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Cliff Burton Day today


TheGreek

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I met cliff and co in shades records back in '85. 
I asked him for some advice for playing bass . "Get a phaser! "  Top bloke . 

It was touch and go if I could meet the band , as the ad in kerrang said 12.30

They didn't show up until after 4pm and I got a frosty reception from my bosses in the office .  Long story ..

Edited by RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE
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This will probably get me tarred, feathered and drummed out of the Brownies...

...but...

...I've heard a fair bit of Cliff Burton's playing, but nothing that has ever stood out to me as particularly special. It's all a bit "yeah, so what?".

My flameproof pants await.

 

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11 hours ago, Rich said:

This will probably get me tarred, feathered and drummed out of the Brownies...

...but...

...I've heard a fair bit of Cliff Burton's playing, but nothing that has ever stood out to me as particularly special. It's all a bit "yeah, so what?".

My flameproof pants await.

 

each to their own mate. I think he was an absolute genius but quite a few people think the same as you

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11 hours ago, Rich said:

This will probably get me tarred, feathered and drummed out of the Brownies...

...but...

...I've heard a fair bit of Cliff Burton's playing, but nothing that has ever stood out to me as particularly special. It's all a bit "yeah, so what?".

My flameproof pants await.

 

Fair point Rich. 
With cliff, it wasn't  just about what he did on record .
Having said that you've probably heard by now ( rightly ) , that Cliff plus the other bass players after him had more or less kept  metallica  going when  they were up against it  and in trouble.Metallica know how lucky they are/ were with having a great bass player with them always.  We all know they treated Jason appallingly bad , and were lucky to get Robert.

The difference with cliff, is that he was also a songwriter in metallica ,and wrote killer songs .

Live, he was the person  who was the focus  with his  anesthesia  solo , which was him using old fashioned  basic guitar effects . It was songs like Orion and call of ktula and whom the bell tolls  which  imho highlighted his talents .  
I think the big deal with cliff , was that he was the person who was the driving force of metallica and the rest of the band  relied a lot on him . He just never got around to fulfill his full potential as he did an awful lot in a short time ..

Edited by RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE
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If I don't like an artist much, I won't go into a thread with their name in the title to stomp on their grave.

Lately people have been going on about how great Cliff Williams is or Rick Willis. Nothing against them really, but I find their bass arrangement incredibly boring. Sure, they serve the songs.

Cliff was avant-garde, I'm reminded of when Terence Butler was the first to record a bass through a Wah.

 

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Music and those musicians who speak to us. It's such a deeply personal, primal phenomenon. 

I sincerely believe its impossible to explain to someone who doesn't hear it, who doesn't get what you experience. 

I gave an example of a favourite part of a song by a bass magician once. The first response was along the lines of, well that's nothing special, it's just such and such a scale over such and such a chord. 

The bass line touched on something special and inspirational in me. That isn't something I can give to someone else. You feel it or you don't. 

Cliff Burton clearly had this effect on plenty of musicians and music fans. That's great. You can't measure it, you can't explain it. And that's great too. 

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I was involved in a several-cornered debate on Farcebook the other day on the subject of musicians' visas and free movement in the EU and so on. One of the participants in the exchange said, and I quote, "frankly, the less music the better". I was astounded, I had to ask him if he was serious. He was. Apparently he doesn't mind anyone else listening to it personally (oooh, that's nice of him!) but he hates "being assaulted by it".
I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around such a view. His world wouldn't be worth living in.

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6 minutes ago, Rich said:

I was involved in a several-cornered debate on Farcebook the other day on the subject of musicians' visas and free movement in the EU and so on. One of the participants in the exchange said, and I quote, "frankly, the less music the better". I was astounded, I had to ask him if he was serious. He was. Apparently he doesn't mind anyone else listening to it personally (oooh, that's nice of him!) but he hates "being assaulted by it".
I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around such a view. His world wouldn't be worth living in.

I’ve come into contact with people who don’t ‘get’ music. Not a particular style, just music, any music. It just doesn’t interest them. I too find it utterly impossible to comprehend. 

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6 minutes ago, 4000 said:

I’ve come into contact with people who don’t ‘get’ music. Not a particular style, just music, any music. It just doesn’t interest them. I too find it utterly impossible to comprehend. 

Astonishing isn't it? I mean, what actually moves these people? Are they deranged puppy-stranglers or just utterly grey? 

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I think there is a good case to protest the "overabundance" of music. I like to listen to music, but mostly when I choose to, and also I value the ability to not have to listen to a load of unnecessary music whose sole purpose appears to be the filling the silence. Maybe this is a subject for a separate thread?

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2 hours ago, 4000 said:

I’ve come into contact with people who don’t ‘get’ music. Not a particular style, just music, any music. It just doesn’t interest them. I too find it utterly impossible to comprehend. 

How about people with autism or misophonia? They generally don't connect with music because their brains are wired differently. My dad had aspergers, my good lady's youngest child has it and a friend of our's daughter has misophonia. None of them have/had interest in music of any sort.

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