Tommy Bolin "Energy" and "Live at the Tulagi" 1972

I got this as a 2 cd set a few years ago. I'm not sure that it's still available packaged this way because the releases put together by the Tommy Bolin Archives seem to be somewhat haphazard and constantly changing, but they make a great pair. This, in my opinion, is the golden period of Tommy Bolin. This is when he was playing with his Colorado-based band Energy; before he played with the James Gang, Deep Purple and Billy Cobham. Before his disappointing solo albums that I think were both tainted by the desires of major record label execs and the pall of heroin usage. Before he had the pressure of filling the shoes of Joe Walsh or Ritchie Blackmore - which was ridiculous that he was pressured into trying fill either of their shoes instead of just being Tommy Bolin. Playing with Energy was when Tommy seemed the most at ease, the most himself and the freest.

Energy was a smokin' band of great musicians that were not only not afraid to stretch out and jam, but that also had the chops to do it right. Energy was a band that incorporated many of the great things about 70's music: hard bluesy riffs, long extended instrumental jams, hammond organ, congas a la Santana, echoplex guitar freakouts, spaced out trippiness, etc. This is especially true with the live recordings, which is the majority of what's available from this band.

"Heartlight"

The first cd of this 2 cd set is their only studio recording, which, I believe, was never actually released at the time. This album, on it's own, doesn't have the same rockin' factor that the Live at Tulagi cd has, simply because about half of it is either ballads or softer 70's pop rock, closer to what you would find on Private Eyes or Teaser. But the songs that rock, rock mightily. Red Skies starts things out with a soft spacey intro that breaks into a strutting, chugging rocker with some sweet Bolin licks. Heartlight, one of my favorites of Bolin, is a killer song that could have easily become one of THE classic 70's rock songs had it received any airplay at the time. It's a hard riffin' ride that reminds me a little of Deep Purple's Stormbringer. Tommy should have resurrected this song for the Come Taste the Band album instead of Lady Luck. Deep Purple would've torn it up on this tune. The other 2 songs on the studio album of note are both instrumental jams. Hoka Hey is a hardcore fusion trip and Naked Edge, one of my favorite Bolin tunes, is 14 minutes of Pink Floydian excellence similar to the funkier jam in the middle of Pink Floyd's Echoes. 

Cd number 2,  "Live at Tulagi" is where things get really interesting.  Sadly, as is the case with most of the live recordings of Energy(which is all there is except disc one of this set), the mix is not great.  Once you here the greatness contained herein, though, you will be willing to listen past the flaws of the recording. The majority of the songs on this cd are covers, but Energy chews 'em up and spits 'em out like they wrote the songs themselves. The originals are "Red Skies" and "Hoka Hey," which both appear in their studio versions on disc one. As for the rest, there are two pretty straight ahead blues tunes, one being maybe the most covered blues tune of the early 70's, "Rock me Baby," which has some burnin' Bolin soloing, and the other is Energy's take on the Free song "I'm a Mover," which was on Free's preeminent Tons of Sobs album. In some ways, I like Free's version a little better just because of some of the licks that are part of the arrangement, but Bolin's soloing is masterful on this, and the band is slamming. 

Now this is where my curiosity about this band is piqued. The name, Energy, supposedly was inspired by the album Energy that jazz flutist Jeremy Steig put out in 1970.  This album is a funky, fusion album that floats around between 60's boogaloo Sidewinder funk, swampy bluesy grooves, future fusion, and hardcore jazz, all with Steig's breathy flute over top.  Playing electric piano(Rhodes or Wurlitzer) is Jan Hammer, of the mythic Mahavishnu Orchestra.  This is a hard album to find, because I don't think it was ever reissued on cd, but I was thrilled to stumble across it at the used record store. Anyway, two of the songs that Energy plays are covers of songs from this album, Give Me Some and Downstretch.  Both are deeply bluesy, groovin' riffs that could easily be pummeling,sunbaked desert rock jams. Energy definitely ramps up the rock factor on these tunes over the Steig/Hammer versions. Give Me Some is a slow, simmering, hard ass, Fender Rhodes-driven riff that just builds into a monster, complete with gong smashing.  Downstretch, similarly, starts with a bluesy desert-style riff on the Fender Rhodes and proceeds to rock hugely, before tripping out into a spaced freakout jazz section in the middle. Now, back to why this intrigues me so:  Clearly, Tommy Bolin and the rest of Energy really dug this obscure Jeremy Steig album, that included Jan Hammer.  I wonder if, maybe, Jeremy Steig and Jan Hammer played a gig in Denver(which is where Energy was based) maybe with Energy, which turned them all on to each other.  Did Jan Hammer hear Bolin play with Energy, which led to Hammer's recommendation that Bolin play on Billy Cobham's 1973 Stratus album, which Hammer played on as well?  Also, even though the Steig Energy album is very cool, it doesn't necessarily seem like something that would obviously be translatable into something much more rock oriented, like what Bolin and the rest of the band did, much less have the importance to Energy (the Band) as it did unless maybe they saw Steig/Hammer/Gomez/Alias et al play live.   Who knows the real story, this is all conjecture on my part, but it does seem logical.  At least to me.  

And, as long as fusion is on the brain, let's talk about another quasi-cover song on the album: Ostinada, which materializes after a 4 minute drum solo, which I tend to skip over(thankfully it's it's own track),  is a slightly altered version of Ostinato which appeared on Herbie Hancock's 1970 album Mwandishi, which, interestingly had Ronnie Montrose laying down a very understated, yet funky wah wah guitar part.   It is a repetitive (thus the title Ostinato) riff that serves as a foundation for soloing, in Energy's case, a sweet organ solo from Tom Stephenson and of course some killer guitar from Bolin. 

Side note: The Herbie Hancock albums from 1970-1972(Mwandishi, Crossings, and Sextant) that have what was known as the Mwandishi band are awe-inspiring, tripped out, space-fusion affairs that require more than a few listens to even allow an attempt a comprehension.

Rounding out the rest of the album is the 15 minute track that is simply titled Guitar Solo. This starts off with 5 minutes or so of Bolin by himself conjuring his 6 string wizardry, that then turns into a very pedestrian, run of the mill blues shuffle.  There is some great soloing, but after the transcendence of the blues that has occurred earlier in the set, this seems somehow mundane.

So, how to rate these 2 cd's. Hmm...

Riff Density- 5 (a bit low because of the not-so-rockin' tunes on the studio album)
Riff Caliber- 9 (I made this pretty high because when the riffing is happening, it is happ-ah-ning)
Post Blues Factor- 8 (this is an 8 because, aside from the outright blues songs, the other rockers are very forward thinking)
Groove Factor- 10
Dig It-10 (this, of course, is referring to the rockin' parts of the albums. I made a compilation of the best of these 2 cd's that is a 70+ minute, full cd of heavy duty rock and roll, which is how I listen to these albums)