Last Tuesday marked a sad anniversary in the
lives of long-time metal fans.
Astonishingly, it's been 25 years since a tour bus accident claimed the
life of Metallica's former bassist, Cliff Burton.
Burton was asleep in the early morning hours of September 27th, 1986 when the band's bus skidded off the highway outside of Ljungby, Sweden. The bass player was thrown from a window and subsequently crushed to death by the vehicle as it overturned.
He was only 24 years old.
Burton was asleep in the early morning hours of September 27th, 1986 when the band's bus skidded off the highway outside of Ljungby, Sweden. The bass player was thrown from a window and subsequently crushed to death by the vehicle as it overturned.
He was only 24 years old.
Burton's legacy remains that of a groundbreaking
metal bassist whose technique, playing style and use of non-traditional bass
effects have influenced a generation of players and fans. He was part of Metallica's rhythm section for
the recording of three albums, Kill 'Em All, Ride the Lightning
and the classic Master of Puppets.
His memorable contributions include the bass solo "(Anesthesia)
Pulling Teeth" and his chromatic intro to "For Whom The Bell
Tolls".
Metallica's set at the Rock
in Rio festival this past week
featured a performance of "Orion", dedicated to their fallen friend
and bandmate. Revolver has also
posted some great excerpts of their interview
with Lars Ulrich regarding Cliff that are well worth a look.
In Brief
Metallica faithful aren’t
the only music fans observing a tragedy this week; September
25th was the 31-year anniversary of John Bonham’s death. Led Zeppelin’s legendary drummer asphyxiated
on his own vomit after a monstrous, day-long alcohol binge.
Rolling Stone’s Stacey
Anderson has posted a recap of SiriusXM’s
Town Hall With Nirvana, a recent Q&A session with Butch Vig, Krist
Novoselic and Dave Grohl. The event was
moderated by The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart.
Continuing on the Nirvana
theme, NME has some excerpts from a recent Rolling Stone interview with Grohl
where he discusses his insecurities while he was a member of
the band.
Radiohead, Eddie Vedder and
the Beastie Boys are among the
numerous celebrities and musicians who’ve selected tracks for the new Sonic
Youth best-of Hits Are For Squares.
The disc is scheduled for release on October 31st, as is the
documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke.
Available for the first time on DVD, the 1992 film focuses primarily on
Sonic Youth but also features appearances from Nirvana, Dinosaur Jr., Babes in
Toyland and The Ramones.
NME, who are full of
interesting news this week, are reporting that Billy Corgan sees the Smashing
Pumpkins’ upcoming Oceania as a make or break moment
for his band. Could the Pumpkins end
if the album is unsuccessful? Could
Corgan actually mean it this time?
Mastodon’s new record, The
Hunter was released last week. I
think it’s pretty damned great and thankfully, Metacritic
agrees with me.
Lastly, a grounds worker at
a Wisconsin cemetery saw fit to rip off a
deceased man’s prized Fender Telecaster from the dead man’s coffin. Gawker reports that Randall Jourdan, the
guitar’s owner, had told loved ones of his wish to be buried with the prized
instrument, which he’d treasured for over 40 years.
We’ll have another edition
of Liner Notes next week. If you see an
interesting story that you think would make a good addition, fire an email to gstanway@start.ca, or tweet me @BaronSandwich.
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