BOC: an observation from a rookie

[John A. Swartz]

> On the Danny/Joe debate, I heard one of Danny's new songs in Charlotte and it was pretty hot.

Great - I hope something materializes from him on the next BOC effort.

>
> Joe still remains my favorite BOC songwriter.  My alltime favorite concert moment was in 1983 when Joe stepped up to the Mike and belted out "Fallen Angel" in Alfred NY.

Joe's tunes are somewhat hit and miss for me (as much as they can be for
a fan that likes every BOC track to some degree).  There are some that I
think are cool but not among my favorite BOC tunes, and there are some
that just blow me away.

BTW, I just got a video of Joe Bouchard teaching some fundamentals of
rock bass.  It's very much geared to a beginner, and is only about 40
minutes long, but it is pretty cool.

> 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.

This wouldn't be the "Still Ticking/Fighting/Fiction" bootleg?  It's a
vinyl boot with only about 7 songs, recorded in England in 1981 - at
least a few of the tracks may be with Rick Downey in one of his first
performances with the band.

BTW, if this is it, and you don't want it, I'd be interested in talking trades...

> So I'm really glad to hear that the 90's Buck is playing at peak again, he
> _is_ an awesome player after all.

Yes, I think Buck probably is still somewhat hit or miss in his playing
-- the difference is now when he's "missing", he's playing pretty hot;
and when he's "hitting", he blows you away.  The thing I notice is that
he appears much more "fluid" in his playing these days, where musical
ideas seem to flow together much more seamlessly.

John