What happens when you combine an award-winning Italian classical composer, the score from one of Clint Eastwood's best films, the San Francisco Symphony and heavy metal legends Metallica? Gold, pure gold.
In fact, Ecstasy of Gold.
The song was composed by Ennio Morricone for the 1966 Spaghetti Western classic The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Metallica has played a heavy metal cover of the track as their concert-opening song since 1983.
So when Metallica decided to do a live album featuring symphonic versions of their hard rock hits, coverin Ecstasy of Gold only made sense.
The San Francisco Symphony welcomed Metallica to the stage of the Berkeley Community Theatre in April 1999 with version of the song that combined the best of the symphonic and heavy metal versions. The concert was recorded for Metallica's multi-platinum 1999 symphonic live album Metallica S&M. To watch the start of the concert (including Ecstasy of Gold, followed immediately by Call of Ktulu), go online here: http://youtu.be/e0_JvuBpDB8.
To hear a studio version of Metallica's cover of the song from the 2007 album We All Love Ennio Morricone, go online here: http://youtu.be/a41bERTFBUI
And purists can find a find a beautiful performance of the original song here (http://youtu.be/1-rHdSWZLpQ) featuring soprano Susanna Rigacci, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Bavarian Radio Choir.
