In Memoriam... Cliff Burton, 25 Years Later

It's hard to believe that 25 years have come and gone since the fateful day we lost one of the most talented bass players in popular music. Cliff Burton played a major part in forging Metallica's sound with his signature bass playing style, which sounded like no bassist before him. Or since.

Cliff Burton was just 24 years old when he died while on tour in Sweden, the victim of a tragic accident when the band's tour bus went off the road and rolled over. If you are old enough to have been among the first wave of Metallica fandom, you probably even remember where you where when you heard the news Cliff was gone, on September 27th, 1986.

Video of Cliff's second gig with Metallica, March 19th, '83.

For myself, it was a warm September morning, which meant hanging out with friends in the parking lot before school started, always with someone's car stereo cranked to obnoxious levels. After a Metallica song finished playing, the KNAC DJ came on to announce the news. Needless to say, my circle of friends and I were stunned. That night saw repeated listens to Metallica's first three albums, which emphasis on Cliff's performances of "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth", "The Call of Ktulu" and "Orion".

If you only know Metallica for their output from the 90's and the Aughtie's, I am not going to encourage you, I am going to insist you seek out their first three albums, Kill 'Em All, Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets, so that you can better appreciate just what Cliff Burton meant to Metallica's sound and the incredible talent which he was. Each of these albums features a Cliff Burton-fronted instrumental piece which best demonstrates his unique lead-bass playing style. The last of these three pieces, and in my humble opinion the finest example of a metal instrumental ever committed to tape, is "Orion" from Master of Puppets. Crank it up. Take a listen.

And for further listening, and hopefully opening your ears to an artist you may not be familiar with, check out Mexico's brilliant acoustic folk guitar duo, Rodrigo Y Gabriela, and their cover of "Orion".

 

As I've written about before here, we should not lament the passing of a beloved performer, but rather celebrate them and their art which lives on, sounding as good if not better, even a quarter-century later.