BOC: Couple O things

[Ted Jackson jr. 6L6]

> From:          John A Swartz <jswartz at MBUNIX.MITRE.ORG>
>
> Of course, Harvest Moon is probably about a more southern area - don't
> think the Spaniards had too many settlers in upstate New York...
>
BD isn't too concerned with accuracy here.  Later in the song he
talks about finding the girl's body when the snow melts.  I'm trying
to think of a place where the Spaniards settled, where it snows, and
where farming takes place?  I know the Spaniards discovered most of
Calif., and there are mountains there that would have snow, but I
can't think it would be farm land.  Maybe Colorado?  Any farming
going on out there?  'Course my Northeastern bias makes me
automatically think dairy farming, but then, I don't think there's
too much snow where they grow cash crops...

> >The first time I heard Harvest Moon, it immediately put me in mind of
> Imaginos. Music styles were a bit different, but I just thought it would
> sound soooooooooooo nice nestled warmly in there, perhaps between
> DelRio's song and Frankenstein.
>
> Very much Imaginos-esque.  Maybe the Magna of Illusion (or some other
> relic) was buried in the ground in this area and poisoned it much as
> it did to Europe before the outbreak of WWI (as told by the Imaginos
> liner notes).  By the way, Sandy Pearlman commented in the GOLDMINE
> interview that he thought that this was one of Buck's best songs ever.
>
Couldn't agree more.  Harvest Moon is a masterpiece.  Ranks with
anything BOC's ever done...

> This story sounds also a little similar to Stephen King's "The Tommyknockers",
> were an ancient spacecraft, which presumably crashed to earth many years
> before, lay buried in the ground, poisoning the town (newspaper reports
> from the past revealed many cases of people going mad, mass murders, and
> the like).
>
I never got much of an Imaginos connection.  To me it's thematically
similar to DFtR.  Here the fickle change of season takes the place of
the Reaper, and the Old People, 'feeling old,' are victims of social
change.  Farming isn't profitable, youth grows up to challenge the
old, society turn over.  The old die or leave, and 'another 40
thousand' come every day to take their place.

BUT--It's easy to see the Imaginos imagery too:  the Spaniards burn
the land and conquer the native people, thus imparting a taint on the
land.  The seasons exert their force over humans, and expel human
presence.  Too, reference to the War [WW II, I guess?] ties in neatly
with Imaginos.  And of course, the feeling of  'a presence here,'
like the foreshadowing presence mentioned in 'Live For Me...'
theo