Metallica, the seventh-biggest recording act in American history, are consummate musicians-but it wasn't always that way. A significant proportion of their playing expertise was acquired from a pivotal three-year period in their history-1983 to 1986- during which their music, a potent variant of thrash metal, evolved from garage level to sophisticated, progressive heights thanks to the teachings of their bass player, Cliff Burton.§The rise and fall of the brothers Gibb-Barry, Robin, Maurice, and younger brother Andy-is perhaps the greatest saga in Australian music history. Although the Bee Gees enjoyed several rebirths in a career that spanned many decades, it seemed that tragedy followed the Gibbs like a curse. For every incredible career high there was a hefty personal downside: divorce, drunkenness, and death seemed as synonymous with the Gibbs as falsetto harmonies, flares, and multi-platinum record sales.§This is the revised and updated new edition.