BOC: Songs that Set the Hook

[Ted Jackson jr.]

On 28 Aug 00, at 8:01, Joseph Brooks wrote:

> Hmm.. Perhaps its because of my age. We tend to look back fondly on
> what we liked when we were young. To me, the first 3 BOC albums were
> *it*. Personally, I think BOC hit their peak with Secret Treaties.
> Everything after just pales for me. I tend to think of BOC as almost
> two bands, pre-ST and post-ST.

Yep, no doubt about it.  One has to grudgingly admit the brilliance of
SP and RM in helping give BOC a shot of lyric adrenaline in the early
days, one which, sad to say, has been lacking in the group since
then.  Granted Albert could always be counted upon to kick in a great
song here and there [along with the odd flyer too] as could Buck, but
the first 3 were IT...
>
> OYFOOYK was great fun but I was mad because I remember on the last
> tour before they came out with it, Eric had said something to the
> effect that they were recording so, "make a lot of noise!" I was
> dissappointed to find no cuts from my home town on it. Seriously, it
> was a little sloppier and poorly recorded for my 10 bucks.
>
Agreed.  It's almost heresy in these parts to critique OYF...as it
seems a favorite of a lot of folk on the list, but I too was disappointed
when it came out.  It wasn't anywhere near as good as concerts I'd
already seen by BOC to that point!

> Most every album past Spectres had at least a song or two on it that I
> liked but were hardly classics. I especially liked Mirrors and
> Cultosaurus. I bought both Revolution by Night and Club Ninja as they
> came out and I could count the number of times I've listened to those
> albums on one hand. Very bland and boring to me.

While, overall, I was disappointed by them, I nonetheless listened to
each countless times.  Anything with BD's guitar on it is eminently
listenable [well, okay, most of CN is unlistenable--guess any band
deserves one clanger]...

> I consider ST to be ground breaking and classic but BOC has never
> surpassed it.

Never approached it since, though the first 2 are close, if a step
behind...


 Imaginos is another classic IMO but as I discovered
> (much to my disappointment), you can call it a BOC album only in the
> broadest sense. I remember hearing it the first time and being so
> blown away and thinking, "wow! They're back!"
>
> I'm afraid BOC has become a nostalgia act for me as well. It seems to
> me that if you look at what they're doing live these days (er, its
> been about 3 years since I last caught them), thats about what they
> want to be.
>
I hate to do it, but I agree with you.  They act like a nostalgia act, and
play nostalgia gigs:  '...if it waddles like a duck and quacks like a
duck...'

BUT, OTOH, HF was way better than I'd imagined it would be, and
BD is far from Going Through the Motions at their live shows.
Ironically, BD has never played as well as he's doing nowadays.
I still go way out of my way to catch their shows, so I guess they're
still doing something right.  I could do without the drum and bass
solos, and some of the other campy shit they pull  out of their hats--
it's a sad testimony to BOC fans that the group feels like they need to
do that not to disappoint them!  There's still plenty of good music left
in the band, and I'm not quite ready to write them off yet.  One listen
to Flaming Telepaths live would convince anyone of that...

theo