Why was he so short in Metallica if he was so great, you ask? Well, he died a painful accident somewhere in Sweden while on tour for their Master of Puppets album. It wasn't a quick or painless death either. It was slow and painful. Cliff Burton was sleeping on his bunk bed, the bottom bed when suddenly the bus skidded over and he fell out of it, the bus CRUSHING him. His fellow bandmates said that he was still alive and they could still see him moving. I mean, oh my.. It must have been painful and horrifying to see that happen. I myself would be fucking terrified. Well, they thought he would be fine since they were pulling the bus away from him and attempting to help him, but once again, I guess the bus/rope hates Cliff Burton and it SNAPPED, causing the bus to fall AGAIN, this time, ensuring Cliff's death. Fucking bullshit I say.
I don't know WHY, of all of Metallica, Cliff Burton had to die. He was fucking irreplacable. Lars could've died, I could care less. James was a strong part of Metallica so no way he would die and Kirk basically made Metallica scream "METAL UP YOUR ASS". Cliff Burton was a genius of a bassist. When I listened to Ride the Lightning, I thought many of those intros were done by James/Kirk, but to my stupidity, they were done by Cliff Burton. That's right, bass guitar sounded like electric guitar? There was no one else but Cliff Burton who could do this. Cliff Burton also made Metallica what they were in the 1980s, a kickass Metal band. Cliff introduced Metallica to so many kinds of music, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd just to name a few.
In fact, what caused Metallica to add Cliff into their lineup was in a show by his band called Trauma. Read it all here. I fucking respect this dude man, he made Metallica. He made Metallica sound so awesome, he was just the greatest bassist in Metal history. No other bassist have I heard of came close to the legendary Cliff Burton and with good reason too. I tell you, listen to To Live Is To Die and Orion, both composed for and by Cliff Burton, respectively. Cliff Burton even has some of his awesome bass on To Live Is To Die. I really wish people would start realizing that popular music(mainstream music) is NOT good music and they ought to listen to better things, that people work hard for and work their asses off for. Like Metallica. They never had an easy life, it was always work, work and more work for them. Everyday to them was a work day. Everything could be turned into lyrical content, everything has meaning.
I guess people never do appreciate ANYTHING that is offered, they just like whatever is popular and have no taste of their own. I, myself, will admit I HAVE listened to pop music before, but that was before I was introduced to metal music(It was actually by coincidence that I saw B.Y.O.B. by System of a Down on TV) then my e-friends also started to encourage me and gave me awesome song lists to listen to(eg Metallica - Turn The Page). From then on, I started to listen to old music, 80's Metallica, etc. Once I listened to the Master of Puppets album, I never turned back, and with good reason too. After I listened to that album and felt pleased with it, I decided to explore other Metallica realms. I downloaded Ride the Lightning and ...And Justice For All and I gotta say I was pretty impressed and I loved what they did. Looking forward into their self-titled album The Black Album, I guess it really wasn't as good, save a few songs such as Don't Tread On Me and Sad But True. Their Load/ReLoad era wasn't so great as well, it was just 'meh'. A few good songs here and there, but otherwise, total crap.
Soon after, S&M was released, an album played with the San Francisco Symphony. Also, Garage Inc. was released as well, where they had some of their own recorded songs whereas the rest were cover songs for other bands. Soon after, I saw St. Anger. It was total bullshit, it was crap. It wasn't Metallica. It sounded more like Rocklica more than Metallica. I guess that's what happens when a vital player in your band gets caught up in an unfortunate accident.
RIP Cliff Burton - God bless you!