Cliff Burton

Clifford Lee Burton (February 10, 1962 – September 27, 1986) was a bass guitar virtuoso and the second bassist in the band Metallica joining the band in late 1982 replacing Ron McGovney. His life and tragic death have inspired many songs from bands including Megadeth, Primus, and Motörhead, as well as bassists such as Billy Sheehan, Les Claypool and John Myung. He was killed in a bus accident in Sweden, 1986

Early years

Burton was born in Castro Valley, California. He started playing the piano at age six. In 1976 at the age of 14, Burton picked up the bass guitar and started playing in local bands, while taking lessons with a local music teacher, Steve Hamady. According to his parents, Cliff would spend four to six hours a day perfecting his bass guitar skills, even after he joined Metallica. Upon graduating from Castro Valley High School in 1980, he took a music course at Napa Valley Junior College in northern California. Image:Cliff Burton On Stage

The band

The other members of Metallica were looking for a bass player who was a bit more proficient than their current bassist, Ron McGovney. As they tell the story in the liner notes to "Garage, Inc.", they attended a show by Burton's band Trauma, heard what they thought was a wild wah-wah guitar solo, wondered where the guitar was, and discovered it was Burton playing his bass through a wah-wah. Burton was actually playing his famous solo (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth.

They recruited him when, after constant pleas, he agreed to join on the sole condition that Metallica would relocate from Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay Area. The music scene in Los Angeles was "too plastic" for Burton.

Burton would reportedly monopolize the tape player in any touring vehicle, and deliberately expose the band to a variety of music styles ranging from The Misfits, Pink Floyd, and Thin Lizzy to legendary classical pianist Glenn Gould playing Bach.

Style of playing

His playing style was unusually varied for a heavy metal bassist. From the rapid-fire riffs from songs like "The Four Horsemen" to very melodic playing like in "Orion", and of course solos like (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth. Burton never played with a guitar pick; he only used his fingers. Especially during his solos, he often played on 2 or sometimes even 3 strings at once.

Two rock musician influences that can clearly be heard in his playing are Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister and Rush frontman Geddy Lee. Unlike other, later virtuoso metal and progressive metal bassists who favor 5-string or even 6-string bass guitars, Burton only played a standard 4-string bass.

Influence

James Hetfield has admitted that Burton's influence was highly responsible for much of Metallica's early music and image. A classically trained pianist, Burton used his large knowledge of theory to add to the band's sound, both through his bass work and teaching James how to theorize and harmonize.

Cliff's obsession with surreal horror writer H.P. Lovecraft gave the band a large array of album cover art and song topics (i.e. The Call Of Ktulu, The Thing That Should Not Be). The band has also noted that their love of The Misfits, Samhain, and all things Glenn Danzig came directly from Cliff forcefeeding a Misfits tape to them on tour, playing it to the point of monotony and using the dashboard as a drumset.

Cliff was, by and large, the most respected member of the band and James "looked up to him like an older brother". He was said to have been quiet and kept to himself most of the time; however when he spoke, everyone listened. Longtime Metallica photographer Ross Halfin has said that "Cliff ran that band -- absolutely nothing happened without his okay." His no nonsense, non-conformist attitude perfectly fit the mold of the band at the time. An example would be his "unfashionable," hippie image of straight down hair, eternally clad bell-bottom jeans, faded denim jacket and flannel shirts. A popular debate among Metallica fans is the direction the group would have taken in the late 80's and 90's had Cliff been around. His influence within the group explains why Metallica had such a hard time coping with his death for many years following the bus accident.

Death

While on their European tour, Burton and Kirk Hammett drew from a stack of cards to see who would get the top bunk on the bus. Burton picked the Ace of Spades and so he got to sleep on Kirk Hammett's bed, as Hammett recalls on MTV's 1992 Bio of the band as well as in the VH1 show "Behind the Music". Burton died when the band's tour bus hit black ice (though it is still disputed that they may have crashed because the driver may have been drinking) and flipped over in rural Sweden (Kronobergs län). As the bus was skidding out of control and eventually rolled over on the grass, Burton fell out of a window, landed underneath the bus and was crushed by the bus. He died instantly. ^* Burton was crushed again when the winch cable lifting the bus off him snapped, dropping the bus on him a second time.

The other people on the bus (James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, Kirk Hammett, the drum technician, and two guitar technicians) recount seeing Burton's feet sticking out from under the bus. That sight has haunted them for a long time.

Burton's body was cremated. At the ceremony, the instrumental "Orion" from the album Master of Puppets was played. Because of this, Metallica never played Orion in full live until June 3rd 2006, although bits of the song have been used to bridge between other songs.

Songs

He co-wrote several Metallica songs, including "Master of Puppets," "Orion," "For Whom The Bell Tolls," and "Fade to Black." The best examples of his unique bass playing style are:

The intro of "For Whom The Bell Tolls" (Which is usually mistaken for a guitar.)
The epic bass solo "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth" from the album Kill 'Em All
The lead bass in the instrumental "The Call of Ktulu" from Ride the Lightning
The lead bass in the instrumental "Orion" from Master of Puppets.
The intro of "Damage Inc."

The lead bass in the song "Disposable Heroes" from Master of Puppets is a good example of Cliff's bass being mistaken for a guitar.

He wrote many of the riffs used in "To Live is to Die" which is featured on the ...And Justice for All album, and the song is dedicated to him. There are only these lyrics, also written by Burton, in the entire song, intoned by James Hetfield about three-quarters of the way through:

"When a man lies, he murders

some part of the world.

These are the pale deaths which

men miscall their lives.

All this I cannot bear

to witness any longer.

Cannot the kingdom of salvation

take me home?"

The line "When a man lies, he murders some part of the world" is a quote from the movie Excalibur. The line "These are the pale deaths which men miscall their lives" is actually from the book Lord Foul's Bane in the Thomas Covenant series written by Stephen R. Donaldson.

Successors

Burton was succeeded as Metallica's bassist by Jason Newsted. Said Newsted, "I always felt this shadow cast over me, and I always felt like I wore shoes that were too large for my feet whenever I remember who I replaced."

Newsted says he was never really accepted by the band. For his entire time in Metallica, he was just the "New-kid", and James Hetfield would strictly refuse to accept him as an equal to Cliff Burton. Jason eventually left the band. To temporarily fill the missing slot, Bob Rock took over bass duties on St. Anger. Soon after, Robert Trujillo was selected as their new bassist.

Metallica's tribute to Cliff

After Burton's death, Metallica made ...And Justice for All in 1988. The instrumental track, "To Live Is To Die", is Burton's last writing credit and is said by the band to be mainly made up of his unused riffs, and the spoken part also penned by him. In 1987 Metallica released the tribute documentary Cliff 'em All, a retrospective of Burton's time in the band.

The most well known non-Metallica tribute to Cliff is the song "In My Darkest Hour" by Megadeth. The band's frontman Dave Mustaine was Metallica's lead guitarist in the early days and knew Cliff quite well. Mustaine was quoted in various magazines and Megadeth's "Behind The Music" as saying the song was inspired by Burton's passing. He claimed that James, Kirk, nor Lars informed him of Cliff's accident and he only found out when the band's manager called him. When he heard Dave sat down and cried and then grabbed an acoustic guitar. In one sitting he wrote the entire song, which is the only song he has ever written that way. While the lyrics aren't directly about Burton, they were inspired by his death.