The song Flea called “one of the great moments for bass guitar”
In the grand tradition of rock bass players, Flea is a total freak of nature. While most other artists that man the four-string tended to keep to themselves whenever they got up on stage, Flea was willing to let his freak flag fly whenever he got the chance, creating a spectacle for anyone happy to listen. Then again, Flea would be nothing without the people that came before him.
Originally starting on the trumpet, Flea was ready to become one of the best jazz musicians that his town had ever seen, becoming infatuated with the work of acts like Miles Davis. Once he discovered punk rock, though, he moved into the heavier strands of music, becoming enamoured with acts like Fear and the Sex Pistols. However, nothing could have prepared him for when he heard Metallica for the first time.
Recalling at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Flea was first exposed to the thrash metal legends when he was on tour with one of his bands. As he remembered: “We were in the van. And this music came on, and I couldn’t believe that it fucking existed. My mind was being blown by this beautiful violence that was unlike anything I’d ever heard before”.
Although the song he was listening to on that occasion was the thrash rager ‘Fight Fire With Fire’, Flea was more taken by bassist Cliff Burton. Being the most musically adept member of the group, Burton was a child of every one of his influences, just as infatuated with the work of Kate Bush and Bob Dylan as he was with Black Sabbath. Even though thrash was built off of soloing, Burton wouldn’t play mindless shredding during his lead breaks.
On their debut album Kill Em All, Burton’s solo track ‘Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth)’ remains one of his definitive statements. Across a few minutes, Burton creates a symphony with his bass, weaving together different melodies like a speed metal version of Mozart or Beethoven before Lars Ulrich returns with a drumbeat.
For Flea, Burton’s solo is one of the peaks for the instrument, continuing: “That song is one of the great moments in rock history for the electric bass guitar. It’s a beautiful piece of music played by an awesome rocker of a young man who was a masterpiece of a human being”. Though Burton was a musical phenomenon during his time with the band, it would be all too short-lived.
During the tour for their landmark album Master of Puppets, Burton passed away in a tragic bus accident in Sweden. After hitting a patch of black ice, Metallica’s tour bus began to sway before violently crashing in the middle of the road, with Burton killed instantly after being thrown out of the bus window.
Metallica would not be defeated by death, though, drafting in Jason Newsted as Burton’s replacement and making the song ‘To Live is To Die’ from their next album a tribute to their fallen bassist’s memory. Regardless of who is in the band, Flea still considers Burton an intrinsic part of the Metallica DNA, stating, “I can never listen to a Metallica record without thinking of him. It is clear that the gift he gave lives on in that band’s music”.
