To Live Is To Die
The impact bass player Cliff Burton made in the three years he played in Metallica had such power it still echoes in what the band does today. With ‘Kill ‘Em All,’ ‘Ride The Lightning,’ and ‘Master Of Puppets,’ the talent of Cliff and the other members of this still-young-and-wild band grew to amazing heights. Cliff’s legacy, after his tragic death in September 1986, grew even further. It is often said the magic that made Metallica this tornado on stage, and this intense on records, had died with its bass player. Joel McIver is trying to get a grip on what sort of person Cliff really was. Whoever he interviews, from fellow band member Kirk Hammett to bass teacher Steve Doherty to Burton’s girlfriend at the time, a few soundbites were repeated over and over again: ‘He always wore bell-bottoms’; ‘He was a friendly, intelligent, but very stubborn fellow’; ‘What he could do with his bass was almost miraculous’… quotes that most old-school Metallica fans know by heart. This book as a whole does not offer any new insight, and I don’t think it was supposed to give us any. What does make this book worth reading is the fact that many of the people who knew Cliff Burton had their say—some for the first time ever—and that is has been collected in one book. It’s all you ever need to know about an important member of the Metallica family who fell from us at an early age. Martijn Welzen
