Cliff Burton

Cliff Burton was Metallica's bassist between 1982 and 1986, and the member who brought formal musical training to a band that had none. Born in Castro Valley, California, he studied theory and harmony, played Bach on the bass, and came out of bluegrass as much as rock — a repertoire nobody else in the group commanded. His contribution was to treat the bass as a lead instrument. He used distortion and a wah pedal, wrote independent lines rather than doubling the guitar, and "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth", on Kill 'Em All (1983), is literally a bass solo with drums. More important than the virtuosity, though, was what he did for the arrangements: the harmonic ambition and long structures of Ride the Lightning (1984) and Master of Puppets (1986) — the instrumental passages, the arpeggiated intros, the idea that a thrash track could have movements — are largely his work. He also imposed, as a condition of joining, that the band leave Los Angeles and move to San Francisco. He died on 27 September 1986, aged 24, when the tour bus overturned near Ljungby in southern Sweden. It is the most cited loss in metal's history, and the argument over what direction Metallica would have taken with him alive has never stopped. He was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.