BOC...More Imaginos...Flip Sake!

[John A Swartz]

>>Of course, all of this discussion assumes that Al even wants to do
>>this.  I have a feeling that Al has pretty much closed the book on
>>*Imaginos*.

>If he's still talking about it, still doing songs related and connected
to it, then I don't think he'll never really get it out of his blood,
it's much too rich a source to leave it behind forever.

Well, I think some of what Al has done with *Imaginos* material lately
has to do more with what we fans have been talking about - something
I'm very grateful for, BTW.  I don't know how much Al personally wants
to do some of this, as much as how much we all are almost demanding it.
Al obviously has a wealth of musical material - with or without the
*Imaginos* stuff - and he's stated that he wants to keep releasing albums
until he gets all of his stuff out.  Then of course he has bandmates who
also have material (at least Pete and Deb so far have shown to be
contributing writers to tBS material), so he may want to continue with
more of that as well.  So, we'll see what happens.

As some of you know, when Al first formed tBS, he wanted little to do with
most of BOC's stuff (he's quoted somewhere as saying, "O.K., no one is
even going to SAY BOC around here", or words to that effect).  Al joined
BOC-L not long after *Eponymous* was released.  After that, *Trepanation*
and *Box of Hammers* both had instrumental pieces which harken back to
Al's BOC work, and two cassettes with BOC covers on them.  tBS has also
expanded on their use of BOC covers in their live shows.  I think part of
all this has a lot to do with the input of we fans on BOC-L, and other
places.  We all love tBS new stuff, yet we still want to hear many of
those "golden oldies" that Al was associated with (I'm talkin' about the
stuff he wrote of course, not stuff like "The Big 3"), and Al recognizes
giving that part of being a performer is giving the fans what they
want.

Of course, asking Al to re-create/re-do/finish *Imaginos, if he's not up
to it (and I don't know if he is or isn't), is a demand that I wouldn't
necessarily expect Al to cater to.

Hey Al, you've been a bit quiet these days (I assume/hope you've been busy
stuffing CD orders for Xmas, and booking your next Boston gig ;-)  ), but
if you're out there, perhaps you'd like to share your thoughts on some
of this.

>Where have we got this idea about "recreating" Im(m)aginos??  What a
cockamaymie idea.  We've got Imaginos.  We love Imaginos.  But there's
so much more of the Soft Doctrines that have never even made it to vinyl
- this is what we need.  Imaginos (the LP) is bare bones.  It's a
minimum, a taster, a teaser.  The two projected albums which were to
complete the cycle are what we want.  Nobody can demand these records,
but are they not the dark holy grail which is driving us on???


Well, "recreating" may be a bad choice of words.  I think what many mean
is not necessarily re-doing the original album, at least not as it stands.
What we mean is doing the whole ball of wax as one complete entity, and
this would naturally (??) include the *Imaginos* songs that we currently
have.  Sure, some might just want the next 2 albums from the supposed 3-album
cycle.  But what I think some of us are talking about is if *Imaginos* is
ever to be re-addressed by someone (BOC, tBS, Savatage, whoever), then the
production should include all the songs which describe the "Soft Doctrines"
as a complete package.

In years past, I always thought that what was needed was for those other 2
albums to be released.  I still would love for that to happen, but I'm way
past the point of ever expecting such a thing.  But, as I've said before,
the whole *Imaginos* saga would fit nicely probably on a double CD
package, and if I can wish for the stars, well, then I'd like to see the
whole thing done up in one package, the proper way.  And, IF (very big IF)
Al wanted to "complete" the *Imaginos* stuff outside the auspices of BOC,
with more of his vocals, his musicians, and his production, then I'd
want to see it all done as a big production of the whole concept.  Again,
I realize I'm asking a lot, and if that isn't possible (and it probably
isn't), then I'd be very happy to get the rest of the stuff that hasn't
yet been released.

>If Al has trouble reconciling now with then, it certainly doesn't show.

True, but as I've said, Al may be responding more to fan input on all of
this than on his own personal wishes.  My original point was more to the
effect that Al might have to deal with people that he doesn't want to
deal with at this point in his life in order to do more stuff with
*Imaginos*.  Again, all speculation on my part.

John

Looking forward to my copy of *Malpractise*...