Cliff Burtons life
2-10-62........9-27-86
Cliff Burton was born on the 10
of Febuary, 1962, in San Fransisco. As a teenager he played in many local bands. Cliff
liked Bach music and Lovercrafts books. On March the 5 1982, Cliff made his first
preformence whit Metallica on the rockclub "The Stone" in San Fransisco.
Back in late 1982, it was decided
that bassist Ron McGoveny wasn't really pulling his weight in Metallica.One of Metallica's
peer bands up north making the rounds about this time was Trauma. I addition to begin a
favorite Bay-area club circuit draw, the band was gaining recognition through their
one-song demo, featuring "Such a Shame" that eventually was
transferred to vinyl on Metal Massacre II. More noteworthy, however, Trauma
possessed whitin its ranks "The most headbanging bassist" Lars & James had
ever seen - Cliff Burton. They initially spotted him during a live Trauma show at LA´s
Troubador.
Burton, who grew up whit Faith No More gutarist Jim Martin near San Francisco, was a cross between Clint Eastwood and E.F. Hutton: Didn't say much, but when he did, people listend. Especially Hetfield and Ulrich, who were puppies whit peach fuzz and acne when they relocated Metallica to the Bay arena in 1983 to be closer to Cliff. Cliff Burton had flavor: he wore bell-bottoms, read H.P. Lovecraft, studied piano, and even went to junior collage. He drove a 1972 VW stationwagon. He was the son of Jan and Ray Burton, two San Fransisco hippies and he still had those hippie ideals; he liked his beer, liked his pot or whatever, liked to chill out, and he was really laid-back, relaxed and happy.
He lived whit his family in San Fransisco, and for three and a half years he worked hard to take Metallica to the top. After replacing Ron McGovney in late 1982, Cliff instantly made a name for himself whit his classic "wind-mill" style of thrashing on stage, whit his hair flying out in all directions, and whit his outdated, completely "unfashionable" image. Whit his hair hanging staight down from his head, he seemed eternally glad in a pair of bell-bottom jeans and a faded denim jacket. If it was cold, he wore a flannel shirt underneath.
Offsatge, he was the ultimate laid-back Californian, a total oppisite from his wild, aggresive onstage attack. His sense of humor was great, as were his bass solos and everything about his stage presence. He was the most visual of all the band onstage, he would just go wild. The best example to how cool and unflappable Cliff was, happend in the summer of 1985 at their Castle Donnington Festivals appearance (August 17, 1985). Having ducked beneath a flying pear whicch ended up embedding itself in his bass bin, Burton coolly sauntered over to his stack, picked up the pear, took two bites out of it and hurled it back into the crowd.
For a while there it really looked as if 1986 was gonna be Metallica's year. After all, their third LP, Master Of Puppets, had literally taken the music world by storm and, in doing so, had made the band virtual mega-stars in the eyes of the metal-doting public. Metallica had finally "made it" and it seemed that nothing could halt their inexorable rise to evean greater glory. Then, during the European leg of the group's phenomenally succesful Master Of Puppets world tour, something went wrong - castastrophically wrong.
Fresh from their triumphant UK
tour, Metallica had headed once more for Scandinavia where they'd played three shows at
the Olympen in Lund (September 24, 1986), the Skedsmohallen (September 25, 1986) in Oslo
and at the Solnahallen in Stckholm (September 26, 1986).
The quick left by Cliff's death yawned across the pages of tributes run by music press the week after the tragedy. In Kerrang! for example, advertisements were taken by friends and fans alike; a bleak, black double-page spread ran messages from Zazulas ("The Ultimate Musican, The Ultimate Headbanger, The Ultimate Loss, A Friend Forever"), and Anthrax ("Bell-Bottoms Rule!! Laugh it up, We Miss You"), while Music For Nations also took out a page which simly read: "Cliff Burton 1962-1986". The pain ran deep.
His family and friends remember him as a "world class local boy" whit a love for Johann Sebastian Bach, Mexican food and his hometown. His parents said he was "an appreciative and thoughthful son, a little boy came up to the door, early in the morning and wanted Cliff to sign his shirt. So Cliff staggerd to the door - and said "Sure, of course I'll sign it."
"I once called him up and said 'How do you like being a rock star?', and he was furious. He asked me never to ask him that again", said his sister, Connie.
At the conclusion of his memorial service (October 7, 1986), "Orion" from the band's Master Of Puppets album, was played. The elaborate instrumental made a fitting tribute for the young bassist, scince as James Hetfield recalled, Burton was Metallica's most educated musician and "Orion" was largely his composition.
Cliff was also responsible for expanding the scope of Metallica's lyrical themes. Along whit Kirk, he admired the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
Cliff Burton died young....much too young. There is nothing that we can do or say that will ever alter this totally wretched fact. Cliff represented the ultimate thrash bassist.
"(Anesthesia)-Pulling Teeth" showpiece made it one of the highlights of the band's live set. More importantly, Cliff was one hell of a nice guy and much-loved figure in the Metallica camp. He always went out of his way to talk to the band's fans-no matter how tired he was.
He was certainly the most
unanimously appreciated by the band members as well as by the public. Although he is no
longer whit us, his memory and his music will live forever. As a personal tribute, I will
always listen to his music on this day and think about what happend and I just wonder: Why
did it had to happend?
Cliff Burtons Death
Exactly what happend on that
terrible day:
After the Stockholm show, the
band hopped on the tour bus and into their bunks for the long drive to Copenhagen. On
board were the four band members, along whit drum tech Flemming Larsen, guitar assistants
John Marshall and Aidan Mullen, and road manager Bobby Schneider. The driver, an
englishmen who had been hired for the duration of the multi-country tour, was behind the
wheel. About 6.30 a.m. (when they had reached Dörarp, north of Ljungby; on the E4) the
band members were awakened by a violent jolt. The vehicle had been in an accident, and was
now lying on its side. How did it happend? John recapes the horror, and sheds some light
on the question of what exactly occurred.
"We were on a two-lane road.
The bus went off to the right, and I think the driver overcorrected, cranking the wheel to
the left to get us back on the road. The wheel grabbed, and the bus swung completely
around. During this time, the tail of the bus was sliding, kind of fishfailing around and
bouncing on its wheel. That was right when we all started to wake up. I think I bounced
right out of my bunk. The bunks were like trays whit foam in them. The foam was held in
place by a wooden lip. When the bus started rocking, my back bounced across that lip.
Afterwards, I could baerly walk, it hurt so bad. The bus eventually slid to the dirt
alongside the road. When the wheels caught, the bus rolled over on its side."
Schneider had broked two ribs. Lars had broken a toe. Kirk's eye was blackened. Kirk, who'd blacked out after being thrown from his bunk, snapped to consciousnenss and made his way through a side emergency hatch. Outside, his eyes widened at the sight of Cliff, his body limp and lifeless, pinned under the bus. Cliff Burton, master bass playing, composer, rage and bandmate, was dead. "Cliff was the top of the right rear bunk, and I think that if the bus was bouncing around, he was sort of pushed trough the window," speculates John.
"Then when the vehicle fell over on it's right side, he was halfway out the window and it fell over him".
Meanwhile, the bunks had toppled like matchsticks, teetering into one another and collapsing into what resembled a pile of kindling. Mullen and Larsen, who'd also slept in right-side bunks, were pinned under the rubble for nearly three hours before the fire department jacked up the debris and rescued them.
"When the bus first stopped on it's side" continues John, "I remember hearing this noise that sounded like water. I was afraid we'd landed in a creek and were halfway underwater. But the noise was only that of the motor still running".
Whitin minutes, John and the band had pulled themselves from the bus and were huddling outside.
"We were all sitting out there in 35 degree weather, whit me in my socks and underwear before someone gave me a blnket. I remember Kirk and James yelling at the driver. By then, everyone had begun to realize that something was wrong whit Cliff. I remember James walking up the road a bit to see if there was ice on the road, beacuse the driver had claimed he'd slid over a sheet of ice. Kirk was cryin. "When I asked what he remembers of the rest of the nightmarish evning, James poignantly responds, "I just recall our tour manager Bobby saying,'Okay, let's get the band together and take them back to the hotel'. The only thing I could think was,'The band?
No way! There ain't no band. The band is not "the band" right now. It's just three guys". John who was routed to the emergency room of a nearby hospital, remembers coming to realization taht something was wery wrong. "I remember Bobby lyin' next to me, as they were taking blood pressure and stuff, and saying , 'Cliff's gone you know'. All of a sudden, the reality of everything hit me. Rigth then, I looked above, at the ceiling, and thanked whoever was up there that nobody else had been seriously hurt, and that it hadn't turned out even worse than it was".
By afternoon, band and crew had checked into hotel. The dazed group dealt whit their anxiety in the manner they were most accustomed to: drinking. James broke two hotel windows and screamd, venting his rage. John remembers that he and Kirk were so shaken up that they slept whit the lights on in their room that night. Two days later, Metallica, minus one, returned to America.
Cliff's ashes were spread at
various points around the bay area, including the Maxwell Ranch House area.
Metallica members about Cliff Burton
"Cliff was so completely honest to himself and the people around him. He hated all this being-put-on-a-pedestal bullshit"
Lars Ulrich 1986
"To this day, I think of him every day"
Kirk Hammett 1988
He was a wild, hippie-ish, acid-talikng, bell-bottom-wearing guy. He meant business, and you couldn't f**k around whit him. I wanted to get that respect that he had. We gave him shit about his bell-bottoms everyday. He didn't care. "This is what I wear. F**k you" He loved music. He was really intellectual but very to the point. He taught me alot about attitude".
Jason Newsted 1993
"We heard this wild solo going on and thought, I don't see any guitar player up there. It turned out it was the bass player, Cliff , whit a wah pedal and this mop of hair. He didn't care whether people were there. He was looking down at his bass playing"
James Hetfield 1994
"I saw the bus lying right on him. I saw his leg sticking out. I freked. The bus driver, I recall, was trying to yank the blanket out from under him to use for ohter people. I just went, 'Don't f**king do that!' I already wanted to kill the guy. I don't know if he was drunk or if he hit some ice. All I knew was, he was driving and Cliff wasn't alive anymore
James Hetfield 1993
"I wasn't too angry in the bginning. I was obviously grieving, but the anger started setting in when I realized that it's not new that people in rock-n-roll die, but unusally it's self-inficted in terms of excessive drink or drugs abuse. He had nothing to do whit it. It's useless. Completely useless".
Lars Ulrich, January 1987
"The only person who was able to figure out a time and write it on a piece of paper was Cliff. He had an immense knowledge of timing, musical harmonies and music theory in general".
Kirk Hammet 1987
"Cliff's taken classes in school on music theory, things like mixing hamonies together. I think he took a junior college course".
James Hetfield 1986
"You don't burn from going too fast. You burn out from going too slow and getting bored".
The late Cliff Burton
Question: What would you you say to a band that's just starting out on the rock scene today?
Cliff answerd: Quit