135-451: Imaginos is the eleventh studio album by the American rock band Blue Öyster Cult . It was released in 1988, and was their last recording with their original record label , CBS/Columbia Records . The album took nearly eight years to complete and was originally intended to be the first in a trilogy of solo albums by Blue Öyster Cult drummer and songwriter Albert Bouchard . Bouchard
270-408: A rock opera to be published as a trilogy of double albums , with a storyline encompassing about two hundred years of history, from the beginning of the 19th century to the end of the 20th. This album represents an abbreviated version of the first volume of that planned trilogy, but with the songs arranged out of order, rendering the story harder to comprehend. Even when the song lyrics are analyzed in
405-420: A "live" sound. Recordings, including live, may contain editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology , artists can be recorded in separate rooms or at separate times while listening to the other parts using headphones ; with each part recorded as a separate track . Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of
540-581: A book on the Imaginos mythos entitled Flaming Telepaths: Imaginos Expanded and Specified . In the spring of 2020, an announcement was made on www.goldminemag.com that Albert Bouchard would be releasing ReImaginos , his own reinvention of the concept of Imaginos , in the fall of 2020. Bouchard eventually released 3 albums based on the concept: ReImaginos (2020), Imaginos II - Bombs Over Germany (Minus Zero And Counting) (2021), and Imaginos III - Mutant Reformation (2023). Studio album An album
675-458: A brown heavy paper sleeve with a large hole in the center so the record's label could be seen. The fragile records were stored on their sides. By the mid-1920s, photo album publishers sold collections of empty sleeves of heavier paper in bound volumes with stiff covers slightly larger than the 10" popular records. (Classical records measured 12".) On the paper cover in small type were the words "Record Album". Now records could be stored vertically with
810-461: A choice – die as a human, or live as their servant ( "Blue Öyster Cult" ). Imaginos accepts their offer, and is resurrected from the dead by the Blue Öyster Cult, the servants of Les Invisibles. He is inducted into the cult and given a new name - Desdinova, "Eternal Light". He realizes that his descent and the origin of his powers comes from the stars where his masters live and becomes aware of his role in
945-412: A collection of pieces or songs on a single record was called an "album"; the word was extended to other recording media such as compact disc, MiniDisc , compact audio cassette, 8-track tape and digital albums as they were introduced. An album (Latin albus , white), in ancient Rome, was a board chalked or painted white, on which decrees, edicts, and other public notices were inscribed in black. It
1080-728: A comparison of arrangements, vocals and sound with the version published in 1988. Imaginos was re-issued only once, through Sony BMG sub-label American Beat Records in December 2007. The 2007 reissue was remastered to adjust the volume levels and included a CD sleeve with corrected, but not complete, credits. A new remastered version of Imaginos is included in The Columbia Albums Collection boxed set, issued by Sony/ Legacy in November 2012. Blue Öyster Cult interrupted their schedule of US shows only just before
1215-403: A compilation of songs created by any average listener of music. The songs on a mixtape generally relate to one another in some way, whether it be a conceptual theme or an overall sound. After the introduction of Compact discs, the term "Mixtape" began to apply to any personal compilation of songs on any given format. The sales of Compact Cassettes eventually began to decline in the 1990s, after
1350-481: A credit as co-producer, and to be paid accordingly. After the disbandment of Blue Öyster Cult, he contacted the other band members in an attempt to organize a 1987 reunion tour, with the original line-up, to promote Imaginos . His economic and membership requests were both rejected, due to resistances within the label and within the band, so he filed a lawsuit in 1989 against the management of Blue Öyster Cult and Columbia Records to receive payment for his work. The lawsuit
1485-424: A current or former member of a musical group which is released under that artist's name only, even though some or all other band members may be involved. The solo album appeared as early as the late 1940s. A 1947 Billboard magazine article heralded " Margaret Whiting huddling with Capitol execs over her first solo album on which she will be backed by Frank De Vol ". There is no formal definition setting forth
SECTION 10
#17327729352461620-561: A customer buys a whole album rather than just one or two songs from the artist. The song is not necessarily free nor is it available as a stand-alone download, adding also to the incentive to buy the complete album. In contrast to hidden tracks , bonus tracks are included on track listings and usually do not have a gap of silence between other album tracks. Bonus tracks on CD or vinyl albums are common in Japan for releases by European and North American artists; since importing international copies of
1755-461: A few hours to several years. This process usually requires several takes with different parts recorded separately, and then brought or " mixed " together. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed "live", even when done in a studio. Studios are built to absorb sound, eliminating reverberation , to assist in mixing different takes; other locations, such as concert venues and some "live rooms", have reverberation, which creates
1890-426: A great extent. Although often referred to as a dream, the concept behind Imaginos is what Pearlman described as "an interpretation of history – an explanation for the onset of World War I , or a revelation of the occult origins of it", which he crafted on elements of mythology , sociology, alchemy , science and occultism . This "combination of horror story and fairy tale" cites historical facts and characters, and
2025-472: A member of Blue Öyster Cult, re-recorded most of the keyboards on the album. The last parts recorded were the lead vocals by Eric Bloom, who was in the studio in early 1988. Donald Roeser later summed up his and Bloom's late involvement in the making of the album by saying " Imaginos was our parting of the ways. That was something that Eric and I agreed to do, sort of, out of respect for Sandy and his effort that he made with Imaginos ". The as-imagined album and
2160-472: A mystery. "Career of Evil" was the inspiration for the title of the 2015 novel of the same name written by J.K. Rowling under the pen name Robert Galbraith. The compilation Don't Fear the Reaper: The Best of Blue Öyster Cult contains a version of "Flaming Telepaths" without the music box intro. The original version with the complete sound effects is found on the compilation Workshop of
2295-409: A nine-month layoff, the band returned to activity and Allen Lanier re-joined. The European shows were a success, and the reformed line-up of Bloom, Roeser, Lanier, Jon Rogers and drummer Ron Riddle worked well together on stage. Blue Öyster Cult returned to the road in 1987 and 1988 with renewed enthusiasm, but without a new album to promote, until the release of Imaginos . Imaginos was envisioned as
2430-464: A piece of classical music played on a music box . Members of the band recall that it was something the sound engineer had found on an unlabeled recording, but they could not identify it. The piece and its composer were uncredited on the album. It has since been identified as an excerpt from a waltz by Ion Ivanovici called Waves of the Danube (Donauwellen). The source of the original recording remains
2565-445: A project of producer and lyricist Sandy Pearlman than as a true album of the band. Imaginos weaves scripts and poems by Pearlman, dating from the second half of the 1960s, into a concept album and rock opera about an alien conspiracy that is brought to fruition during the late 19th and early 20th century through the actions of Imaginos, an agent of evil. The tale combines elements of gothic literature and science fiction and
2700-480: A recording contract for the next ten years. Eric Bloom stated that "in general, CBS was straight with us, when we had fans working inside the company", but after "3-4 different Presidents of the company came and went" the commercial appeal of Blue Öyster Cult had disappeared for the new management. A review of their performance at The Ritz in New York on January 6, 1989, highlights the good shape and musicianship of
2835-444: A restaurant perched on the cliffs just north of Ocean Beach on the western side of San Francisco, California, built with the architectural style of a Victorian château and destroyed by fire in 1907. The back cover is a maritime landscape, modified to appear as the continuation of the picture on the front and similarly tinted in sinister black and grey colors. The inner sleeve, besides the credits and Sandy Pearlman's lengthy notes on
SECTION 20
#17327729352462970-508: A sell-out". Despite it being "the band's heaviest, fulfilling many a fan’s wish for sustained metal", Popoff finds "the whole thing perched on the edge of parody, too dressy and fantastical lyrically in a painfully self-conscious way, (...) a laborious exercise in expected weird", ultimately "a baffling yet anticlimactic punctuation to the band’s perplexed career". A reviewer from the Italian music criticism site Storia della Musica points out that
3105-471: A single artist, genre or period, a single artist covering the songs of various artists or a single artist, genre or period, or any variation of an album of cover songs which is marketed as a "tribute". Secret Treaties Secret Treaties is the third studio album by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult , released on April 5, 1974 by Columbia . It features the same band members and production team as their previous album. The album spent 14 weeks in
3240-522: A single case, or a triple album containing three LPs or compact discs. Recording artists who have an extensive back catalogue may re-release several CDs in one single box with a unified design, often containing one or more albums (in this scenario, these releases can sometimes be referred to as a "two (or three)-fer"), or a compilation of previously unreleased recordings. These are known as box sets . Some musical artists have also released more than three compact discs or LP records of new recordings at once, in
3375-433: A solo album for several reasons. A solo performer working with other members will typically have full creative control of the band, be able to hire and fire accompanists, and get the majority of the proceeds. The performer may be able to produce songs that differ widely from the sound of the band with which the performer has been associated, or that the group as a whole chose not to include in its own albums. Graham Nash of
3510-552: A spin-off of Blue Öyster Cult main discography, although some fan opinion holds that Columbia Records had intended all along that the recordings would result in a new Blue Öyster Cult album. Albert Bouchard and Pearlman set up the recording of the basic tracks for the first album of the trilogy in June 1982, with sound engineers Corky Stasiak and Paul Mandl at Kingdom Sound Studios in Long Island, New York , and at The Boogie Hotel,
3645-574: A studio owned by the boogie rock band Foghat and located in a large Victorian mansion in Port Jefferson, New York . At the same time and in the same facilities, Blue Öyster Cult were recording the album The Revölution by Night with producer Bruce Fairbairn . Albert Bouchard sang lead vocals and played guitar on all tracks, accompanied by: The guitar solos by The Doors ' Robby Krieger , who had played live with Blue Öyster Cult on Extraterrestrial Live , and guitar parts by Aldo Nova and
3780-414: A studio. However, the common understanding of a "live album" is one that was recorded at a concert with a public audience, even when the recording is overdubbed or multi-tracked. Concert or stage performances are recorded using remote recording techniques. Albums may be recorded at a single concert , or combine recordings made at multiple concerts. They may include applause, laughter and other noise from
3915-516: A superpower coincided with John Dee's acquisition of a magic obsidian mirror from Mexico, which serves as a bridge between Les Invisibles' alien world and ours, and the means to spread their influence on Earth. Some fans see Les Invisibles' actions in favour of England against Spain as a sort of vengeance for the extermination by the conquistadores of their worshippers in Central America, while others view their intervention as only part of
4050-406: A theme such as the "greatest hits" from one artist, B-sides and rarities by one artist, or selections from a record label , a musical genre , a certain time period, or a regional music scene. Promotional sampler albums are compilations. A tribute or cover album is a compilation of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may involve various artists covering the songs of
4185-516: A trend of shifting sales in the music industry , some observers feel that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album . An album may contain any number of tracks. In the United States, The Recording Academy 's rules for Grammy Awards state that an album must comprise a minimum total playing time of 15 minutes with at least five distinct tracks or a minimum total playing time of 30 minutes with no minimum track requirement. In
Imaginos - Misplaced Pages Continue
4320-430: A way of promoting the album. Albums have been issued that are compilations of older tracks not originally released together, such as singles not originally found on albums, b-sides of singles, or unfinished " demo " recordings. Double albums during the seventies were sometimes sequenced for record changers . In the case of a two-record set, for example, sides 1 and 4 would be stamped on one record, and sides 2 and 3 on
4455-469: Is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music ) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette ), or digital . Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records (78s) collected in a bound book resembling a photo album ; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl long-playing (LP) records played at 33 + 1 ⁄ 3 rpm . The album
4590-580: Is any vocal content. A track that has the same name as the album is called the title track. A bonus track (also known as a bonus cut or bonus) is a piece of music which has been included as an extra. This may be done as a marketing promotion, or for other reasons. It is not uncommon to include singles, B-sides , live recordings , and demo recordings as bonus tracks on re-issues of old albums, where those tracks were not originally included. Online music stores allow buyers to create their own albums by selecting songs themselves; bonus tracks may be included if
4725-510: Is during the so-called Dog Days of August, when Sirius is in conjunction with the Sun that their influence over mankind is at its apex. By subtly influencing the minds of men, the beings are said to be "playing with our history as if it's a game", affecting events in world history over the course of centuries. For the three centuries after European discovery of the New World, this game plays out as
4860-403: Is filled with literate references to ancient civilizations in a conspiracy theory of epic proportions, the subject of which is the manipulation of the course of human history. Central to this story are Les Invisibles (The Invisible Ones), a group of seven beings worshipped by the natives of Mexico and Haiti prior to the arrival of Spanish colonists in the 16th century, identified by some fans as
4995-451: Is in lime green . Lyrics to the lead-off track "Career of Evil" were written by future punk poet Patti Smith , a longtime contributor to the band (and, at the time, girlfriend of BÖC keyboardist and rhythm guitarist Allen Lanier ). A few changes were made to "Career of Evil" on the single version. The vocals are different: only Eric Bloom is heard for most of the song, instead of Bloom and Albert Bouchard singing together. Also, one verse
5130-419: Is left for dead by the other survivors. As he lies dying "on a shore where oyster beds seem plush as down", Imaginos is addressed by a symphony of voices who identify themselves as Les Invisibles. Imaginos' true nature is revealed to him, and he is informed that the circumstances of his entire life have been manipulated to bring him to that specific moment in time. Having explained themselves to him, they offer him
5265-555: Is not necessarily just in MP3 file format, in which higher quality formats such as FLAC and WAV can be used on storage media that MP3 albums reside on, such as CD-R-ROMs , hard drives , flash memory (e.g. thumbdrives , MP3 players , SD cards ), etc. The contents of the album are usually recorded in a studio or live in concert, though may be recorded in other locations, such as at home (as with JJ Cale's Okie , Beck's Odelay , David Gray's White Ladder , and others), in
5400-558: Is often considered the heaviest produced by Blue Öyster Cult, the best attempt by the band to produce a heavy metal album. Critics and fans point to elements of progressive rock also present in the music, which create a dark and "ominous" atmosphere that fits the obscure content of the song lyrics. Artist Greg Scott, who had supplied the cover art for the Blue Öyster Cult albums Fire of Unknown Origin , Extraterrestrial Live and The Revolution by Night , worked with Sandy Pearlman for several months in 1984 to prepare paintings inspired by
5535-402: Is recorded on both the "A" and "B" side of the tape, with cassette being "turned" to play the other side of the album. Compact Cassettes were also a popular way for musicians to record " Demos " or "Demo Tapes" of their music to distribute to various record labels, in the hopes of acquiring a recording contract . Compact cassettes also saw the creation of mixtapes , which are tapes containing
Imaginos - Misplaced Pages Continue
5670-506: Is strongly inspired by the work of H. P. Lovecraft . Subtitled "a bedtime story for the children of the damned", it has an intricate storyline whose often-obscure lyrics contain many historical references, prompting speculation by fans and critics. It is often considered one of the heaviest albums released by Blue Öyster Cult, its music more akin to heavy metal than the melodic and commercial hard rock of their two previous works. The poor sales of those albums resulted in record label pressure on
5805-563: The Imaginos plot. The band sought to separate creatively from Pearlman in the late 1970s; they avoided his lyrics and concepts and refused to record an album entirely dedicated to Imaginos, but eventually returned to his material for the lyrics of "Shadow of California" (from The Revölution by Night of 1983) and "When the War Comes" (from Club Ninja of 1985). Pearlman and Albert Bouchard hoped to record such an album, and as far back as 1972 had begun to write songs directly inspired by
5940-521: The Imaginos saga for the gatefold cover of the expected double album. "And none of that was ever seen, because it was shelved", Scott remarked in an interview with Canadian journalist Martin Popoff . The art direction for the 1988 release was instead put in the hands of CBS Records' art director Arnold Levine and his staff. They based the cover art on a fin de siècle image of the Cliff House ,
6075-402: The Imaginos script are scattered out-of-context throughout the songs of the first four albums, where the original meanings are lost to listeners unaware of the larger picture. The resulting mystery feeds fan fascination for the music of Blue Öyster Cult, and is responsible for their reputation as "the world's brainiest heavy metal band". Much fan speculation centers around lyrics' relationship to
6210-478: The Imaginos script. The adapted and amended rhymes of Pearlman, along with his friend and colleague Richard Meltzer 's arcane writings, were used as lyrics for most of the band's early songs; musician and writer Lenny Kaye recalls in his introduction to the re-mastered edition of their first album that "the band kept a folder full of Meltzer's and Pearlman's word associations in their rehearsal room, and would leaf through it, setting fragments to music". Fragments of
6345-499: The Imaginos storyline, while Pearlman's deliberate reticence and misleading in revealing his sources only augments the obscurity of the matter. During the band's first period of activity, the theme of the alien conspiracy became more defined and predominant in the mind of its author, to the point that notes on the cover of their 1974 album Secret Treaties referred to the secret history conceived by Pearlman, while its songs " Astronomy " and "Subhuman" contained lyrics fully dedicated to
6480-594: The Loa of the Voodoo religion. The nature of Les Invisibles is left unclear, although it is hinted that they may be extraterrestrials, or beings akin to the Great Old Ones in the works of H. P. Lovecraft. An interpretation of the lyrics of the song "Astronomy" by some fans suggests that the star Sirius is of particular astrological significance to Les Invisibles, with clues identifying it as their place of origin; it
6615-474: The ballad "The Girl That Love Made Blind" and a couple of chorales , was presented to Columbia Records executives in 1984. They rejected the album and decided to shelve it, officially because of Albert Bouchard's vocals and the lack of commercial perspectives. Despite the firm intention of Sandy Pearlman and Albert Bouchard to salvage the project, the recordings remained unfinished and untouched for more than two years due to lack of funding. While struggling with
6750-456: The hermaphroditic Imaginos is of particular interest to Les Invisibles, who begin investing him with superhuman abilities while he is young. Unaware of his true destiny or nature, the young Imaginos finds out that he is apparently able to change his appearance at will and to see the future ( "Imaginos" ). As the child becomes an adult he finds himself affected by wanderlust and, billing himself as an adventurer, sets out to explore Texas and
6885-520: The iPod , US album sales dropped 54.6% from 2001 to 2009. The CD is a digital data storage device which permits digital recording technology to be used to record and play-back the recorded music. Most recently, the MP3 audio format has matured, revolutionizing the concept of digital storage. Early MP3 albums were essentially CD-rips created by early CD- ripping software, and sometimes real-time rips from cassettes and vinyl. The so-called "MP3 album"
SECTION 50
#17327729352467020-524: The 1970s. Appraising the concept in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau said most "are profit-taking recaps marred by sound and format inappropriate to phonographic reproduction (you can't put sights, smells, or fellowship on audio tape). But for Joe Cocker and Bette Midler and Bob-Dylan -in-the-arena, the form makes a compelling kind of sense." Among
7155-443: The 25-minute mark. The album Dopesmoker by Sleep contains only a single track, but the composition is over 63 minutes long. There are no formal rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as "albums". If an album becomes too long to fit onto a single vinyl record or CD, it may be released as a double album where two vinyl LPs or compact discs are packaged together in
7290-402: The American weird fiction author " H. P. Lovecraft and other writers of that ilk", as well as for books on modern warfare and conspiracies. Established by 1967 as a critic for the seminal US music magazine Crawdaddy! , Pearlman was also the mentor, manager and producer for the band Soft White Underbelly, which, after various name changes, became Blue Öyster Cult , a term taken from
7425-511: The Blue Öyster Cult name on the cover as "only a commercial decoy" for an Albert Bouchard solo album. The album entered the Billboard 200 album chart on August 19, 1988, peaked at No. 122, and exited the charts on October 8. It sold about 50,000 copies in the US, and was a commercial failure for Columbia Records and a financial failure for the band, which was forced through legal action to pay back
7560-563: The Cult's trademark cross and claw since 1974's Secret Treaties ", but remarks that the "lengthy gestation" of the album and the many musicians involved makes it "a bit of a cheat for Cult Purists", and that is "only an illusionary re-creation of the way BÖC used to be". William Ruhlmann of AllMusic wrote that Imaginos is "the album that comes closest to defining Blue Öyster Cult" and their "creative swan song", and "perhaps BÖC's most consistent album, certainly its most uncompromising (...) and also
7695-496: The Hollies described his experience in developing a solo album as follows: "The thing that I go through that results in a solo album is an interesting process of collecting songs that can't be done, for whatever reason, by a lot of people". A solo album may also represent the departure of the performer from the group. A compilation album is a collection of material from various recording projects or various artists, assembled with
7830-545: The Imaginos story, sports a large black and white photo by landscape British photographer Simon Marsden of Duntrune Castle in Argyllshire , Scotland. The credits printed on the sleeve of the first release were largely incomplete and made no distinction between the recording sessions of 1982-84 and those of 1987-88, apparently validating the false assumption that the original line-up of Blue Öyster Cult had reunited for
7965-458: The Imaginos story. Nonetheless, with the exception of the extracts used for song lyrics, the text of The Soft Doctrines of Imaginos remains to this day largely unknown and unpublished. The commercial success of the single " (Don't Fear) The Reaper " in 1976, and a series of Platinum and Gold discs in the following years, placed pressure on the band as their label, Columbia Records , expected them to repeat these successes. Despite good sales of
8100-950: The One You Warned Me Of", "In the Presence of Another World" and the new version of "Astronomy". Blue Öyster Cult visited Canada in January 1989, France in February, the United Kingdom in March, and concluded their European tour in Germany in April. During the following US tour, the new management of Columbia Records, which had been sold to Sony Music in 1988, terminated Columbia's almost 20-year relationship with Blue Öyster Cult because of their low sales. This left them without
8235-628: The Telescopes . The psychedelic folk group Espers covers "Flaming Telepaths" on their CD The Weed Tree in 2005. In addition the conventional 2 channel stereo version the album was also released in a 4 channel quadraphonic version on LP record and 8-track tape in 1974. The quad LP release was encoded in the SQ matrix system. The album was reissued on the Super Audio CD format in 2016 by Audio Fidelity. This edition contains both
SECTION 60
#17327729352468370-558: The US album charts, peaking at No. 53. It was certified gold by the RIAA in 1992. In 1975, a poll of readers of the British magazine Melody Maker voted Secret Treaties the "Top Rock Album of All Time". In 2010, Rhapsody called it one of the all-time best "proto-metal" albums. It is the only BÖC album that does not feature a track with lead vocals sung by guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser . The band also did not write any of
8505-527: The United Kingdom, the criteria for the UK Albums Chart is that a recording counts as an "album" if it either has more than four tracks or lasts more than 25 minutes. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs . Albums such as Tubular Bells , Amarok , and Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield , and Yes's Close to the Edge , include fewer than four tracks, but still surpass
8640-454: The album Fire of Unknown Origin and the single " Burnin' for You ", in August 1981 the conflicts and the stress accumulated in more than ten years of cohabitation led to the firing of drummer Albert Bouchard, a founding member and an important contributor to the songwriting and sound of the group, allegedly for unstable behavior. The relationship between the former band mates remained tense in
8775-552: The album abroad and produced a music video for "Astronomy" in the UK, which aired in coincidence with the European tour dates of 1989. The video clip does not feature members of the band, but begins with the spoken introduction by Stephen King and focuses on the storyline narrated in the album. Albert Bouchard had been completely excluded from the retooling of the album for contractual reasons, but hoped to have his long work rewarded with
8910-413: The album can be cheaper than buying a domestically released version, Japanese releases often feature bonus tracks to incentivize domestic purchase. Commercial sheet music is published in conjunction with the release of a new album (studio, compilation, soundtrack, etc.). A matching folio songbook is a compilation of the music notation of all the songs included in that particular album. It typically has
9045-542: The album is now a 'cult' item for its rarity, its content and the scarce love shown by the band for this work. He writes that "it could have been the Tommy or The Dark Side of the Moon of BÖC" but, "despite the profound influences it evokes", its "mutilated and sabotaged form" and the disinterest of the musicians involved makes Imaginos only a wasted opportunity. The reviews posted by Blue Öyster Cult's fans and by buyers of
9180-401: The album on the customer review site Epinions and on the online collaborative metadata database Rate Your Music are in general quite positive, praising Imaginos as a "creative masterpiece", but underlining that the work is not a group effort but "the brain-child of original drummer Albert Bouchard and longtime producer and lyricist Sandy Pearlman". A professional Italian reviewer describes
9315-672: The album release in June 1988, to familiarize the band members with the new material. The 1987 formation with Bloom, Roeser, Lanier, Rogers and Riddle remained the closest available to a full reunion, given Joe Bouchard's unwillingness to participate and the opposition to Albert Bouchard. The Imaginos Tour began in the East Coast of the US in July, and continued on to most of the States. The set lists were based mainly on old material and included only two or three songs from Imaginos , usually "I Am
9450-526: The album's artwork on its cover and, in addition to sheet music, it includes photos of the artist. Most pop and rock releases come in standard Piano/Vocal/Guitar notation format (and occasionally Easy Piano / E-Z Play Today). Rock-oriented releases may also come in Guitar Recorded Versions edition, which are note-for-note transcriptions written directly from artist recordings. Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one-half of
9585-463: The album. If a pop or rock album contained tracks released separately as commercial singles , they were conventionally placed in particular positions on the album. During the sixties, particularly in the UK, singles were generally released separately from albums. Today, many commercial albums of music tracks feature one or more singles, which are released separately to radio, TV or the Internet as
9720-479: The amount of participation a band member can solicit from other members of their band, and still have the album referred to as a solo album. One reviewer wrote that Ringo Starr 's third venture, Ringo , "[t]echnically... wasn't a solo album because all four Beatles appeared on it". Three of the four members of the Beatles released solo albums while the group was officially still together. A performer may record
9855-433: The as-released album bear little relation to each other. The final version of Imaginos is almost forty minutes shorter than the first version of 1984 and has two fewer songs, but as Pearlman explained, "we ran out of money and couldn't do the whole thing". The rhythm section of the original recording was kept mostly intact, but many guitars and most of the keyboards and lead vocals were re-recorded or remixed. The song order
9990-510: The audience, comments by the performers between pieces, improvisation, and so on. They may use multitrack recording direct from the stage sound system (rather than microphones placed among the audience), and can employ additional manipulation and effects during post-production to enhance the quality of the recording. Notable early live albums include the double album of Benny Goodman , The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert , released in 1950. Live double albums later became popular during
10125-436: The band and the label to protect his rights as author and producer on the album. Blue Öyster Cult continued to perform and remained a live attraction, but ten years passed before they released an album of new songs. The concept and the character of Imaginos were originally created by the young Sandy Pearlman for a collection of poems and scripts called The Soft Doctrines of Imaginos (sometimes reported as Immaginos), written in
10260-518: The band that led to their disbandment in 1986; a subsequent comeback featured only three members of the classic line-up. The album received some critical acclaim, but was not a commercial success, and Columbia Records ended their contract with Blue Öyster Cult at the completion of the Imaginos Tour. Albert Bouchard, excluded from the recording progress of Imaginos after the initial rejection from Columbia Records, then took legal action against
10395-485: The band, but remarks that the new songs were played with considerably less enthusiasm than the rest of the show. Although the band continued to tour regularly, the songs from Imaginos had already disappeared from their shows by the end of 1989, never to be performed live again. Imaginos received mixed reviews both from professional critics and fans. David Fricke , in his review for the magazine Rolling Stone , considers Imaginos "the best black-plastic blitz to bear
10530-406: The best selling live albums are Eric Clapton 's Unplugged (1992), selling over 26 million copies, Garth Brooks ' Double Live (1998), over 21 million copies, and Peter Frampton 's Frampton Comes Alive! (1976), over 11 million copies. In Rolling Stone ' s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time , 18 albums were live albums. A solo album , in popular music , is an album recorded by
10665-446: The cassette tape throughout the 1970s and early 1980s; the popularity of the cassette reached its peak during the late 1980s before sharply declining during the 1990s. The cassette had largely disappeared by the first decade of the 2000s. Most albums are recorded in a studio , although they may also be recorded in a concert venue , at home, in the field, or a mix of places. The time frame for completely recording an album varies between
10800-399: The chronological order that was devised by the authors and is followed in this section, the narrative progression is scarce and the content often difficult to decipher for the casual reader. However, thanks to various comments in interviews by Pearlman and Bouchard, and the extensive sleeve notes by Pearlman that were issued with the original release, it is possible to reconstruct the story to
10935-432: The closest thing to a real heavy-metal statement from a band that never quite fit that description". For Don Kaye of Kerrang! , the album is "the best BÖC slab since (...) Cultösaurus Erectus and harks back in style and attitude towards the brilliance of masterpieces like Secret Treaties and Spectres ". A contrary evaluation comes from Blue Öyster Cult biographer Martin Popoff, who has "come to dismiss it as somewhat of
11070-472: The desire for gold is used to transform Spain into the dominant power in Europe, only to be usurped by England in the 17th century and later, through technology, by other nations ( "Les Invisibles" ). The principal story begins in August 1804, with the birth of a "modified child" called Imaginos, in the American state of New Hampshire . Because of the astrological significance of the place and time of his birth,
11205-624: The field – as with early blues recordings, in prison, or with a mobile recording unit such as the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio . Most albums are studio albums —that is, they are recorded in a recording studio with equipment meant to give those overseeing the recording as much control as possible over the sound of the album. They minimize external noises and reverberations and have highly sensitive microphones and sound mixing equipment. Band members may record their parts in separate rooms or at separate times, listening to
11340-546: The final mix of the album in 1988. The new recordings, overdubs by other uncredited musicians, and mixing lasted until 1984. Musicians involved in this second phase of recording included future BÖC keyboard player Tommy Zvoncheck, who had already played with Clarence Clemons , Public Image Ltd and The Dream Syndicate . An almost-finished product that comprised more than ninety minutes of music and whose thirteen tracks included re-arranged versions of "Astronomy" and "Subhuman" (retitled "Blue Öyster Cult"), "Gil Blanco County",
11475-516: The following years. Old feuds resurfaced during a short reunion tour with the original line-up in 1985, with the result that no one in the band accepted A. Bouchard back in Blue Öyster Cult. However, A. Bouchard still hoped to be reinstated in the band through his work done for Imaginos . Albert Bouchard's departure started a rotation of personnel in the formerly stable band roster, which by 1986 left only Eric Bloom and Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser as original members. Allen Lanier left in 1985 during
11610-500: The form of a prototype. Compact Cassettes became especially popular during the 1980s after the advent of the Sony Walkman , which allowed the person to control what they listened to. The Walkman was convenient because of its size, the device could fit in most pockets and often came equipped with a clip for belts or pants. The compact cassette used double-sided magnetic tape to distribute music for commercial sale. The music
11745-480: The form of boxed sets, although in that case the work is still usually considered to be an album. Material (music or sounds) is stored on an album in sections termed tracks. A music track (often simply referred to as a track) is an individual song or instrumental recording. The term is particularly associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks; the term is also used for other formats such as EPs and singles . When vinyl records were
11880-465: The hits produced by Blue Öyster Cult. With Imaginos again a work in progress at the end of 1986, band manager Steve Schenk contacted Albert Bouchard to get the original recordings he still owned. Pearlman, with the help of engineers Paul Mandl and Steve Brown, spent his time cleaning up, re-arranging and remixing the original recordings, using state-of-the-art technology and the collaborations of studio musicians. Virtuoso guitarist Joe Satriani financed
12015-415: The jungles of Yucatán he finds an undiscovered Mayan pyramid . Following a long passage into the interior of the pyramid he discovers a chamber carved from solid jade, in which he finds the "Magna of Illusion", a twin of Dee's magic mirror. Stealing away with the artifact, he returns to Cornwall a year to the day of his departure, which coincides with the tenth birthday of his granddaughter. Imaginos gives
12150-613: The late 1960s and recorded in the unpublished Elektra album of the Stalk-Forrest Group (now available as St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings ), has short and elusive lyrics apparently detailing the escape of Imaginos from Texas to Arizona . The other song, "The Girl That Love Made Blind", is an Albert Bouchard composition which explains that Imaginos' powers include the capacity of moving "in and through time", assuming different identities in every moment of history. Albert Bouchard began writing music for Imaginos following
12285-522: The late Kevin Carlson, guitarist of the Aldo Nova Band, should also be ascribed to these recording sessions. According to Bouchard, Jeff Kawalik, Corky Stasiak, Helen Wheels, Glen Bell, Peggy Atkins and Casper McCloud were among the uncredited background vocalists which participated to these sessions. They had gangs of people singing back-up vocals, and they had dozens of keyboard players too. It
12420-588: The later '30s, record companies began releasing albums of previously released recordings of popular music in albums organized by performer, singers or bands, or by type of music, boogie-woogie , for example. When Columbia introduced the Long Playing record format in 1948, it was natural the term album would continue. Columbia expected that the record size distinction in 78s would continue, with classical music on 12" records and popular music on 10" records, and singles on 78s. Columbia's first popular 10" LP in fact
12555-717: The lines written on the back cover of the LP. The 12" contains various mixes of "Astronomy", including one sung by Albert Bouchard. The single received sufficient radio airplay to reach No. 12 in the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in September 1988, but it did not enter the US singles chart . The CD single "In the Presence of Another World" was issued later only for promotional purposes, but received no attention from FM radio stations. The album
12690-464: The long, complex and expensive production of the Blue Öyster Cult's album Club Ninja , Pearlman associated himself with Daniel J. Levitin , A&R director of the local punk label 415 Records , with whom he shared academic interests in neuroscience . In 1986, Pearlman leased Studio C of San Francisco's Hyde Street Recording Studios , and dubbed it Alpha & Omega Studios . Pearlman and Levitin produced various bands there, and Pearlman sub-leased
12825-441: The longer 12-inch 78s, playing around 4–5 minutes per side. For example, in 1924, George Gershwin recorded a drastically shortened version of his new seventeen-minute composition Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. The recording was issued on both sides of a single record, Victor 55225 and ran for 8m 59s. By 1910, though some European record companies had issued albums of complete operas and other works,
12960-507: The lyrics to the album, handing that duty to producer Sandy Pearlman , rock critic Richard Meltzer and singer Patti Smith . The cover, with art by Ron Lesser, depicts the band standing beside and sitting on a German ME 262 fighter aircraft; this scene is inspired by the song of the same name. While the LP cover has the band name in red (a darker red on the Japanese LP), on the CD it
13095-456: The making of history ( "Astronomy" ). Imaginos becomes from this point on an instrument of Les Invisibles' manipulation of human history. For the next sixty-three years, he insinuates himself into the world of European politics. He uses his ability to change identities to take the place of high-ranking officials, whose offices he uses to bring about Les Invisibles' will ( "I Am the One You Warned Me Of" ), introducing new knowledge and technology to
13230-527: The making of the album. Aside from the list of band members, the credits reported only some session musicians and other members of the so-called Guitar Orchestra of the State of Imaginos, and omitted other personnel who had contributed to Imaginos . Imaginos was mastered at Precision Lacquer in Los Angeles by Stephen Marcussen and finally released as LP and CD in July 1988, almost eight years after
13365-570: The material, having secured an advance from Columbia Records on the strength of the demos partially sung by Eric Bloom. The initial concept of a trilogy of double albums, largely based on music written during the band's many years of activity and on adapted and rewritten Pearlman lyrics linked by the Imaginos storyline, is reflected in the working titles: Act I: Imaginos , Act II: Germany Minus Zero and Counting (also known as Bombs over Germany and Half-Life Time ), and Act III: The Mutant Reformation . These were intended as Albert Bouchard solo albums,
13500-483: The mid-1930s, record companies had adopted the album format for classical music selections that were longer than the roughly eight minutes that fit on both sides of a classical 12" 78 rpm record. Initially the covers were plain, with the name of the selection and performer in small type. In 1938, Columbia Records hired the first graphic designer in the business to design covers, others soon followed and colorful album covers cover became an important selling feature. By
13635-399: The mid-1960s during his formative years as a student of anthropology and sociology at Stony Brook University , Brandeis University and The New School . Pearlman combined cultural references learned in his studies with elements of gothic literature and science fiction , and created a secret history about the origin of the two world wars . Pearlman himself declared his predilection for
13770-487: The mid-1960s to the late 1970s when the Compact Cassette format took over. The format is regarded as an obsolete technology, and was relatively unknown outside the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Stereo 8 was created in 1964 by a consortium led by Bill Lear of Lear Jet Corporation , along with Ampex , Ford Motor Company , General Motors , Motorola , and RCA Victor Records . It
13905-444: The mirror to the young girl as a birthday present, and for the following 21 years it sits collecting dust in her attic, silently poisoning the minds of European leaders. In 1914, "World War I breaks out. A disease with a long incubation" ( "Magna of Illusion" ). The two songs excluded from the final release introduced further elements to the plot. "Gil Blanco County", a song with music written by Allen Lanier for Soft White Underbelly in
14040-515: The money used for both the recording of Albert Bouchard's solo album and for the re-recording of Imaginos . It was their last album to enter the Billboard charts until The Symbol Remains in 2020. The manga Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro contains references to Imaginos . Particularly the name of the principal villain - Desty Nova - and the cyber-body of Alita, called imaginos. In 2021, Canadian rock critic Martin Popoff released
14175-400: The mysterious scheme carried on by the alien entities through the centuries ( "In the Presence of Another World" ). This revelation in mind, Imaginos decides that the time has come to reattempt his aborted mission to Mexico. On August 1, 1892, he sets sail aboard a "charmed ship" which, despite "storms on land and storms at sea", delivers him faithfully to Mexico. After several months exploring
14310-443: The other parts of the track with headphones to keep the timing right. In the 2000s, with the advent of digital recording , it became possible for musicians to record their part of a song in another studio in another part of the world, and send their contribution over digital channels to be included in the final product. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing or multi-tracking are termed "live", even when done in
14445-414: The other. The user would stack the two records onto the spindle of an automatic record changer, with side 1 on the bottom and side 2 (on the other record) on top. Side 1 would automatically drop onto the turntable and be played. When finished, the tone arm's position would trigger a mechanism which moved the arm out of the way, dropped the record with side 2, and played it. When both records had been played,
14580-464: The practice of issuing albums was not widely taken up by American record companies until the 1920s. By about 1910, bound collections of empty sleeves with a paperboard or leather cover, similar to a photograph album, were sold as record albums that customers could use to store their records (the term "record album" was printed on some covers). These albums came in both 10-inch and 12-inch sizes. The covers of these bound books were wider and taller than
14715-406: The primary medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves and many album covers or sleeves included numbers for the tracks on each side. On a compact disc the track number is indexed so that a player can jump straight to the start of any track. On digital music stores such as iTunes the term song is often used interchangeably with track regardless of whether there
14850-404: The record industry as a standard format for the "album". Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, it has remained the standard format for vinyl albums. The term "album" was extended to other recording media such as 8-track tape , cassette tape , compact disc , MiniDisc , and digital albums, as they were introduced. As part of
14985-623: The record not touching the shelf, and the term was applied to the collection. In the early nineteenth century, "album" was occasionally used in the titles of some classical music sets, such as Robert Schumann 's Album for the Young Opus 68, a set of 43 short pieces. With the advent of 78 rpm records in the early 1900s, the typical 10-inch disc could only hold about three minutes of sound per side, so almost all popular recordings were limited to around three minutes in length. Classical-music and spoken-word items generally were released on
15120-581: The recording of his second album, Surfing with the Alien , through his work on Imaginos . Similarly, thrash metal guitarist Marc Biedermann, whose band Blind Illusion was recording at Hyde Street Studios, mixed the album The Sane Asylum at Pearlman's studio in exchange for his collaboration. Biedermann declared in a 2008 interview that he "played more lead guitar on that album than Buck Dharma". Roeser went to California in early 1987 to record his lead vocals and some guitar parts, while Tommy Zvoncheck, still
15255-422: The recording sessions for Club Ninja , unsatisfied by the music and annoyed at the presence of Tommy Zvoncheck as his replacement, while Joe Bouchard quit soon after that album's release to pursue different career opportunities, play other musical genres, and settle in his family life. The release of two expensive studio albums in 1983 and 1985, which received generally bad critical response and sold poorly, ruined
15390-407: The recording sessions for the album Spectres . Demos of the other tracks were recorded by Albert Bouchard and remained in various stages of development during the following years, with the band uninterested in pursuing the Imaginos project that Albert Bouchard and Sandy Pearlman had been insistently proposing. After Albert Bouchard's 1981 dismissal from Blue Öyster Cult, he and Pearlman worked on
15525-451: The recording, and lyrics or librettos . Historically, the term "album" was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage, the word was used for collections of short pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78s were bundled in book-like albums (one side of a 78 rpm record could hold only about 3.5 minutes of sound). When LP records were introduced,
15660-497: The records inside, allowing the record album to be placed on a shelf upright, like a book, suspending the fragile records above the shelf and protecting them. In the 1930s, record companies began issuing collections of 78s by one performer or of one type of music in specially assembled albums, typically with artwork on the front cover and liner notes on the back or inside cover. Most albums included three or four records, with two sides each, making six or eight compositions per album. By
15795-622: The relationship with their demanding record label and left the band with little support and very few ideas on how to go on with their careers. As a result, "in the summer of 1986, the band semi-officially broke up", Bloom explained in an interview to the British music magazine Kerrang! in 1988. The final line-up of 1986 included Bloom, Roeser, Tommy Zvoncheck on keyboards, Jon Rogers on bass and Jimmy Willcox on drums. Pearlman's and Steve Schenk's managerial efforts were rewarded when Blue Öyster Cult were hired for some gigs in Greece in July 1987. After
15930-452: The release and distribution Compact Discs . The 2010s saw a revival of Compact Cassettes by independent record labels and DIY musicians who preferred the format because of its difficulty to share over the internet . The compact disc format replaced both the vinyl record and the cassette as the standard for the commercial mass-market distribution of physical music albums. After the introduction of music downloading and MP3 players such as
16065-421: The release of the band's first album in 1972. There were plans as early as 1975 to release a concept album dedicated to Pearlman's scripts, but the material was not ready. All of the songs had been written by 1977, with the participation of various band members, and at least four of them ("Astronomy", "In the Presence of Another World", "I Am the One You Warned Me Of", "Imaginos") were completed and demoed during
16200-430: The studio to other producers. In September 1986, when the poor sales of Club Ninja resulted in a commercial failure and the group disbanded, the lack of new material from the band for the foreseeable future prompted Pearlman to propose Imaginos to Columbia Records as a new Blue Öyster Cult album. He obtained a small budget from the record label to remix the album and to add the vocals of Roeser and Bloom, singers of all
16335-563: The unsuspecting world ( "The Siege and Investiture of Baron Von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria" ). Through shapeshifting, Imaginos lives as both a man and a woman , using the name Desdinova for his female persona who at some point takes the office of foreign minister. By 1892, Imaginos is living in a mansion in Cornwall and has a nine-year-old granddaughter. Having by this time spent several decades studying mysticism and astrology , Imaginos discovers that Elizabethan England 's rise as
16470-416: The user would pick up the stack, turn it over, and put them back on the spindle—sides 3 and 4 would then play in sequence. Record changers were used for many years of the LP era, but eventually fell out of use. 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8: commonly known as the eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, or simply eight-track) is a magnetic tape sound recording technology popular in the United States from
16605-679: The western frontier, arriving in New Orleans in 1829. It is there that he has a vision imploring him to travel to Mexico in search of an artifact "lost, last and luminous, scored to sky yet never found". Imaginos joins the crew of a ship traveling to the Yucatán Peninsula , but while passing through the Gulf of Mexico , the ship encounters a freak storm of which his visions failed to warn him ( "Del Rio's Song" ). The ship sinks with most of its crew, and Imaginos, half dead, washes ashore and
16740-407: The work on it had begun and twenty-three years after the concept of Imaginos was created. A limited edition of the album was also released in blue vinyl. The first single extracted from the album was an edited version of "Astronomy", which was released as a 7" , as a 12" and as a CD single . American author Stephen King recorded the spoken introduction to the radio edit of the song, a reading of
16875-592: Was Frank Sinatra's first album, the four-record eight-song The Voice of Frank Sinatra , originally issued in 1946. RCA's introduction of the smaller 45 rpm format later in 1948 disrupted Columbia's expectations. By the mid-1950s, 45s dominated the singles market and 12" LPs dominated the album market and both 78s and 10" LPs were discontinued. In the 1950s albums of popular music were also issued on 45s, sold in small heavy paper-covered "gate-fold" albums with multiple discs in sleeves or in sleeves in small boxes. This format disappeared around 1960. Sinatra's "The Voice"
17010-443: Was a further development of the similar Stereo-Pak four-track cartridge created by Earl "Madman" Muntz . A later quadraphonic version of the format was announced by RCA in April 1970 and first known as Quad-8, then later changed to just Q8. The Compact Cassette was a popular medium for distributing pre-recorded music from the early 1970s to the early 2000s. The first "Compact Cassette" was introduced by Philips in August 1963 in
17145-525: Was a very long, involved project. Joe Bouchard Allen Lanier, Joe Bouchard and Donald Roeser contributed instrumental parts and backing vocals to the tracks as guests. These remain Lanier's and Joe Bouchard's only contributions to Imaginos . Columbia Records' complaints about Albert Bouchard's lead vocals pushed him to finance multiple recordings with try-outs of singers, including Jon Rogers and Joey Cerisano , whose performances on some songs were used for
17280-403: Was fired in August 1981, and CBS rejected the album in 1984, but a re-worked version was eventually published as a product of the band. Many guest musicians contributed to the project over this eight-year span, including Joe Satriani , Aldo Nova , and Doors guitarist Robby Krieger , but some band members were barely involved in the recording process. Thus, Imaginos is often considered more as
17415-414: Was from this that in medieval and modern times, album came to denote a book of blank pages in which verses, autographs, sketches, photographs and the like are collected. This in turn led to the modern meaning of an album as a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item. The first audio albums were actually published by the publishers of photograph albums. Single 78 rpm records were sold in
17550-399: Was issued in 1952 on two extended play 45s, with two songs on each side, in both packagings. The 10-inch and 12-inch LP record (long play), or 33 + 1 ⁄ 3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. A single LP record often had the same or similar number of tunes as a typical album of 78s, and it was adopted by
17685-513: Was largely neglected by the record label, which did little to no promotion in the US. Pearlman stated that "there was actually no intention on the part of Columbia Records at all to promote it. (...) Basically the people wanted to work it and they were told not to work it". Roeser commented later that he did not "think Sony ’s ever really known how to sell us, from the beginning (...) and Columbia never felt that they knew how to market us". Imaginos fared better with CBS International, which distributed
17820-410: Was removed ("Pay me..." to "...kneeling in the rain"). Part of the bridge was changed also, presumably to make the song more acceptable to radio: "do it to your daughter" became "do it like you ought to." The line "I want your wife to be my baby tonight" was changed to "I want your life to be mine, maybe tonight". The transition between the tracks "Harvester of Eyes" and "Flaming Telepaths" is marked by
17955-428: Was scrambled out of the fixed chronology, possibly because of the label executives' intervention to have a more commercially attractive product. The sleeve notes' definition of the album as a "random access myth (where) everything happens all at once", appears to many as a posthumous justification for the mixed-up song order. Imaginos does not contain ballads or an immediately recognizable commercial single, and its music
18090-418: Was settled out of court, but his resentment towards Sandy Pearlman for what he felt was a theft of his work never eased, eliminating any chance of future collaborations for the completion of the Imaginos saga. One of the final mixes of 1984, titled Albert Bouchard's Imaginos , surfaced on the Internet in 2003 as a free download. The album contains music recorded during the sessions from 1982 to 1984 and permits
18225-411: Was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption from the mid-1960s to the early 21st century, a period known as the album era . Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have mostly focused on CD and MP3 formats. The 8-track tape was the first tape format widely used alongside vinyl from 1965 until being phased out by 1983, being gradually supplanted by
#245754