undamaged-destiny:metallica4eternity:February 10, 1962 – Metallica bassist Cliff Burton is b

undamaged-destiny:metallica4eternity: February 10, 1962 – Metallica bassist Cliff Burton is born at 9:38pm in Castro Valley, California. His father Ray Burton commented on Cliff’s early childhood: “Cliff was 22 months old before he started walking on his own and we were quite concerned about it, but the doctor said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with him. He’s just smart enough to know that Mom and Dad will carry him around.’”His mother Jan says, “He was always his own person, even when he was a little bitty kid. I used to say, ‘All the kids are playing outside, why aren’t you out there playing with them?’ And he said, ‘They’re not playing, they’re just sitting around talking. That’s boring.’ Then he’d go in the house and read his books or put on his own music. Even when he was a tiny little kid he would listen to his music or read. He was a big, big reader and he was very bright; in the third grade they tested him and he got 11th grade comprehension. He just heard a different drummer; he never went with the crowd if he didn’t want to. He was always popular and had a lot of friends. He was a very kind, very gentle kid but always his own person.”On May 19th 1975, tragedy struck the Burton family when Cliff’s older brother Scott David Burton died as a result of a brain aneurysm. He passed away at 11:50 am, while en route to the hospital. He was just 16. Jan Burton continues, “[Cliff] didn’t take music lessons until he was 13, after his brother died. He said to a couple of people, ‘I’m gonna be the best bassist for my brother.’”Personally, I have no way of knowing, but I have often wondered if Cliff’s determination to carry the sound and look of 1970s rock into the mid-late eighties had something to do with honoring the memory of his deceased brother.As a youngster, Cliff played Little League baseball for the Castro Valley Auto House team. He would go on to Earl Warren Junior High, and then to Castro Valley High. During his school and junior college, Cliff worked at an equipment rental yard in Castro Valley, called Castro Valley Rentals. There, he earned the name “cowboy”, for frequeltly wearing a straw cowboy hat! One of Cliff’s co-workers named Sonny, a tall black man, recalls Cliff was youngest kid in the yard and was routinely teased about his long hair. He would reply that his hair would help make him money! He would play his “headbanger music,” and Sonny would say to him, “I’m black , I’m into soul.” Cliff would just say, “Check it out.” Sonny also said he never saw him angry, even when he would get teased. He never got even for any of it.Bill and Hazel Banghart, Cliff’s supervisors at the yard, had fond memories of him also. Bill says, “Cliff was very unique, and a super employee. He was very well liked by all.” He told the following story with a chuckle. In the morning it was a routine thing for the employees at the yard to check the equipment and turn some of it on. One morning Cliff started all the yard’s lawnmowers at once. Someone found him facing the lawnmowers and waving his arms like a conductor in an orchestra! Steve Doherty was Cliff’s bass teacher from September 1978 to January 1980. Steve introduced Cliff to styles ranging from classical to jazz. “He was a good student, very focused. He knew what he wanted. He was a kind of student who always came in with the lesson prepared, which is not all that common. We did a number of different rhythm studies. I can hear some of the odd metered rhythms we studied in his playings.” He went on to describe Cliff as a serious and quiet student. “I had many serious students, but Cliff had that rare inner drive to get out and do something about his music. I can’t take credit for that; it was already there even when I taught him”.Cliff’s early dabblings in music included high school band EZ-Street, acid-rock jam band Agents of Misfortune featuring future Faith No More guitarist Jim Martin, and a stint with Bay Area rockers Trauma. He was recruited to join Metallica in late 1982 and the rest… is history. third grade they tested him and he got 11th grade comprehension!?!?!? DAMN CLIFF! XD  Just think what we’ve missed out on because of Cliffs untimely passing -- source link

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