BOC: Why Colombia insisted on Imaginos being a BOC album

[BRIAN THOMAS HALLIGAN]

RR says,

>I guess my observation is that it's a package deal.  If Al did
>all the music, SP most of the lyrics, Dharma some vocal, some
>guitar, Bloom something else.  Then, the deal is a package.  If
>the thing wasn't meant as a package then they should have been
>kept from involvement.  Or did they just muscle in on the deal?
>
>If they did, I dno't know if it wasn't for the best.  The end
>product was perfect.
>
>It looked to me that it was probably some middle ground and that
>the marketing people thought it would sell best if BOC marketed
>the thing as a group.  Hence, Eric/Buck/Allen/JOe had to put
>a hand in it somewhere to make Imaginos a BOC effort en total.

Here's my theory:
        When a member of a band does a solo project the record company uses
record sales from the bands previous albums as insurance.  For instance, David
Lee Roth is still allowed to make solo albums, because WB is able to cover the
cost with Van Halen's profits.  They obviously believe that Roth still has a
hit or two left in him.
        Al, on the other hand, was not a "Big Name" talent like Roth.  This
was compounded by the mediocre (I'm being nice here) sales of BOC's last 2
albums.  This makes an Al Bouchard solo album an extremely large financial
risk.  By making Imaginos a BOC project, they can hasten the end of BOC's
contract while selling more copys than an "Al" album through track record/name
recognition.  Colombia didn't promote Imaginos hard, because they never
expected it would be top 40 anyway.  There's not even a decent teeny-bopper
single on the album for God's sake!
        In the end BOC has a new album, which isn't a total black hole sales-
wise, which pretty much concludes BOC's contract obligations, which makes
room for Warrant, Winger and all the other cheezy hard rock bands that actually
made a lot of money.  This, I believe, is why Imaginos could have never been
an Al Bouchard solo album.

Brian