Clifford Lee "Cliff" Burton

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* Februar 10 1962

† September 27 1986

Lars Ulrich and James Hetield saw him the first time when he performed at a club in Los Angeles What made them pay him attention was his headbanging and an incredible solo. They thought that they heard a leadguitarplayer but couldn't see any onstage. It appeared to be Cliff
doing a bass-solo.
Cliff Burton grew up with Jim Martin, the guitarrist in Faith No More, in the nearby of San Fransisco. He was silent, but when he spoke, people payed attention. Especially Hetfield and Ulrich. They moved the band from L.A to San Fransisco 1883 to get nearer to Cliff.

Cliff lived with his family in San Fransisco. His parrents, Jan and Ray Burton, were two old hippies who still lived by that lifestyle. When he had replaced Ron McGovney Cliff emediately got wellknown because of his very own, wild style onstage. In private life he was the excact opposite, calm and relaxed. But as he got onstage he was changed beyond recognition. Totally wild and the one who got most attention in the band. That he also was a very cool person could be noticed at a perfformance on a festival in Donnington, when someone threw a pear at him. He ducked, picked the pear up and took two bites before he threw it back in the crowd.

It once seemed as 1986 would be Metallica's great year. Their album 'Master of Puppets' was a success, and the band became megastars within the hard rock. Metallica finally got their breakthrough, and nothing seemed to prevent them from growing bigger.

The Eurpean part of Metallica's world tour was incredible succesful. After processing through the Great Brittain the band went to Scandinavia, where they played at "Olympen" in Lund (Sep. 24 1986), "Skedsmohallen" in Oslo (Sep. 25 1986) and "Solnahallen" in Stockholm (Sep. 26 1986).

Saturday, September 27. It was almost dawn. Metallica's two tourbuses were rumbling on a godforsaken road somewhere between Stockholm and Copenhagen. Except these two vehicles the road was completely deserted. Suddenly, without any obvious reason, one of the buses slipped, crossed the road and and went into the ditch on the left side. The driver managed to get the bus back on the road again, but slipped once again. The awful trip ended near Ljungby, where the bus lay on the side. In the forthcoming chaos most of the passengers got out of the wreck, among them three of the four bandmembers. The survivors were all very lucky, who had escaped with minor injuries and chock.

Swedish police arrived and arrested the busdriver by routine, but released him when the investigation showed that the accident was caused by ice in a curve.

Unfortunately one person passed away. One of the bandmembers. Metallica's succesful existence was turned into a hell on earth at 6:15 on a deserted highway. Cliff Burton was dead, at 24 years of age.

The chocked bandmembers dealt with the pain in the way they were used to: drinking. James crushed two hotel windows and screamed his sorrow out. September 29 James, Lars and Kirk returned to the USA.

Weeks after the accident Cliff was honoured in music magazines. den stora musiktidningen Kerrang! kunde man läsa In the big magazine Kerrang! there were salutations from friends, colleagues and fans instead of ads.

Cliffs family and friends remembered him by his love for Johann Sebastian Bach, mexican food and his hometown. His parrents described him as "grateful and thoughtful son". When his sister Connie once asked him how it was being a rock star he went furious and told her to never call him that again.

When Cliff was burried, October 7 1986, 'Orion' was played. The instrumental tune was a appropriate tribute to the young bass-player since he was the most talanted one member of Metallica and had composed major parts of 'Orion'.
Cliff had also developed their lyrics, among others thanks to his and Kirks interest fot the autor H. P. Lovecraft.

The unpleasant truth is that Cliff Burton died way too young, just when he and Metallica finally got their well deserved breakthrough. Cliff was truly an unprecedented talanted bassist, there is no doubt that he was the greatest one in his music genre. Cliff could be described as the ultimate trash-bassist, both when it comes to just playing in the background of the others and when he was standing in front of them with his own solos. His '(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth' is a great example of the last mentioned. Furthermore he was a nice guy, who always did his best to satisfie the fans. He was surely very popular among the fans.

Even though Jason Newsted, who came into the band after Cliff's death, has been playing for Metallica longer, he will probably always be thought of as "Cliff's successor".

The memory of Cliff Burton and his music will always remain.