To Live Is To Die: The Life and Death of Metallica's Cliff Burton, by Joel McIver

Jawbone

August 31, 2009, 10:07 PM

Views: 570   Comments: 2

“To me, [Cliff] just seemed like a quiet, hippy loon…in bellbottoms. I remember him always having a can of Bud in his hand, quietly bumbling around like Shaggy from Scooby Doo! He is sadly missed: rock in peace, dude” – Jeff ‘Mantas’ Dunn, ex-Venom

I wasn’t even a year old when Cliff Burton died in the tour bus crash in Sweden on September 27, 1986. And I would be completely unaware for years that one of the greatest bass players, more over plain greatest musicians the world will ever see was lying on a road-side early that morning trapped under a bus, dying.

Almost 23 years down the track and finally, a definitive, uniquely genuine and well researched book, To Live Is To Die, all about Cliff Burton’s life has been written by Joel McIver, a British rock and metal author from Buckinghamshire, which details every aspect an enthusiast would ever want to know.

I was always partial to the James, Lars, Kirk, Cliff line-up as it was, and after reading To Live Is To Die, I’m convinced it really was the true Metallica in its rawest form. McIver has clearly done mass amounts of research before sitting down to pen this book, as he pieces together excerpts, articles, dialogue, interviews – both new and old with all the people that knew Cliff Burton, and were closest to him throughout his 24 years on earth. Amongst others, McIver has managed to get input from his girlfriend at the time of his death, his first bass tech, the last reporter to interview Cliff, and of course, members of Metallica – Kirk Hammett especially providing the foreword to the book.

It’s obvious McIver is himself a musician, as included amongst the informative story are technically specific notes on all things from what basses Cliff played, how he played them and the way he wrote the bass parts. Even though I don’t play the bass, I found these sections simple enough to understand and felt that they added another layer to the account.

It’s hard to say to whom this book would appeal, as I particularly enjoyed not only the knowledge about Cliff Burton himself, but the interesting history of Metallica as well. Having said that, I don’t think this means you have to be a Metallica fan to find the book a decent read. If you’re a metal fan in general, I think you would appreciate this well written, ultimately intriguing and interesting biography, not just about Cliff Burton or Metallica, but the entire metal industry in its early days.

“I’m gonna do whatever the fuck I wanna do” – Cliff Burton

NB: My 90% rating is based purely on the reviewers tilt aspect.

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