Imaginos :Black & Silver

[Carl E. Anderson]

> > 2. Participation - This album should have been recorded primarily
> by
> > the entire original line-up.  Other people maybe could have had major
> > contributions, but the original 5 members of BOC should have done the
> > lion's share of the recording.
> >
> Again total agreement.  Again, I plead ignorance, so please excuse my
> observations if they're way off.  But so many of the instruments
> sound like other musicians, that while it's a brilliant studio
> effort, I miss the BOC members.  For instance, does Al do much
> drumming on the album?  I see Tommy price listed in the credits, and
> the drumming on 'Imaginos' sounds a lot to me like that on CN, which
> also featured Tommy.

        I should certainly think Al did _most_ of the drumming on
_Imaginos_.  He oversaw the bulk of the work on it, after all, *years*
before BOC became involved with it.

> And who the fuck has any right to play
> guitar on a BOC recording but BD?  There's plenty of 'additional
> guitarwork, sadly, on 'Imaginos.'

        Well, let's recall that _Imaginos_ began life as a non-BOC
project.  Someone had to play guitar on it!  And some of those guitarists
are no slouches (Krieger, Satriani, etc.).

> And Joe relegated to keyboards and
> vocals?  Come on...Again, no dig on Kenny--he's one of the best, but
> he doesn't bring the same sound to the project.

        Al has the answers here, but I suspect that Joe just didn't
want to become that involved.  I suspect he helped Al at some phase of
the project when the bass parts from KA were already in place.

> Even the keyboards
> sound different.  How much did Allen contribute?

        Very little, I imagine.

> > As I believe Chip Hart told me recently, it would have been BOC's
> > equivalent of The Who's "Tommy" or Pink Floyd's "The Wall".  (hope I'm
> > not misquoting)
>
> IMVHO, I think a properly produced 'Imaginos' either as a double
> album, or perhaps larger, incorporating Albert's trilogy concept
> (perhaps reworking some existing songs to make them more relevant to
> the trilogy) and utilizing BOC's instrumentation primarily, would, at
> least for me, render those two albums as insignificant. [Hey, this IS
> BOC-L!]

        Amen!  I think at some hazy point in the future _Imaginos_ could
be taken further, but I wouldn't really want to rely on BOC-band input.
I think the stunning success (from an artistic standpoint, if not
commercial ;) of _Imaginos_ as a primarily non-BOC project obviates the
need for a "reunion" line-up.  It's not a realistic projection anyway,
so I won't waste overmuch energy wishing for it.
        _Imaginos_ seems to have grown out of the idea of Al calling in
various friends and acquaintances and hired guns to breathe life into
this twisted vision of Pearlman's.  I can't really see it becoming a
tBS thing, even though I'd love to tBS do takes on some of the Imaginos
material.  No, really I see Imaginos as something beyond a one-band
project--it's just to big, and the sound is not really a "band" sound,
as I see it.  It's more a sonic sculpture, a recombination of plot, and
poetry, and music.
        Had BOC actually created _Imaginos_, it would have been their
ultimate creation, but that they didn't takes nothing away from the
album.  The real loss as that it wasn't continued ...
        ... but, hey!  It's random access myth, after all .... :)

Cheers,
Carl