More like an abundance of contempt and lack of discipline. Tommy did fine with the MK III and IV material, in my opinion...based on the Long Beach performance. The Mark II material, needed more effort, in my opinion. Tommy had the tools and the talent, but once he joined Purple, his discipline slowly went out the window.
They didn't want a Blackmore Clone,they could have gotten Malmstein.Tommy was a Much better Guitarist than Blackmore. Can You imagine how much of a let down it was for Tommy to have to play Smoke on the Water etc ,They shouldn't have called themselves Deep Purple,but those Cats were afraid they wouldn't make as much $.He was erratic near the End due to Drug issues,but there are Good Live performances all thru His Career.
Tommy could play ANY Style of Music. Ritchie was a Big Fan of His.What Bolin have you heard,do yourself a favor and check out his Catalog especially Zephyr at Arts bar and Grill,Alphone Mouzon Mind transplant,Spectrum,Teaser,and Live from Ebbits Field
If Quadrant 4 from Billy Cobham's 'Spectrum' doesn't convince you... technically it's not as complicated as it might sound. But this attitude - GET OUT OF MY WAY! - comes through:
Apologies if this has already been posted, but a new Tommy Bolin biography is out soon: It started off so well. As Jon Lord enthused in the October 1975 issue of Melody Maker: 'Tommy can't be so bad for us with so many good ideas. All I can say is when you hear the album (Come Taste The Band) you'll change your mind. Whether you like the music or not, you'll have to realise that Deep Purple now have an excitement in their playing that they haven't had in a long time...'. Despite calls of 'we want Blackmore' when Deep Purple Mark four played live, there was so much more to American guitarist Tommy Bolin than being Ritchie Blackmore's replacement. As a result, the purpose of this long-overdue biography is to readdress the existing narrative of Tommy Bolin's legacy. As well as discussing objectively Tommy's time with Deep Purple, Laura Shenton offers an insight into his musical achievements in his own right outside of the band, which include two cult rock albums in Teaser and Private Eyes. He also had a stint in The James Gang and make numerous guest appearances, where his versatile and virtuosic skills as a guitarist were utilised, before his untimely death in 1976 at the shockingly young age of 25.Tommy Bolin - In and Out of Deep Purple (Paperback)
I bought a Cozy Powell bio by the same author, which I think is the only one that exists. It was decently written, but from what I recall it was pretty much just a collection of snippets of old interviews - to be fair there is a lot of work involved in even doing that, and organising the quotes around topics & themes. But given that there is already a decent Bolin bio out there, and there obviously can’t be any new interview material with the subject itself, not sure how this one will differentiate itself. The good news is, nerds like me will probably buy it anyway...
Their third studio album, Sunset Ride, is a good one for those who find Candy’s voice too over the top. She had reigned it in quite a bit by Going Back to Colorado, but Sunset Ride is a lovely mellow album; very different vocal style from the debut. As for Tommy Bolin’s work, I have only heard the first two Zephyr albums, Teaser and Come Taste the Band, but all are good. He is a bit subdued on Going Back to Colorado compared to the debut, and was maybe not the best fit for Deep Purple; he did not play in a neoclassical style and I have read that he didn’t have much interest in playing older Purple material. Still, a fine guitarist and a sad loss at such a young age.
I’ve always liked Tommy Bolin, just picked this up the other day. Tommy Bolin - Teaser Original issue
I see that this comes out in February: Tommy Bolin – Shake The Devil – The Los Sessions (CD) – Cleopatra Records Store Is there anything new on this disc?
Hard to be positive, but the lack of any new / a-ha! provenance details, I am going to say it is most likely a repackaged cash-grab. If they had something new and heretofore truly unreleased, I think they'd shout about it?
It's rehash, in one form or another by the Archives or Greg Hamptons Releases or other odd ball unauthorized media, all of it has seen the light of day. Although I didn't read every line of the previous posts, there seems to be a general agreement that Tommy was talented. There are technical players and non technical. Arguments about who's best are pointless. There have been arguments for 50 years on the Page-Beck-Clapton comparison. They're all better than me As far as what is good to listen to for Bolin, Live concert material is not always a good barometer for what is "good". Tommy's bar shows in 74, were superior to most of any of the DP shows in 75/76. Albeit his drug problem had not blossomed until getting some front money and blasting through $250k with DP. I saw Bolin's last show show in Miami. (in retrospect, it was better than most from 76, in my opinion, as many of his shows were plagued by his indiscretions). I thought he played a good show. The last song Post Toastee, I thought was really good. The next day I was shattered to learn of his death. At that time I was 21 and quite naïve about the drug thing. When I saw the coroners report, in the Miami Herald, it blew me away. That's when I started collecting stuff, as all I had up to then, was CTTB and TB's solos LP's. I am a big DP fan, and had I not been, I would never have known about Tommy. I started to collect all his back catalog. Then proceeded to cassette bootleg stuff. Fast forward to many years later when The archives stuff finally came out. I think the best non-commercial stuff to hear, to make any sort of opinion of, would be the Glen Holly Jams and the Energy Material. The 2 shows he did at Ebbitts Field in 74 are concert worthy. Studios, Teaser stands alone. Private Eyes as many have already stated, is a different sort of thing. He opted (or someone asked him) to do things differently. IMHO Post Toastee- the best rocker of the LP. One has to realize the fact that he was hired by JG and DP as a replacement. And despite the fact that he brought a lot of HIS material (writing pals, John Tesar and Jeff Cook credits too), he was thrown into a corporate structure. Although at times his playing was ferocious, he was limited. There is a difference in being a part of a band, and being a part with the band. Roy Kenner was a poser who craved attention with the James Gang, and of course the DP tour although not a complete and total disaster, did not showcase him in the positive, most of the time. Hired gun vs an actual creative working part of the band: Using DP Mark III as reference. Individually those 5 are all great in their own right, collectively, WOW ! They almost perfectly compliment each other. They had a cohesion. Unfortunately, I do not believe this was the same for Tommy and JG or DP. You really cant lump Spectrum into that line of thought, as it is its own animal. Its stands alone and apart from everything else. Zephyr: Candy Givens is most like a Joplin screamer and I don't have an appreciation for that, Bolin's guitar work is good, but the vocals make it hard for me to listen to. Energy was a good idea with no proper backing or commercial potential which is what killed it. With the body of work available today, you can easily make your own decision. I think all of us boomers growing up in those days will agree (even if we didn't "back then"), the drugs do not help your creativity. My opinion, God gives certain gifts to each individual, and what they do with them, because of their free, will determines whether you have victory with your gift, or squander it. The rhetoric of, "what if Tommy had survived", echoes all the time. We need to remember, what he created, lives on in the recordings, and as such, he lives on with the music he left behind. Only our creator knows what he would have done. Keep Rocking ! Steve B.
This is all I have ever had by Tommy but each visit with them is an enjoyable visit... Tommy Bolin – Private Eyes Label: Columbia – CK 34329 Format: CD, Album, Reissue Country: US Released: 1990 Tommy Bolin – Teaser Label: Nemperor Records – ZK 37534 Format: CD, Album Country: US Released: 1987 I had no interest in either James Gang or Deep Purple when he was with them but that had nothing to do with him replacing Walsh and Blackmore.
I'd highly recommend Come Taste the Band, even if Purple isn't your thing. Bolin was hugely influential on that one album, and it's pretty special in their discography, imo. There is also, of course, a couple Special Editions of teaser which gives you extra stuff from those sessions.
Tommy was a great talent and did a fantastic job on Come Taste The Band. But the 7 year Blackmore years before Tommy joined Deep Purple are pretty amazing with some of the best guitar playing ever laid down. To say Bolin was better than Blackmore is ridiculous and Joe Walsh can’t agree. Tommy doesn’t have the great catalogs Blackmore & Walsh have. Tommy was good but not on a level of a Blackmore or Walsh.
I hear where you're coming from, but would qualify it a little. For me, Bolin was all potential, which got flushed down the toilet. He wasted a huge talent. As a guitarist, he had a wider range than Blackmore, I think. That funk thing he was so good at, isn't something Blackmore seems able to do, at least not on Bolin's level. As a straight-ahead rock guitarist though, Blackmore smokes Bolin. So it's horses for courses. The one glaring hole though is tenure. Bolin never realized his potential because of his drug problem. He reached the top, and then almost instantly burned out. Such a damn shame. Mind you, I feel the same about Blackmore. Blackmore's Night is atrocious beyond words. Such a waste for Blackmore. But he's obviously very happy and content, so it's a case of a fan wanting something that artist is less interested in.
Very good player. I just didn't really connect with much that he did. Spectrum is good, Come Taste The Band is pretty good...
You have to remember Blackmore was a studio musician before Deep Purple so he can play many styles. But yes if Tommy lived he could of been really special. When Tommy joined Deep Purple he did not disclose his heroin addiction to management or Jon Lord & Ian Paice so they were shocked by this but Tommy was already in the band so they had to make a go with it. If Jon Lord knew how bad a shape Tommy was in Jon would of never picked Tommy for Deep Purple. A sad affair and a waste of a great talent.
I love his playing on Come Taste The Band - not just his individual lead and rhythm parts, but the way these are multi-tracked together in each song. Clearly this is not possible live and I wonder if perhaps this is yet another contributing factor to the several MkIV live debacles. Definitely a player who, like Glenn Hughes, gives a better account of himself when in someone else's outfit, rather than directing his own musical proceedings - Savannah Woman being perhaps the exception that proves this rule.
....and Carmine Appice & the Good Rats played a "Spectrum" track live with Bolin, and Tommy Bolin also played a killer version of Mahavishnu's "You Know You Know"!
I can't comment on that anecdote, but Tommy Bolin was on Alphonse Mouzon's great Mind Transplant" and Bonzo was apparently a big Mouzon fan who would crank his records, and Robert Plant noted Mouzon in his LZ Rock/n/Roll HOF acceptance speech?
Yeah, Carmine spent some time around Tommy in the mid-1970's, but they never really pursued a project (although, IIRC, Carmine played drums on Someday We'll Bring Our Love Home from Private Eyes).
