Remembering Cliff Burton
Posted on 30th Sep 09 by Colm Cullen | 
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Clifford Lee Burton was the bassist in Metallica from 1982-1986, and many would argue that with his death, the “good” Metallica also died. Whether or not that is true is a matter of opinion, but it definitely had a profound and lasting effect on the band. But we’ll come back to that. Cliff was a [...]
Clifford Lee Burton was the bassist in Metallica from 1982-1986, and many would argue that with his death, the “good” Metallica also died. Whether or not that is true is a matter of opinion, but it definitely had a profound and lasting effect on the band. But we’ll come back to that.
Cliff Burton, Illustration by Paddy Lynch
Cliff was a bass genius. He should be remembered in the bass pantheon with the likes of Stanley Clarke, Geddy Lee and Jaco Pastorius. His style blended everything from classic rock through to jazz, and could be improvisational genius. His style could only be described as lead bass.
He was born in San Francisco on 10th February 1962. His parents were hippies, which explains his trademark bell-bottoms. He started playing piano aged 6, and moved onto bass aged 14. He studied music at college, and his musical acumen would change how Metallica played on a fundamental level. He was playing in a band called Trauma when Brian Slagel of Metal Blade Records spotted him. Slagel was a friend of Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield (Metallica‘s drummer and singer/guitarist respectively) and allegedly told them “he is Metallica” (an opinion with which many fans would concur). They checked him out and decided they wanted him. But Burton didn’t want to leave San Francisco. So he told them that if they moved to San Francisco, he’d join. They duly moved, and he duly joined, replacing original bassist Ron McGovney. That they would relocate to get him to join says volumes about how good he was and their opinion of him. And thus began 3 albums and 2 EP’s that started Metallica on the road to world domination.
Cliff had done music in college, and his songwriting and musical knowledge led to the creation of some of Metallica‘s most beloved songs: Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth) from 1983′s Kill ‘Em All; The Call of Ktulu and For Whom The Bell Tolls from 1984′s Ride The Lightning; and Orion and the title track from 1986′s Master Of Puppets. Metallica‘s third album, Master Of Puppets, which is rightly considered one of the all-time classics, was released in March 1986. The inevitable tour brought them to Europe, and they played the SFX in Dublin on 14th September.
Everyone was shell-shocked. We couldn’t believe he was dead
Supported by Anthrax, there are now probably a couple of thousand people who say they were there. On 26th September they played in Stockholm, Sweden. This was to be their last gig together. They were headed for Copenhagen next, and in the pre-dawn light the following morning, the crash happened. The driver of the tour bus hit a patch of ice, and the bus left the road. Cliff had been in the top bunk, but when the bus went on its side, he went out the window. The bus landed on him. Cliff Burton was dead, aged 24. He was cremated and his ashes scattered on 7th October 1986.
The rock world was in mourning for the loss of one of the most liked, friendly, amiable bell-bottom wearing people rock had ever seen. The rest of the band descended into drink to try and cope with their grief. I remember being in the yard at school on Monday 29th September 1986, and being told by some of the others he was dead. Everyone was shell-shocked. We couldn’t believe he was dead.
“What would Cliff think?” became a standard question in conversations
At that stage there were questions over whether the bus driver was drunk or on drugs. Details were a bit sketchy, but there was still one indisputable fact: Cliff was gone. For some, this was their first encounter with death. Of course the Cure-heads and the rest of them had a laugh (“one less hippy”), but we weren’t laughing. Everyone loved Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth); his awesome bass solo. We hadn’t heard anything like it before. Lead bass! What the hell was that? It brought the place down when played live. And it probably spawned a huge increase in sales of wah-wah pedals to young bassists. The man was amazing.
The person who took his place in the band was Jason Newsted (ex-Flotsam & Jetsam). 1988′s …And Justice For All album was the first Metallica album without Cliff. And the bass is virtually undetectable on it.
Various theories abounded about why there was no bass (they couldn’t face replacing Cliff, etc). For whatever reason, the first non-Cliff album was effectively bass-less. Newsted had proved before with Flotsam & Jetsam, and would prove again he was a good bassist, but wasn’t allowed to do side projects in Metallica. He wrote most of Flotsam‘s debut album Doomsday For The Deceiver (great album by the way), and eventually walked out of Metallica for various reasons. One being that he still felt he was still an outsider. Indeed his nickname for years was”Jason Newkid”, even though he was Metallica‘s bassist for longer than Burton. Then came the Black album which launched Metallica into super-stardom, but many fans weren’t impressed. “What would Cliff think?” became a standard question in conversations, one I’m unequipped to answer.
As time went on, the albums were deemed to be progressively worse (Load and Re-Load, anyone? And for the love of God, St.Anger?) 2008′s Death Magnetic has been rightly lauded as the best thing they’ve done since Master of Puppets. And it was recorded after the film documentary Some Kind Of Monster, in which they got a shrink in to sort out their problems. Have they finally come to terms with Cliff‘s death? One would hope so, because they’ve been a mere shadow of their former selves for the last decade. And Cliff wouldn’t want that.
Ultimate-Guitar has an article that references an interview at the 20th anniversary memorial day in Sweden in 2006. James Hetfield told the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter “We never would have written guitar harmonies or instrumentals or songs with very intricate melodies and orchestrations without Cliff. We wouldn’t be where we are today.” One question that begs to be asked – where would they be with him? He was the unsung hero in the songwriting department. Nowadays it’s Lars/James in charge. As Hetfield said, though, he changed how they wrote. If you don’t know much about Cliff, check out the Cliff ‘Em All video that was released by the band in 1987. It was their tribute to him, featuring bootleg footage of gigs, interviews and behind the scenes footage. There’s also over 12,000 clips on YouTube (at a guess, it probably boils down to a few hundred unique clips).
Rest In Peace, Cliff. You’re missed. 10th February 1962 – 27th September 1986
Illustration by Paddy Lynch
Tags: anthrax, Brian Slagel, Cliff Burton, Flotsam & Jetsam, Geddy Lee, Jaco Pastorius, james hetfield, Jason Newsted, lars ulrich, metallica, Ron McGovney, Stanley Clarke
[...] of Cliff Burton, the former Metallica bassist whos’s anniversary was last month, went up on drop-d at the end of [...]