Clifford Lee Burton was born February 10, 1962 in Castro Valley, CA, and tragically died at age 24 in a bus rollover in Ljungby, Sweden, on September 27, 1986. For four short years, he was a bass guitar god and prolific songwriter for a metal band taking the world by storm, Metallica.
Cliff was introduced to classical music as a child, and took piano lessons. His musical interests were eclectic, including classical, Southern rock, jazz, country, blues, and of course heavy metal. He started playing bass guitar at 13, and famously practiced for 6 hours a day, even after joining Metallica. He devoted himself to becoming the best to honor his brother, who had died. Influences on his bass playing style were Geddy Lee, Stanley Clarke, Lemmy Kilmister, Geezer Butler and Phil Lynott.
Burton’s high school band was EZ Street, with Big Jim Martin on guitar and Mike Bordin on drums. Martin and Bordin would eventually join Faith No More, and Bordin later played in Ozzy Osborne’s band. Cliff and Martin went on to college and played together in Agents of Misfortune. Then, in 1982, Cliff landed a spot in the metal band, Trauma. Later that year, while playing at the Whisky A Go Go in LA, Cliff impressed two guys in the audience who immediately came to recruit him, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. Interestingly, what impressed them was Cliff’s solo on what would become “(Anesthesia) – Pulling Teeth”. More interesting is the fact that they thought Cliff was a guitar player, because no one could play like that on bass.
Cliff played on and wrote many songs for Metallica’s first 3 studio albums. “Anesthesia” would appear on the debut album, Kill ‘Em All, a title taken from Cliff’s reaction to their record company vetoing the original album title: Metal Up Your Ass. Apparently, he was also the band’s musical director; the guy in charge of the tape deck. Special Cliff mix-tapes included varied selections from the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bach, Kate Bush, Simon & Garfunkel, Peter Gabriel, The Police, Velvet Underground, R.E.M., Stanley Clarke, ZZ Top and Motorhead.
The story of Cliff Burton’s death is well known by now. On the Euro leg of the Damage Inc. tour, supporting Master of Puppets, the band had played a great show in Stockholm and were in buses driving overnight to Copenhagen. Cliff won a card draw for the best bunk, pulling an Ace of Spades. His berth was located next to a window. In the middle of the night, the bus went off the road, over-corrected back onto it, and rolled over and over. Burton was ejected and ended up under the bus. The cause of the accident was controversial: whether there was black ice, as the driver claimed, or he fell asleep, as some in the band maintain. Also, it is unknown whether Cliff was still alive and savable, but when the cable lifting the bus off his body snapped, dropping the bus on him, there was no question he was gone. This memorial marker is located near the crash site.
Cliff was inducted into the rock HOF posthumously with Metallica in 2009. Today would have been Cliff Burton’s 54th birthday. R.I.P. Cliff.
