“ A bedtime story for the children of the damned. From a dream world, paralleling our earth in time and space, the invisible ones have sent an agent who will dream the dream of history. With limitless power he becomes the greatest actor of the 19th century. Taking on many ingenious disguises, he places himself at pivotal junctures in history, continually altering its course and testing our ability to respond to the challenge of evil. His name is Imaginos ”Imaginos (1988)
Band members
Eric Bloom – lead vocals on tracks 1, 3, 4
Albert Bouchard – guitar, percussion, co-lead vocals on track 8, backing vocals, associate producer
Joe Bouchard – keyboards, backing vocals
Allen Lanier – keyboards
Donald 'Buck Dharma' Roeser – guitars, lead vocals on tracks 2, 6, 7, co-lead vocals on track 8
Session musicians
Tommy Morrongiello, Jack Rigg, Phil Grande – guitars
Tommy Zvoncheck – keyboards
Kenny Aaronson – bass
Thommy Price – drums
Joey Cerisano – lead vocals on track 5
Jon Rogers – lead vocals on tracks 1 and 9
Jack Secret – additional vocals
Shocking U – backing vocals on track 3
Daniel Levitin - guitar, backing vocals, sound design
Guitar Orchestra of the State of Imaginos
Marc Biedermann (lead guitar on track 1)
Kevin Carlson
Robby Krieger (lead guitar on tracks 7 and 8)
Tommy Morrongiello
Aldo Nova
Jack Rigg
Joe Satriani (lead guitar on track 5)
Technical personnel
Sandy Pearlman – producer, engineer, mixing
Corky Stasiak – basic tracks engineer
Paul Mandl - engineer
Steve Brown – mixing
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1. I Am the One You Warned Me Of A. Bouchard, Pearlman, Roeser 5:04
2. Les Invisibles A. Bouchard, Pearlman 5:33
3. In the Presence of Another World J. Bouchard, Pearlman 6:26
4. Del Rio's Song A. Bouchard, Pearlman 5:31
5. The Siege and Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria A. Bouchard, Pearlman 6:43
6. Astronomy J. Bouchard, A. Bouchard, Pearlman 6:47
7. Magna of Illusion A. Bouchard, Pearlman, Roeser 5:53
8. Blue Öyster Cult Eric Bloom, Pearlman 7:18
9. Imaginos A. Bouchard, Pearlman 5:46
Total length: 55:01
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The story behind how this album got made is nearly as incomprehensible as the story for this concept album. I’ll try to assemble a reader’s digest version.
As mentioned in the OP, Sandy Pearlman’s main motivation for getting into the recording business was to influence a group of players into writing music and performing his sci-fi/horror infused poems and stories, collectively known as “The Soft Doctrines of Imaginos”. Over the years, on nearly every album, a song or two based on this idea was recorded--especially during the first three albums. It was always in his mind, and largely Albert’s as well, that the band would record a concept album based solely on Pearlman’s writings. Everyone worked on the music initially but over the years everyone but Albert was increasingly resistant to the idea. Still by the time Spectres came out most of the music that appears on this album was written and four of the songs had even been demoed.
When Albert was fired in 1981 he saw it as an opportunity to complete the Imaginos saga as a solo project and through an advance secured by Pearlman (based on those Spectre demos) he was able to spend the next several years completing the rest of the demos. The concept was expanded and he and Pearlman saw the project as eventually filling three double albums. Allen, Joe and Buck, as well as Robby Krieger, all had guest appearances on this early recording. A nearly finished, 90 minute album was presented to the powers-that-be in 1984. They shelved the project citing poor vocals by Albert and lack of commercial viability. If you’d like to hear these 1984 demos simply search for “Imaginos Demos” on YouTube. The first listing should be a complete playlist. It’s pretty interesting stuff really.
After the failure of Club Ninja and the disbandment of BÖC in September of 1986, Pearlman pitched overdubbing the Imaginos recordings with the rest of the band and making it a Blue Öyster Cult release. He received a modest budget to get Buck and Eric to rerecord the vocals and to remix it. Buck claims he and Eric only did it out of respect for their past with Pearlman. Pearlman had the recordings remixed and with the help of studio musicians (which included Joe Satriani who traded studio time for his contribution) rerecorded much of Albert’s guitar work. In early 1987 Buck went out to San Francisco and spent 5 weeks recording vocals and to replace the rest of the guitar parts. Tommy Zvoncheck rerecorded nearly all the keyboards. Eric went in the studio in early 1988 to add his vocal parts finishing up the recording. But the budget had run out so nearly 40 minutes of the original concept was cut thus 95 minutes of music that became a 55 minute CD released in July. As a final slap to the project, the suits rearranged the songs from their chronological order…to make it more commercial.
Seriously, that was the Readers Digest version!
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This isn’t really a BÖC album, it’s an Albert Bouchard solo album with a crap-ton of guest musicians. Joe and Allen get top billing but their contributions were so small that Joe claims he can’t hear a single thing he played that remained. It’s also likely that anything Allen played was replaced by Zvoncheck. But I’m here to say, this is a great album if taken as a single piece of artistic vision and forgetting about who contributed what.
For me, Albert’s writing and arranging is what was sorely missing from Revölution and Ninja! Like Frankenstein’s monster, the beauty of this stitched together behemoth is in its dark, sober, relentless power. Gone are the comic songs and the self-conscious metal elements to be replaced by unabashed heaviness without total reliance on staccato riffing. This is the closest any music with this band’s name on it ever got to progressive rock, and with it’s heaviness it certainly qualifies as progressive metal. With a smothering paranoid atmosphere and an alluring symphony of madness, this album strives to be BÖC’s
Tommy or
Dark Side of the Moon. Yet it never quite makes it.
I think where it falls short is in subtlety. The mood can get a little overwhelming (depressing?), especially on repeated listens.
Del Rio’s Song is the only real moment musical respite we get and yet it still manages to maintain the tension. I feel it would have been greatly enhanced if some of the other band member’s personality had been included: Maybe a sprinkling of Bucks light-metal yet spooky vibe or Eric’s rocking boogie-pop. A moment or two of Allen’s honky-tonk piano or Joe’s hopeful and soaring synths would have provided enough contrast to lift the whole project higher.
It’s difficult to pick favorite moments since there are so many great ones but as individual compositions go, I really dig
In The Presence of Another World, the ponderously titled
The Siege And Investiture of Baron Von Frankstein’s Castle at Weisseria,
Magna of Illusion and
Blue Öyster Cult. Blue Öyster Cult is especially interesting in that it’s just a re-imagined and expanded version of
Subhuman from Secret Treaties. It’s so different though that it’s hardly recognizable but still awesome. The redone version of
Astronomy took some getting used to for me but I can finally say I get what Albert was going for--Buck really nails it. Still, there is something so earnest about Eric’s vocal performance and the dynamics of the original that it’s still my favorite version. I miss the quieter moments in this version. It’s impossible to know who did the lead guitar on
Les Invisibles but it smokes--with all the atmospheric whammy bar work, probably Aldo Nova.
The sound of the album is very 80’s in the same way The Dark Master described
The Revölution By Night and the expansive production really adds to the haunting mood of the album’s overall motif. Still, I can’t help but wonder if I’d like the sound even better if it weren’t so busy and had fewer echoes.
I hadn’t heard this album until about a year ago when I backed into it from Heaven Forbid. I can guarantee you that if I’d heard this album when it was released, I would have snatched it up immediately. Such was the lack of promotion by Sony and rather than look at themselves they put the blame completely on the band and dropped them; thus, ended a twenty year relationship and ushered in the age of lawsuits. Sony sued the band and Pearlman for album costs for Imaginos and Club Ninja and won, Albert sued Pearlman for production credits to Imaginos and settled out of court.
I'm sure someone sued someone else...And don’t forget my dog, fixed and consequent.
Edits: Horrible typos and grammar.
Topic: Blue Öyster Cult Discography: Curse of the Hidden Mirror (Read 43801 times)
