BOC: RU Ready 2 Rock?

[John A Swartz]

A few comments on Al's:

>I reall hate the feel on that song
now. It seems heavy and plodding. I think an Imaginos version would
actually be lighter. When I went out with BOC in 1985 I was lobbying for
them to change the arrangement.

What you dislike about the song is actually what I like about it -- I love
those driving guitars backed by the heavy drums.  I saw BOC in late '85
and they opened with it, and I thought it was a better set opener than
"Stairway to the Stars" (which is good, but it needs a rest, like most
of BOC's current set I suppose).  The only thing I disliked about it in
later years was that Bloom stopped singing the line "Yes I am" and just
started saying the words -- it definitely didn't fit as well (where the
vocal rhythm went along with the guitars before), and it kind of gave
the impression that Bloom was sort of "mailing in" the performance, or
that he couldn't hit the notes like he used to.  I'd be interested to
hear what a "lighter" version would sound like, but that heavy version
did something for me.

>They relate to Half Life Time, especially the part about "the ruler's son".

2 questions for you on this song:

1.  Could you post the lyrics sometime?
2.  You once said that "Shadow of California" was a re-worked version of
this song.  After hearing it, I didn't make the connection.  Could you
elaborate on this?  The only thing I did pick out was the line, "all
hail the revolution", which was used in the "Howard Stern intro" to
*Club Ninja*'s "When the War Comes".

John