Clifford Lee Burton
Born: 10th of February 1962 Died: 27th of September 1986
"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" - Cliff Burton: "To Live Is To Die" -
"You don't burn out from going too fast. You burn out from going too slow and getting bored." The late Cliff Burton
QUESTION:
What would you say to a band that's just starting out on the rock scene today?
CLIFF BURTON:
Quit!
Biography
Clifford Lee Burton was born on 10 February 1962. The first band Cliff was in was called Easy Street. It was a bar band that did mostly covers. He then decided to join the band Trauma, which he became bored with quickly. He wanted to do more experimental stuff, rather than play the commercial junk. Then, Brian Slagel, president of Metal Blade Records saw Trauma at The Troubadour in L.A. and immediately informed Metallica of Cliff, insisting, "he is Metallica." Metallica's bassist Ron McGovney was decent, but not good enough. James Hetfield said in an interview once that he taught Ron how to play bass. About a month later, James and Lars went to check out Cliff at Whiskey Au Go-Go and were amazed at Cliff's lead guitar-like bass playing. Lars and James immediately tried to get Cliff to jam with them. Cliff at first refused, then said he would if the band would relocate from L.A. to his hometown of San Francisco, which they did.
Cliff was with Metallica for the first three albums, Kill 'Em All, Ride The Lightning, and Master Of Puppets, as well as the Jump In The Fire E.P. and the Creeping Death/Garage Days Revisited E.P. His most notable works are his bass solo from Kill 'Em All called "(Anasthesia)--Pulling Teeth," the intro to "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and the lead bass in "The Call Of Ktulu" from Ride The Lightning, and the bass solo in "Orion" and the bass intro in "Damage, Inc." from Master Of Puppets. Cliff taught James what he knew of music theory (he had taken the course in college) and helped to develop Metallica's sound further, which is evident on Master Of Puppets. It was a tragic loss when he was killed in that bus accident on 27 September 1986 in Sweden.
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