Wow that was awesome. So creative and unpredictable imo. Do you have some other songs like this you can recommend?
I was a HUGE Tommy fan back in the day. Saw him with Purple & on his final solo tour. I know his close friend & co-writer Jeff Cook. I was acutally on-the-air at the radio station when the story of his death came over the Associated Press wire and I still have it. Moxy guitarist Earl Johnson told me that he was upset that Tommy took over his leads on half of the tracks on the first Moxy album. I just couldn't get into Zephyr.
All good, big fan the problem with his stint in Purple was becoming drug buddies with Glenn, who was told by management to go home and look after himself,the Jakarta incident and a largely uninterested fan base who wanted Blackmore didn’t help. His fusion playing is phenomenal the Mouzon album was a Bonham favourite, he also recommended Bolin for Purple. Unfortunately he wasn’t around to long to leave a lasting legacy so what we have is a precious thing.
I think I must like TB, I have "Spectrum" on LP, DVD-A, and SACD, "Mind Transplant" on CD, "Bang" on LP and CD(twice), "Miami" on LP and CD(twice) "Come Taste the Band" LP and CD, "Last Concert in Japan" LP, "Phoenix Rising" CD, "Teaser" LP and CD, "Teaser deluxe CD, "Private Eyes" LP and CD, "The Ultimate" LP box, "From the Archives" volumes 1 & 2,"Whips and Roses" 1 & 2 plus various other stuff in Flac.
As far as fusion with that type of energy and with guitar solos that don't follow typical lead guitar lines, I'd recommend Jeff Beck's album Wired, in particular the tracks "Led Boots" and "Blue Wind."
Ah so Bonham was joking and likely inebriated (shocking! ) when he took to the stage at a Deep Purple concert and announced that, Tommy Bolin "can't play worth sh-t." I had always wondered about that anecdote.
Leaving aside the obvious issue of drugs, I think Bolin had a rather mismanaged career. He was a fusion player who kept ending up with rock bands who weren't anywhere near that style. I most enjoy his work with Zephyr. I appreciate his solo albums, but I don't really love them because I'm not into fusion. I'm only peripherally aware of his James Gang stint - a band I was in used to cover "Standing In The Rain", which I thought was a pretty good song. I'm a big Deep Purple fan, and I think that on balance, his tenure with Purple was really somewhat of a disaster. Come Taste The Band is a great album, in some ways more consistent than Stormbringer, but I don't really rate his playing on the album very highly. Yes, he's good, but his lead playing doesn't have many moments that really jump out at me. And I dislike his tone on that album - few guitar tones really rub me the wrong way like Bolin's on that album. I've never heard a good live recording of Purple with Bolin, he's either smothered in flanger or he's hardly even there. He always played and sounded good on "Wild Dogs" though. Funny that. I suspect he didn't like being in Deep Purple, it was just another job. More talented than Joe Walsh or Ritchie Blackmore? Nah, I don't buy that. He was a great jammer and improviser, that comes with the fusion thing. Personally, I don't think that he was on top of his game with Purple either in the studio or live. If he had been, this might be a much different conversation.
I am a big fan of Tommy, but not to the point where I will try to put a positive spin on his performances during his tour with Deep Purple. There's even a concert review somewhere about how Tommy was so out of it at a show that it almost came to blows onstage between him and Coverdale. Jon Lord once said that it was pretty clear that Tommy wasn't happy playing with Deep Purple, and that replacing Blackmore only served to hasten his demise.
Re; the body of work he left behind him. When you think about it, it isn’t that small - there’s the Zephyr stuff, the James Gang stuff, the Pruple stuff, plus his solo career (2 albums) and his session work. That’s really quite substantial for someone who checked out at the age of 25. Charlie Christian’s reputation was built on a much smaller recorded legacy.
I've been a long time fan of his solo work. Both of those albums still get spun around from time to time.. Usually drinking , and high volume is involved . But my amp doesn't go to 11.
Well, I don't think the job turned out the way he had hoped. Tommy knew as well as anyone the challenges of trying to establish a band. Here he was offered a lead guitar slot in one of the biggest bands of the world, and the paycheck and opportunities that came with it. The band was also relying on his songwriting skills, so he likely thought he would have an influence on the musical direction (which he did). The problems arose when it became clear that the new music could not dominate the band's live work and that he would be expected to replicate Blackmore's work. Suddenly he felt like a puppet. That said, he had to have been delusional it he thought he wasn't going to have to embrace the established songbook -- even if the new material was accepted by the public, they were still going to want to hear the band's previous staples in concert.
Yeah, I have to wonder at the poor luck of a internationally huge band who chose a man virtually unaware of their catalog and antithetical to their style to be their lead guitarist.
I remember reading an interview with one of the guys from Uriah Heep who said when John Wetton joined he felt like he could take over the band and impose his stamp on it but didn't really like the band's older tunes that much. I wonder if it was similar with TB? Not in an arrogant way but perhaps he felt the band would start completely afresh? I think a lot of DP's classic tunes are really hard to make your own, which is why they are great and unique. It was always going to be a challenge. However it is not like DP didn't like to jam or improvise in concert so there was room for TB to stretch out, but as someone said he wasn't at the top of his game.
I would rate these guys as Blackmore, TB and JW as players in that order. However I am not a big fan of the Eagles and like the more more fusion style of TB. As a songwriter and performer JW would be second.
The end of Deep Purple also falls on the shoulders of Lord and Paice. The band had been moving into a funkier direction, so Tommy was a good fit in that respect, but one suspects they were not completely transparent about what the job entailed. It wasn't just about moving in a musical direction, it was also about continuing to promote the established brand.
