"The Shortest Straw" is the fifth track from American thrash metal band Metallica's fourth studio album, ...And Justice For All. It was released with the album on August 25, 1988 by Elektra Records.

The song's lyrics deal with the blacklisting of American politicians with alleged ties to communism during the Red Scare of the 1950s. The title "The Shortest Straw" may also be a reference to the death of bassist Cliff Burton — Burton was given his fatal sleeping bunk by pulling the shortest straw in a game of chance.

LiveEdit

The song "The Shortest Straw" was not played on the '88-'89 Damaged Justice Tour. The song was not premeired until 1990 on the '90 Tour in London,UK at the Marquee under the secret gig name The Frayed Ends. It was a regular song on the '92 Guns 'n' Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour. The song was not played again until at the Rosemont Horizon Arena(now Allstate Arena) in Chicago.IL on Feburary 8, 1997 on the "96-'97 Poor Touring Me tour. The song was not played again until recently on the World Magnetic Tour on September 19, 2009 at Montreal, Canada at the Bell Centre.

LyricsEdit

Suspicion is your name

Your honesty to blame

Put dignity to shame

Dishonor

Witch-hunt, modern day

Determining decay

The blatant disarray

Disfigure

The public eye's disgrace

Defying common place

Unending paper chase

Unending

Deafening

Painstaking

Reckoning with vertigo it doth bring

Shortest straw, challenge liberty

Downed by law, live in infamy

Rub you raw, witch-hunt riding through

Shortest straw, the shortest straw has been pulled for you

(Pulled for you) Shortest straw (3x)

This shortest straw has been pulled for you

The accusations fly

Discrimination, why?

Your inner self to die

Intruding

Doubt sunk itself in you

Its teeth and talons through

You're living Catch 2-2

Deluding

A mass hysteria

A megalomania

Reveal dementia reveal

Sectretly

Silently

Certainly in vertigo you will be

Chorus

Behind you hands are tied

You're being ostracized

Your hell is multiplied

Upending

The fallout has begun

Oppresive damage done

Your many turned to none

To nothing

You're reaching your nadir

Your will has disappeared

The lie is crystal-clear

Defending

Channels red

One word said

Blacklisted with vertigo make you dead