Musicians - Cliff Burton

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	Musicians - Cliff Burton

Clifford Lee Burton (February 10, 1962 – September 27, 1986) was the second bassist in the band Metallica, joining the band in late 1982 replacing Ron McGovney. He was, and still is, considered to be one of the best bassists in heavy metal. His life and tragic death have inspired at least two songs and bassists such as Billy Sheehan, Les Claypool and John Myung.

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 finishing high school, he took a music course at a junior college.

The band

The other members of Metallica were looking for a bass player who was a bit more proficient than the one they had. 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. 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 rapid-fire riffs and mock guitar solos to very melodic playing. Burton never played bass with a guitar pick; he only used his fingers. The one rock musician whose influence can clearly be heard in his playing is Rush frontman Geddy Lee. Unlike other, later virtuoso metal and progressive metal bassists who favor 5-string or even 6-string bass guitars, he 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. Originally trained on piano, 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 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.

Death

While on their European tour, Burton and Kirk Hammett randomly picked from a deck of cards to see who would get the top bunk on the bus. Burton pulled the Ace of Spades sealing his "victory," and so he chose to sleep on Kirk Hammett's bed, Hammett recalls the story 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. As the bus was skidding and rolling, he fell out of a window and was crushed by the bus. It is unknown whether Burton was still alive at this point. He 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 recount seeing Burton's feet sticking out from under the bus, and that image has haunted them ever since.

The night after the accident, James Hetfield got drunk and wrecked his hotel room. He then allegedly ran through the streets yelling "Cliff, where are ya?"

The first album recorded after Burtons death, titled "...And Justice for All", has no audible bass guitar, allegedly, as an honor to Cliff.

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