To Live Is to Die: The Life and Death of Metallica's Cliff Burton

My son loved this as a gift

Great read if you want to dig deeper into the person and to understand where some of the masterpieces of Metallica came from!

Written by Joel McIver and published in 2009, this is the very first biography of the late Metallica bass guitarist, Cliff Burton (there's a chapter about the life and death of the musician in another one of McIver's books, "Justice for All: The Truth About Metallica", but there's more information about him in this book). It covers pretty much everything you would want to know about Cliff Burton, ranging from his birth and childhood to his music career (particularly with Metallica) and his tragic death in 1986.The book starts with a foreword by the band's lead guitarist Kirk Hammett; then there's a picture section for Cliff Burton; a locations map of San Francisco and the surrounding areas; an introduction from Joel McIver; then there are fifteen chapters about the bass guitarist, ranging from his birth (10th February 1962) and childhood, to his music career (particularly as the bass guitarist for Metallica) which was tragically cut short when he was killed in a bus accident in Sweden on the 27th of September 1986 at the age of 24 years; the aftermath of Cliff's death; Metallica from 1986 to 2009 (the year this book was published; and his legacy. There are also a couple more short chapters of "In Others' Words" from other musicians including Alex Webster, the bass guitarist for the American death metal band Cannibal Corpse; a "who's who" list of people linked with the bass guitarist including his parents Jan and Ray Burton; a musical terms section; a Cliff Burton discography including the three Metallica albums he was involved in (Kill 'Em All, Ride the Lightning, and Master of Puppets); and the index and acknowledgements sections.I read this book with great pleasure as I have been a fan of Metallica since 2004. The very first of their albums I bought was their 1984 album Ride the Lightning, which I enjoyed so much that I then bought their others (except for St. Anger which I didn't think was great, after having listened to someone else's CD of that album). Many Metallica fans consider the band's work with Cliff Burton as bass guitarist to be their best material, which I very much agree with even though some of the stuff they did after Cliff's death was good as well. I collected a Metallica DVD titled "Cliff 'Em All", a compilation of bootleg video recordings of the band's live performances plus interviews with the band, which was originally released on video in 1987 and was then re-released in 1999 on Region 1 DVD. (If you do get round to buying this particular DVD, please make sure that your DVD player can read Region 1 DVDs as I'm not sure yet if it ever got released on any other region DVD including Region 2 for the UK and Europe - I managed to get a Region 2 player converted to a multi-region player in order to watch the DVD as it was something I was really looking forward to watching). When watching Metallica's live performances in their early days, you can't help but notice and admire Cliff Burton's very unique way of playing the bass guitar and he always headbanged and walked round on stage whilst playing his bass parts in the gigs Metallica played.I very highly recommend To Live is to Die: The Life and Death of Metallica's Cliff Burton to all Metallica fans, and to those who have a strong passion for metal music in general.

I've been a fan of cliff burton since 1984, there is no other bass player like him and can play like no other. If you're a fan like me there is no question that you should get this book. The author did an outstanding job this book, there were lots of personal experiences of cliff that I didn't know. The book tells lots of experiences from friends, family, musicians, and co-workers, even from his at the girl friend. I couldn't put this book down, it was almost like closure for me, I wouldn't play bass today if it wasn't for mr. Burton. I hope this review inspires you to get the book. If you're a fan of burton or metallica, get it ! This book was by far better than Dave mustaine's autobiography . Long live cliff \,,/ \,,/

Eine der besten Biographien die ich bis jetzt gelesen habe sie liefert sehr viele Interssante informationen über Cliffs Werdegang!Ich habe schon mehrer Metallica Bios gelesen aber hier finden sich bestimmt zu 80% neues Wissen über Cliff welches man in keiner Tallica Bio findet.