BOC: re:Heaven Forbid review

John A Swartz jswartz at MBUNIX.MITRE.ORG
Tue Mar 31 09:38:58 EST 1998


>Imaginos WASN'T REALLY a BOC album...

I understand the point you were making, but despite being one
of the first one's to say that Imaginos was largely the
work of Albert, it still *IS* a BOC album.  I've heard some
people of BOC Fandom try to dismiss this album in retrospect
of what they know about it - still, Sandy Pearlman's lyrics
are there, and there is "some" contributions from both the
original line-up and the line-up that was current at the time.
Buck has some guitar parts in there - and Buck and Eric's vocals
are obvious.  And BOC did (however briefly) tour in support of
the album, playing 3 of it's tracks live.

While I think it is important that people realize that this was
not a BOC album in the typical sense (band getting together
with demo tapes, working on stuff together, involved in the mixing,
and all that), the band was all involved, and it is a BOC
record.  Or, maybe it's an Albert Bouchard record with special
guests - the members of Blue Oyster Cult.

I'm not sure it was Ted's intent to dismiss Imaginos as "not a
BOC album", but I have heard other folks make this statement
even more strongly (words to the effect of "I don't even count
Imaginos as a BOC album in my collection").  But, despite the
controversy, the emotional and legal fall-out, and the previously-
overlooked efforts of one Albert T. Bouchard, this album should
still be considered a BOC record - it's just that when folks
are credited on albums, you don't know what percentage of the
product they are part of - the Imaginos credits would suggest that
the bulk of this album was done by the original line-up, and now
we know that that is not true.

This all made me think of the fact that nothing from Imaginos was
put on Workshop of the Telescopes - yet the liner notes spoke so
highly of it...

John



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