Cliff Burton: 2/10/62 - 9/27/86

Photo:  Ross Halfin

"Bass solo.  Take one."

Thirty years ago today, the music world lost one its greatest talents.  Cliff Burton, bass player for Metallica and, by all accounts, all-around good dude, was tragically killed in a bus accident while the band was on tour in Sweden during the early morning hours of 9/27/86.  Those who knew him and fans who had loved him on Metallica's then three releases -- Kill 'Em All, Ride the Lightning, and the breakthrough Master of Puppets -- were devastated.  The world hasn't been the same since.


Cliff Burton was truly a unique and towering figure of mythic proportions; in just three short years (and at only 24yrs old!), he became a legend not only in the Metal scene, but he also garnered respect from music fans in general.  Sure, there are jaded Metal "experts" who yell the same tired insults like "Metallica died with Cliff" when it comes to the band's 90s output; however the fact of the matter was, Cliff was very eclectic in his musical tastes and, by all accounts, did not care what anyone else thought about image -- especially his own -- or musical style in general. One wonders if Metallica would recorded something like 1996's Load sooner...


The impact that Cliff had on Metallica is crystal clear in the musical and technical leaps and bounds made from Kill 'Em All to Ride The Lightning -- in just under a year, no less!  No one could have predicted that the same, pimply-faced teenagers pictured on the back cover of the Kill 'Em All LP would go on to write such masterpieces as "For Whom The Bell Tolls", "Fade To Black", "Creeping Death", and "The Call of Ktulu".  Of course, this growth and musical maturity would ultimately reach its nadir with 1986's Master of Puppets. 

Being only 4yrs old when Cliff was taken and not getting into Metallica until 1991's self-titled "The Black Album", the legend of Cliff already had an aura about it.  As my friends and I discovered the early records, pre-"Enter Sandman", I remember a sort of haze of confusion surrounding Burton's legacy.  At that point, none of us really had the full story of just what happened to him -- after all, we were all just pre-teens as we were discovering the band and learning their history.  We'd stare at the folding cassette booklets for those first three albums, recognizing younger versions of Hetfield, Ulrich, and Hammett...and staring with a sense of wonder at the photos of Cliff.  Through word of mouth from older classmates and through reading various bits in magazines, we started to get a better picture of Cliff.


Photo:  Ross Halfin

In particular, I've always been on the mindset that I have to know everything about whatever it is that I get "into" and, of course, Metallica was no different.  Since all of this was going down pre-internet, that meant I had to do some homework.  Somewhere along the way I stumbled on Metal Edge Presents special on Metallica and, low and behold, there was a pull-out poster of Cliff and, as fate would have it, he was wearing an original Dawn of the Dead t-shirt.  At that very moment, two of my favorite things in the world -- Metallica and Dawn of the Dead -- merged as though the Gods were telling me "THIS is the band you need to be into."  I was sold and became a lifelong Metallica fan right then and there in the magazine section of a supermarket in New Jersey.


Around this same time, my family and I (along with my best friend, Chris, also the kid who introduced me to Metallica) were vacationing in upstate Pennsylvania when my dad decided to take us on a surprise trip to nearby Binghamton, NY.  We were actually going to see a famous carousel, but Chris and I spotted a record store called Music City and begged Dad to pull over.  This place was a mecca for the burgeoning Metallica fans that we were -- let along MUSIC fans, as we had tons of "import" CDs (bootlegs), shirts, and bootleg cassette tapes at our disposable.  In the video section, there was a copy of The $19.98 Home Vid:  Cliff 'Em All.  At this point in my Metallica fandom, anything with Cliff was a welcomed treasure/history lesson, as I'd missed the 1992 edition of MTV's Metallica Rockumentary.

Check out that Pushead artwork!

That night, Chris and I literally bounced around the living room as we readied the VCR to play Cliff 'Em All -- to the point, where I got my foot wedged deep within the couch whilst jumping around with excitement before we even started the video!  Again, since this was before the internet, I had no idea what Cliff sounded like when he spoke or when he did back-up vocals live, so needless to say, I was glued to the TV as we poured through the copious amounts of fan-filmed footage contained on this incredible video compilation tribute.  When we finally caught a glimpse of the '86 MTV interview with James and Cliff (the original clip where it was taken from is below) and heard the bass player's philosophy on what Metallica was and should be . . . man alive! 

"We do what we wanna do, ya know?  If they consider that sellin' out, then . . . whatever."

Of course, the standout clip from Cliff 'Em All is, hands down, "For Whom The Bell Tolls" from Oakland, CA's Day On The Green festival 8/31/85.  Cliff's wailing bass intro is truly the stuff of legend and, from the moment I first saw it, I knew why he was so well-respected and missed by fans older than me! 





From that moment on, Cliff was pretty much the coolest dude in the room for me.  The first live recording featuring Cliff that I got my hands must have been the Puppets In El Paso bootleg, which was a show from El Paso, TX 5/12/86.  Hearing Cliff's bass work on "For Whom The Bell Tolls" (as well as the rest of the show) was truly something else . . .

Every year on the anniversary of his death, I find myself listening to either the first three records exclusively or live shows from his tenure with the band.  I've always thought it as a great way to honor the man, ya know?  On this morning's commute, the first three tracks were, of course, "(Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth", "The Call of Ktulu", and "Orion". 


As a Metallica collector, I cherish every new live recording (audio or video) that I come across and the deluxe remastered box sets of both Kill 'Em All and Ride The Lightning were no different.  Each set contains a wealth of great quality live audio, as well as exclusive DVDs; in particular the Lightning set's DVD features the complete Metal Hammer Festival 9/15/85 gig (as glimpsed in Cliff 'Em All), including one of Cliff's best bass solos!  For any fan, this was truly like finding the Holy Grail of Metallica live DVDs -- a pro-shot show with Cliff!!  As it stands now, I look forward to what is in store for the eventual Master of Puppets deluxe remastered box set...


Today, it seems that Cliff's memory is alive and well in the Metallica world; in 2005, the band finally started playing "Orion" live (albeit just the first half, as they opened for The Rolling Stones) -- they finally played the whole song the following year when they celebrated the 20th anniversary of Master of Puppets by playing the entire album.  As a matter of fact, every time they play "Orion", James dedicates it to Cliff.  These days, they've been known to play "Whiskey In The Jar" as an encore and, again, dedicate it to Cliff as well.  I think it's safe to say that he's become the band's guardian angel, leading them when he was in the band and now guiding and protecting them from beyond. 

Clifford Lee Burton 2/10/62 - 9/27/86 

Rest In Peace.

Photo Credit:  Ross Halfin

Master Of Puppets: 30 Years of Riffs and Damage Jackals

The first song from Master of Puppets that I ever heard was "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)"; it was the third song on the Seattle '89 video from the Live Shit:  Binge & Purge boxset.  Through the remainder of that live video, I was introduced to "Battery", "Master of Puppets", and finally "The Thing That Should Not Be".  For whatever reason, while I liked the songs, they didn't immediately click with me.  I had yet to buy the Puppets record on cassette and listen to the album in full.  At that point, I'd say I was still a "new Metallica" fan in every sense of the phrase. 

The following summer, while on a family vacation (with my best friend, Chris, along for the ride), I'd finally gotten on board.  

Some time after getting the Live Shit boxset, I vividly remember a phone call from Chris where he was praising the Puppets record, having just gotten it himself.  He even played part of the title track for me over the phone (this is not the way I'd recommend listening to a song).  Again, I wasn't interested...maybe because the songs were too long?

Back to that summer road trip though; during that entire trip, Chris was letting me wear some of his Metallica shirts -- Ride The Lightning being one of them, as I only had an original Damage, Inc. shirt that I'd found while rooting through the left behind belongings of the my grandmother's neighbors!  On that trip, we visited Delaware's own Fort Delaware.  During a tour of the fort's ground and empty, cavernous halls, I recall Chris singing the lyrics to "Sanitarium", as the sights we saw resembled just that!  For the rest of that trip, I borrowed Chris' cassette and digested it completely -- I was hooked!

Battery - the acoustic intro was interesting.  As the beautiful melody swelled and gave way to that crushing intro riff, it was ON for me.  While I don't recall my initial reaction to the song's lyrics, the line "cannot kill the family / Battery is found in me" always stood out for me.  As a pre-teen struggling to find his own identity and be a part of "something" (I wasn't a jock, a thug/pothead/rapper kid, or a nerd), I finally found my family.  Back then, I remember fondly struggling to sing along to the chorus since it was so damned fast!  The Live Shit Mexico City '93 version was an early, instant favorite though, that still ignites the same early feelings with its galloping riffs and tempos.  Today, the song gets me pumped when I'm needing some motivation!

Master Of Puppets - Let's put this out there right now:  I was never a druggie or a pothead.  Never was and never will be.  In the 7th grad, a lot of my friends got into that stuff because, I guess, they wanted to be seen as cool or fit in with the older kids (this was, after all, the height of Gangsta Rap and Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg were all over MTV).  It never appealed to me, though I did try and fit in with my own friends and their older friends -- some of who were the very same kids who bullied and tormented me in elementary school...no idea why I'd want to hang with those assholes, right?  Acceptance I guess?  

Anyway, on the posi side of this coin, there's always been my older cousin Tim McMahon.  He's been the older brother I never had and I've always looked up to him, even now as an adult in my thirties!  He introduced me to Hardcore Punk music and, more specifically, the Straight Edge lifestyle through various great bands and even his own band, Mouthpiece.  This lifestyle doesn't do drugs, smoke cigarettes, or drink booze.  All that indulgence just never appealed to me and still doesn't to this day.  It was in the 7th grade when I started identifying as Straight Edge, so discovering this song and getting its full impact at that time made perfect sense.

While its lyrics aren't specifically about that positive lifestyle, they paint a horrible, painful picture of what I can only imagine to be a never-ending nightmare of a life.

The laughter at the end of the song still scares me a bit!  The line "now your life is out of season" (specifically the way Hetfield sings it on the Seattle '89 video) always gives me a chill.  For sing-alongs, it doesn't get much better than the call and response of the verses and choruses to this track as far as I'm concerned.  Riff-wise?  There's an unbeatable main riff derived from the intro riff.  The solos and entire middle section are beautiful and crushing in the same breath.

The Thing That Should Not Be - if you don't know by now, Horror movies are kinda my thing, right?  "Thingy" is a musical Horror film.  Monster riffs that obliterate your eardrums and even your bones, this song has it all.  The echo effects on the vocals (especially during live performances) always strike me as evil and moody as hell.  One of the first import CDs I ever bought was an interview disc where Lars Ulrich discusses the soon-to-be-released Puppets record.  In it, he describes this track as being related to "The Call of Ktulu" from Ride The Lightning and how "Thingy" was a neighbor of Ktulu's who lived a few caves down from him.  That comical image has remained with me ever since!  VERY heavy riffs and tempo that make me wanna stomp!

Welcome Home (Sanitarium) - not as great as "Fade To Black", but still a favorite.  The intro and main riff are incredible and I find myself humming them all the time in any given situation throughout the day.  Lyrically, I can't relate exactly, but their sense of rising up from oppressors rings true to my elementary school bully days for sure...especially "Leave me the fuck alone" from classic live versions.

Disposable Heroes - epic story-telling.  Amazing, galloping riffage.  I instantly see the images portrayed in the lyrics while singing along. 

Leper Messiah - going back to that interview disc with Lars from '86, I love the images he paints of Jim and Tammy-Faye Baker types profiting off others who blindly follow and give their riches to greed in the name of being holy.  Great riffs, too.  The ending of "Lie...Lie...Lie..." is pretty sick, too.

Orion - to quote Cochise from The Warriors, "Magic.  A whole lotta magic."  While it's an instrumental, the riffs and melodies speak for the lack of lyrics.  When "Orion" is playing, I'm usually in a reflective mood, reminiscing days gone by and face I don't see anymore.  This one stirs up great memories and thoughtful smiles for me.  The middle section, of course, is the highlight...pure Cliff Burton.  There is so much emotion in this section whether it's the album version, the guitar/bass jams from the early '90s and '04 (or the other jams from '93), a proper live version, or the Through The Never sound check version.  Much like the photo montage over the end credits of Cliff 'Em All, I'm always thinking about friends or family members who have passed on while listening to this part of the song.  Also, riff-wise, Hetfield is a beast here.

Damage, Inc. - "fuck it all and fucking no regrets" . . . that line pretty much sums up the entire song and Metallica's general attitude (to this day).  As a fan, it sums up what being a fan means too; we're a family of jackals, rabid to the very end.  In some perverse way, both "Battery" and "Damage, Inc." resonate the Metallica Family message the same way that "Nothing Else Matters" does these days.  In elementary school and high school, this was the song that got me vibed up to take on the tasks at hand.  I'd easily rank this as my favorite song (depending on the day) or at least in the top 3 or 5.  The only (!) time I saw it played live, I just about lost my voice during the taped intro of Cliff's bass solo!