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Boz Burrell

British singer and bassist (1946–2006)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ2041904
Source-derived summary

Raymond "Boz" Burrell (1 August 1946 – 21 September 2006) was an English musician. Originally a vocalist and guitarist, Burrell is best known for being the vocalist and bassist of King Crimson from 1971 to 1972 and the original bassist of Bad Company from 1973 to their first disbandment in 1982 and once more from 1998 to 1999. He died of a heart attack in Spain in 2006, aged 60.

Biography

Early years

Raymond Burrell was born on 1 August 1946 in Holbeach, Lincolnshire; he lived in Saracens Head and Holbeach Hurn. As a teen in the 1950s, he began playing rhythm guitar for the Tea Time 4, a group formed with his school pals Bernie Rudd and Brian Rocky Browne, at the George Farmer School. They both acquired a passion for jazz and enjoyed acts such as Mose Allison, John Coltrane, and Charles Mingus. He later attended King's Lynn Technical College.

The group had several personnel changes and moved to London in 1965 at the suggestion of manager, Jack Barrie. With the addition of Ian McLagan on keyboard and a name change to Boz People, the group secured a contract with EMI's Columbia label.

Burrell's style leaned more towards jazz, whereas McLagan was into Booker T, four singles being recorded and backing band slots with Kenny Lynch and Elkie Brooks.

Editorial summary

“Boz Burrell” enters the record as british singer and bassist (1946–2006). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Burrell, British and singer can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1946, 2006, 1971, 1972—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1946-08-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Burrell, British and singer.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Boz Burrell” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Burrell, British and singer provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2041904. VIAF identifies the subject as 85876858. The Library of Congress control number is no2011066771. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946, 2006, 1971 and 1972.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Boz Burrell”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Boz Burrell primary sources, Boz Burrell archive and Burrell research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Boz Burrell”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Boz Burrell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.