Please fill me in on Boz Burrell

[bassbully]

Boy you is a bossy one! I love the way you want to tell me how I should respond and post here. Got a few self control issues, huh?

The OP asked to be filled in on Boz. That is a dangerous question for those who have experienced the negative aspects of touring rock musicians off stage activities while visiting towns they have no intention of returning to.

So keep pushing, bassbully, if that is what you want to do.

Ok i am done here since i could care less what anyone like you would have to say about someone who is now dead and couldnt even answer to whatever you would accuse them of. BTW thats sorry dude! But as i and i am sure others can see your that kinda guy. Since you can talk but cant walk when you are asked to nothing you say is beliveable anyhow.

Boz was a great player in a great band in their day. He was one of the few to use a fretless in rock music at that time and rocked it well.... RIP Boz you did well.

 

[MR PC]

Kinda like forgetting to remember to forget, huh? I know the feeling.

I any case, sometimes when cruising down the long dark road home after a late gig, I always wait for the Oldies station to to play "Can't Get Enough Of Your Love". That dose of rock and roll is all I need then to keep driving.....and Boz was a big part of that.

 

[martinmcfly]

Thanks! Someone had to say it.

Don't forget Tony Stevens of Foghat.

 

[martinmcfly]

I didn't diss Boz. Not at all, not one teeny bit.

You totally dissed Boz and it was a perfect definition of a troll post.

 

[Matt R]

Did anyone ever answer "So Low Bass'es" original question, what strings did Boz Burrell use on Shooting Star from the Straight Shooter album?

Thanks

 

[CDNBassman]

I signed up just to thank the poster who pointed out "Peoria" It's right up there with earthbound in terms of funky groove. This man and his mates Ian Wallace (drums) and Mel Collins (sax, horns) laid some heavy 70s bass grooves, I personally really like the fat motownish bass tone on the 2 tunes I mentioned. If others do too, these grooves are not the only place to hear these 3 playing mad grooves. Check out their collaboration with Alexis Korner/Peter Thorup in 72. Accidentally born in new Orleans. Of particular note for funky, fat toned bottom end (with Mr Wallace in full groove also) in my opinion are tracks- Lo and Behold and Country Shoes.

Fantastic grooves, amazing player with one hell of a set of pipes.

 

[Axstar]

I found a sculpture, erected in honour of Boz Burrell, down at the shore area of Leith, Edinburgh, last year. Apparently nobody knows who commissioned and installed it, other than that Boz had links to other musicians in Edinburgh.

I have half a memory of seeing a photo of Boz with King Crimson, and he is playing a Jazz bass with a mudbucker fitted up by the end of the neck, ala Sheehan.

 

[Sin Nis]

Rock Bass God all that needs to be said

 

[Magicalbeck]

Wow I can't believe the hater that was on this thread. I have been looking for anything and everything I can find on Boz. I had the honor of seeing him with King Crimson and I assure you he wasn't mediocre even at that age! He had a beautiful singing voice and it was the greatest concert of my life. I was a wide eyed teen, but this was no teen music. They opened for Badfinger but that was a bit like Mozart opening for Salieri. Boz played and sang beautifully, as by then he had already gotten GOOD. It turned out that I saw their very last gig. April Fool's Day, 1972. He was proficient by then! A quick study was he.
Don't diss the Boz!! He ended up playing some beautiful bass lines for Bad Co too but I will forever remember him as the elegant and beautiful, very British voice and frontman of King Crimson.
After they played there was a hush in the whole auditorium. I was right at the stage leaning on it, and he was ten feet from me. I'll always be a bit in love with him
I am a musician, kinda retired.

 

[Magicalbeck]

Anywho....I realize I'm a lit-tle late to the party !!!!!!! Lmao

Play on, sing on...
Lake and Wetton too man... hard to believe they're all gone.

I have a Pinterest board dedicated to Boz, probably the only person in the WORLD who does !!
Just search Boz Burrell Pinterest and you'll see a lot of cool photos of him with basses.

 

[Magicalbeck]

Boz Burrell of King Crimson and Bad Company

 

[ampegbass]

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.

The original bassist for the Bad Examples was Tom "Pickles" Piekarski. Tom was the bassist until his untimely death 5 years ago. Tom played an early ( '77,78 ? ) MusicMan. I subbed for Tom for a few shows with the Bad Examples and it's me that has the AEB-1. Other Ampeg users, Jah Wobble, the late Tom T-Bone Wolk with Hall and Oates, the late Larry Exum who played with blues guitarist Jimmy Johnson and Gary Ryan of Joan Jett's original Blackhearts

 

[ampegbass]

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).

I am going to respectfully disagree about the songwriting. I recently had to revisit The Bad Co catalog for a gig of their songs and while it's not brilliant it is rocking and well crafted. I think "Silver, Blue and Gold, "Shooting Star", "Deal with The Preacher", and"Sweet Little Sister" are tuneful and hooky. Same for Free. Went through their entire catalog ( again for a gig ) and discovered a dozen very good ones "Catch a Train", Little Bit of Love", Muddy Water", Fire and Water" "Wishing Well" "Heartbreaker" and "Ride a Pony" sound great to my ears.

 

[brianrost]

ampegbass,

Sure the songs are indeed "rocking, well crafted, tuneful and hooky"...why I still listen to both Free and Bad Co. four decades later...they just have meathead lyrics. Mick Ralphs wasn't Bob Dylan, but his lyrics were a lot better...in my opinion. Rodgers could make you cry singing the phone book, but I always wondered what he could have been like with better lyrics. "Let's move before they raise the parking rate"...really?

Hey, not every band is going to be perfect. The band's playing and Rodgers' emoting is what made those bands great, not his lyrics. Again, my opinion of course.

 

[JimK]

All these decades...I thought -
"Let's move before they raise the f---ing rent"

 

[IMMusicRulz]

From what I remember, Boz Burrell played mostly a Fender Precision Bass, a Fender Jazz Bass and a fretless Ampeg AEB-1 bass on Bad Company, Straight Shooter and Run With The Pack.
By the time Burnin Sky was released he started playing the Music Man Stingray Bass. His amps wer mostly Ampeg and Fender varieties.
Boz Burrell also played on the collaborative album Rough Mix by Ronnie Lane and Pete Townsend.
When Rick Wills joined Bad Company in the Eighties, he also played a Music Man Stingray Bass and Ampeg amps.

 

[8guy]

 

[JimmyM]

From what I remember, Boz Burrell played mostly a Fender Precision Bass, a Fender Jazz Bass and a fretless Ampeg AEB-1 bass on Bad Company, Straight Shooter and Run With The Pack.
By the time Burnin Sky was released he started playing the Music Man Stingray Bass. His amps wer mostly Ampeg and Fender varieties.
Boz Burrell also played on the collaborative album Rough Mix by Ronnie Lane and Pete Townsend.
When Rick Wills joined Bad Company in the Eighties, he also played a Music Man Stingray Bass and Ampeg amps.

Until they had a split with Brian Howe, Then he went back to using a precision. He did keep the big wall of Ampegs, though.

 

[Afriendofboz]

I've just signed up here solely to reply to this thread.
I had the fortune to know Boz in the last couple of years of his life in Marbella, initially through doing some electrical work in his house.

I remember him telling me, the first time we met, that he was "chasing jazz".

I got a call from his wife Kathy saying that a number of hid friends had turned up out of the blue with their instruments "typical musicians" not one of them had a lead, could they borrow some? I'd had a couple of drinks so couldn't drive them over, instead I gathered every lead I had and sent them in a taxi.

A day or two later, I heard of his death. I lost a friend and a load of leads. The leads were quickly replaced. Boz will never be.

 

[slagheap]

i dug the band exactly because it was so spare, basic. boz was part of that.