BOC: an observation/BOC tribute?

[John A. Swartz]

> i've enjoyed each and every posting i've received and am looking for my 'in'
> to join in the fray, but: come on boc'ers! where are ye lads!

Well, feel free to start something.  Yes, lots of topics have been
hashed and re-hashed several times, but with a little prodding, you can
still wake up the sleeping BOC fans.  But, partly because of what Jason
says below (some of which I will comment on - perhaps a topic in
itself?), the "BOC" side of the house here isn't likely to just start up
a BOC-related discussion.  But, start one yourself, and I'm sure we'll
chime in.  It may diverge (as the recent BOC thread that started talking
lyrics and ended up talking the Blues and Led Zepplin's liberal
borrowing of that style).

> 1.  BOC, in its present incarnation, is too damn laid back in its work ethic.

Definitely a point hashed many times here - if BOC fans could kidnap
Steve Schenck and take over the management of this band, things might be
different (then again, maybe the band wouldn't hold together under our demands).

>     It's hard to talk about Secret Treaties like its the best thing since
>     sliced bed all the time when it's been out longer than I've trod the
> earth.

Well, guess I'm a bit older than Jason - not that I was a BOC fan when
Secret Treaties came out...and it may have been the best thing since
sliced "bread" (I assume is what Jason was trying to say), which is one
reason why no other BOC album will probably be regarded as highly - the
standard was set 25 years ago.

>     Even the Mobilife Fidelity 2fer deserved such lukewarm treatment. It's
> been heard already. It just sounded better this time  round. (twirl your
> sarcastic pointing finger in the air here)

Yeah, after you got by the inevitable comments of the improved sound
quality and maybe the added liner notes...well, the songs have been
discussed and analyzed already.

On the contrary, Heaven Forbid did get a fair amount of discussion going
- and would have had much more if the album 1) hadn't been so damn long
in getting to us and 2) didn't contain so many songs that most fans were
already familiar with (since BOC had been doing several of them live for years).

>
> 2.  BOC discussion has been notable for the horrible realization that these
> claims will always be made:
>         1. It's not like it was in 1975

Good thing - the Brain Surgeons didn't exist then... ;-)

>         2. The list has already  (attempted?) to make explicit the underpinnings
> of Imaginos

Yes, although it has been awhile since that topic came around.

>         3. Eric can/can't play the guitar. And he loses his voice.

Eric can play guitar better than me, although that might not be saying
to much.  His voice, however, has improved tremendously from what it was
2 years ago when there was much speculation that he might not be able to
fill his role in BOC.  He's back to singing as well as he did 5 or 6
years ago - not quite at the level as the 70s and 80s, but well enough
to once again handle the majority of the lead vocals live.

>         4. Buck plays the same way since 1976.... which the more i think about
>            it, the worse it sounds.

I know this was Albert's impression, but I disagree.  His playing
appears to have expanded tremendously - most BOC fans will tell you that
the guy just keeps improving with age, and that on some nights the
result is almost beyond comprehension.

>         5. Every time something NEW attempts to exist in their discography that's
> not a Best of, it gets buired through some sad mechanism.

Or at least delayed.  I have to admit to being estatic when Heaven
Forbid finally came out.  Hopefully we won't have to wait as long for
the next BOC release (which CMC has presumably agreed to release - so at
least the issue of a recording contract may be less in doubt this time
around).  The other big hope, a compilation of live recordings by King
Biscuit, is still in limbo.

Then again, even the next "Best Of" BOC release has been delayed nearly
a year from it's original date (from May of '99 to February of '00) by
Sony - not that the diehards need to hold their breath for that one anyway.

>         6. You can only say drop steve schenck so many times before your voice
> gets hoarse.

And I already did earlier, so I guess I made your point.

>         7. No one drums like Albert and Danny Miranda is a good bassist.

There has been a fair discussion on OTHER BOC online forums regarding
comparisons of the Bouchards to the current BOC rhythm section.  I am
not as qualified to judge drummers (although it is clear that Albert has
that certain something that other drummers don't -- whether Albert would
be better suited to drum with the current incarnation of BOC is
debatable, but moot), it is clear that Danny Miranda and Joe Bouchard
are very different bassists.  To say Danny is "better" because of his
obvious skill with the instrument, more modern sound (well, it *IS* the
90s), and variations of Joe's original lines is perhaps not fair to the
man that built the foundation upon which Danny now works for the most
part -- they are both great, and I draw much inspiration from the both
of them.

>         8. Live shows, though more prevalent than Hawkwind, are tarred and
> feathered for being stale.  For goodness sakes they didn't even try to  do
> the bulk of  Heaven Forbid when it was a new disc.

Yes, in this regard the band is apparently lazy.  While they state in
interviews that they are just giving the general public what it wants, I
don't quite buy it.  On the other hand, setlists over the past year or
so (partly no doubt as Eric's voice returned to form), they have been a
little more adventurous.

As for not playing the bulk of Heaven Forbid, I agree that this was a
mistake - in fact, they played more of Heaven Forbid in 1992-1995 than
they did in 1998-1999.

>         9. Mud of some kind will be slung between the AOl BOC board fans and those
> who are on BOC-L.

Well, that for the most part has been long gone.  There will always be
some who will prefer one forum over the other, both for the overall
discussion content, and the personalities of the forum participants.

By the way, the AOL BOC board over the past 9 months or more has been
nearly devoide of BOC talk as well -- it has become much more of a
"chat" room with mostly off-topic posts.  Perhaps for some of the same
reasons discussed here, but I think the biggest reason is that all the
main topics over there have been discussed ad infinitum over there too.

>         10. Lyrics are not what they were.

Well, this makes for good discussion - again, however, anything short of
Secret Treaties - Part II will fail to measure up to the standard set
back in '74.  But almost any of John Shirley's lyrics are better than
"Beat 'em Up" or "Make Rock Not War", right?

>         11. UNlike the hawkwind webpage, the BOCFanClub page is  painfully slow in
> putting new poop up there to  appease appetites.

Have you been there lately?  Miss Melne has done some incredible things
over the past 4 or so months.

> 15. We all know these things as part of the FAQ we have on the BOC dialogue
> in our minds. So no point in talking bout them.

Er, sorry - my intent wasn't to squash discussion...

>
> Can you tell I'm miffed? Thank god for the Brain Surgeons.  At least with
> them you know that theres new work afoot in between appearances in the
> light of stage and CD stores.

O.K., so how 'bout some more discussion on them?  How many folks here
have Piece of Work?  Hell, how many folks here have ANY tBS albums?
Let's talk...


> I was thinking the other day that BOC is probably the band most in need of a
> good tribute CD.

Check the latest version of the FAQ for info on a "BOC tribute" of sorts
- it is not a proper tribute in the usual sense (which I think would be
a cool idea - even if they were just able to release a CD of already
existing BOC covers, like Metallica's "Astronomy" -- I've heard a few
and some are kinda cool).  But, the acoustic trio "Too Hip For the Room"
has released a CD entitled "Don't Fear the Remake", which I haven't
heard yet, but is basically all BOC covers.  Buck, Eric, Danny Miranda,
as well as a few BOC friends and relations also contribute to the
project.  The FAQ has a mailing address, but I know the email address
off the top of my head if you want more info:

Zurna at aol.com


> Considering how awful most of them are, maybe that is a scary
> idea.

If one was done, I would prefer it if it was not done by mostly obscure
artists that no one has ever heard of.  I think the Black Sabbath
tribute done a few years ago ("Nativity in Black") was a very cool album
(I even got a special promotional issue of this which includes 2 CDs -
the second one is the tribute album, and the first one is the original
Black Sabbath recordings of the songs on the tribute album - very cool).

>
> That would be a tough call for me -- never been interested in buying
> a tribute album before, but a BOC might be interested, as long as
> SONY doesn't get to pick the track listing.

Well, BOC fans got to vote on the tracks for the upcoming Sony BOC
compilation - but because the "ground rules" were basically what the
fans thought the "most popular" BOC songs were, we aren't going to get
the more obscure tunes or rare recordings that many diehard fans would prefer.

>
> On a somewhat related note, I finally got around to hearing
> Metallica's version of "Astronomy", and I thought it was great! Don't
> get me wrong, I have never been anywhere near being a Metallica fan,

It's o.k. to like Metallica, Albert does...

I thought Metallica did a decent job on "Astronomy", but it was
painfully obvious that they don't have a lead guitarist like Buck.

John

--
John A. Swartz - The MITRE Corporation, Bedford MA - jswartz at mitre.org