BOC

[David Hardman]

> Yeah, BOC used to be a band that focussed more on the jam.  Even up
> until about '81 or so when they were doing "Roadhouse Blues" and
> throwing in bits of "Love Me 2 Times" -- since around then the
> spontanaity (how DO you spell that) has gone, and the songs are done
> the same way each night.

Maybe the crucial factor here is the personnel changes in the band.
>From reading Les Braunstein's account of the early years it sounds as
though the boys were all kinda operating on the same intuitive
wavelength.  I'd guess once you start shuffling different people in
and out of the band you sort of lose that shared feeling that enables
you to play around with a song on stage. In particular, the anchor
that the bass and drums give to a band (in this case Joe and Al) are
probably crucial.  Think of The Jimi Hendrix Experience - lesser
musicians would have cramped Jimi's style because they wouldn't have
been able to follow him out on a wing, but Noel Redding and Mitch
Mitchell were really able to do that. The same probably applies here.
Although BOC may employ some fine musicians, they haven't grown up
with the boys in the same way that Al and Joe did, so it's probably
hard for the band members to get inside each others heads the way
they used to.

Dave Hardman