Stalk-Forrest Group* – St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings

Compilation of all still existent Elektra recordings by The Stalk-Forrest Group, who later became Blue Öyster Cult. The timeline and location of these recording sessions has been reconstructed using what historical documents and memories remain, but is not without some ambiguity and contradiction, as the liner notes for the Rhino Handmade release miss the fact that four songs were only remixed and two were re-recorded entirely for the second version, and thus couldn't have been done in Los Angeles. Band members have also stated the "I'm On The Lamb" was re-recorded later in New York City for the finished master, so the logical conclusion is that the first "Oaxaca" version of the album must be from the original Los Angeles sessions. This CD also includes the promotional single released by Elektra, What Is Quicksand? / Arthur Comics. And since engineer Brian Ross-Myring worked at Elektra's Los Angeles studio, it also confirms that the initial Oaxaca sessions occurred in Los Angeles, and not in New York City as the liner notes claim. There is also a potential confusion with sessions done by Soft White Underbelly for Columbia Records in 1969, which can be found as bonus tracks on expanded editions of Blue Öyster Cult.

There were at least two recording sessions by the band. The first, recorded at Elektra's Los Angeles Sound Recorders studio, was archived under the briefly-used band name Oaxaca and resulted in a 10-song master tape. The second recording session, as The Stalk-Forest Group, was at Elektra's New York City studio where four songs were only remixed but two were re-recorded entirely to take advantage of updated arrangements. These six songs were combined with three songs from the Oaxaca master to produce a 9-song Stalk-Forrest Group master tape. Both versions of the album were rejected by Elektra and not released, although the Stalk-Forrest Group album was assigned the catalog number EKS-74046.

Images of the original master tape boxes included in the CD booklet suggest the following tracklists for the two versions of the unreleased album:
Oaxaca "Los Angeles" album (A-side/B-side not indicated):
01) Ragamuffin Dumplin'
02) Arthur Comics
03) I'm On The Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep
04) What Is Quicksand?
05) Donovan's Monkey
06) Curse of the Hidden Mirrors
07) Bonomo's Turkish Taffy
08) Gil Blanco County
09) St. Cecilia
10) A Fact About Sneakers

On the Rhino Handmade CD, the Oaxaca session tracks are tagged with 'Original Version', except for three songs reused for the Stalk-Forrest Group album and "Bonomo's Turkish Taffy", which was neither re-recorded nor spliced into the Stalk-Forrest Group album.

The Stalk-Forrest Group album (EKS-74046)
A1) What Is Quicksand? (spliced in from the "Oaxaca" master)
A2) I'm On The Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep (re-recorded in NYC)
A3) Gil Blanco County (newly remixed)
A4) Donovan's Monkey (spliced in from the "Oaxaca" master)
A5) Ragamuffin Dumplin' (newly remixed)
B1) Curse of the Hidden Mirrors (newly remixed)
B2) Arthur Comics (spliced in from the "Oaxaca" master)
B3) A Fact About Sneakers (re-recorded in NYC)
B4) St. Cecilia (newly remixed)

The Stalk-Forrest album is a combination of four remixes and two re-recordings done in New York City in February of 1970 and three songs from the earlier Oaxaca master from Los Angeles: "What Is Quicksand?; "Donovan's Monkey" and "Arthur Comics". Despite being from the Oaxaca session, they are not tagged as "Original Version" on the Rhino Handmade CD, presumably as they are the only versions included.