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Again, this response is looong, but I hope you read it, because it’s a MEASURED, serious response to your video. First off, I gotta say, i love the dad/son concept of your show. There’s a charming innocence here, and i recognize this song is being looked at from a very different era, where music--even heavy metal where the music is downbeat/minor-key---tends to have a positive/"i've overcome battles" message (megadeth wrote songs of that nature later on, as do many metal bands in their later/more reflective years.) I also recognize that these lyrics are not only lacking any sort of positive message—so yes, father, you will be futile in that search—but they are from the point of view of a killer. (this tactic is also used in Slayer’s “Angel of Death,” which is from the point of view of Joseph Mengele, Nazi “doctor” and torturing experimenter, and which overall makes this song seem as safe as a kitten in a milkbath…so…I would LOVE your take on that one!) At a time when metal lyrics were already condemned for their (fictionalized/exaggeratedly) violent and allegedly “Satanic” content, songs about killers that didn’t comment on the killings—that had a first-person killer narrative, hence they are lacking immediate judgment and the listener is plunged even more into the horror of the killings (much like horror movies where the killer is the protagonist)—were even more attacked than your average black magic horror song. Some were accused of “promoting” violence, and “Angel of Death” was even accused of being anti-semitic/pro-Nazi, solely because it doesn’t provide the (rather obvious, unless you’re actually a neo-Nazi) comment that what Mengele did was bad bad bad. Songs like that aim to be very disturbing (again, much like the goriest horror films) and if they spurred the ire of Tipper Gore and other censors/fretting parents, than they succeeded. So given all that, no, you are most certainly not going to find a positive message in the song. However, I must ask the following: 1) Why does a song’s lyrics have to carry a message of positivity? There are tragic (and even gruesome songs) in every genre, even the most musically mellow. (Think of “Sunday Morning Coming Down” or “Jolene”). Negativity/hopelessness isn’t in and of itself “bad”; it’s a feeling, and if it stirs emotions in the viewer, hasn’t that song succeeded on some level? My take: you’re obviously entitled to your opinion, but I am perplexed as to why you are judging the lyrics not by their content or intellectual worth or degree of cleverness or even palatability (gory descriptions, after all, are not for everyone), but by their lack of positive message. Please explain. A lot of metal does not have that message of hope; it’s a generally dark genre, aimed, generally, at people who need an outlet for their depression or anger. And I see nothing wrong with that, as long as it doesn’t lead to suicide or violence. 2) The song is not about the shopping day Black Friday (although that’s an obviously understandable read on it, and I think it’d be hilarious if Dave Mustaine’s intent was to put a murderous spin on the agonies of that day—the massive crowds, the long waits, the proof that human nature is in and of itself greedy and impatient and impulsive. In fact, people have literally been crushed to death on that holiday, so a gory take wouldn’t be that out of line). It is a fictionalized day that is designated Black Friday by the killer, who is warning innocent people within his vicinity that, on some Friday in the near future, he will go on a rampage and kill anyone without motive or discrimination. It’s a not-yet-carried-out-plan that he is revealing to people (rather foolishly, since many of those people will probably get the hell out of wherever he is!) Apparently the topic was inspired by the band’s friend Dijon Carruthers who intrigued them with his love of black magic/black arts. Many of their song’s subjects over the next four years deal with that topic; this is by far the goriest. 3) I wish you’d looked closer at the spelling of “mourning.” While this a cheeky take on the phrase “Good morning,” the title immediately tells you this is a tragic song not a happy one. 4) Finally, I wish you had discussed the music more since you both ranked it quite high. WHY did you love it? Was it for the sheer virtuosity of it, or the intensity? Was it for the JAZZINESS of the drumming and even some of the guitar parts (then-drummer and lead guitarist Gar Samuelson and Chris Poland came from the same fusion jazz band before joining Megadeth, and you can hear those influences all over the music. That’s why you hear more swing and bounce and odd syncopations in these early albums than on later ones). Was it that the song has a wonderfully unusual structure of intro/verse (for the Good Mourning portion)/guitar solo/1st verse (for Black Friday), a demented, jazzy, triplet-laden riff/2nd verse (which is in the same key as the 1st but about 1/3rd faster and jazzier/pre-chorus/chorus at same time as guitar solo/chorus (which is also the outro). I’ve never heard a song with this structure. I’ve heard structureless songs that are just riff, riff, riff, like in Dream Theater. But this one has a structure, just an insanely offbeat one. That offbeatness turns off a lot of people, even Megadeth fans; why did this one work for you? 5) (My personal take on the song): my only beefs are that, at around the 2:30 point (in your video, not in the song itself) up through 3:27, there are way too many guitar solos going down. Cool as those solos are, they are taking my ears away from the beautiful melodic rhythm guitar parts happening underneath. Those parts should be allowed some breathing room! The solos at the VERY beginning of the song align with the riff well, but the next few come off like loud people talking over a movie. Your thoughts?