Cliff Burton's Swan Song

Cliff Burton, bass guitarist with Metallica, died 25 years ago today when the band's tour bus skidded off an icy road in Sweden. He was 24.

Below you can listen to the second to last song Cliff performed live with the band on Sept 26, 1986 in Sweden. The track "Blitzkrieg" was intended to be the band's final song and second encore. Following the song, the band left the stage and the house lights came up. Most fans in attendance began to leave. A few remained and kept chanting for the band to return. Several minutes later, the band emerged from the back and played one more song with the house lights still on. The track was "Fight Fire With Fire". Sadly, this was Cliff Burton's final song with the band and it was never recorded as it wasn't part of the band's scheduled set. This track never made it on any bootlegs or official setlists either, but ended up being a special farewell only heard by those in attendance.

RIP Cliff. Had you not died, we might have had some bass on 'And Justice For All".

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Tags:  Metallica, Cliff Burton   

Jason Fisher    September 27, 2011