Tommy Bolin

I am huge Tommy Bolin fan, fav solo album by him was Teaser, he is best remembered for briefly replacing Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple, excellent guitarist and songwriter, any fans out there?

Ummmmmm hell yeah I'm a huge huge Tommy Bolin fan in fact today I just got "Whips & Roses II" and to date I have 30 cds from the great Tommy Bolin. I even have a VHS of Deep Purples - Last Concert In Japan.
The quality is not great and Tommy was basically on the downslide with his drug abuse but still am grateful to have this!

Wargod48

Yeah, I've got about 25 CD's of Bolin myself. I really like Private Eyes and Bang and Miami during his James Gang stint.

Tommy does a song with The Good Rats called "Stratus" that simply blows me away and it's from "Live @ Ebbets Field 1976.

Wargod48

Wargod Wow!!! 25 Tommy Bolin cds are this the official releases from the Tommy Bolin Archieves?

Manny yeah most of them are some are Rhino releases, some are SPV, and Friday Music releases but most are Archives!

Wargod48

I have Private Eyes, The Ulimate box set released from Geffen several years ago, Billy Cobham cd he appears on "Spectrum', " From the Archieves vol. 1, also have the first Zephyr release on vinyl, and I have no idea how they didnot become huge.

I discovered Tommy Bolin thru Deep Purple (of course) Come and Taste the Band, and I love the album, so I looked into his career and was surprised how diverse and head of his time he was. If you listen to that Billy Cobham it sounds similar to what Jeff Beck would begin to explorer a few years later, on his jazz fusion/rock instrumental albums.

What a shame he died at 25, I wish he was still here.

Come Taste The Band, Bang, Miami, Teaser, Private Eyes, (and Moxy s/t!) have all been on my playlist for over 30 years now. Gone through vinyl, cassette, and CD. His guitar is absolutely unique.

One of my favorite songs bt Tommy Bolin is Post Tostee, love the groove and the lyrics, especially find it somewhat eerie that he is warning of the dangers of fast living:
Don't Waste your mind Post Tostee Like alot of my friends did
Of course the solo that he closes that song with is nothing short of amazing.

I think my fave is Shake The Devil off Private Eyes, it has one of the greatest riffs ever.

Shake the Devil has an excellent riff, also like Tommy Bolin's singing, he was just an all around great artist who left us too soon, his death is one of many reasons why I think drugs suck.

I know more of this artist through others doing covers of his music. I heard a band called Seduce do a cover of Teaser and thought it was a cool song. I looked into it a bit more and found out it was Tommy Bolin. Another guy that needs to be added to my list.

Motley Crue had a radio hit with their cover of "Teaser' in the early 90's, it wasn't bad.

manny wrote:

Motley Crue had a radio hit with their cover of "Teaser' in the early 90's, it wasn't bad.

Mick did that song a lot of justice IMO.

Listening to one of the comp CD's I was making for detuned I threw in a Tommy Bolin track. Tommy Bolin died on Dec 4, 1976 of a drug overdose at the age of 25. He was a musician's musician, who played with his own band Zephyr before moving on and playing with both Alphonse Mouzon and Billy Cobham and helping kick off the guitar jazz rock fusion of the mid 70's. Those pair albums made such an impression that Jeff Beck was said to have been influenced by them, and shortly changed his musicial direction as a result of them.

In 1973 he replaced Joe Walsh in the James Gang and than quit after two albums to pursue a solo career. But his solo career was interputed when Deep Purple asked him to replace Ritchie Blackmore which he accepted. He wrote and recorded " Come Taste the Band" with Deep Purple, and was them til they disbanded in 1976. He recorded two solo albums and was in arena tour opening for Jeff beck when he died.

Here is one of my favorite songs by Tommy Bolin, it is 9 minutes long, and it is for anyone who has any kind of heart and ears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2lJfpx0F0s

Amazing song and solo on Post Toastee. I remember the first time I ever heard Tommy it was the Teaser album and was hooked from then on!

All the cds and albums scrolling on the Post Toastee I'd say I have 80% of them now!

Wargod48