Realised this morning I haven’t covered a Cliff era track! And so we have the master himself live from back in 1985. And the performance itself is a masterclass in bass improve intro with judicious use of fuzz and chorus to create a sound that few 40 years ago could even imagine.

The track is from Ride the Lightning, Metallica’s second LP but first from what is considered their stable lineup. And I’ll gush about Ride with some other track later. What’s more relevant is that this track features in Cliff em All, a compilation of bootlegs videos of the bass wizard in action released after his passing. With Cliff being just 3.5 years with the band, his influence has been phenomenal to not just Metallica, but all of rock and metal. So watch him go, he has the crowd in a frenzy even before the main riff kicks in, and he plays with the intro like a cat with a string, effortlessly and without mercy.

Anyone lucky enough to have seen Cliff play? Anyone remember seeing this video on Kerrang/MTV2 like me?