BOC: Imaginos

[John A. Swartz]

Well, this is all very interesting.  I must confess that I'm no expert
on history, the occult, and other topics discussed in *Imaginos*, and I
would consider myself a really lousy interpreter of lyrics and poetry.
Keep in mind that what's in the FAQ as far as the story of *Imaginos* is
based upon others' interpretations, not my own.  But, based on what I
know of these interpretations, I'll throw out a few comments on this
most excellent interpretation.

First point to make would be of course that probably no interpretation
can be considered "definitive" - and BOC has often said that their
lyrics are subject to interpretation (and that their fans often come up
with better interpretations on this stuff than they do!).  I don't know
how much of this Sandy Pearlman all really figured out back in late 1967
(and I've tried to contact him to ask him about some of this, but no
such luck on my part), how much of the story might have changed from
1967 to 1988, or even how much some good drugs might have played a part
(that's not meant as a moral judgement by the way - nor is it meant to
suggest I have knowledge of Sandy Pearlman's recreational activities).
The point here is that while many of us search for a definitive meaning
of this stuff some 30 years after the lyrics were written, it is not
clear to me how definitive it was in the mind of the creator.  Take, for
example, J.R.R. Tolkien's creation of "Middle Earth" (as told in "The
Hobbit", "The Lord of the Rings", and "The Silmarillion").  Those of you
who read Tolkien's stories in depth may know that various elements of
"Middle Earth" changed as Tolkien wrote out his stories over the course
of time.  Elements of "The Hobbit" had to be re-written or
re-interpreted after "The Lord of the Rings" took shape, and there are
inconsistencies between events detailed in "The Silmarillion" and "The
Lord of the Rings".  Much of this has been later explained away by
reinterpretation, or assumptions made by his son Christopher (check out
some explanations in notes to "The Silmarillion", or "Unfinished Tales"
that Christopher Tolkien wrote - not to mention the many-volumed
"History of Middle Earth", which contains various drafts of the stories,
and shows some of the changes needed to make everything more
consisistent).  Presumably *Imaginos* is a "collection" of poems - and
it is not clear to me that Sandy Pearlman had a master plan in mind to
make the whole thing consistent with itself.

But, it sure is fun trying to think about all this.  So, here's a few
comments on Johnny's points in his most-excellent thesis:

> Beyond doubt, the first song of the Imaginos cycle is "Les Invisibles", and
> from its tone it is obvious that it was - lyrically - intended to be the
> curtain raiser. Musically, the curtain raiser was of course the Overture.
> The "world axis" is the 0th meridian. On it lays the city of London, and in
> it is "the Empress", Elizabeth I.

Interesting.  I think "Les Invisibles" is the start as well, but it
always had a much "older" feel to me - that is, the existence of "Les
Invisibles" started even earlier in time - perhaps before time as we
know it (sort of like the "Great Old Ones" in the Chtulhu Mythos - yeah,
I know, *Imaginos* is not really a re-telling of Lovecraft's mythos, but
as we know there are lots of similarities).  I always though of "the
empress" as perhaps one of Les Invisibles, or their agents that "lay
sleeping" until the right time ("and when the stars are right") to set
Desdinova upon the world - in this sense, perhaps "the empress" is the
"mother" of Imaginos.

I'm a bit unsure about "the world axis" being the 0th meridian - that is
a man-made reference that I'm not sure the "gods" would necessarily
recognize.  Or am I missing something - is the 0th meridian often
referred to as the "world axis"?  To me, the equator seems more logical
to be referred to as a "world axis" - or the line running from the north
to south pole that runs straight through the earth (as opposed to its
surface, as the meridians do).

A quick Lovecraft tie-in -- if the "world axis" referred to the
north/south pole line, that sort of fits in a bit with Lovecraft's "The
Mountains of Madness", where remnants of the "Great Old Ones" were
discovered in Antarctica.  But I digress...

> Closely connected with "Invisibles" is the song "Workshop of the
> telescopes". It takes place in the same timeline, and recounts an
> (imaginary) conversation between John Dee and Francis Drake. In the
> course of the conversation, each man realizes the other's significance, and
> how each could benefit from their cooperation

Most interesting.  I never thought of the idea of two conversing.  Of
course, WOTT wasn't on the *Imaginos* album, and while I agree it has
all the elements to be part of the story, I would think it's harder to
try and "fit" this into the rest of *Imaginos* for that reason.  Same
for songs like "Flaming Telepaths", "Dominance and Submission", "ME
262", "R U Ready to Rock", "Half Life Time", "Gil Blanco County", and
others.  Not saying we shouldn't try - but since they aren't on the
album, I would think it would be harder to definitively put them in to
an interpretion.  Conversely, since an analysis such as this excludes
many songs (such as the ones mentioned in this paragraph), how much of
the story are we not taking into account?


> mutual acquaintance of the two, and possibly his wife as well.

I've always wondered about the line "and their wives" - seems like there
should be some significance there.  Showing my ignorance here, was
Elizabeth I ever married - could she have been the wife of one of these
Doctors?  Given that back in those days wives weren't exactly considered
equals to men in so many respects, I wonder what the significance of
wives here might be -- I keep getting this impression of horror stories
where the mad scientist's wife discovers his laboratory while he is
away, and then he comes back and catches her and does something nasty to her...


> "Back to the corner mates and over the side" - a clue on where Drake's
> haunts are, and (implicitly) what his business there is.

This line conjures up images of the "Blue Oyster Cult" story ("left to
die by two good friends" and the fact that the *Imaginos* liner notes
mention this in reference to the "shipwreck of the expedition" that is
told in "Del Rio's Song") - could this be a premonition of things to
come?  Or was the drowning of Imaginos a retaliation for a similar
murder years before in the time of Drake?  Taken in this light, might
the sailor leaving New Orleans in 1829 who would be left to die have
been a descendent of Drake (or Dee)?


>
> The change of "They'll know me . . . " to "You'll know me . . ." in
> the last
> line implies that Dee has 'accepted' Drake, and that their cooperation
> will
> now begin.

"We Understand - We Understand..."


> Other than that, nothing has been said to deny the statement
> that the
> early England/Spain conflict was not in fact a 'retaliatory strike' of
> Les Invisibles, a short-term scheme while they were working on a larger,
> centuries-spanning plan.

The liner notes refer to WW I breaking out - something about a disease
with a long period of incubation (citing from memory).  England and
Spain of course did not fight eachother in that war, but then maybe the
earlier conflict helped "battle harden" them for future conflicts (which
might have been part of the referenced "incubation").


> (Cough) Imaginos. The first lines could be taken to say that he was
> either
> born (and had so 'approached the sun', being incarnated), or he came

Got to wonder if there was any significance to New Hampshire - just a
fairly unpopulated area of the new world?  Does the "Hampshire" part
refer back to England in some significant way?  Perhaps New Hampshire
and England are at approximately the same latitude?


> "When time gets slow, and rivers freeze" is very reminiscent of the
> WoTT
> part about the closed ridge, as both lines seem to have a 'wintery'
> connotation.

Hmm... maybe this refers back to his "birth" in New Hampshire - would
think there are more freezing rivers there than in New Orleans...


> he's in for some r'n'r with "some good rum punch". By the way, New
> Orleans
> was in 1829, and is now, a good place to enjoy rum punch . . .

This reminds me of a routine that comedian Robin Williams did - talking
about sailors giving local townsmen "a few rum drinks" - and the next
thing they knew was that these guys woke up on the deck of the ship and
were now unwilling members of the ship's crew.  Don't know if this was a
common practice, but if it was, might young Imaginos have recruited his
crew in such a fashion?  Might explain why they left him to die after
the shipwreck (then again, not sure they would be referred to as "2 good friends").


> 7. I AM THE ONE YOU WARNED ME OF

I'm still waiting for an interpretation of the line "And frost warnings
from the women's farm"


> However, in "Astronomy", an important change takes place as Imaginos
> realizes he is "descended from the stars". He becomes aware of his
> supernatural powers, most notably his ability to move forward and
> backward through time - which enables him to "place himself on vital junction
> points in history"

So, if take this in the sort of "Back to the Future" sense, can he go
back in time and influence events that have bearing on his own
existence?  Going back to my postulation that his "death" on the
oysterbeads might have been retaliation for events involving Dr. Dee or
Sir Francis Drake - had he gone back in time, revealed secrets to these
men (via the infamous "black telescope") that had bearing on mates going
"over the side" - only to have the favor returned to him in 1829?

Or, do I just need to cut back on the caffeine? ;-)


> 12. THE SIEGE AND INVESTITURE OF BARON VON FRANKENSTEIN'S CASTLE AT
> WEISSERIA
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "Cul-de-sac" means (in French) a situation with no way out.

I always kind of took this more literally to mean a cul-de-sac in the
street sense - that being Frankenstein's residence being at the end of
some road.

Also, there hasn't been given a lot of analysis to this song - either
here or elsewhere - makes me wonder why or why not...



> (1) "And when the sun proved false / as it always does / some of them
> would
> be lost / and some would sail back home / it was no star / but a magna
> of
> illusion"
>
> (2) "... rockers will dwell on doom ... what seems to be is not"
>
> I quote myself from "Imaginos", speaking of the lines "approached the
> sun"
> etc.:
>
> "Slightly more metaphorically, it can be taken to mean that he entered
> the
> story, that his own story (or "saga") began at that time".
>
> In (1), "the sun" could again mean "the entire story, 'saga', of
> Imaginos".
> It proves false. "It was no star, but a magna of illusion". The high
> point
> of the story is the magna (=culmination) of illusion? The "illusion"
> can
> then only stand for the entire story! "What seems to be is not": the
> story
> is fake, it is an illusion. We, the BOC fans enchanted with
> "Imaginos", are
> the "rockers" (literally!) who "dwell on doom", "the doom" (of Europe)
> brought about by Imaginos. The whole thing is one big joke.

Ah, the old "he woke up and discovered it was all a dream" idea.  Too
convinient for my taste, but still a valid interpretation I would think.

Still, I prefer a more nautical interpretation of the sun that drew
false (sailors following a particular star) and "some would be lost, and
some would sail back home" - and going back to the idea of spaceships,
if the "star" they were following was in fact a spaceship, this would
seem to fit into the idea of the sun going false "as it always does".

>
> "Is it any wonder that my joke's an iron
> And the joke's on you"
>
> Well, not just *you*, all of us.
>
> Sorry.
>
> Well, "the party's over, it's all over".
>

Uh, you imply that that the whole thing is a big joke on us - I would
say maybe in retrospect.  I doubt Sandy Pearlman thought of writing this
lyrical saga with the intention of duping everyone.  However, he might
get a good chuckle out of all the analysis that has been done to his
poems (which, as I suggested earlier, might not have been as
well-conceived and logically coherent as we would all like to believe as
we try and interpret all this).

>

Let me throw one more wrinkle into all of this madness.  These
interpretations all assume that the lyrics being interpreted are the
actual Imaginos lyrics.  I would argue that slight changes in wording
might have drastic changes in interpretation.  And, I would also argue
that Eric Bloom (who does most of the singing, as we know) has changed
the wording of some songs.  Exhibit A - "See You in Black":

"You can't lie to me Ann - you can't pretend he isn't beating you up.
I saw the marks of his hands - I saw the blood on your coffee cup"

(no, this isn't meant as an Imaginos reference - then again, maybe we
should try to fit it into the story...)

The line above is as far as I know, how Jon Shirley wrote the lyric (it
is also how Shirley performs the song on his own CD).  However, Eric has
always sung the line:

"You can't lie to me Ann - you can't pretend he isn't beating you up.
I saw the marks ON YOUR hands - I saw the blood on your coffee cup"

I've seen some fans interpret the husband to be a very sinister person -
abusing his wife by only injuring her on the hands - a sort of torture
if you will.  However, the more likely story is that Eric just
originally screwed up the lyrics, and since he never corrected himself
early on when the band was doing the song, it has just become the lyric
as far as he is concerned.  However, I would suggest that the original
lyric was much more straightforward in one's interpreation.

Anyways, this is good stuff - fun to try and figure this stuff out,
whether we ever really know the "awful truth".

John