BOC:(more) Lots o' Stuff

Scruton, Jason GG3757 at DFA.STATE.NY.US
Tue Jul 3 10:11:15 EDT 2001


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

(chuckle) maybe he was the first to coin the term "boogie" as a song title,
that great visionary he is.(smirk) Or, he could have said "Donald, play the
song like Buck Dharma would play it." After all, this is the only track
where B.Dharma is given writing credits (on OYF).. is it?

>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?
Funnily enough, a few years ago I did do that, by combing through the FAQ
for dates personnel etc. Its actually quite BIG once you throw in the
numerous drummers the band had in the 90's (like Micelli, Rondinelli,
Burgi.... huh, I just noticed that odd affinity for a vowel ending)
I'll see If I can dig it up, clean it off and scan it somewhere. There's
well over a dozen incarnations of BOC's numerous memberships (including SFG
and SWU and Oaxaca etc)
T'would be fun. Would have to update it to include the current tBS lineup
changes, the Dunaway Smith and Bouchard band, and the Helen Wheels
BouchardBouchardRoeser co.

>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?).
There is that annoyingly tantalizing BOC remaster sampler disc with the demo
of Hot Rails to Hell and "John L Sullivan" from SWU (referred to in
Meltzer's Aesthetics of Rock as "John L. Sullivan Readymade, whose "words"
(his term) Meltzer wrote.) Cant remember the page number, but SWU is in the
index.

>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):
Coool! This is by far the summer for BOC, in all its incarnations. How rare
is that for a band?


>*Live In The West*  (Also known as *BOC In The West* - Soundboard
>Recording, Tape Only) [snip]
That's quite a tasty collection of tunes. Though I wont rest till I hear a
Live Quicklime Girl. heheh.
By any chance does harvester/telepaths include the musicbox intro?

>> the limo man kept on driving,
>Don't you just LOVE this track?!?!
Yes. yes I do. If the X Bros ever reappear on the live stage, Joe MUST PLAY
this track.
What I think is coolest about Boorman above all is that it has everyone
doing something in the tune, Alan's monster Hammond, alternating Joe and
Eric Vocals, the always interesting background vocals of the brothers
Bouchard and Dharma and a cool guitar solo tempo change thing at the end of
the song on top of the topnotch percussion/rhythm section from Clayton NY.
Speaking of which, the cool twistin' guitar solo/drum fill part at the end
of Mommy is just awesome in that this band was so attuned to itself in this
time period. They really did rock well. enough complements... :)

>- not his words, but he did say that the "membership" dropped WAY off
>after Mirrors came out.
The back cover alone would make me think twice heheh.
What sticks out in my head about the Schism between Mirrors and what passed
before is that the production of the album is much less.... what's the word,
"slithery" and stark. By this, I mean that if you listen to the first one,
BOC at least tentatively put its musical stake in not simply sounding heavy
a la vanilla fudge, Sabbath, but sounding arid.... like they were playing
their music in a place/sound that was desolate. the production/songs of the
first one reflected that.  ON top of it, like the way wind creates cool
swirling patterns in kicked up sand, you have the collective jamming on top
of the basic riffery of the tunes (the first 5 studio LPs, and fortified
image/expectation wise by OYF and SEE's Astronomy especially). but with
Mirrors, it was Stripppppped down, man. and Tom Werman's production ethos
was IMHO, "Hi. I like to sound as friendly as possible no matter what the
song." I am the Storm is a good song, yes. but it didnt sound stormy enough.
THe vigil  only worked really well on the album because I think Buck likees
clean sound, as his production of CotHM attests to. (The version Werman
produced of The Cult's "Soldier Blue" available on the Rare Cult Box set
(the British  "The Cult", sorry to be possibly confusing) is similarly made
anemic in comparison to the Bob Rock version).

To be fair  though, I think what was problematic for Mirrors is that it had
to come after the scope of the band's playing and compositional skills had
greatly expanded into what Spectres had on it, and having to deal with the
question "OK  where do we go from here?"

>"Boorman the Chauffer" is a great example, IMHO.
If they left it in, S.P. probably would have said something like Boorman was
Imaginos' brief stint as a limo driver taking some band (The Dave Clark
Five?) with cosmic significance to the song cycle to an important point in
history,  like Altamont -- a sort of "simultaneous temporal maneuvering"
between his role in WWII (whatever that was! :)  ) and the Transmaniacon MC
which still culminates in whatever Astronomy concludes with. Yeah. uh huh.

Time to stop drinking Dunkin Donuts Coffee.
OD'd on BOC,SFG,tBS and Helen Wheels,
Jason



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