Boz Burrell - 1st August 1946 - 21st September 2006

When I was writing my biography of King Crimson back in 1999, I’d been pleasantly surprised by how many of the ex-members were keen to talk to me about their time with the band. Even the couple who at first were reluctant eventually agreed to talk. The one person who declined to talk was Boz Burrell.

He was always polite when I rang him at his home. Sometimes his wife would answer and she’d say “Oh hang on, he’s just out playing some golf. I’ll just go and get him.” My head would immediately fill with the image of Boz in those Pringle sweaters and the ludicrous slacks. It somehow didn’t fit the image of the hard-drinking, hard rocking blues and jazz loving singer who’d joined Crimson as a brief stopping point on his way to global success with Bad Company.

I think I spoke to him three times in total. On each occasion he’d politely enquire how the book was progressing. Sometimes I’d tell a little of what someone had said, hoping it would spur him into a response but Boz was too seasoned a pro to be caught like that. Instead he would offer neutral comments; “We’ll it might have been like that but, you know I can’t really remember” was about as far as he would be drawn.

Only on once or twice did he offer an opinion but it was strictly off the record and most definitely non-attributable. He was always struck me as affable and courteous and I felt sure that if I kept up with the calls, he would have relented and talked on the record.

Everyone from Crimson who had an association with Boz that I talked to – Dik Fraser, Robert Fripp, Peter Sinfield, Mel Collins and Ian Wallace – all had good things to say about him. Both Mel and Ian were particular defensive about their ex-band mate, feeling he’d been unfairly maligned by certain sections of the Crimson fanbase.

It wasn’t until the release of material through the King Crimson Collectors Club and more recently though DGMLive, that the reputation of the “Boz-era KC” was rehabilitated, from being dismissed as a mere jam-band, and now exonerated as a group with its own distinctive identity. Certainly my own opinion of the group received a 360° turn-around after hearing the first four gigs the band played at the Zoom Club in April 1971.

Once Crimson toured the UK they’d somehow lost the sense of danger and adventure which is such a vital part of those Zoom Club recordings, hampered as they were by the need to bring what was for them, the ill-fitting material of the previous incarnation, to the punters who were eager to hear the Court material played live.

Unfortunately, I never saw Boz with Crimson, having missed them at Newcastle’s City Hall by a matter of days. There was a compensation of sorts when Bad Company played the same venue on their first UK tour a few years later.

I think we watched Boz the whole night in his red leather rock-god trousers, secretly hoping that Bad Company would break into a Crimson tune. Of course, given Boz’s antipathy to that part of his career, it was never going to happen. Even though we knew it deep down, we held out hope until the end of the show. "Ladies of the Road" from Islands would have been ideal but of course it wasn’t to be.

I heard about Boz’s death from Jakko, who’d heard the news himself from Peter Sinfield. I know Jakko was a huge fan of the Islands line-up – with Boz’s version of the title track being one of his favourites.

Details were sketchy. Nobody quite knew what was going on. We thought at first that Boz was in Edinburgh with Tam White. I rang the news desk of The Scotsman newspaper but they'd heard nothing. I checked out the local radio station but they knew zilch.

After contacting Tam White’s agent, I eventually spoke to guitarist Neil Warden who played with Boz and Tam in The Groove Connection. Neil clarified and confirmed the sad details.

Tam was visiting Boz at his place in Spain. They were getting ready to go out. Boz had just picked up a guitar to play, sat back and died there and then in the chair, killed (it seems likely) by a massive heart attack.

As the DGM HQ team hastily prepared a tribute page to Boz, I thought it was appropriate that David and Alex had chosen an alternative mix of "Ladies of the Road" as Boz’s last encore with Crimson.

Tam White with Boz (photo by Marc Marnie)