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Post by Monsters of Rock on May 29, 2021 22:43:43 GMT 10
Cliff Burton  His life was cut tragically short at just 24, but Cliff Burton's inspiration still towers over the heavy metal world like few others. What Burton accomplished over just three albums with Metallica, welding equal measures of innovation and oft-ignored fundamentals, helped elevate the band's albums to heights still unmatched. Loudwire |
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Post by Monsters of Rock on Jun 5, 2021 19:23:59 GMT 10
Cliff Burton
When Metallica formed, all James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine, and Lars Ulrich wanted to do was rage on finger-breaking thrash metal — until they met Cliff Burton. The bassist had been playing with a rival metal group, and when they saw him play a jaw-dropping bass solo, they wanted him in Metallica so badly that they relocated from Los Angeles to his native Bay Area at his request. Once in the band, Burton introduced the guys to R.E.M., the Misfits, and Bach, opening them up to a new musicality, as he added orchestral flourishes and bass virtuosity to some of their hardest-hitting songs. His bass solo, “(Anesthesia) — Pulling Teeth,” on their 1983 debut, Kill ‘Em All, is an aggressive showcase of classical-music improvisation and wah-wah lyricism, while his delicate intro to “Damage Inc.” and the middle of “Orion” showed just how beautiful thrash could be. His concepts continued to resonate with the band after his death in a bus accident in 1986. “No disrespect to anybody else, but he was at a different level,” Ulrich once said of Burton. “When it came time to put [‘Anesthesia’] on a record, instead of it just being a bass solo, we turned it into more of a composition. It adds some different dynamics to it, almost like different acts — like, Act One, Act Two and Act Three.” That sensibility was so spot on that when Metallica collaborated with the San Francisco Symphony in 2019, the orchestra’s principal bass player wanted to perform “Anesthesia” in tribute to Burton.
Rolling Stone
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