Mandatory Megadeth · 1:08am Sep 28th, 2018

OK, so. I kinda have to rush this one out quicker than I wanted to cuz it’s pretty late. I had to stay after work to attend a meeting for like three hours, and I didn’t get home until just a little while ago.
Also, yesterday was my daughter’s sixth birthday, so she was all pumped-up on sugar last night and didn’t sleep well; she ended up waking up in the middle of the night because of a nightmare she was having in which my brother-in-law’s dog got akumatized and started barking at her or something. So after getting her to sleep again it took me forever to get back to sleep, meaning I was pretty tired today - which sucked because it was an extra long work day, as already mentioned.

Anyway…

This week, I’m going to do something a little different. ‘Countdown to Extinction’ will resume next week as normal, but for today, I have something (or someone, rather) else to talk about.

Right. So, who here can recognise this crazy cat?

For those of you who do not know, his name is Cliff Burton, bass player for Metallica during their early years, whose work can be heard on the first three of their albums. He was not featured in later albums because, unfortunately, at the age of 24, while on tour in Sweden, he was killed in a bus crash on September 27th, 1986 - 32 years ago today.

Why am I talking about this on Mandatory Megadeth? Well, Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine was also in Metallica during those early times (as lead guitarist), but he was replaced by Kirk Hammet before their first album ‘Kill ‘Em All’ debuted. So, for a short time, Dave and Cliff did share a stage together, which I think makes Cliff relevant enough to talk about here. (Though, to be fair, if you’re talking metal, Cliff is relevant everywhere.)

Now, I’m not gonna go and say that Cliff Burton was the best bass player that ever walked the face of the planet or anything like that - even though he was pretty damn amazing - but what made him stand out was his ingenuity; the melodies and sounds he created with that bass guitar were just… out of this world. I truly believe that a big part of what made those first few Metallica albums so transcendent was the creative contributions from Mr. Burton here, and since his passing, they’ve never quite been able to match the magic of that early music.

So tonight, let’s just take a minute (or eight ) to honor Cliff, by listening to this work of art, this anthem of utter badassery, and just try to imagine; imagine all the fantastic sounds that we missed out on because he was taken from this world so soon.