I first heard “Teaser” when Mötley Crüe put it on the “Stairway to Heaven / Highway to Hell” comp for the Moscow Peace Festival (1989).

Pre-internet. No quick Google, no instant liner notes, you went to the record shop and asked the person behind the counter to dig through distributor folders. They knew me: chronic requestor of records they didn’t stock. This time they could import the LP. It was a lot of dollars. For one song, I’d only heard once. That’s devotion, and the power music had when you had to work for it.

When the needle dropped, it was the last track on Side A. Written by Tommy Bolin and Jeff Cook. First thing you hear: a funky, sleazy riff and a wolf-whistle slide guitar. Then the verse:

That woman’s got a smile
Puts you in a trance
And just one look at her
Makes you wanna dance…

The chorus hits like a lesson in seduction and danger:

She’s a teaser and she’s got no heart at all
She’s a teaser and she’ll tempt you ’till you fall…

You can hear the lineage, a hint of what Bon Jovi would later repackage, a T. Rex swagger in the verse, but Bolin’s breakdown is where he separates himself: bass and drums mimic a heartbeat, then it opens into a free-form jazz-fusion lead that doesn’t apologize. Jeff Porcaro (Steely Dan/Toto) on drums, Stanley Sheldon (Frampton) on bass, the players tell you how serious this was.

More than the title track

Teaser isn’t a one-trick record. Pull a thread and you find:
• “Homeward Strut” — James Gang–inspired funk, with a harmony lick that acts like a chorus.
• “Dreamer” — a piano ballad with David Foster on keys and Glenn Hughes ghost-singing the last verse (uncredited).
• “Savannah Woman” — blues-funk with Phil Collins on percussion.
• “Lotus” (Side 2 closer) — a hybrid of hard rock, jazz, funk and synth-pop with another of those breakdown solo sections that crack the sky open.

Side 2 may not hit as hard at first; then “Lotus” reminds you why Bolin was a volcano.

Private Eyes — the follow-through

If Teaser was the promise, Private Eyes was the proof — tighter, grittier, more focused on groove and jazz-rock.
• “Bustin’ Out For Rosey” — pure funk-rock; fuzzed guitar trading with brass in the outro.
• “Sweet Burgundy” — a slide intro that nods to Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight, then it jams the vocal melody out like Springsteen would later do in stadiums.
• “Post Toastee” — nine minutes of everything Bolin could be: riffs flirting with Cocaine/Sunshine of Your Love, flipping into a bass-driven funk jam at 2:20, the riff returns around 4:30 and dissolves into shredding — blues, jazz, soul, fusion, rock, all in one sweep.
• “Shake the Devil” — blues/jazz fusion with a mid-song shift that hints at the gallop and twin-lead energy metal bands would later exploit.
• “Gypsy Soul” — acoustic flamenco intimacy.
• “Someday We’ll Bring Our Love Home” — Carmine Appice fills on drums; could sit on a Steely Dan record.
• “Hello Again” — strummed chords, strings, slow-build burn toward a Free Bird–style feel.
• “You Told Me That You Loved Me” — sleazy jazz-blues, brass and walking bass under another Bolin lead clinic.

Reggie McBride on bass and Bobby Berge on drums are the unsung anchors — the people who gave Bolin the room to fly.

The sprint — career and legacy

From 1969 to 1976 Bolin played on ten studio albums: Zephyr, James Gang (he replaced the guitarist who’d replaced Joe Walsh), work with Billy Cobham and Alphonse Mouzon, sessions for Moxy, the brief, fraught Deep Purple stint (replacing Ritchie Blackmore), plus two solo LPs. Ten albums in seven years. Different era; different work ethic.

At 15 he hitchhiked to Denver, teamed with Jeff Cook in American Standard, moved through Zephyr and Energy (with Bobby Berge), did fusion experiments that didn’t sell but got him noticed by Billy Cobham. Session work led to Deep Purple, and the rock-star lifestyle followed.

Then it ended too soon.

December 4, 1976. Dead at 25.

Play Teaser. Spin Private Eyes. Hear the fusion of funk, rock, blues, jazz and soul from a kid who should have been a superstar. He lived a quarter century — his music didn’t.