award nomination:
Metallica won a Grammy Award in 2001 (February 21st) in the category "The Best Rock
Instrumental Performance" for the song "The Call Of Ktulu" ("S&M" version). This is
Metallica's 6th Grammy.
The inspiration:
The idea of the song "The Call Of Ktulu" is based upon H.P. Lovecraft's sole book
"The Shadow over Innsmouth" which was first introduced to the rest of the band by Cliff
Burton. The spark of beeing fascinated by the book began quickly spreading over the rest of
the band. The song's name was taken from one of H.P. Lovecraft's main story featuring
Cthulhu "The Call of Cthulhu" which has been written in 1928 for the magazine "Weird Tales".
The name "Ktulu" is originally written "Cthulhu" by H.P. Lovecraft.
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Cthulhu originally sketched
by H.P. Lovecraft
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"That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die."
- H.P. Lovecraft
"Not dead which eternal lie stranger eons death may die"
- Metallica (The Thing That Should Not Be)
Ktulu and Cthulhu:
"Cthulhu" is the original writing style which had been used by Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
Maybe Metallica wrote on purpose "Cthulhu" in another way to honour the author.
Because in some of his stories it is written, that the ordinary mortals aren't allowed
neither to spell out his name nor to write it down because his name would call him.
Metallica probably used the name "Ktulu" instead of "Cthulhu" because they were
afraid "Cthulhu" would be copyrighted.
Klulu and Ktulu:
However in his later works H.P. Lovecraft also used the spelling "Ktulu" as well as
"Klulu" for "Cthulhu". The name Klulu was supposed to be pronounced something like
"Kuh-LOO-loo".
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