Cliff Burton Appreciation (RIP-related)
pkny
549 Posts
It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since Cliff Burton's untimely death at the age of 24. Metallica were completely unf**kwitable after they dropped "Master of Puppets", and hearing the news about Cliff was devestating. The man was an absolute original, and one hell of a bass player. Big ups to the major rager on the four string motherf**ker:
LET THE APPRECIATION BEGIN
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That dude is without a doubt the reason why I picked up the bass.
"(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth", is getting turned to 11 tonight.
Metallica was never the same after his death.
I was just watching Cliff em All the other week.
RIP
Really, he was ugly. He was less the Metal Rock God and more the I-Got-A-Third-Cousin-Who-Lives-In-Freemont-Who-Can-Sell-Us-Some-Smoke type of dude. Especially being the bass player, as the bass player is the notorious 'weird' band member. And I appreciated that. Being a 14 year-old who was the uglies kid in Secretion After-Birth (yea, that was our band name, what?), playing bass with zits was easier knowing Cliff was around. Plus, one year for school, my mom went out and bought me 5 pair of jeans at the local discount spot, and only after she ripped the tags off and washed them did I realize they were bellbottoms. wtf? You can't believe how hard it was to go to school wearing bellbottoms (bellbottoms, for fuck's sake!) while absolutely everyone in the world was pegging their pants. It might be cool to be an "Outsider" (DJ Shadow) now, but that shit was "Laughing Stock" b/w "Village Idiot" back then. So, hanging a poster of Cliff on the bedroom door was like a shield against some of the laughter. Certainly wasn't making me any more popular, though. I still had to wear the bellbottoms all year.
I could be wrong, but I assume Cliff would have left Metallica and started a Motorhead cover/bar band before participating in the "Simultaneous Short Hair" maneuver or joining the Anti-Download Brigade.
Yes, Cliff was a strange bird, completely out of place, who made all of us losers a little less lost, but let's be honest. Metallica, at best, are unremarkable and ultimately trivial in the company of genuine, inspired and less deliberate bands in the pantheon. And all the obvious douchebagmanship the band has displayed since his death is really endemic to their "career" as Proffesional Headbangers. Cliff--may God be rolling a joint for him while rubbing her titties in his face as I write this--is probably glad he was severed from the band before they became the Metal cum-Pop Laughingstocks of this age.
If that comments incites you to write Kerrang about getting my subscription cancelled, allow me this five part Some Kinda Monster indulgence:
1. Bob Rock has a white fringed calfskin jacket and feathered hair look.
2. Knowing this, Metallica hired him anyway?
3. His name is Bob Rock, for fuck's sake.
4. James Hetfield pumping a shotgun in rhythm to a song.
5. Lars on what they wanted to accomplish: "Just get some swinging kinda back beat ... kinda shit going on. Just get psycho-motherfucker."
With a container truck full of outtake reels, that was the best they could come up with? And is that really any better than putting "Bang That Head That Doesn't Bang" on the back of your album?
Cliff deserves better than having his memory saddled to this shitstain of a band.
For Better ("Whiplash!") or Worse (Backlash),
~B
This thread may be as good as any to bring this up, but I actually threw on Master of Puppets for the first time in years a couple weeks ago, and one thing that stood out to me was how far and how often Metallica would stray from standard 4/4, right-on-the-beat playing. They used a lot of strange time signatures, and their riffs and rhythms tended to have a lot of crazy syncopation and whatnot. So...Metallica = math rock? Math metal, perhaps?
(Also, after listening to Master, I listened to the first half of ...And Justice for All just to check out Lars' drumming. Dude may be an annoying bitch these days, but that's some of the most incredible drumming I've heard.)
I made that discovery after putting it on one year (I tend to listen to this album real loud in my headphones at least once a year). It's very complex and dynamic musically. They were in a zone and it was magic. And the album was actually about something. I really wonder where everybody was at when making that one, and how it all went down. It seems like a project that would demand 110% focus, creativity, and riding those moments of grace as if life depended on them.
dude was the GOAT as far as true blue metal goes... after cliff's death it seems not only metallica but metal and general went to the shitter.
master of puppets is easily one of my fave records to this day.. and its probably the record i've listened to most in my life.
major rager indeed!
RIP
That tells you all you need to know.
Cliff summarised in one song? "For Whom The Bell Tolls" on the Cliff 'em All set.
I saw Metallica in 1985 and it was a defining moment for me...it was the first time I saw a band I was absolutely CRAZY about...I was 14 and had goosebumps when they walked out on stage. I was on Cliff's side of the stage and he and the band were mesmerizing.
As Bambouche pointed out, his appearance had the whole "born too late" thing about it and I dug it...I remember he looked like he should have been in Black Sabbath..the bellbottoms, the all one length hair, he looked like one of the "bad" kids: demin vest, comb sticking out the back pocket kind of guys...I thought that was cool as hell.
RIP...when he died, real Heavy Metal died.
I just read that they dropped Bob Rock and hired Rick Rubin for their next album.
no, seriously.
They all read soulstrut.
I'm waiting for Bob Rock to register and reply in this thread with a "Fuck all y'all"
The fact that 15 years of Newsted is swept under the rug just adds even more proof that B-Rock, Lars & James are complete dicks
He would also hold is right hand in the "devil horns" while he was playing.
I tried for years to play like him and could never hold my hand like that and play at the same time. Even after I got the bass tabs for anesthseia and practiced for a good year.
I could only play the first minute or so. He was still the first bass player to use distortion on his bass and was copyied years later by all this new-metal 5-string wackness.
hahaha somehow
"desecration "rings a satanic bell in my memory banks
Cliff was special and warrants a quick note here.
I met cliff twice.
First time on the killem'all for one tour in 83 with Raven.
My best friend was a rich kid who was clued in to the whole tape trading metal underground.We drove ANYWHERE in a 500 mile radius to see shows.He had every fucking metal,death metal,nwobhm lp,picture disc,magazine,poster,autograph,etc total collectro/"fan.
We had the no life till leather cassette and we had Kill EM ALL as soon as it came out.Everybody in our immediate neighborhood and at school thought we were nuts for listening to that stuff.For a minute we were cutting edge.
anyhoo flash to the spring of 1983
Metallica were all road grubby and smelly,no money looking for drugs and free weed
humping their own equipment in at a dump in yonkers called the rising sun[slum].
They played and we were well beyond flabbergasted .Like a force of nature ,shit ripped right thru your skull.Never saw anything like that in such a small place.
They had that"killem all sound" which was eventually lost as all their gear got boosted soon thereafter including hetfield's jcm 800 marshall head which was THE SCOOPED MID SIGNATURE TONE on that LP.
Cliff's pulling teeth solo was a standout,he went off -rolling his eyes back and slamming on that wha,fucker killed it like no one else.
This was the maiden voyage and they had nothing but their gear and balls and ambition.
Kill em all had just come out and they were pure adrenaline personified.
Kirk was very cocky and hetfield was a total grumpy ass bitch.Lars was very social and "fan friendly" and was up on the whole tape trading thing with my boy Gary.They were talking bout NWOBHM and Canadian metal for a minute.
The Second time i met cliff was on ride the lightning tour 1985 in poughkipse ny
It after the show at the mid hudson civic center with WASP[ass].Metallica headlined and destroyed the place.At this point fade to black and for whom the bell tolls were new.
We were there at the motel at 3am all burnt and tired
so my rich pal could get his freshly airbrushed "JUMP IN THE FIRE" denim jacket signed by the band.Cool
So first one off the bus was Cliff .Like the last time he was totally unassuming and he had a very thick california accent sounded much like jeff spicoli as I recall.He hung with us for like a half an hour talking bout music and drugs and Europe.
We burn heavy,passed a bottle of vodka around.
and he signed my friend's jacket and so does hetfield.
BTW Cliff was wearing a big blue k mart snorkel parka with the dayglo orange inseam.Holmes looked anything but metal.
Cliff was trend free real OG grunge/pre grunge.
At this show Lars was not around this time and kirk was banging some chick in the motel room while her boyfriend [all pissed and being subdued by Metallica's security ]was waiting outside in the parking lot.
I reckon Cliff was a total homeboy ,a pure unadulterated Bass Playing monster. The likes of which we have yet to see manifest in Rock Or Metal.
He would definitly be laughing at metallica now ...what with the therapists and corp rot bob cock money makeovers/makeup/piss/blood/prison video and Lars' 1 million dollar paintings.
when dude died he took the soul of Metal-lica with him
I think I still might have the Desecration demo! From '85 I think?
My friend Tim hung out at the Stone and met Cliff (and King Diamond, and saw Carlos Santana doing blow, and got me the legendary house video master copy of Slayer from around 86 that someone stole, etc.).
He actually used three fingers, and Lemmy distorted his bass.
and so did the basissts for Focus & Gentle Giant in the early 70's. But that isn't the point. The dude was as dead-on direct as they come. total genius about his philosophy of music and how shit was "supposed to be." Total Thin Lizzy (listen to the mid-section of Orion) and H.P. Lovecraft freak.
There's so much to say, but I'll leave it at his death was one of the first times I was seriously fucked up over someone's death.
please god no!?!?!!
When I was into metal I use to swap tapes of shows with people all over the world. Soundboard tapes were a big thing, but I also use to just carry in a little recorder and record shows as well. I have like an entire crate of those old tapes somewhere. Also got a bunch of demos from Metallica, Exodus with Kirk Hammet, Venom, Merciful Fate, etc. etc.
WTF another one???? Have you no taste?
Cliff is the man!!!!
what do y'all know bout a mettalica boot 2lp called assasin?
his picture is on the back, but they shout out/introduce their new bassist. My friend had one of these w/ the og shirt when it dropped.
http://www.livemetallica.com/vault/default.asp