Stalk-Forrest Group/St. Cecilia

[John A Swartz]

>It was definitely interesting,
the guitars and drumming seemed good but the vocals were too
high-pitched for my liking.  Is that Eric?  I know he generally
sings fairly high, but this seemed beyond that.

Some of the vocals are Buck on this album.

>I wanted to toss a copy of 'Gil Blanco County' on an Imaginos tape,
where chronologically should it occur?

Well, the order on the Imaginos CD itself is not really correct, so in
the spirit of "random access" you can put it anywhere! ;-)
I defer to Albert as to where it should fit - I know it is listed in the
FAQ that it should be on the 3rd (unreleased) album in the cycle, but I
don't know how the whole thing was intended to work together.  Personally
I think it probably goes before "Del Rio's song", but that's just a guess.

>the only other song with
lyrics by Pearlman was St. Cecilia... this has no connection to
the Imaginos cycle, though, right?

I believe that is true.

>I know I've heard the ending of 'Gil Blanco' on some other live
BOC track, but it eludes me right now.

Don't Fear the Reaper.  Also note the similarity between "Arthur Comics"
and "Buck's Boogie" (one part toward the end in particular).

OOPS - I see you commented on that later - sorry!

>But I have to say that if this is what the
band was like before Krugman and Pearlman decided to try and mold them
into a heavier (sabs for cbs) band, it was a good thing.

Well, the band would definitely have been different, and probably appealed
to a different audience, but I think that they could have been a great
band in that style.  I think "Last Days of May" would still have been a
song that the SFG would have done and released, "Don't Fear the Reaper" too.
"Cities on Flame"? - probably not, although it has a boogie ending which
might have found its way to some other song.  Also - look at the Brain
Surgeons - they really aren't in the same style as that early BOC (although
several of their songs, particularly stuff off *Trepanation*, would fit
right in), yet they're putting out some great stuff.  Buck has done some
"progressive power pop" with *Flat Out*, his work in The Red & the Black
(the band, not the song), and tunes such as "Perfect Water", "Shooting
Shark", and "Harvest Moon"; all of it good stuff, albeit somewhat atypical
BOC stuff.

O.K., enough of my rambling...

John