BOC: SEE a waste?

[Chris Baker]

In a message dated 97-03-12 Richard Manny wrote:

> I've seen this line in the FAQ.  What sins of commission and
>  omission?  Seemed like a good album to me.  Sorry, don't me to start a
>  discussion but that line about commission and omission has always bugged
>  me.

It always bugged me too, although I knew it mainly from the liner notes of
Arthur Levy, who gives every indication that he'll be recycling his favorite
phrases into the next century.  (Personally my favorite is .."It has been
argued that the release of...Secret Treaties marked one of those moments in
rock when a band's public image nearly overpowered its existential reality".
 I don't know which amuses me most here:  the "It has been argued" , the
"nearly", or the final burst of gibberish.)

I'm not sure what sins of omission were being atoned for, since of their
songs only "Astronomy" had existed at the time of the first release.  I doubt
anyone would argue that a version from '74 would have cut the one that made
it onto SEE.

I played OYF continuously when it came out, and still love parts, but I
thought it was undermined as a live document by piss-poor production and the
tendency of the band to race through some of the songs--the herky-jerky
"Before the Kiss..." being a particularly galling example.

One fun moment from the summer of '75:  my friend Mark and I stoned and
blasting OYF, and Buck Dharma plays a different solo at the end of "Harvester
of Eyes"!...to this day I don't know what channel malfunction or setting
brought it to the forefront, but the real solo is there, buried but not deep
enough, and audible when you listen for it...anyone else shocked when they
discovered this?  Anyone find similar things on the album?

-Chris Baker