Imaginos :Black & Silver

[Stephen Swann]

Ted O. Jackson writes:
>
> Right on there.  CBS cowardice blew it.  If they had backed the
> project properly--maybe even pressured the band to re-group with a
> promise of heavy backing and front money.  Maybe things would have
> turned out better.  Tough call...

Heh.  That reminds me of a story that I heard about the Clash
reunion.  The story goes that Joe Strummer told the record industry
reps that the Clash would only reform at the cost of $1M.  So
some record company coughed up the million, and the Clash got
back together.  ;-)

Somehow I don't see anybody doing that for BOC.  I have this notion
that record execs aren't the sort who recognise the importance of
songwriting.  I bet they buy into the idea of bands having "image" and
big-name presences as their main draws.  They probably view the BOC
name as a commodity, one whose selling value is almost, but not quite
entirely used up.  In all likelihood, they couldn't give a shit who
was in the band, although the ones who still experience occasional
outbreaks of neural activity might recall that BOC once had a "name"
guitarist, back in the 70s when people had still heard of them.

Furthermore, I bet that these market-driven lumps of flesh probably
view BOC as a nostalgia act, suitable for grabbing a slice of the
yuppie baby-boomer i-used-to-be-a-rocker pie.  That yuppie car
commercial "You used to dream of playing power chords with Blue Oyster
Cult" probably summarizes the point of view of a lot more than just
the auto industry towards the band.  They didn't back Imaginos because
it was a weird album from an old band, and even the band didn't
understand or want to have anything to do with it.  Imaginos was an
orphan.

This fantasizing about how things might have been if the band had
stayed together, and if Pearlman had kept working with them, etc...
yes, I agree with most of what has been said.  A 3-album Imaginos
saga, all by the original BOC lineup, with Pearlman's lyrics and
production...  it would have been astounding.  Something that I
sometimes forget, in all this wrangling about the Imaginos project,
and the discussions about the current state of BOC, is that the
original lineup was my favorite band, and I think that (to cop a
phrase from Carl) they ruled, with crown and sceptre.

Steve