![[hand]](/hs-pics/portraits/hands/paice1.jpg)
![[face]](/hs-pics/portraits/faces/airey2.jpg)
Snapshot of an artist at a crossroads
Ultimate Guitar celebrates 50th anniversary of Tommy Bolin’s Private Eyes with a feature penned by Greg Prato:
Fifty years ago, Tommy Bolin offered his second solo effort, “Private Eyes”, an album that found the gifted guitarist and songwriter moving in a noticeably different direction from both his work with Deep Purple and his eclectic 1975 solo debut, “Teaser”. Released in 1976 – usually listed as arriving in September, although the exact date appears to have been lost to the sands of time – the album captured Bolin at a pivotal moment in his career.
By then, Bolin had already packed an extraordinary amount into his career. After making his name with Zephyr, he joined the James Gang before establishing himself as a remarkably versatile guitarist, equally comfortable with hard rock, jazz, funk, and more experimental sounds. His work on Billy Cobham’s 1973 jazz classic, “Spectrum,” further demonstrated that he wasn’t interested in being confined to traditional rock-guitar conventions.
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That review of PE is spot-0n, whereas Teaser was an eclectic mix of songs that had been lying around for years, Tommy’s sophomore album had thru all its versatility a common thread. There is not a weak track on it and all songs are catchy in their own way. PE also saw the introduction of prominent Hammond sounds into Tommy’s solo music, I wonder where he had picked that up? 😂
I fell in love with that album immediately upon hearing it and that hasn’t changed to this day. Among my top ten Purple Family records and always very popular with wimmin if I may say so.
September 5th, 2026 at 04:421.
Ditto.
I usually added, I hadnt enough music way back, it to a bunch of albums I played when I invited a wide diversity of people on my birthday.
September 5th, 2026 at 14:08“Private Eyes” is indeed a track-by-track winner. It’s a very soulful album.
If you go into expecting the eclectic stew that is “Teaser,” you’ll be thrown off; no instrumentals here, and Tommy’s warm voice is up in the mix. Beautiful songs, tasty licks, grooves for days.
September 5th, 2026 at 14:34…..same here, Uwe. And how I wish PE would get the treatment Teaser got…reissue, outtakes et al
September 5th, 2026 at 17:19Yo,
It is a fine album for sure. It still gets regular spins here, & will continue to do so.
Has it really been 50-years already ???…Wow !
Ciao !
September 5th, 2026 at 23:51The most ardent DP dislikers can be swayed by a listen to Private Eyes. Always the same reaction: “THIS GUY was with Deep Purple?”
With a good management and his drug “inquisitiveness” somewhat contained (I don’t think you could have weaned a young Tommy Bolin off the various drugs he liked completely), I still hold that a solo career somewhere between Bob Welch and Peter Frampton would have been possible for him in the latish 70s, he had the looks, the compositional skills, the guitar chops and the intimate voice for it.
I also think that he wouldn’t have died that night, had he still been in the hands of the DP organization overseeing a tour. Tommy would have needed a management with an iron grip, talented and gifted as he was, he was more or less useless in everyday life.
September 6th, 2026 at 12:45Being a new listener to Tommy Bolin I must say this has been quite an eye opener for me!
He could sing, he could play the guitar!
September 6th, 2026 at 18:04Sad it ended so abruptly 🥺
Yo,
@6 Leiber Uwe stated…qt.1″I also think that he (Tommy) wouldn’t have died that night, had he still been in the hands of the DP organization overseeing a tour”.
qt.2″Tommy would have needed a management with an iron grip, talented and gifted as he was, he was more or less useless in everyday life”.
R1. We will never know, though speculation can shine some light on those times I suppose…* (Don’t forget about Patsy & the Indonesian incident ).But I suggest that even management wouldn’t have been able to stop someone over-shooting in the “privacy” of their own room…
R2. I suggest he was having the time-of-his-life, but over-shot his limit regretfully.
Ciao !
September 7th, 2026 at 03:38No one could have stopped Tommy regularly overdosing on lots of things, he was a loose cannon in that way, but you can bet your ass that someone like Bruce Payne or Colin Hart wouldn‘t have let a deeply comatose Tommy Bolin lie around all night and into the morning without calling a doctor or getting him to an ER like his hapless then entourage did until it was way too late. A Naloxone and /or Flumazenil infusion would have likely saved his life, he basically died from his untended body shutting slowly down over several hours due to his wild drug cocktail. Keith Richards survived all his numerous overdoses, so did Nikki Sixx …
https://youtu.be/CmXWkMlKFkI
Tommy would have likely needed a medical doctor by his side 24/7!
September 7th, 2026 at 15:46Poor ole Tommy, on an agenda indeed. No one would have stopped him. When people go that far and they crave more……………Obviously music wasn’t giving him a high enough ‘high’, in that sense. It is what it is. Warning for Uwe to NOT read any further. I always think of Ronnie’s lyrics in Gates of Babylon. ‘sleep with the devil and then you will pay, sleep with the devil the devil will take you away”………
September 7th, 2026 at 23:10Jon Lord once said: Tommy, a wonderful but lost soul.
September 10th, 2026 at 08:59and some ah took his girlfriend
September 15th, 2026 at 18:09Or not. Karen Ulibarri had been Tommy’s on/off significant other for almost 10 years when Tommy moved out of their joint apartment in June 1976 . Glenn only became her significant other after having broken up with Linda Blair (Karen’s and his subsequent marriage eventually folded under their joint coke addiction), but with full blessings from Tommy at the time who deemed Karen in good hands with Glenn (given how all three were addicts perhaps not the most astute reading of the situation).
Karen was no more “taken” from Tommy than Glenn’s mid 70s girlfriend Vickie Gibbs
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQByJphXsT_LAe9Wt0SVPZR-EHcRzVeeM877eBqNIAUID9OXb7vDuIleY0&s=10
https://64.media.tumblr.com/8718efc30bbfc690d794a05f5b1f877a/tumblr_od0b9p4If01ucq8mqo1_500.jpg
was poached from him by his bandmate with the tantalizing organ skills who would later make her the second Mrs Lord!
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSnra-dKI75qscEQ65QRD0exgEda9IW8mEmw8prqJPk4hDChzda0w0OD3U&s=10
Things like that happen in bands! 🤗
September 18th, 2026 at 23:05Yo,
@13…
I don’t know how you manage to source these photographs Herr Uwe, but the last one with IP, JL & wives is a ripper…It must be circa 1984 gauging by Jon’s T-shirt…Re-union time !
Ciao !
September 27th, 2026 at 01:47