Welcome to Imaginos Thursday

It's not every song/album that gets a day here on Streaming Drivel and with good reason. Few songs have the thought behind them that Imaginos does. Thank God. More importantly, most songs aren't nearly as cool when blared out the windows of an '89 IROC.

Click Here for a taste of the Song

Read below to read the story of Imaginos.

The principal story begins in August 1804, with the birth of a "modified child" called Imaginos, in the state of New Hampshire. Because of the astrological significance of the place and time of his birth, Imaginos comes to be 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 comes to discover that he is able to change his appearance at will and to see the future to an extent. As the child becomes an adult he finds himself affected by wanderlust and, billing himself as an adventurer, sets out to explore Texas and the western frontier, finally 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 travelling to the Yucatan Peninsula, but while passing through the Gulf of Mexico, the ship encounters a freak storm of which his visions failed to warn him. The ship sinks with most of its crew and Imaginos, half dead, washes ashore and is left for dead by the other survivors, who have come to regard him with suspicion.

As he lays 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 a choice - die as a human, or live as their servant. Imaginos accepts their offer, and is resurrected from the dead by the "Blue Öyster Cult", the human servants of Les Invisibles. He is inducted into the cult and given a new name - Desdenova, "Eternal Light".

From this point on, Imaginos becomes an instrument of Les Invisibles' manipulation of human history. For the next 63 years, he inveigles himself into the world of European politics, using his shapeshifting ability to take the place of high-ranking officials and use their offices to bring about Les Invisibles' will. By 1892, Imaginos is living in a mansion in Cornwall and has a nine-year-old granddaughter, though it is not clear whether she is his biological grandchild or merely the grandchild of the mansion's original inhabitant. Having by this time spent several decades studying mysticism and astrology, Imaginos discovers that England's rise as a superpower in the 16th century coincided with John Dee's acquisition of a magic obsidian mirror, said to have been "taken from the jungle by crime". This revelation in mind, Imaginos determines that the time has come to attempt again 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 spending several months exploring the jungles of Yucatan he finds an undiscovered Mayan pyramid. Following a long passage into the interior of the pyramid he discovers a chamber carved from solid jade, and within the chamber of jade he discovers 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 happens to coincide with the tenth birthday of his granddaughter. Imaginos gives it to the girl as a birthday present, and for the following 21 years it sits collecting dust in her attic, silently poisoning the minds of Europe's leaders. Finally, in 1914, "World War I breaks out. A disease with a long incubation."

It should be noted that the chronology of the storyline is indefinite. Controversy about the correct order of the songs, as well as the free-form style of the narrative leave the correct sequence in doubt. The fact that some believe Imaginos can travel through time further complicates matters.

I for one would invite an Imaginos stuffed animal for my daughter.