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“My gun is cocked and loaded, I hope I get me some sleep tonight.”
“Post Toastee”
Tommy Bolin
1976 — Private Eyes
((( >>> )))
—yT.
[FROM THE TOP]
“Post Toastee,” the 11-min jam at the end of Tommy Bolin’s last album, Private Eyes, sounds different, when knowing Bolin died just two months after its release. As it turned, “Post Toastee wasn’t only the end of Private Eyes, it was the last song of his life.
The tune will remain a favorite, on which Bolin displays his virtuosity, but now, knowing the circumstance and the place, attention moves toward the song’s haunting (suicidal?) lyrics.
“Stratus”
Tommy Bolin
1974 — Live @ Ebbets Field
Boulder, Colorado
((( >>> )))
Fin Costello (Deep Purple)
[FROM THE TOP]
SPECTRUM* — Billy Cobham praises Bolin’s contribution to his landmark Spectrum album, and credits the guitar as seminal in its success. It was the beginning of Fusion, a sound emerging from a collision of Rock N Roll and Jazz. Lenny White confidently says “if it weren’t for the electric guitar, there would be no Fusion.” This from the drummer who played with John McLaughlin on Bitches brew, and then with so many guitarists after. Larry Coryell, Bill Connors, Al Di Meola, and so many in the past, and always moving forward, with many others, including Jimmy Herring … Brother from another “Fusion” planet. At home in the Southeast, with friends Bruce Hampton, Project Z, Steve Morse, Dixie Dregs, Derek Trucks, Widespread Panic, and of course, The Allman Brothers Band.
DEEP PURPLE* — After moving west to Hollywood Bolin was himself a brother from another planet, the same as his Deep Purple bandmate, Jon Lord, who was already “famous” back home in England, being that he was the keyboardist in arguably the world’s “biggest” Rock N Roll band. Alongside Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, making up the HOLY TRINITY OF ROCK.
ZEPHYR* — Still a teenager, Bolin was first recognized in Boulder, Colorado when playing in a band called Zephyr. with husband and wife Candy and David Givens (vocals and bass), John Faris (keyboards), and Robbie Chamberlin (drums). Together they had a cult-like following in Colorado, and it was at a festival in Denver where Billy Cobham first saw Bolin play, and invited him to join his new band’s debut recording, Spectrum.
JAMES GANG* — Another well known guitarist who Bolin was chosen to replace was Joe Walsh, whose band the James Gang was topping the Rock N Roll charts. It was another time, as later with Deep Purple, when Bolin took an important, creative (song writing) role in his new band. The sound was different, but on the highest, and eventually well received and appreciated level.
And my gun is cocked and loaded, I hope I get me some sleep tonight.Well I don’t know what went wrong.It seems like nuthin’ is right.Well I don’t know what went wrong.I hope I get me some sleep tonight.
So take it nice and easy.
Leave the coals in the pit
Don’t let your mind Post-Toastee
Like a lot of my friends did.
Just keep me out of L.A.
Things are crazy out there
Seems I got to beware.
Sodom & Gomorrah
Noticeable, on the day he chose to die, Tommy Bolin was as far away from his “CRAZY-OUT-THERE” home in Los Angeles as he could be. After playing a show at the Jai Lai fronton in Miami, Bolin went to bed that night in his hotel room, and never woke up.
It was as if Los Angeles and Miami were Bolin’s Sodom and Gomorrah. Unable to resist the temptations of Southern California, and meeting his end in South Florida.
“Miami Two Step”
James Gang
1974 — Miami
w/ Tom Dowd (Criteria Studios)
((( >>> )))
Tom Dowd (Producer)
Adding to the suicidal lore around Bolin’s death, was that he overdosed the night he and his band had played a show at the Jai-Lai fronton in Miami, as far away as he could be from Los Angeles, the city he spoke ill of. The year before, at the same venue, he had played on Deep Purple’s final tour.
Just keep me out of L.A./Things are crazy out there/From people that I been meetin’/Seems I got to beware.
1969 —Billy Cobham first saw Tommy Bolin at a Summer music festival in Denver, Colorado, playing in a band called Zephyr, billed as a “local” act. Bolin and primarily Candy Givens (vocals) and her brother David (bass), met in Boulder, Colorado, and formed Zephyr, with John Faris (keys), and Robbie Chamberlin (drums).
Impressed, Cobham invited the young guitarist to a Jeremy Steig demo session at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, with Eddie Cramer at the mixing desk. It was clear that the two were musically compatible, and Bolin was Cobham’s first choice to play guitar on his first solo record, Spectrum. Released in 1973, Spectrum stands today as one of Fusion music’s most important records. Opening with a blistering “Quadrant 4,” and driving into the extended groove anthem, “Stratus,” Spectrum showcased Bolin’s instrumental virtuosity, and made him an instrumental leader in the movement emerging the collision of Rock N Roll and Jazz.
It was 1968 when Billy Cobham first met Tommy Bolin, when the two shared a Summer Festival gig in Boulder, Colorado. Tommy Bolin, with Zephyr, his band with keyboardist John Faris, bass guitarist David Givens, drummer Robbie Chamberlin, and vocalist Candy Givens, and Cobham was tourning with his band, Dreams.
Later, they met again, this time playing together in a session for keyboardist Jeremy Steig at Electric Lady Studios in New York City. It was there that the two made a creative connection, tight enough that Cobham asked Bolin to play guitar on his first solo record, the Fusion-defining Spectrum, with “Stratus,” that became one of the most covered Electric Jazz anthems.
Ronald Shannon Jackson
Alphonso Johnson
“Cold and Distant as the Moon, Why Can’t She Run Like Fire.”
“Savannah Woman”
Tommy Bolin
Teaser (1975)
((( >>> )))
—yZ.
Tommy Bolin Will Not Appear Tonight
w/ Jeff Beck
Tampa @ Curtis Hixon Hall
DEC. 5, 1976 — My friends and I were waiting in line at Curtis Hixon Hall in Tampa, anxious to see The Jeff Beck Group, and even more so, Tommy Bolin and his band. We we long-time Deep Purple fans, and Bolin was the guitarist who had replaced Ritchie Blackmore, Deep Purple’s founding guitarist. Many thought there could be no Deep Purple without Blackmore, but we left our minds open, and very much liked and appreciated Come Taste the Band, the new Deep Purple record, featuring Bolin, not only as a player, but also as a writer on most tunes, and lead on the album’s opening “Coming Home,” that served as a hard-driving introduction of Bolin in a “new” Deep Purple.
Many would accept no replacement for Ritchie Blackmore, but my friends and I liked Bolin, and Blackmore’s Rainbow with Ronnie James Dio too. Both were dramatic changes in the world of Deep Purple. Changes we were fine with at the time, and maybe even more appreciative in the passing of time.
We had seen Bolin earlier that year with Deep Purple at the Lakeland Civic Center, 20 miles east of Tampa. And today, we were back for more. Bolin’s solo record, Teaser, was released almost simultaneously with Come Taste the Band, and had all the high-energy guitar, but noticeably featured his more melodic, jazzy sensibilities, and distinctly, his surprisingly sweet vocals.
We would rather have gone to the Saturday show in Miami, but we chose Sunday in Tampa, 100 miles west, rather than 200 miles south.
As we approached the window, we were disappointed to see a small, hand-written sign taped to the glass. It read:
“Tommy Bolin Will Not Appear Tonight.”
I asked the young woman behind the window, “What happened?” Without interrupting her working the register, she said matter of factly, without explanation, “He died last night in Miami.”
Change of Hue
Owed To ‘G’
Tommy Bolin (Deep Purple)
1975 — Come Taste the Band
((( >>> )))
yZ.
Spectrum
Billy Cobham (drums, percussion, production)
Jan Hammer (electric and acoustic pianos, Moog synthesizer)
Tommy Bolin (guitar, Echoplex)
Lee Sklar (electric bass)
Joe Farrell (soprano and alto saxes, flute)
Jimmy Owens (flugelhorn, trumpet)
John Tropea (guitar on “Le Lis”)
Ron Carter(acoustic bass)
Ray Barretto (congas)
—yZ.
Ritchie Blackmore* onstage in Paris, on his last show with Deep Purple. It was the last of the band’s Stormbringer tour, and a few weeks later (June 21, 1975), Blackmore officially announced his departure from Deep Purple, and introduced his new band, Rainbow.
the players
INSTRUMENTS OF NOISE.
The Original Color of Sin. [BLUE]
the color purple
POST APOCALYPTIC BLUES
VIVID IMAGINATION (LIVING COLOUR)
PSYCHEDELIC BEATLES (ST. PEPPER’S)
Deep Purple
Ritchie Blackmore
Jon Lord
Ian Paice
Ian Gillan
Roger Glover
Glenn Hughes
David Coverdale
Tommy Bolin (guitar)
Joe Satriani
Christopher Cross (Yacht Rock)
Steve Morse (guitar)
Don Airey
Simon McBride (guitar)
2025 …
1975 — The Final Concerts
Before youtube and the internet, the records and the radio inspired the imagination to what a band would look and sound live, and Deep Purple fans had always liked what they saw in the three players at Deep Purple’s core. They were loud, aggressive, and virtuosic, right for the Man-On-The-Moon, War-In-The-Jungle time.
When Blackmore decided to leave Deep Purple, fans’ reactions were split. There were those who believed there could be no Deep Purple without its founding guitarist.
Who was Tommy Bolin?
James Gang
Spectrum (Introduction to Jazz)
Different than the “Holy Trinity”
Great Gypsy Soul
2012 — A tribute to Tommy Bolin. The record takes from Bolin’s archive, original outtakes and alternative versions of music recorded before his death, and several of today’s finest guitarists and singers layer on modern parts, playing along with the original tracks of Bolin and his band. All tracks on the tribute contain Bolin’s original guitar and vocals.
“Stratus”
Billy Cobham
1973 — Spectrum
((( !)))
Zephyr
1969 — “Cross That River/St. Jame’s Infirmary”
It was in Boulder, Colorado that Tommy Bolin played in his first professional band, with singer Candy Givens (vocals) and her brother David (keys).
Zeppelin
1970 — When The Blues Got Hard
Times were a changin.’ Fading was the Bob Dylan poetry, being replaced by a harder and heavier, Electric Blues. After the first fusion of Country and Soul, early Rock was on a collision course with the Blues.
MILES DAVIS (THE CREATOR)
JIMI HENDRIX (VOODOO’S CHILD)
HOLY TRINITY OF ROCK
HOLY TRINITY OF JAZZ
COOL #9 (SAVE PLUTO)
NAKED LAUNCH
NAKED LAUNCH (ALT.)
MARY McCLAIN (TOBACCO ROAD) MIAMI
PRINCE AMONG US (THE ARTIST)
“Catch The Rainbow”
“Flying Fingers”
Derek Trucks — Great Gypsy Soul
((( Instrumental Bolin )))
“Stratus”
2007 — Jeff Beck @ Ronnie Scott’s
((( Groove Anthem )))
—yT.
2003 — Billy Cobham played a Spectrum 30th Anniversary show in Hollywood, Florida with (original) bassist Leland Sklar, keyboardist Gary Husband in for Jan Hammer, and Dean Brown, playing guitar for Spectrum’s original Tommy Bolin.
Living Colour
LOLLAPALOOZA: AN ORAL HISTORY (SPIN)
Led Zeppelin
INSTRUMENT OF CHANGE (THE ELECTRIC GUITAR)
the color purple
POST APOCALYPTIC BLUES
BLUE: THE ORIGINAL COLOR OF SIN ( 1.)
BLUE: CROSSROADS ( 2.)
A LIGHTER SHADE OF BLUE (THE YARDBIRDS)
ROLLIN’ ON THE RIVER
ROCK N ROLL TIMELINE
DEVIL MUSIC
CHICAGO BOUND
CROSSROADS
GUITAR LIST #1 (ELECTRIC EVOLUTION)
GUITAR LIST #2 (SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL)
ROCK N ROLL TIMELINE (NO ART)
This is a Voyage Into Sound
MILES DAVIS (THE CREATOR)
JIMI HENDRIX (VOODOO’S CHILD)
PRINCE AMONG US (THE ARTIST)
ROLLIN’ ON THE RIVER
UNDER A CRESCENT MOON
CHICAGO BOUND
TEXAS SWING
THEY ONLY COME OUT AT NIGHT
A RENAISSANCE IN HARLEM
SUMMER IN THE CITY
SATURDAY IN THE PARK
LOST IN D.C.
HOLY TRINITY OF ROCK
HOLY TRINITY OF JAZZ
TRIOS (POWER OF THREE)
ANTHEMS [JAZZ ROCK]
JAM BANDS
CTI JAZZ
RE.COLLECTIONS (FUSION RECORDS)
VOYAGER (CARL SAGAN’S COSMIC MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE)