Peace Sells

"Peace Sells"
Single by Megadeth
from the album Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?
Released	November 1986
Recorded	1986
Genre	Thrash metal
Length	4:03
Label	Combat, Capitol
Writer(s)	Dave Mustaine
Producer(s)	Dave Mustaine and Randy Burns
Megadeth singles chronology
"Wake Up Dead" (1986) "Peace Sells" (1986) "Anarchy in the U.K." (1988) Music sample Excerpt from Peace Sells

"Peace Sells" is a song by the American thrash metal band Megadeth from the 1986 album Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?, written by Dave Mustaine. It has since been a constant at Megadeth concerts. According to Dave Ellefson it became quickly apparent when playing the song live prior to recording the album that "Peace Sells" would be a hit.^[1] In 2006, VH1 ranked "Peace Sells" at number 11 on their list of the "40 Greatest Metal Songs" of all time.^[2] The song is also known for the distinctive bass intro played by Ellefson.

Music video

A music video was produced for the song, which features a teenage boy, wearing a Slayer T-shirt, watching a montage of live Megadeth performances and war footage on his living room television set. The boy's father, states "What is this garbage you're watching? I want to watch the news!," and changes the television channel to a news station using the remote control. His son, replying with "This is the news!," changes it back to the Megadeth performance using the TV set's channel knob. This part of the video was parodied by comedian Brian Posehn in his Metal by Numbers video. The beginning of the video also showed the explosion of the original low-cost skull used on the cover of the previous album, Killing is My Business... and Business is Good!.

Appearances and covers

• The song appears in the video games NHL 10, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Rock Band 2, True Crime: Streets of LA and downloadable content for Guitar Hero 5.
• The opening bassline was used as the theme for MTV News, but Mustaine claims he never received any royalties for MTV's usage of the song.^[3]
• Tigertailz covered it and it appears on their 1991 B-sides compilation album Banzai!.

References

1. "Interview with Dave Ellefson – Founding member of Megadeth". The Pogg. Retrieved November 6, 2012.
2. "VH1 40 Greatest Metal Songs". VH1. May 1–4, 2006. Retrieved September 10, 200. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
3. Mustaine, Dave (2010). Mustaine: A Life in Metal. New York, New York, USA: Harper Collins. p. 346. ISBN 0-00-732410-3.

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics