I am planning to get the first line of Bleeding Me's bridge lyrics tattooed on my forearm, which for the longest time I thought were:
"caught under wheels' roll"
These were the official lyrics listed on Metallica's website, and they stayed this way right until the Load remastered set dropped
HOWEVER
Now the website lists them as "caught under, wheels roll"
Does anyone have an idea of what the correct versions is? They both mean pretty much the same thing, but ideally I'd like to know what James intended them to be
Hetfield's handwritten lyrics included in the box set do not include the comma. I just checked them and the first time he writes simply "CAUGHT UNDER WHEELS ROLL" and the second time he writes "CAUGHT UNDER WHEEL'S ROLL". Sounds like you could go either way, just no comma! Sorry- I took a picture but don't think I can post it in a reply
can you dm it to me? not that I don't believe you haha, I'm just curios to see the booklet
Looks like it also says "wheel's roll"
Yep it does. He changes back and forth a few times between including that apostrophe and not throughout the entire lyric sheet. Probably the grammar nerd in me but I find it interesting that he puts the apostrophe where he does. He's talking about a singular wheel, not wheels plural.
I wouldn’t worry about punctuation at all. The message doesn’t change either way
That punctuation does change the message, though. I’m sure it wasn’t an arbitrary change either. Had James intended and penned something different than was originally published, then it explains why it was changed: because there’s a different meaning.
“Caught under (James is trapped beneath) wheels’ roll (the roll of the wheels)” is different than “Caught under (possibly under more open-ended obstacle like life, pressure, or burdens), (like a cinematic break) wheels roll (instead of being crushed by the motion, James is crushed while the motion continues).”
The punctuation changes the meaning a lot.
with not that much abstraction applied, both of them portray the feeling of being trapped in an unescapable predicament. As someone noted bellow, James' handwriting points towards wheels' roll, which is how I initially thought it went
I think that’s the most parsimonious implicature of his vocal contribution. The textual lyrics as currently shown aren’t as meaningful. I mean, James tended to be more open-ended and universal and play on words with this album, but the latter reading seems to be void of that “hit.” I don’t know what to call it. I’m not a fucking poet. But, I’d go with “caught under wheels’ roll” if I were getting a tattoo of that kind.
According to his handwritten lyrics someone shared here, he NEVER wrote "wheels' roll". He switched between "wheels roll" and "wheel's roll".
"Wheel's roll" is correct. It's clear from his handwriting he was referring to a singular wheel, not multiple wheels.
No one is going to study the punctuation in a tattoo and work out the meaning lol
No one is going to study the punctuation in a tattoo and work out the meaning lol
You can either conclude that I’m a “no one” (maybe a bot?) or amend sarcasm to your reply, but I certainly do. Hell, I catch my own poor grammar in situ but trust other’s employ enough Grice’s razor so we can meaningfully understand each other and be understood, but a permanent tattoo is different than texting with one free hand.
fair enough, I'm probably going with the first one
I’m going with first. That’s what I heard and what the lyrics said for like 29 years.
Caught under wheels, roll.
Spotify version shows "caught under wheel's roll" and I'd accept that one after hearing it twenty more times.
Grammarly:
"CAUGHT UNDER WHEEL'S" suggests being caught under a single wheel, with the apostrophe indicating possession.
"CAUGHT UNDER WHEELS' ROLL" implies that you are caught under the rolling action that belongs to multiple wheels, using the apostrophe correctly to denote possession.
"CAUGHT UNDER WHEELS ROLL" refers to being caught underneath any wheels that are rolling, without the possessive, making it more general.
I feel like caught under, wheels roll makes more sense. Or else it would say caught under the wheels roll. But that’s just my thinking
It's nice to see the tattoo blunders before someone comes in with it already permanently etched on their body sometimes.
Super meaningful stuff when you don't even really know what the words are.
Just get it without the comma and add it later if you want lol
I love fucking Metallica and food.I love fucking, Metallica, and food.
Edit: added commas later.
I’d only have two commas in that sentence….y’all can guess where lol
lol this is the correct answer