BOC: an observation from a rookie

[Horse Whisperer]

> > >4. Buck plays the same way since 1976.... which the more i think
> > > about it, the worse it sounds.
> >
> > Hate to argue with the usually inspired Jason, but here, you're > dead
>wrong.  Buck's playing is currently at an all-time high, > esp. in the
> > live shows.  In the old days, BD could be pretty hit-or-miss at
> > concerts.  He might fluff certain parts of a song only to redeem
> > [sic] himself with a great solo.  Judging by what I've seen at
> > concerts the last few years, BD is positively inspired in his
> > playing
> > throughout the shows.  Only criticism I can muster being that
> > sometimes his stage volume is too low, so that you can actually
> > hear
> > him better if you're further back in the crowd...

The hit-or-miss thing is really apparent on recordings like Live 1976 (which
still has to be my favourite BOC LP, wart'n'all) sometimes he shone,
sometimes he'd fluff a section of a solo.  He was just a little
inconsistent.
But I remember posting something a couple of years back saying Buck Dharma
has lost it and can't play, or something to that effect, only to be met with
a torrent of abuse, er, corrections.  It's taken all this time for me to
finally say this:  I based my opinion on a bootleg  I have from a gig in a
speedway somewhere in the early 80's.  There's barely a tracklist on it, but
the drummer was obviously new, he didn't know the songs well, and Buck could
not play.  Full stop.  It was horrible, every solo cut down to its bare
bones and badly played bones at that.  Even his rhythm playing was abysmal.
I was very unhappy after the 1st listen, to the extent that now (about 5
years later) I've only listened to it twice.
Exactly the same thing happened when I got a boot of the show ZZTop did in
Hamburg, I think after Recycler, when they just said "tonight Matthew, we're
finding our roots" and played a whole set of their early material, which was
mostly songs they hadn't played for 15 years.  I love their 1st five LP's
the same way I love BOC's 1st 4, but when I listened to that CD of ZZTop's
(IMHO) best material, I nearly wept.  Billy Gibbons couldn't play for sh*t!
He was terrible.  And the band had no groove.  Groove and Billy's playing
were the two things that made them who they were, and they were gone.
Aarrrggghh.

So I'm really glad to hear that the 90's Buck is playing at peak again, he
_is_ an awesome player after all.  And the same goes for Billy Gibbons &
Top, I saw them perform some tracks from Rhythmeen with some early stuff
thrown in and they smoked.

Sermon over.  I'm glad I got that off my chest.

Chris.

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