Club Ninja: Lamest BOC album.

[Stephen Swann]

Ted O. Jackson writes:
>
> Steve says:
> >
> > >        Buck's Boogie (A waste of valuable space in my opinion, they should
> > >                       have put in Perfect Water instead)

Funny that a guy who only coincidentally has my name would put forth
a passable version of my opinions as well.  Can I retire now?  ;-)

> > The BOC guys trying vainly to do typical 1980's poodle rock {trying to
> > downgrade themselves for commercial success by writing another Burnin' For
> > You (Dancing in the Ruins)}.  I remember making the guy in the record store
>
> Yeah, I think 'Reaper' and Burnin's success put some awful virus in
> the collective BOC bloodstream.  Perhaps not so coincidentally,
> Albert's departure follwed FOUO.  It's likely he'd have no part in
> such dreck.  Wonder if that was an element in his getting canned?

I sort of gather that the rest of the band always did think that Al's
stuff was too heavy.

Come to think of it, Al is the only songwriter I know of who, after
25+ years in the biz, hasn't "mellowed" (i.e. starting writing nothing
but pop ballads).  (I haven't heard what Iommi's up to lately, so he
might be the only other.)

> Then again, with Al in the band, they'd never have had to turn to
> outside 'writers' like the dreadful Rob Halligan [who, regrettably,

Well, the songwriting on old BOC albums was split between Al, Joe, and
Buck.  I think Eric wrote about what, one song every 3 albums, and Alan
maybe one song per album?  Now they've got Buck, who, by all reports,
wants to write pop music, and Alan and Eric haven't written anything
since the 80's.

> > I hope to Hades that their next effort is not an embarrassment like some of
> > the recent "Black Sabbath" material.
>
> Yeah, the Tony Iommi band can be pretty bad, though 'Dehumanizer' was
> excellent.

It had Dio & Iommi.  If they didn't hate each other, they'd be the
greatest team in heavy metal.  ;-)

>Still, I'd rather have BOC put out SOMETHING.'  Even if
> disappointing, there'd likely be a few god songs, which is pretty
> much my view of recent Sabbath.  Ninja would be a good album if
> anyone other than BOC had released it.

I've heard this opinion expressed before.  I don't agree with it.
The album would still be a big smelly piece of Limburgher no
matter who put it out.  It's just that if some big-hair metal band
done it, you'd have *expected* it to suck.

> And there are a handful of
> decent songs on it--just don't compare it to Secret Treaties!

Well, there's "Perfect Water",which is a truly sublime piece of
guitar-rock, if you can ignore the silly part of the lyrics.  "And
slowly sink/ And slowly think"?  ;-) And there's "Dancin' In the
Ruins" which I don't really like, but I understand a lot of people do.
And there's "White Flags", which is about as BOC-ish as "Goin' Through
the Motions".

> > Well, I guess if Eric (God Bless the man I respect him immensely) sees this
> > screed, he'll definitely stick to AOL, eh?

That's already a done deal.  Eric has said things to the effect that
we aren't real fans over here, and he has named the AOL folder as the
"sanctioned" home of BOC online fandom.  We've lost a few subscribers
to AOL, who didn't like to hear the criticisms that have been made
here of BOC.  But only a few...

And frankly, I think being branded "bad fans" by Eric sort of pissed
off a few people who had previously been very supportive of the "3OC"
edition of the band.

> Yeah, he and Buck prefer the toadying idolatry of aol to the frank
> discussions on BOC-L, I'm afraid.  You can run, but you can't hide...

I bet there are times when Al would probably prefer more idolatry
and less frank discussions, he wouldn't be human otherwise.  ;-)
But he hears us out, even we say things he probably doesn't enjoy
hearing, and that means a lot.

Steve
swann at panix.com