BOC: Marsha's Plan

[Ted Jackson jr. EL84]

> From:          John A Swartz <jswartz at MBUNIX.MITRE.ORG>

> >I'd say that like most of the biggest failures BOC had this song was also
> my fault.
>
> And most of BOC's biggest successes too, other than the commercial
> success of "the big 3" maybe.  But, when you write as much of the
> material as you did, that's the price you pay I guess.
>
Amen!  Al, BOC's biggest failure was ousting you from the band!  I
bet my guitar collection that if Al was still in BOC, the band would
be a hell of a lot more viable...


> To me, "The Marshall Plan" is an o.k. song (when I was a teen myself, I
> liked it a lot more - maybe I could identify with it better, having my
> own dreams of rock stardom), but probably shouldn't have been released
> as a single - because it was sort of not really representative of BOC.
> I understand it was a different time, and record companies are looking
> to get singles out, but CE had some many good heavy tunes that were
> more in line with the classic BOC sound.
>
You have to consider it in the context Al suggested:  a
tongue-in-cheek sendup.  And BD's gtr playing is out of this world on
it...


> >We all knew that there wasn't anything commercial on the album
>
> Probably true enough - too bad that "non-commercial" stuff doesn't
> get played more often - people don't know what they're missing...
>
Exactly the reason BOC was such a great band.  They experimented,
they grew, they digressed.  Some of it worked, some didn't, but they
always took their chances.  This is the thing Al appreciates:  that
true fans will accept experimentation as long as it's quality music.
3OC doesn't seem to grasp this.  They seem so aimless nowadays...

>
> >there seemed to be so much squabbling about the
> royalties we should try to write a song all together. Make a completely
> democratic tune, improve morale, share the wealth, ya know, bond
> artisticly
>
> Hmm... care to elaborate?  Sounds like things weren't happy on the
> good ship BOC around this time.  Were you all trying to get more of

I think EB was desperate around this time.  The others were all
contributing, and EB was stagnant.  And I think he rsented Al's
contribution to the band.  Oddly, he seemed to accept BD as a
dominant force, but not Al.  Personal animosity bet. the two?

> your own songs on each record to get more royalties for yourselves
> as individuals?  How were these things mediated?  I've often wondered

Good point...Does the producer then settle the tiebreakers?

> about Allen's contributions, or rather, lack of them after *Mirrors*.
> Did he just stop writing, or did he just not fight enough to get his
> stuff on the albums?  Even after you left, and BOC started struggling
> to come up with songs, Allen didn't seem to contribute much in the
> way of songwriting.  There were rumors a year or so ago to the effect
> that "Allen is writing again", although I don't know if he has any
> songwriting contributions to "the Wheel".
>
>
> John

Al, what of the incredible shinking Allen?
theo