BOC: Lots o' Stuff

[John A. Swartz]

> Umm... call me crazy but I thought that it was written by A.Bouchard and D.
> Roeser after taking the music from Arthur Comics.
> The remaster lists "S. Pearlman, E. Bloom and A Bouchard" in the writing
> credits for the studio version. Odd.
> The plot thickens?

Yes, I think this was an obvious mistake - hell, this doesn't even list
BUCK as having written  Buck's Boogie.  Probably a cut and paste error
from another song - the "Workshop of the Telescopes" compilation finally
got it right (according to Bolle) - previously it was credited only to
Buck, but the compilation credited it to both Buck and Albert.

Besides, exactly what part of Buck's Boogie could be attributed to Sandy
Pearlman - he only supplied lyrics!

"The plot thickens?"  Nah, don't be so cynical.


> What I love about BOC's Mk. I lineup (shout out to all you DP fans who know
> this kinda fun group  labeling))

Hey, has anyone ever done one of those "tree diagrams" showing all the
incarnations of BOC and where various members came from or went to?


> It would be a cool  venture, and probably one that wont' result in money
> loss, if BOC authorized Bolle to do a "Bolle's Picks" bootleg series of the
> shows he has (and the band member's show archives too)  akin to the
> collector series that King Crim has of bootlegged shows gone by.


Indeed.  However, I suspect that much of "Bolle's Picks" are being
handled with these remasters as I believe he made some suggestions to
Sony as to what should/could be included.  So, with these remasters and
the SFG album (oh, and the Buck Dharma Archive stuff too), you're really
getting some of the best of the best stuff out there.  Perhaps after all
the Remasters come out we could take stock of what stuff is still out
there that should see the light of day (SWU demos perhaps?).


> I think we would all want the complete Live in the west, given the two
> samples on T&M alone.

Agreed.

> What are the rest of the tracks on the album/tape by the way?

Funny you should ask - I'm adding the "Live in the West" to the FAQ -
here's the entry that will be in the next revision (due out in August, I hope):

*Live In The West*  (Also known as *BOC In The West* - Soundboard
Recording, Tape Only)

1.  Stairway To The Stars
2.  O.D.'d On Life Itself
3.  Harvester Of Eyes
4.  Flaming Telepaths
5.  Dominance And Submission
6.  The Subhuman
7.  7 Screaming Diz-Busters
8.  Astronomy
9.  Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll
10. Buck's Boogie
11. Hot Rails To Hell
12. Maserati GT

Notes:  Strictly speaking, this is not a "bootleg", but a live tape.
What distinguishes it from other BOC live tapes is that this recording
was produced by the band (actually by soundman George Geranios) and
circulated among family and friends.  It was created from shows done
during a week in July of 1975, in Washington, Oregon and California, and
has been traded extensively by fans since that time.  It is perhaps most
noted for it's version of "7 Screaming Diz-Busters" which features an
extended "rap" by Eric telling the story of selling his soul to the
Devil to become a rock star, and forseeing his future in a nursing home
for old rock stars when the Devil comes calling for his soul.  This
track, along with "O.D.'d On Life Itself" were released by
Columbia/Legacy on the *Tyranny And Mutation* re-master as bonus tracks.


> the limo man kept on driving,

Don't you just LOVE this track?!?!


> Although I can somewhat understand it, I have to put up a (small) protest to
> the slagging Mirrors occasionally takes here. Sure, it's got its share of
> dogs (Dr. Music) and somewhat boring stuff (Moon Crazy, Lonely Teardrops),
> but The Great Sun Jester is definitely one of my all-time favorite BOC
> pieces, The Vigil is likewise great, I am the Storm is pretty good, and I
> really like In Thee, which I take at face value as a completely non-ironic
> statement and love it for both its sentiment and its presentation.
> Admittedly the album is a very mixed bag, but the good tracks here are
> really good, in several different ways. Maybe the fact that they seem to be
> all over the place turns people off? Or is it that this was too 'pop'-py an
> album?


Sigh - anytime Mirrors, Revolution By Night, or (esp.) Club Ninja gets
degraded in any way (even if IN JEST!!!), someone always rushes to its
defense.  There IS good stuff on the album - even the tracks you
mentioned not liking (Dr. Music, Moon Crazy, Lonely Teardrops) are
enjoyable to me - but as a whole the album has its problems.  Bolle has
said that Mirrors nearly singlehandedly destroyed the fanclub in the 70s
- not his words, but he did say that the "membership" dropped WAY off
after Mirrors came out.


>
> > As for rejected songs being lesser than songs that make an album, that
> > is not always the case.  There are any number of reasons a song
> > might be dropped from an album.  Sometimes the song just doesn't
> > quite fit in with the rest of the songs...so no matter how good it
> > is, it gets cut.  This happened fairly frequently with Jethro Tull,
> > for instance...

"Boorman the Chauffer" is a great example, IMHO.