Please fill me in on Boz Burrell

So Low Bass · #1 02-11-2009, 09:18 AM

I was driving along and heard Bad Company's Shooting Star on the radio and was struck -after 30+ years- with the beautiful tone of the bass. I never made a note as to just who Boz Burrell was.

What bass did he play, and threw what amp. The strings (on that tune at least) HAD to be flats...right?

What can you tell me? Thanks

gweimer · #2 02-11-2009, 09:51 AM

Boz Burrell was also the bassist for King Crimson prior to Bad Company. He left that band because he felt the music wasn't funky enough - King Crimson did an honest-to-god funk improv, with Burrell at the helm, on the live Earthbound release. It was called "Peoria"

In the early stages of Bad Company, I want to say that Boz used an Ampeg AUB-1 Scroll bass, and probably with flats. I know he used a Precision bass with King Crimson.

So Low Bass · #3 02-11-2009, 10:54 AM

a FRETLESS?? I would have thought a Rick with a pick. I did some basic research on the Ampeg (I used to own a Dan Armstrong). A MOST interesting instrument! Who else played/playes one of these things?

b_carville · #4 02-11-2009, 10:55 AM

I'm not sure what he played on the records,but I saw them live three times in the mid-70's & he played a fretless Fender P through Ampeg SVT's. Sounded like flats (most guys went roundwound in that era).

He nailed his recorded tone.

gweimer · #5 02-11-2009, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by So Low Bass

a FRETLESS?? I would have thought a Rick with a pick. I did some basic research on the Ampeg (I used to own a Dan Armstrong). A MOST interesting instrument! Who else played/playes one of these things?

Rick Danko from The Band also used the AUB-1 (or was it the AUB-2?). There was a band in Chicago a decade ago, The Bad Examples, whose bass player had an AEB-1.

I think the best recorded tone from Burrell was on "Bad Company". Just about perfect.

I have an AEB-2 coming from Bruce Johnson in about a month.

gweimer · #6 02-11-2009, 11:39 AM

Here's a few old shots I was able to find of him with basses:

BigOldHarry · #7 02-11-2009, 11:41 AM

BP did a great write up on Boz last year (or was it the year before?) - - Robert Fripp taught him to play bass! imagine that...

Yeah, Bad Company was a very mediocre band with a very good bassist - like Foghat from the "fool for the city" days.

pbass2 · #8 02-11-2009, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigOldHarry

BP did a great write up on Boz last year (or was it the year before?) - - Robert Fripp taught him to play bass! imagine that...

Yeah, Bad Company was a very mediocre band with a very good bassist - like Foghat from the "fool for the city" days.

I dunno, Simon Kirke was a fine rock drummer I thought, and what about Paul Rodgers? He's one of the great classic rock vocalists. And they wrote great hooky songs.
Boz was killer. He had the fretless P when I saw him.

BigOldHarry · #9 02-11-2009, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pbass2

I dunno, Simon Kirke was a fine rock drummer I thought, and what about Paul Rodgers? He's one of the great classic rock vocalists. And they wrote great hooky songs.
Boz was killer. He had the fretless P when I saw him.

My big gripe with Bad Co was their writing. Rodgers could belt, the band was good but so many of their songs had what struck me as really bad lyrics and mediocre construction. I recall listening to them when they were BIG (my senior promp's theme song was "rock and roll fantasy" - so I have some cred on this here!) - and I always was frustrated with them... They always struck me as less than the sum of their parts, if you follow.

But that's a matter of personal taste, I suppose.

What I like about players like Boz and Nick Jameson (of foghat) is that they didn't seem to know what they were doing wasn't "Rock and Roll", so they played outside the root and did VERY cool stuff. Bad Co's biggest hit, "Feel like makin love" had very cool bass bits that were not of the norm - clearly fretless with shamless glisses that so many folks stick their noses up at - and yet it really works. Great player, Boz.

And speaking of Nick Jameson - look at this nutty info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Jameson
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0417068/

Who knew? Man, with chops like he had, why didn't he just stick to bass? I guess he had more to offer acting... Go figure. I know I can't be the only guy to learn every tune on Fool for the City because of him...

JTE · #10 02-11-2009, 12:08 PM

Boz said he got the gig with Crimson because he was the only bassist in the area who was using roundwound strings. He was an early and ardent user of Music Man StingRays, both fretted and fretless. I think the first album was recorded before the StingRay was available, and he used the Ampeg there. After that it was generally a 'Ray.

Great straight ahead rock 'n' roll band. As the first reveiw of them I read said, "a rhythm section that sounds like they get fined for playing extra notes", one of the finest rock 'n' roll singers, an interesting song-oriented guitarist, and they wrote SONGS, not just guitar riffs with stupid lyrics over them.

jte

Bass V · #11 02-11-2009, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigOldHarry

Robert Fripp taught him to play bass!

Fripp showed him the basics and after that Boz sez he learned on the road! And that it was with KC is rather stunning to me.
When he took over from Greg Lake after the Court LP it was kind of a drag. Lake was great on many levels, his playing was way more adventurous and KC's recordings didn't maintain the levels for a while, even tho there is some killer stuff on those early 70's offerings. Then came Wetton...

I saw Boz/Bad Company in 75-ish at The Forum opening for Edgar Winter, but was never a fan. However their old music sounds better to me today. Too bad he's gone.

Hamrhed · #12 02-11-2009, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigOldHarry

Yeah, Bad Company was a very mediocre band with a very good bassist - like Foghat from the "fool for the city" days.

I disagree- not about the bass players tho...

Its disrespectful and presumptuous to say that those bands were mediocre. Players like Rod Price, Paul Rodgers, Dave Prevrett, Simon Kirke, Roger Earl, and Mick Ralphs are great musicians who left an outstanding legacy for others to enjoy. They wrote simple tunes that stood the test of time and still do to this day! They may not be Jazz heavyweights, but they certainly rise high above mediocraty, imho

JimK · #13 02-11-2009, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigOldHarry

BP did a great write up on Boz last year (or was it the year before?) -

I recall a 1-page blurb...right after he passed away.

gweimer · #14 02-11-2009, 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hamrhed

I disagree- not about the bass players tho...

Its disrespectful and presumptuous to say that those bands were mediocre. Players like Rod Price, Paul Rodgers, Dave Prevrett, Simon Kirke, Roger Earl, and Mick Ralphs are great musicians who left an outstanding legacy for others to enjoy. They wrote simple tunes that stood the test of time and still do to this day! They may not be Jazz heavyweights, but they certainly rise high above mediocraty, imho

Thanks! Someone had to say it.

gweimer · #15 02-11-2009, 04:36 PM

So Low Bass · #16 02-11-2009, 05:07 PM

I wasn't really expressing an opinion about any band, the music, or the other musicians involved. The SOUND of the BASS in "Shooting Star" is, to MY ears, near heaven.

Thanks for the great info for me to follow up on.

brianrost · #17 02-12-2009, 07:51 AM

Paul Rodgers was a terrible songwriter (the weak point of Free, none of those guys could write but they played great) but Mick Ralphs was good at it, esp. for hooky tunes in the Chuck Berry/Stones tradition.

The really good Bad Co. tunes were all written by Ralphs...Can't Get Enough, Ready For Love, Bad Co., Good Lovin' Gone Bad, Feel Like Makin' Love, etc. As Rodgers started writing more of the songs the material went downhill fast.

For me, only the first two albums are essential and all the others are disposable.

As for Boz, he was just a singer when he joined Crimson but he agreed to take up bass as the previous lineups all had the bassist as lead vocalist. This is easily backed up by his playing (fretted pre-CBS Jazz) on KC's Islands which is very simple compared to other KC albums. He played fretless bass for the early Bad Company albums. His Ampeg was modified with a P-bass pickup (as was Rick Danko's). After Bad Company folded in the 1980s Boz started playing/singing jazz (his first love).

jerry · #18 02-12-2009, 10:28 AM

I was a huge fan of both Free and Mott The Hoople that dug Bad Company, but not as much as Ralphs & Rodgers previous bands. I'll admit lyrics were not Rodgers strong suit, but I thought he was one of the best rock singers/frontman ever, especially in front of the original Free!

JTE · #19 02-12-2009, 10:49 AM

Before he died, around the time of a Bad Co. reuion, Bass Player did a longer interview with him. He talked about his jazz background and how after Bad Co. people thought of him as this rock 'n' roll guy and assumed he knew a bunch of rock songs. He didn't.

At the time of that tour he was pretty pumped by the Lakland bass he was playing.

BassBod · #20 02-12-2009, 11:02 AM

I saw him do a jazz gig in my local, maybe ten years ago? Not very memorable, but he could play...thumb bass into a redhead combo. Can't remember if it was a fretless, or a 5 string.