BOC: Born to be Wild, etc.

[John A Swartz]

>Since right back in the 70s, I have always felt a slight sense of
>disappointment at the amount of time BOC spend on stage "wasting time" on
>bass and drum features - and on jams that link one song with another that
>take more time than either of the songs being linked - and on general
>messing about.

Hmm... I wouldn't go that far, but if what you want to hear is more of
the stuff that is on the albums (perhaps not note-for-note), then I can
understand your point.  However, BOC really started out as a band that
did a lot of jams (Soft White Underbelly's songs were very free-form
improvisational in a similar vein as the Grateful Dead), and also did
many covers, so the roots of the band show through.  Personally, I find
a lot of that stuff interesting, and something you can't get by sitting
at home listening to the albums.  I would also imagine that these bits
are done not only with the fans in mind, but a bit with the band in mind
as it must be fun to do these jams and solos where they don't have to
feel like they need to do stuff the same way every night.  Certainly
in a shortened set some of these things need to go, but in a full show,
I think some of these things add something to the show.

John