The Ultimate
Tommy Bolin and the sound of the ‘70s
If someone was to ask me what the 1970s sounded like, I’d play Tommy Bolin.
Bolin was a musician who could hop from blistering rock riffs to soaring, atmospheric soundscapes. When I listen to his music, I hear someone who had a guitar in his arms since childhood and probably treated it like his best friend. He was everywhere for a while showing up on sessions and tours that bounced between hard rock and jazz fusion. He died when he was just 25, but in that short run he left a catalog as wide as the bellbottoms on his polyester pants.
I would have heard Bolin in the ‘70s as a child through Deep Purple and James Gang, but I didn’t get who I was hearing until 1988. That’s when my friends Willie and Darin worked with Tom Zutaut at Elektra Records and John Bolin to put together a box set called The Ultimate.
Willie had boatloads of tapes from the Bolin family for the project. I was over at his place while he worked, and he started playing me tracks. They took me on an journey back to my early childhood in the 1970s when my brother and I would lay on the carpet in front of the stereo to listen to the Missoula, Montana hard rock station, KZOQ.
Bolin was born in 1951 in Sioux City, Iowa, and was a phenom from the start. By age 18, he had already become a rising session player, joining Zephyr on their first album.
Zephyr sounds like jazz, blues and rock and speaks to what I see as an identity crisis of bands of that era who were trying to move beyond 60s psychedelia but hadn’t fully embraced hard rock. Bolin’s wailing guitar riffs helped with this. On the track “Showbizzy,” he plays short flourishes of arpeggios instead of the suffocating guitar solos that were so commonplace in the ‘70s.
He kept showing up in different recording sessions, especially in the realm of jazz and fusion, with artists like Alphonse Mouson. His playing on “Golden Rainbows” will make you want to lay on the rug in front of the hi-fi and lose yourself in some interstellar place.
In 1973 Bolin achieved rock stardom when he joined James Gang at the suggestion of the band’s former guitarist, Joe Walsh. Walsh had split to pursue a solo career and eventually join the Eagles. Bolin wrote or co-wrote every song on the James Gang albums Bang and Miami.
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On the album Bang, Standing in the Rain makes me time travel to the ’70s and imagine cruising the PCH in a VW van. Trying, of course, not to get sand in my denim bell bottoms.
In this 1974 James Gang performance on Midnight Special, you can witness Bolin in all his glory, complete with a shiny, silver suit. Watch the way he dances around the stage with his Fender Stratocaster. Perfect.
As James Gang unraveled, he got the call to replace Richie Blackmore in Deep Purple. Purple fans had strong opinions about the idea of anyone replacing Blackmore, and this was a bitter pill for Bolin. But listen to “Getting Tighter.” You can hear him carving out space for himself in band of bonafide rock stars. This is the 70s rock that I love.
He went back to jazz fusion and session work for Billy Cobham who encouraged him to make a solo album. He booked time in the Beach Boys’ studio to record Private Eyes. This album sounds like it came from someone with 40 years’ experience, but he was 23!
Just after recording Come Taste the Band by Deep Purple, Bolin got into the studio to record his second solo album Teaser. There’s something for everyone on this record. Funk, hard rock, and a hint of space groove.
Teaser featured a lineup of musical royalty. “Savannah Women” features Phil Collins on drums. “Marching Powder” is a soundscape featuring jazz legend David Sanborn on sax and Jan Hammer on keys. In case you forgot, Hammer went on to Miami Vice fame composing the theme song and original soundtrack.
During those sessions he was recruited to play guitar on the self-titled album of Canadian band Moxy, who happened to be recording next door. “Train” and “Moonrider” are two of my favorites. If you like to rock hard, Moxy is for you.
While touring the second album with the Tommy Bolin Band in Miami, Bolin passed away from a drug overdose. He was 25 years old. When I think about his career — which only spanned about ten years, and all the wildly different music he made, I still wonder what he would have done next had he lived.
Bolin’s playing was significant because he moved between hard rock, jazz fusion, and atmospheric groove. His playing was like the ‘70s— restless, all over the place, and figuring itself out in real time. Heck, we heard the Mamma and the Papas and the Sex Pistols within the same few years!
Tommy Bolin is personal for me. His music remains a spiritual connection with my now departed friends Willie and Darin, and the work they did on The Ultimate. I found a copy of the box set last year from a collector in Canada. I was in tears as I spun it on the turntable for the first time and saw Willie and Darin’s names in the insert.
Dim the lights, plop down on the floor and let Tommy Bolin take you on a cosmic voyage. Bonus points if you have a lava lamp next to the turntable.
