on billy cobham album"spectrum" tommy bolin plays guitar.
tommy bolin played on song stratus .
prince started playing stratus recently.

who plays it better? prince or tommy?

my vote goes to prince because he plays much better licks althought some of it are based on tommys playing.

tommy bolin played with james gang but he was more (in)famous for playing with deep purple after richie left.
many people say tommy is great guitarist but judging by this clip :

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oPRUwjVXolI

i would say he is overrated,messy disconnected,maybe its because he was a heroin addict which eventualy costed his life.he was only 25 years old.

Sorry but I'm going with Tommy Bolin. P is updating it and it's cool but Tommy and Billy's original has that cool analog 70's warmth to it.

Tommy's "Teaser" LP is a classic. And like P, Tommy could shift gears musically. Rock, jazz, acoustic, bossa nova, and fusion funk can be found all over "Teaser". I never dug him with Deep Purple or the James Gang. He did so much heroin it screwed his arm up and he couldn't play anymore (by then).

Who?

tommy bolin the guy whio plays stratus from cobham .
he also played in deep purple after richie left

Dayclear said:

That's what I thought too. I've never even heard of Tommy Bolin.

Okay...how weird is it that I found this thread while listening to the September 6 Indigo performance of...Stratus?

I figured there wouldn't be a lot of replies to this thread, 'cause the majority of these young 'uns don't know who Tommy Bolin was nor how badass he was on guitar. To me, the ultimate version of Stratus can be found on the Tommy Bolin Live at Ebbets Field '74 CD. He was on fire. As Spyz said so eloquently, Tommy Bolin could rock out and funk it up with the best of them. Jeff Beck credits Tommy Bolin's playing on the legendary Spectrum a big influence on his own jazz-rock recordings. He did a lot in 25 years.

Tommy also mastered the Echoplex, which was a big part of his sound.

Here is Quadrant 4 (Tommy goes head to head with Jan Hammer)
http://www.youtube.com/wa...bLjObdYWhQ

My fave Bolin cut is "Alexis": http://www.youtube.com/wa...5ykcMFU3Do

Tommy's website has a lot of cool rare recordings: http://www.tbolin.com/

Music isn't a competition - it isn't always about who plays something better It's just cool that Prince dug it enough to add his own spin to it.