BOC: Soloing and band mechanics --addendum

[John A Swartz]

>Yet, Buck's playing is way better than the old days, at least live.
You'd have to have seen Eric in the old days to believe it's the same
guy--he really ruled a stage, and his voice, while not technically
the best, had a certain style and panache that made up for his
shortcomings.  Allen played a much bigger part than nowadays--at
least you could always hear him...


Yeah, Eric had more of a "presence" in the old days - somewhat funny
to think of that considering Eric is only, what, five-nine, five-ten?
Of course, he looked HUGE standing next to Buck.

>And of course, the Bouchards...Nobody can make up for Al's departure,
or Joe's for that matter.  The drummers they have now are fine
musicians,  but they can't match Albert's presence on stage.  He is a
consumate showman.  Danny's a fine bassist, maybe even better than
Joe as a player, but Joe's vocal turns were a highlight of the show,
and he provided such important songwriting input.  Same with Albert.


Depending on what BOC puts out in the future, we may never no what
song-writing capabilities anyone else in the band has.  I agree that
Danny hasn't (or hasn't been allowed to) fill Joe's role as a lead
vocalist (of course, Danny hasn't got any BOC songs that he wrote to
sing at this time - but again, I don't know if that speaks to Danny's
songwriting or BOC's lack of putting stuff out) - I suspect that may
be somewhat Eric and Buck's decisions.  Even in the "old days", and
Albert has stated this, Joe and Albert basically only got to do one
lead vocal (sometimes two) each.  My points in a previous post about
Danny were specific to his bass-playing, which is excellent (although
I'm not trying to compare it in terms of quality with Joe Bouchard -
they're both great).  I think Albert is unique among BOC's drummers -
I don't know if technically he's the best, but his "feel" for the song
is great -- he seems to weave drum parts into songs the way someone
like Paul McCartney could weave the bass into the song where it was more
than just rythmic/harmonic support - it's an integral part of how you
experience the song (classic case in point -- that infamous, bum bum
ba BUM bass drum beat in "Cities on Flame" - that ain't just a drum
beat - it is an integral part of the song -- a part, BTW, which was
abandoned after Rick Downey left the throne, I believe).  Listen to
some of Albert's drumming on tBS albums - intricate use of drums and
cymbals alike, and stuff coming at you from where you least expect
it -- technically great?  I'm not a drummer so I can't comment, but
something that adds greatly to the song?  Bet yer ass...

>But the downer is that they play the same songs all the time.  In the
old days, new material was always coming up, the playlist changed all
the time.   The anticipation of new material and a constantly
changing setlist always made the shows something to look forward to.

True, but even then, the setlist didn't vary that much.  I mean, it did
vary as new albums came out, but many songs that were in the setlist in
1974 stayed there until 1996 for the most part.  Oh, great songs they
are, but, for example, did "Hot Rails to Hell" need to almost ALWAYS be
the Joe B. song done at the show?  Why not break out a few others here
and there?  How come great songs like "Monsters", "Mistress of the Salmon
Salt", "I Love the Night", "Death Valley Nights", "Tattoo Vampire", and
others were either almost never played, or only trotted out on a few
occasions?  Why did "E.T.I" get played almost every night for 20 years?
Of course, now, with no new material other than the glimpses of 1 or 2
"Ezekiel's Wheel" songs in their shows, it took Eric needing to rest
his voice to get the setlist to change . . .


John