Posted: 6/26/2006 6:05:04 PM EDT
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Well my mind has been overflowin' 'bout some things that don't seem right.  And my gun is cocked and loaded,  I hope I get me some sleep tonight.  |
Not too many Tommy Bolin fans here at arfcom, eh? One of the greatest guitar virtuosos of his time, died in 1976 at 25 years old after being kicked out of almost every decent band there was at that time. At the recommendation of Joe Walsh, Bolin had taken over as lead guitar for The James Gang when Walsh left in 1974. What a lot of people don't know is that Bolin was first picked over even Joe Walsh for the lead guitar with the Eagles. Tommy was signed by Nemperor records to record a solo album. Tommy's main idea was to bring in a vast array of musicians drawn from all the session players he had known. With the encouragement of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, Tommy decided to do his own vocals on this album as well. Session players on this record included David Sanborn, Jan Hammer, Stanley Sheldon, Phil Collins (of Genesis) and Glenn Hughes (of Deep Purple), to name a few. During the recording of this album, he was contacted to replace Ritchie Blackmore in Deep Purple. The heroin dogged his music career and then David Coverdale, egotist that he is, stomped off of the stage in England after Tommy had showed up wasted again, thus was the end of Deep Purple. As a guitar player, he was fast, yet brilliantly clean. Usually some of these fastguys are sloppy, but his hands could move brilliantly, and each note was pure. And he showed tremendous emotion. He could cry on that guitar. He was better than even (Jimmi) Hendrix and the world would have known it if he had lived. He went on to record his second solo effort Private Eyes. Tommy's tour for Private Eyes proved to be his last. The cost of keeping a band on the road and his heavy drug addiction forced him into being a supporting act. His final show was an opening act for Jeff Beck, but over the drugs he managed an encore with a barnburner rendition of Post Toastee. Some say that even as good as he was he had never played so well as he did during what would be his final performance. He posed for a photo with Beck after the show and then went back to the hotel room where he was found unconcious a few hours later. When paramedics arrived, he was pronounced dead at the scene. Run-down ghost town no chance for love no signs of life, just Wild Dogs that howl out in the night. 
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