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Post by duckbarman on Jan 16, 2021 4:14:03 GMT
OK - this is an intriguing one - here's the context...
Albert recently posted a copy of his first Del Rio demo from 1975 - though it later transpired there was an even earlier one from the year before. Albert was then asked what was the first song he remembered recording with BOC that he knew in advance was an Imaginos-inspired song (as opposed to Sandy saying to the band a couple of years later, hey you know that Telescopes track you did, THAT was part of my Imaginos series...)
Albert replied "Astronomy, but of course we knew about the Imaginos story before we were a band"...
Then Harry Farkas chipped in with this intriguing bit of info:
I remember seeing some of Sandy's rough drafts at Stony Brook. When I was first learning to play guitar (circa 1970), he invited me to try to write some melodies to lyrics that opened up with, "Cornwall and the harbor, where witches went mad more than once...." and later, "Imaginos approached the sun in August in New Hampshire. Singing songs nobody knew and stories left undone". Those tunes are long forgotten...maybe buried in some "secret cove....or behind a rose....".
Harry was then asked did he actually come up with any Imaginos tunes, and if so, did he make any recordings....?
I wish! No recordings of my tune for "The Magna of Illusion", "Del Rio's Song" or "Imaginos" were made. Hey! I performed "Magna of Illusion" on a stage in "H" quad with Donald and Allen sitting in (sans rehearsal). A recording of that would be a gem, wouldn't it? It was an acoustic set, staged area in lounge, ad hoc, though first time I heard D play an acoustic guitar... circa 1970 ish. Geez, details elude me... 50 years ago! (Can't remember if Albert was there).
So, Buck, do you have any memories of ever sitting in on an impromptu performance with Harry and playing acoustic guitar on some of his Imaginos-themed tunes in a Stony Brook lounge around 1970...? (I'm hoping the acoustic guitar aspect might make this incident more memorable than maybe some of the other SBU lounge performances...)
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Post by Buck on Jan 16, 2021 6:09:35 GMT
Sandy Pearlman did invite Harry Farkas to compose some of his lyrics. That jam Harry talks about did happen, and I remember him singing "Cornwall, and the harbor, Where witches went mad more than once.." Harry had a version of "Redeemed" also, as I recall. I'm fuzzy on the exact circumstance and locations of all this.
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Post by luxexterior on Jan 16, 2021 15:47:35 GMT
This is fascinating & given Imaginos original acoustic origins may explain why Albert made Re Imaginos largely acoustic.
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Post by duckbarman on Jan 16, 2021 20:14:52 GMT
Sandy Pearlman did invite Harry Farkas to compose some of his lyrics. That jam Harry talks about did happen, and I remember him singing "Cornwall, and the harbor, Where witches went mad more than once.." Harry had a version of "Redeemed" also, as I recall. I'm fuzzy on the exact circumstance and locations of all this. Thanks for the confirmation... I find this all rather fascinating - and not just because we're talking circa 1970... I think it's interesting that Sandy invited Harry Farkas - who by his own admission had only just started learning how to play the guitar - to try and compose some music to some of his Imaginos-themed poetry/lyrics because Sandy already had a functioning band at his fingertips (so to speak) who had already recorded at least one song that we've been subsequently told was an Imaginos song - Gil Blanco County... I wonder why he felt that he had to turn to Harry Farkas to try and put his lyrics to music? If you try to read between the lines, it's almost as if perhaps he'd already tried, and found SWU/SFG members unreceptive to the idea, and so had to try and look elsewhere... maybe there are parallels with the situation he again found himself in (in late 1975) when BOC band members seemed to rebel against his direction and turned their backs on the idea that Imaginos should form the basis for that fourth studio LP... I dunno, but one thing that I do know is that early acoustic 1970 Stony Brook jam would have been very interesting to witness... |
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Post by Buck on Jan 17, 2021 1:11:49 GMT
Sandy Pearlman did invite Harry Farkas to compose some of his lyrics. That jam Harry talks about did happen, and I remember him singing "Cornwall, and the harbor, Where witches went mad more than once.." Harry had a version of "Redeemed" also, as I recall. I'm fuzzy on the exact circumstance and locations of all this. Thanks for the confirmation... I find this all rather fascinating - and not just because we're talking circa 1970... I think it's interesting that Sandy invited Harry Farkas - who by his own admission had only just started learning how to play the guitar - to try and compose some music to some of his Imaginos-themed poetry/lyrics because Sandy already had a functioning band at his fingertips (so to speak) who had already recorded at least one song that we've been subsequently told was an Imaginos song - Gil Blanco County... I wonder why he felt that he had to turn to Harry Farkas to try and put his lyrics to music? If you try to read between the lines, it's almost as if perhaps he'd already tried, and found SWU/SFG members unreceptive to the idea, and so had to try and look elsewhere... maybe there are parallels with the situation he again found himself in (in late 1975) when BOC band members seemed to rebel against his direction and turned their backs on the idea that Imaginos should form the basis for that fourth studio LP... I dunno, but one thing that I do know is that early acoustic 1970 Stony Brook jam would have been very interesting to witness... The jam probably wasn't too interesting at the time, we were far from the musicians we became at that point. If you could time travel, now that would be interesting. Sandy wanted to get Imaginos written, but we were drawing lyrics from several sources and weren't keen on doing an all S. P. record, then or ever, I guess. Columbia should have released Albert's Imaginos in 1982 or 3, whenever it was originally done. |
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Post by markus on Jan 17, 2021 12:23:30 GMT
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Post by duckbarman on Jan 17, 2021 15:07:29 GMT
I once asked Andy Winters about that gig because I assumed that these three were all playing together as a unit - I mean, here's the wording (spellings remain as printed): ENTERTAINMENT: The Golden Bear Cafe in O'Neill College features Andrew Winter (formerly of the Soft White Underbelly and Blue Oyster Cult), Harry Farkas (formerly of Santos Sisters) and David Roter at 10 p.m.Formerly of "Santos Sisters", indeed... but Andy told me the following, which seemingly contradicted that advert: There was never any musical performance shared by Farkas, David, and me. I played with Farkas in a folkish group called No Love Lost when I was an undergraduate at SB. We had some fun and played a couple of actual paying gigs at SUNY Oneonta.
David did not finish his master's degree in sociology in California. He and I were enrolled in a master's program in public health together at Hunter College later, upon the advice of my then-girlfriend, who happened to be David's sister who was doing a doctorate in public health at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Most of the music I shared with David was pre-Underbelly at the house of lost souls and nut jobs on Bennetts Road.I then asked Harry about the gig and he confirmed it: Andy played in a country-folk trio with me after he left the group - We did the NY State College circuit and local gigs on Eastern L.I.
He mentioned a trio there, but didn't say/remember who the third member might have been... if it would have been David Roter, I think he'd have remembered... Obviously I can't ask David Roter, so the only sense I can make out of that advert is if Winters and Farkas played separately and David Roter played as an individual. I've also come across a couple of other mentions of individual Farkas performances around SBU (71 and 72) but I haven't yet found any dates for "No Love Lost"... And that's annoying, because I do love a good date... well, any date really... > hope all is going well with the book
Hmm.. books are for people with answers - dunno if you've noticed, but all I ever have are questions... I mean, just look at that advert above - seems reasonably straightforward, doesn't it...? ... a listed gig by those people on that date, but it doesn't seem to have turned out that way...  |
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Post by markus on Jan 18, 2021 12:56:33 GMT
I once asked Andy Winters about that gig because I assumed that these three were all playing together as a unit - I mean, here's the wording (spellings remain as printed): ENTERTAINMENT: The Golden Bear Cafe in O'Neill College features Andrew Winter (formerly of the Soft White Underbelly and Blue Oyster Cult), Harry Farkas (formerly of Santos Sisters) and David Roter at 10 p.m.Formerly of "Santos Sisters", indeed... but Andy told me the following, which seemingly contradicted that advert: There was never any musical performance shared by Farkas, David, and me. I played with Farkas in a folkish group called No Love Lost when I was an undergraduate at SB. We had some fun and played a couple of actual paying gigs at SUNY Oneonta.
David did not finish his master's degree in sociology in California. He and I were enrolled in a master's program in public health together at Hunter College later, upon the advice of my then-girlfriend, who happened to be David's sister who was doing a doctorate in public health at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Most of the music I shared with David was pre-Underbelly at the house of lost souls and nut jobs on Bennetts Road.I then asked Harry about the gig and he confirmed it: Andy played in a country-folk trio with me after he left the group - We did the NY State College circuit and local gigs on Eastern L.I.
He mentioned a trio there, but didn't say/remember who the third member might have been... if it would have been David Roter, I think he'd have remembered... Obviously I can't ask David Roter, so the only sense I can make out of that advert is if Winters and Farkas played separately and David Roter played as an individual. I've also come across a couple of other mentions of individual Farkas performances around SBU (71 and 72) but I haven't yet found any dates for "No Love Lost"... And that's annoying, because I do love a good date... well, any date really... > hope all is going well with the book
Hmm.. books are for people with answers - dunno if you've noticed, but all I ever have are questions... I mean, just look at that advert above - seems reasonably straightforward, doesn't it...? ... a listed gig by those people on that date, but it doesn't seem to have turned out that way... From how the gig is advertised, it seems like it's three separate performers; not many cafe gigs start at 10PM. Also, I would think that to give the promo a bit of punch they would've advertised it as the three of them together with the combined pedigree...maybe not, just my way of thinking. As far as the book, lots of books are the path to finding answers; considering we're 50+ years beyond the origins of this topic, people providing the answers might not be around much longer (no pressure). |
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Post by sirrastus on Jan 18, 2021 16:46:34 GMT
I once asked Andy Winters about that gig because I assumed that these three were all playing together as a unit - I mean, here's the wording (spellings remain as printed): ENTERTAINMENT: The Golden Bear Cafe in O'Neill College features Andrew Winter (formerly of the Soft White Underbelly and Blue Oyster Cult), Harry Farkas (formerly of Santos Sisters) and David Roter at 10 p.m.Formerly of "Santos Sisters", indeed... but Andy told me the following, which seemingly contradicted that advert: There was never any musical performance shared by Farkas, David, and me. I played with Farkas in a folkish group called No Love Lost when I was an undergraduate at SB. We had some fun and played a couple of actual paying gigs at SUNY Oneonta.
David did not finish his master's degree in sociology in California. He and I were enrolled in a master's program in public health together at Hunter College later, upon the advice of my then-girlfriend, who happened to be David's sister who was doing a doctorate in public health at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Most of the music I shared with David was pre-Underbelly at the house of lost souls and nut jobs on Bennetts Road.I then asked Harry about the gig and he confirmed it: Andy played in a country-folk trio with me after he left the group - We did the NY State College circuit and local gigs on Eastern L.I.
He mentioned a trio there, but didn't say/remember who the third member might have been... if it would have been David Roter, I think he'd have remembered... Obviously I can't ask David Roter, so the only sense I can make out of that advert is if Winters and Farkas played separately and David Roter played as an individual. I've also come across a couple of other mentions of individual Farkas performances around SBU (71 and 72) but I haven't yet found any dates for "No Love Lost"... And that's annoying, because I do love a good date... well, any date really... > hope all is going well with the book
Hmm.. books are for people with answers - dunno if you've noticed, but all I ever have are questions... I mean, just look at that advert above - seems reasonably straightforward, doesn't it...? ... a listed gig by those people on that date, but it doesn't seem to have turned out that way... Friend of mine was at Stoneybrook sometime in the 70's and he mentioned that he saw BOC's ex-bass player in a folk group.This is the first I"ve ever read about it tho. |
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