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When Metallica left the stage in Stockholm, Sweden, on September 26, 1986, none of them
had any idea it would be Cliff Burton’s last performance. He was 24 years old.
Burton was the bassist for Metallica for four years, from 1982-1986 replacing original bassist
Ron McGovney. McGovney left after a tumultuous time in the band during which he clashed with
drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist Dave Mustaine. . Burton was part of the group when they recorded
their first three highly influential records including- Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning
and Master of Puppets.
Unlike so many rock legends who died too soon, his death was an accidental one and not related
to any sort of substance abuse. And To many he was in the prime of his career when he
would die. And This is his story.
Burton had wanted to be a bassist since he was 13 years old, following the death of his
brother from a brain aneurysm. According to Burton’s parents Cliff was quoted as saying
"I'm going to be the best bassist for my brother."[2] Burton was dedicated to his instrument playing
up to six hours per day even after joining metallica. Along with classical and jazz,
Burton's other early influences varied from southern rock and country to the blues. And
The bassists who influenced him included Lemmy of Motorhead Geddy Lee of Rush, and Gezzer
Butler of Black Sabbath
Right before Burton got picked up by Metallica, he was in a band called Trauma, who played
an 1982 show at Whisky a Go Go in LA. Metallica frontman James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich
were at that show. Impressed by his skills the pair knew they had to get him to join
metallica. it was the perfect timing for Burton, because he thought that Trauma was starting
to get more commercial and was looking for a way out. But It was also during this time
bassist Ron Mcgovney who was still in the band started noticing burton hanging out more
at shows often with the band. And McGovney would remember in the book louder than hell
the oral history of metal “i knew who he was and i knew they were looking at him. And
i saw that was pretty much the end of it right there.”
And Burton would have one condition before joining Metallica and that would be the band
would have to relocate to his hometown of San Francisco. That was a pretty big ask,
but since they wanted him in the band so badly, they agreed to move from LA. To be exact,
they were based in a town in the Bay area called El Cerrito.
The band would record three albums with Burton including their debut 1983’s kill em all,
1984’s ride the lightning and 1986’s master of puppets.. The band soon relocated to Old
Bridge, New Jersey, and it was there they recorded their debut album. The band originally
wanted the album to be called Metal Up Your Ass, but this title was turned down by their
record company. Megaforce records.
On kill em all Burton’s style was highlighted on the track (Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth
and One of the things he did that was unusual for a bassist was use the wah-wah pedal.
Burton would continue to grow as a bassist on the band’s second album, Ride the Lightning
- released on July 24, 1984, in particular on the tracks “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
and “The Call of Ktulu..”
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After the release of Ride the Lightning, Metallica would get picked up by Elektra Records, and
would release their landmark album 1986’s Master of Puppets
The album is considered to be one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time. The album
went 6 x platinum in the United States and Canada, and hit Platinum in the U.K, Australia,
Argentina, Finland, Germany and New Zealand.
On March 27th, 1986, the band embarked on the nearly year-long Damage Inc. tour to promote
the Master of Puppets album. They started out opening for Ozzy Osbourne stateside that
Summer, and were the headliners in the Fall and the Winter, with support from Anthrax,
Metal Church and Armoured Saint.
During this same tour, the band would also become one of the first American acts to play
across the Iron Curtain, with two February 1987 shows in Poland. Metallica also played
the legendary Roskilde festival during this tour.
Unfortunately, the tour was bound to be full of challenges.
James Hetfield was almost benched from playing on the tour for almost two months (from July
27th until September 25th) while recovering from skateboarding accident that resulted
in a broken arm. The band cancelled numerous shows during this time and Roadie John Marshall
helped out during this time playing guitar while Hetfield focused on singing. The other
band members had also discussed firing drummer Lars Ulrich at the end of the tour.
The most notable and tragic event that occurred on this tour was the death of Cliff Burton
from a bus accident on September 27, 1986 in a rural area of southern Sweden called
Kronoberg County.
His death turned out to be the result of a twist of fate.
Burton and guitarist Kirk Hammett drew cards on the evening on September 26, following
a show in stockholm. trying to decide who would get to sleep in a bunk that night and
who would sleep up front. Burton got the bunk.
In a VH1 behind the music interview, Hammett said “I’ll sleep up front, it’s probably
better anyways.”
Burton’s death was a gruesome one. According to the bus driver, he hit a patch of black
ice and swerved and rolled over in a ditch. This caused Burton to catapult out of his
bunk and through the window and was crushed by the bus. When a crane attempted to lift
the bus so that paramedics could get to Cliff, the maneuver went wrong and the bus actually
fell on the body, crushing him a second time.
Hetfield suspects the bus driver was drunk at the time, and local police also found no
black ice upon investigating the scene of the crash.
The driver testified that he was well rested at the time of the crash, and this was confirmed
by a second bus driver carrying the band’s equipment. At the end of hte day no charges
were laid against the driver.
In a 2016 interview with Hammer magazine online, James Hetfeld said: “Coming out and finding
your buddy under the bus is not something you want to go through. Our first reaction
was anger – one of the things we were good at.
In the same interview, Kirk Hammett says: “Having to make that call to friends and
family back home was difficult. It felt like reliving it all over again, it was so fresh
in our minds.”
- The subsequent tour dates were postponed and
new bassist (Jason Newsted) would join the band for the remainder of the tour.
In Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian’s autobiography, he talked about the moment he found out about
burton’s death saying There had been a storm and our driver wanted
to head to Copenhagen as soon as possible to avoid the streets possibly freezing up.
We figured we had another month on the road to hang out with Metallica, so no big deal.
We saw the guys after we finished our set and I said, “We’re going to take off.
We’ll see you guys tomorrow in Denmark.” We got into Copenhagen and stepped off the
bus around 9:30 the next morning. “The promoter for the show tonight says there’s been an
accident,” “Metallica’s bus crashed on the way here.” Then he paused, and when
he started to speak again he had to force the words out – almost cough them into existence.
“Cliff was killed in the accident. According to Ian once the surviving members
of metallica arrived in copenhagen denmark the members of anthrax tried to be there for
their tour mates and friends remembering: ‘‘James was inconsolable and uncontrollable.
He was smashing things in the hotel. So we took him outside to walk him around and he
started smashing things in the street. Obviously we didn’t want him to get arrested. ‘
By this point in time guitarist dave mustaine was out of the band after the group fired
him in 1983 due to his out of control behavior, but he was also deeply affected by the death
revealing in the same book: revealing how it would be the band’s former publicist
at megaforce records who broke the news to him stating
‘ I Just stood there clutching the phone feeling like someone had punched me in the
stomach. I hadn’t talked to cliff ina while but still considered him to be a friend. If
i harbbored some lingering anger towards lars and james well it was impossible to work up
the same degree of animus towards cliff. He was just to decent of a person.
And Following mustaine hearing the news he would hit the streets and score some drugs
and get loaded. And The news would also inspire the guitarist and frontman to write the song
In my darkest hour which ended up on megadeth’s 1988 album so far so good so what.
Burton’s was cremated, and his remains are at the Maxwell Ranch in California. A lyric
from the Metallica song “To Live is to Die” is engraved on a memorial stone near the site
of the crash - “Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home.”.The song was written as a
tribute to Burton following his death and ended up on the band’s subsequent album
1988’s and justice for all. Burton also received a writing credit for the lyrics and
the bass parts that were taken from unused bass recordings done by Burton which were
re-recorded by new bassist Jason Newsted. The song “Orion” was played at his funeral.
A number of other metal bands also paid tribute to Burton. Anthrax dedicated their album “Among
the Living” to him, and Metal Church did the same with their album “The Dark.”
Metallica fans in Burton’s hometown of Castro Valley, Calfornia even successfully campaigned
to have February 10th which was his birthday become Cliff Burton day.
In 2009 he was posthumously inducted into the rock n’ roll hall of fame by his father
ray burton who accepted the honour on his behalf.
That does it for today’s video. Thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button and
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