1,320

Album: Endgame (2009)
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Songfacts®:

  • Frontman Dave Mustaine said that this is, "a song about nitro fuel funny cars (something I enjoy)."
  • The song's title refers to the length of the standard drag racing strip, which from the starting line to the finish line is 1320 feet - exactly a quarter mile.
  • Megadeth drummer Shawn Drover commented to Kerrang!: "I remember hearing the riffs for this tune from Dave's 'Pandora's box of metal riffs.' Knowing that this song had to be on the record. I really like the overall punk vibe the song has (I was a huge hardcore punk fan back in the day – Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, Cryptic Slaughter and the lot; I still am to this day) and I knew that a big sector of our fanbase would dig this song. Like I have said previously, Endgame covers a lot of musical ground in metal and '1,320'' is just another example of that."
  • Endgame features some interesting sound effects throughout the record. Frontman Dave Mustaine told Rolling Stoneabout the ones on this track:: "I learned a very valuable lesson about music and how to take everything I learned from [1997's] Cryptic Writings and [1999's] Risk, and working with Jeff Balding and Dan Huff, and how to put stuff in the background - little "ear candy" that makes things sound better. Like the song "1,320," we were struggling trying to find the sample for the drag racing, because I told Andy [Sneap, who co-produced Endgame with Mustaine], "Nitro Funny Cars." So he got a Top Fuel Funny Car [makes sound of a weak car], and I went, "That ain't a Nitro Funny Car, bro! When you hear a Nitro Funny Car, the world stops around you." When we got that sample, it made all the difference in the world. I said, "See! This is what I'm telling you about!" And in the background, I said, "When [Shawn Drover] is doing that kind of punk rock/Sex Pistols drum beat in the verses of the song, man, we need a clap track in the back." And he's like, "They've got those little pieces of wood that are all stuck together, you shake it together, and it sounds like people clapping." I said, "I don't want that. I want three people clapping, then double it. Make sure it's underneath the snare, so it gives is that little bit of sex appeal."

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