Imaginos [Original recording reissued]

Blue Oyster Cult | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 8, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: American Beat
• ASIN: B000XP42CO
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #154,955 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. I Am the One You Warned Me Of

2. Les Invisibles

3. In the Presence of Another World

4. Del Rio's Song

5. The Siege and Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria

6. Astronomy

7. Magna of Illusion

8. Blue Öyster Cult

9. Imaginos

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The lost jewel..., May 12, 2000

By 

Ilker Yucel "Kryptych" (Annapolis, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Why this album is out-of-print in America is beyond comprehension. From what I had gathered, it is one of the most revered and formidable albums Blue Öyster Cult had ever produced. It's been heralded as one of the best BÖC albums, and one of the best concept albums of all time. And yet, it's next to impossible to find. Why is this so? Unimaginable, because when I got my hands on a copy of this album, I was beyond impressed. This album brought dignity back to the BÖC name in the eighties (although the bad rap they got in the eighties for "Club Ninja" and "Revolution by Night" is so undeserved in my opinion...sure they weren't as great as the seventies albums, but they were still filled with great music). Recalling the songwriting skills of the departed drummer Al Bouchard, this album rocks with great anthems like "I Am the One You Warned Me Of," and the band's namesake "Blue Öyster Cult." The title track which closes the album is also a wonderful testament to the band's ability to produce music that is subtly eerie, yet as hard-hitting as the metal bands that they helped to inspire. Most notable on this album is the bold reworking of their "Secret Treaties" classic "Astronomy." Given a new sound, the new version lacks the climactic buildup the original had, but it still screams with power and still contains that warcry that made it a live spectacle. This version is much cleaner in terms of production quality and playing, and I love it just as much as the original. "Imaginos" is a brilliant epic that truly deserves more recognition. To hell with commercial success, for nothing can replace pure songwriting talent. Blue Öyster Cult are a band for the ages, and may their name live on in the minds of true fans like myself.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, for a concept album, December 13, 2005

By 

K. Mays (memphis tn) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Imaginos (Audio CD)

Imaginos is an album I have to be in the mood to listen to; it doesn't lend itself to casual persual. That said, there are some really great tracks on here, Astronomy (which completely owns the original IMO), IATOYWMO, Les Invisibles, and Blue Oyster Cult. These tracks can stand tall on their musical merit alone.

As for the lyrics, they are out there on the 'net if you Google them. When I found them I realized the actual lyrics were beyond anything I could imagine, and the casual listener is hard pressed to make much sense out of them. The BOC FAQ explains the story of Imaginos, which is begun in the liner notes, and I paraphrase below:

The Saga of Imaginos begins with the discovery of the New World by the Spanish. "To the Spanish, agents of a Catholic Sovereign, the New World was no place of grace ... anti-genesis, anti-Eden, seat of evil, pit of darkness ... the priests in the expeditions could imagine no place worse than this place ... visibly in the thrall of invisible spirits." These spirits: Les Invisibles - The Invisible Ones.

It is assumed that the Indians of the New World (in particular, the Aztecs and the Haitians) worshipped Les Invisibles (which we also assume to number seven).

If rich in its evil, the New World was also rich in its gold.
Greed overcame fear. Civilizations were wiped out (under the guise of religious purification), and Spanish power in Europe rose, fueled by the gold from the New World.

In the early 1800's, Les Invisibles cause the birth of a 'modified' child - Imaginos - in New Hampshire. His powers include the ability to see the future to some degree and to change his shape. Ignorant of his future role and billing himself as somewhat of an adventurer, he travels the Americas. During a sea voyage, the boat is shipwrecked near land. As Imaginos lies on the shore, seriously injured and dying, his friends, the survivors of the shipwreck, leave him alone to die "on a shore where oyster beds seem plush as down". The morning tide washes in and he drowns.

This shipwreck, however, was no accident. Knowing who and what he is and the role carved for him in future events, he agrees to become the Invisible Ones' agent on earth; he becomes one of the "Blue Oyster Cult", the servants of Les Invisibles. Les Invisibles, acting through the "oyster boys" (some kind of fish-like creature) resurrect Imaginos from the dead. He is now their agent, "unleashed to forge a new destiny; he is Imaginos called Desdinova."

"I Am the One You Warned Me Of" - Imaginos, reborn, fully aware of who and what he is.

In his later travels, Imaginos visits an Aztec temple, containing a mirror carved of blackest obsidian, tempered with blood.
Obviously a magic mirror, it is nothing less than the Magna of Illusion: the last song in the cycle. In it Imaginos, now playing the of an old English sea captain in the 1890's, takes the mirror from Mexico to England to give to his granddaughter on her birthday. Here its power causes evil and bloodshed to incubate in Europe, culminating in World War I.

"In the Presence of Another World" - Imaginos, the earthly agent of Les Invisibles, still aware of his former self, but now so much more, and forebodings of the evil to come. "The Siege and Investiture of Baron Von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria" - the continuation of Les Invisibles' influence on earth - earlier, through corruption by gold, now through corruption by technology.

There are also are hints that Imaginos and Les Invisibles are extraterrestrial in origin (allusions to the galactic abyss, star clocks, modulating space).

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Critics love to trash this one because it's not a "real" BOC album, March 23, 2008

By 

Mike (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Imaginos (Audio CD)

OK, it may have started out as a great "concept album" in the mind of Sandy Pearlman. It may have grown into a Joe Bouchard solo album, which stretched out over multiple recording dates. It may have ended up as the "final" BOC album in 1988 because of the fact that Joe Bouchard was joined in sessions by Eric Bloom, Allen Lanier, Buck Dharma and Albert Bouchard.

So WHAT?

It's got the bone-rattling, truly unique "The Siege and Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein's Castle At Weisseria," featuring Joey Cerisano and Jon Rogers on additional lead vocals and the unforgettable shout/chant/refrain "CARPE DIEM" followed by doomsday crashing riff-heavy guitars, and the opening track "I Am the One You Warned Me Of," which is easily as good as any of the tracks on the early BOC albums.

There's also a remake of two songs from the second album ("Tyranny & Mutation"), "Astronomy" and "Subhuman" (which is retitled "Blue Oyster Cult" here).

Sometimes it pays to focus on what an album IS as opposed to what it ISN'T.

This one will shake the fillings loose from your teeth. It may be a patchwork quilt but it rocks like a mother, and the fact that it's back on CD is worth celebrating.