Tommy Bolin video biography - very tastefully done

[stubhead]

I am a voracious consumer of musician's biographies, but the VH-1 type of screamy cryee "expose" things curdle my brain. However, this four-part Tommy Bolin documentary is quite good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL-2sAVktPs&feature=related

Drugs sure do make smart people stupid - Duane Allman's joy in getting ripped and going out on his Harley (non-helmeted) to play in traffic, Jimi Hendrix's secret magic number of "nine" which compelled him to take nine hits of anything offered, be it LSD or the extremely potent painkiller given to his girlfriend who racked up her spine figure-skating, etc.

 

[whitebison66]

Thanks for posting!!!

 

[Cagey]

I am a voracious consumer of musician's biographies, but the VH-1 type of screamy cryee "expose" things curdle my brain. However, this four-part Tommy Bolin documentary is quite good: (link above)

Drugs sure do make smart people stupid

I enjoy a little background myself and am rarely satisfied with the popular presentations that I suspect bear as much resemblance to reality as one might expect from the Flat Earth Society.

I'm surprised that you'd be impressed by this series, though. I haven't heard such adulation since the 2008 elections. I mean, I get it... Tommy Bolin was a good guitar player, but come on! These guys make him sound like the second coming! I've heard him do some good stuff, but... jeez. Get a grip.

Although, It's to be expected. That was  period when a lot of that sort of thing was seminal. Today, it wouldn't get a second look, and might even be considered puppy chow if it weren't so well executed. I don't know when that documentary was made, but it looks old enough to have been produced back in the days before...now.

 

[greywolf]

Tommy was a great guitar player , I saw him in SF just before he passed , so tragic so many succumb to the evils of abuse

 

[Graffiti62]

I think Tommy would have been more known if he would have had the chance to showcase how on-par and, at times, above-par he was with Ritchie Blackmore. Also, he was kind of cursed by being part of the Glenn Hughes/David Coverdale version of Deep Purple, which many felt was inferior compared to a band that had Roger Glover, Ian Gillan and Ritchie in it.