It may be worth mentioning the story of Aquarius. Found this interesting story line here
1. The Point of No Return
Plot: The child is born with flippers. The family decide the best thing to do with this "circus freak" is to set it free into a stream. The end of the song sees the family living with the guilt.
2. Streams
Plot: This track sees a happy young mermaid in her childhood stream before being caught by something unseen, and the fate of the mermaid is passed into the hands of whatever it was that caught her.
3. Aquarium
Plot: Our mermaid is now being held in an aquarium and put on display for the paying public, which seems to be effecting her health and she is desperate for her freedom once more.
4. Eternal Rain
Plot: The catcher realises he has done wrong, and fears what fate has in store for him.
5. Drowning in the Flood
Plot: On his way to return the mermaid to the sea, the ship is wrecked. The mermaid manages to save her catcher, but at the cost of her own life.
6. Sun
Plot: The scene of the cover, with the mermaid vaporising in the wake of this tragedy.
7. Celestial Elixir
Plot: The mermaid is in the afterlife, leaving all those who encountered her to deal with their guilt and grief.
That's an interesting perspective on Aquarius' story. I myself have tried to figure out what's going on in the album based on the lyrics, but the results have been somewhat messier... I agree with this interpretation of The Point of No Return, but afterwards my interpretation differs on some things quite considerably:
- For example, I think that at the end of Streams the mermaid comes across some kind of oil spill in the ocean ("It suddenly hits me and crushes my world", "It suddenly bites me and poisons my veins"). Then the fisherman finds her (Aquarium) and makes money out of showing her to people.
- In Eternal Rain a second Great Flood begins ("The sky forgives no one / And the worst is yet to come", "Soaking right down to the bone / In your eternal rain") and then in Drowning in the Flood the mermaid is given up to scientists to figure out how to make humans breath underwater ("Please, teach me how the hell do I breathe down there", "I give in to temptation / She was never meant to be saved" (From Eternal Rain), " Only she can save our sorry souls / Priceless freedom coming at a heavy cost", "She knows her purpose is to die", "We were drowning, she was free / Now she's gone forever"). There seems to be some overlap between the story told by each song, but in Sun the mermaid dies as a result of the experiments ("I killed you / To save us all")
- In Celestial Elixir people drink the results of the experiments (a.k.a. the celestial elixir) and become mer-people ("Scales grow all over our skin"). The fisherman continues yearning to meet her again.
I know, it sounds crazy... It's just an interpretation...