24 years ago today, Metal lost it's greatest bass player.. Cliff Burton R.I.P.

[Diamondjimi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O9zMnwD65Q


Cliff Burton
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Good article
Cliff Burton

Cliff Burton
Background information
Birth name Clifford Lee Burton
Born February 10, 1962(1962-02-10)
Castro Valley, California, U.S.
Died September 27, 1986 (aged 24)
Ljungby Municipality, Sweden
Genres Thrash metal, speed metal, heavy metal
Occupations Musician, songwriter
Instruments Bass, piano, guitar, vocals
Years active 1979–1986
Labels Megaforce, Elektra
Associated acts Metallica, Agents of Misfortune, EZ-Street, Trauma
Website Official Metallica website
Notable instruments
Rickenbacker 4001
Aria Pro II SB-1000

Clifford Lee "Cliff" Burton (February 10, 1962 – September 27, 1986) was an American musician, best known as the bass guitarist for the American thrash metal band Metallica. He is widely considered to have been one of the most influential metal bassists of all time. His music is a very good influence to a lot of bands. As a bassist he made heavy use of distortion and effects (several of which are usually associated with non-bass guitars), best exemplified on his signature piece, "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth".

Burton's early influence was essential in creating the unique musical style for which Metallica became famous. Burton joined the band in 1982 and performed on their debut album, Kill 'Em All. Burton performed on two more Metallica albums, Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, both of which met with major commercial and critical success. Burton was known for his "lead bass" approach, in which the bass played a melodic and soloist role, in addition to holding down the harmonic and rhythmic foundation of the band.

On September 27, 1986, Burton died when the band's tour bus skidded and flipped over in rural southern Sweden. Burton was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Metallica on April 4, 2009. His father, Ray Burton, gave a speech on Cliff's behalf.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQQfnADT3Q8&feature=related

[lesfunk]

No offense, but Geezer Butler is still around. No disrespect for Burton but he couldn't hold Geezers jock

[ThrillsNSpills]

Oh yeah, he was great. Killer riffs and aggression. Sucks he went so soon but he accomplished a lot.

Look at his bass solo- he doesn't overplay or underplay and the tone with the fuzz and wah wah is badass.

[lesfunk]

The worst part was that his death was a crazy freak accident. Metallica would have been much better had he survived.

[Diamondjimi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoVavpbhBfM

[Diamondjimi]

Chef, can we get this bumped to House of Music?

[sadaist]

I remember the news. Every morning before high school we all parked just off school grounds so we could gather & smoke cigarettes & listen to tunes. And it was a very somber morning. We all pretty much skipped 1st period listening to Anesthesia-Pulling Teeth.


RIP Cliff

:(

[sadaist]

Metallica would have been much better had he survived.


And if they would have picked someone other than Newsted. He always seemed a prima donna.

He was asked once if Metallica had sold out ...(because their music became more commercial.)

His answer?

Every ticket at every show.


Whatta fag!

[Dave's Bitch]

24 years ago today, Metal lost it's greatest bass player

Hey i dig cliff,and i mean this in no disrespect but,Cliff was not metal's greatest bass player.Ian Hill of Judas Priest is better (my opinion),i believe lesfunk mentioned Geezer Butler also.Yea cliff was very good and it is a real tradgedy what happened,my heart goes out still for cliff's family and the metallica guys.So is Dimebag Darrell metal's greatest guitarist?.But hey i dont wanna sound like im cliff bashing here,i am realy not,as i say i dig cliff and metallica fucked up by replacing him with Newsted.

R.I.P Cliff

[sadaist]

Hey i dig cliff,and i mean this in no disrespect but,Cliff was not metal's greatest bass player.Ian Hill of Judas Priest is better (my opinion),i believe lesfunk mentioned Geezer Butler also.Yea cliff was very good and it is a real tradgedy what happened,my heart goes out still for cliff's family and the metallica guys.So is Dimebag Darrell metal's greatest guitarist?.But hey i dont wanna sound like im cliff bashing here,i am realy not,as i say i dig cliff and metallica fucked up by replacing him with Newsted.

R.I.P Cliff


Well, I like Steve Harris from Iron Maiden better & think an argument could be made that he is one of the best. But Cliff becomes greater not just for his playing, but what the loss of his playing derailed a once great band in to. If he were still alive and say Ian Hill had the tragedy and caused Priests music to change drastically, it would very likely be the same type thing.

It's a combination of the playing, the timing coinciding with the band breaking into the big time, and the drastic change it caused the band to take.

[Va Beach VH Fan]

Chef, can we get this bumped to House of Music?

No problem....

[binnie]

R.I.P.

So young, too.....

[atomicpunk5151]

Cliff was one of my favorites. He was HUGE here in NORCAL.

Like Les mentioned, not the best of all time in all of Metal/Rock, but certainly up there at least in the conversation. You could certainly argue he is the best of the 80s THRASH metal guys.

[lesfunk]

Where Burtons greatness lies is in his originality. Nobody did what Cliff did.
Nobody sounded like that before. I remember hearing his bass on Kill"em All and thinking "What the fuck is that? A Bass?"
He had found his sound at a pretty young age.

[sadaist]

Where Burtons greatness lies is in his originality. Nobody did what Cliff did.
Nobody sounded like that before. I remember hearing his bass on Kill"em All and thinking "What the fuck is that? A Bass?"
He had found his sound at a pretty young age.



Yeah. I was shocked when I first learned that the beginning of For Whom The Bell Tolls was a bass guitar making that sound. Before that, I had no idea you could make them sound more like a guitar. I just thought they were for the bum, bum, bum in the background. Cliffs style is what opened my ears to what guys could do with a bass.

[Anonymous]

Cliff & Mustaine were Metallica. When Cliff died & with Mustaine long, long gone, Metallica had a few scraps to put together a half decent album & just went downhill from there.

How many more kickass albums could Cliff have released, noone will know, obviously, but I bet he could've managed at the very least a couple more REALLY good ones.

He rocked. Hard. In a band of wet manginas.

Cheers! :bottle:

[sadaist]

I've watched Cliff 'Em All so many times that I figured out how to play the bass intro to "For Whom The Bell Tolls" from studying the master:

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<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7KpxOmksHrY?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="480"></object>


Cliff was the first I saw who played bass like a lead guitar. CRAZY!

And James was the coolest motherfucker around during this era. The white Gibson, the beers onstage, the whole attitude. Imagine going back to that time & telling James he would need sober group therapy to stay in a band with Lars & Kirk.

[Diamondjimi]

Hey i dig cliff,and i mean this in no disrespect but,Cliff was not metal's greatest bass player.
Ian Hill of Judas Priest is better (my opinion),

:lmao:

(I know it's your opinion, but) :lmao:

Ian Hill? Perfect for Priest but would probably be lost on a 4/4 shuffle (Just my opinion) ... :biggrin:


.So is Dimebag Darrell metal's greatest guitarist?.

R.I.P Cliff

Dime was the EVH of Metal.

I've witnessed both of these guys live. They were legends when they were alive and walking this planet. And they're still legends. ;)

[Diamondjimi]

And James was the coolest motherfucker around during this era. The white Gibson, the beers onstage, the whole attitude. Imagine going back to that time & telling James he would need sober group therapy to stay in a band with Lars & Kirk.


:biggrin:

[ppg960]

Just finished the auto-biography for the band. A good read indeed.
I was 16 when this happened-still remember it.
Master of Puppets was a great album!!

RIP-Cliff

[Green Manalishi]

I was very fortunate to see the killer version of Metallica in February of '85 kicking W.A.S.P. and Armoured Saints asses

in a night club and kicking Ozzy's ass very badly in Kiel Auditorium in April of '86 . Cliff was supercool live .

Metallicas music and psyche understandably took a serious hit when he died . Though I really like the original Garage Days

and Justice For All ( they both had remnants of Cliff ) I feel they were never the same and unfortunately crap like the black album

started to rear its ugly head . Its been downhill ever since . What a sad loss .

[sadaist]

I was very fortunate to see the killer version of Metallica in February of '85 kicking W.A.S.P. and Armoured Saints asses

in a night club and kicking Ozzy's ass very badly in Kiel Auditorium in April of '86 . Cliff was supercool live .

Metallicas music and psyche understandably took a serious hit when he died . Though I really like the original Garage Days

and Justice For All ( they both had remnants of Cliff ) I feel they were never the same and unfortunately crap like the black album

started to rear its ugly head . Its been downhill ever since . What a sad loss .


Spot on. Great post. Garage Days was very cool. It matched the fuck-it-drink-more-beers attitude all us "long hairs" had at the time. $9.99 album..DO NOT PAY MORE! with a Tower Records $11.99 sticker on it. We gave them so much shit & caused a ruckus at the register.

I saw them with Cliff when they opened for Ozzy. But I'm jealous of that WASP / Armored Saint show you saw them at. I can only imagine the testosterone levels of the crowd that night.

[Diamondjimi]

But I'm jealous of that WASP / Armored Saint show you saw them at. I can only imagine the testosterone levels of the crowd that night.

I saw that tour when it came to Toronto. They played at The Concert Hall. 800 people maximum. I was down front in front of Hammett. Hetfield pushed him into the audience (on us) . A friend of mine bumped into Hetfield before the show and gave him some hash. He thanked him and told my buddy he didn't toke but his bass player does.
He passed it on to cliff... Metallica fuckin Pwn3d the night. But I did enjoy seeing the original Armored Saint and catching WASP on their first tour..

[ThrillsNSpills]

Het always comes across as a great guy in interviews.
At least the ones I saw.

Axl.......not so much.

[sadaist]

Back on topic.



Yeah. We did stray off to Hetfield. But the death of Metallicas & Hetfields "cool" can be directly linked to Cliffs untimely passing.

When they buried Cliff, their mojo went with him.

[GAR]

uitar. CRAZY!

And James was the coolest motherfucker around during this era.

You must mean "coolest in appearance" because anytime I'd bumped into him, he was no gent.

[sadaist]

You must mean "coolest in appearance" because anytime I'd bumped into him, he was no gent.


I never got to meet him. Almost did on the Justice tour. My high school coach was the Staff Pro lead guy at concerts. The day after the LA show he gave me some of the unused backstage passes. The San Diego show was the next night. We tried to use them and got past 3 security until one actually looked at the badges we had & walkie-talkie to ask someone what the "color code" for tonight was. FUCK! So close.

So when I say coolest, I'm going off appearance, musical abilities, stage presence, and interviews from the time.

[SparkieD]

Cliff & Mustaine were Metallica. When Cliff died & with Mustaine long, long gone, Metallica had a few scraps to put together a half decent album & just went downhill from there.

How many more kickass albums could Cliff have released, noone will know, obviously, but I bet he could've managed at the very least a couple more REALLY good ones.

He rocked. Hard. In a band of wet manginas.

Cheers! :bottle:

No shit.