Imaginos - Release

Release

Imaginos was mastered at Precision Lacquer in Los Angeles by Steven Marcussen and finally released as LP and CD on July 1988, almost eight years after 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 The Columbia Albums Collection boxed set, issued by Sony/Legacy in November 2012.