BOC-L Digest - 25 Jan 2001 - Special issue (#2001-32)

[Ted Jackson jr.]

On 26 Jan 01, at 8:55, Carl Edlund Anderson wrote:

> At 15.49 -0500 25.1.2001, John A. Swartz wrote:
> >Promotion, I believe, is not the problem.  The problem is that BOC,
> >as other great rock artists, are seen as past their prime/past their
> >time.
>
Yet other 'old' bands like the [ugh] Stones and ZZ Top continue to
thrive.  True the Stones are an institution, for want of a better term,
and ZZ Top had the good sense to tap into MTV and exploit it for their
benefit.  I really think BOC's problem lies in its management [can I
get an amen!] and the fact that they never escaped the doldrums
they entered when Al left, taking a lot of fertile songwriting sense with
him.  The creative void that opened ca. Club Ninja has somehow
paralyzed the group.  Or maybe their audience just changed tastes
and moved on to something else?


> IMO, HF did not go very far towards disproving this viewpoint. It had
> some moments, but not enough. It sounded like bits and pieces from a
> band that was trying to find its feet in terms of recording new
> material. Which, I think, was in fact the case.

And, no doubt, the sort of budget the band is on for recording,
probably doesn't allow for a full-fledged BOC record...

> My sense is that BOC were indeed pretty huge "back in the day", at
> least as huge as Sabbath were at the time, if not more so. I could be
> wrong -- I wasn't really there ;)

BOC was indeed huge, esp here in the northeast.  I saw them
headline at football stadiums, racetracks--giant festivals, and they
truly ruled the world at that time, from, say, 1976 to oh, 1980 or so.
It is truly surprising how fast they fell off the radar...


 But I think a big problem is that
> it became trendy to like Sabbath once more, and it has not become
> trendy to like BOC.

YES!!!  You've hit it on the head!!

So I doubt that many people would really be
> interested in an original line-up BOC tour the way they were in an
> original Sabbath line-up tour.

Sadly, it appears that this is also right on...

 > Don't get me wrong, I love BOC. But I'm not going to cut them any
> slack, or curve their exam results ;)
>
As it should be.  I thought HF was a good effort, and better than I
expected.  But compared to the first 3 albums, it pales by comparison.
To reclaim their mantle, BOC have to really make a knockout record.
Then, even if they don't get back their former status [which won't
happen regardless] I'll still know in my heart that they still 'have it...'


theo