BOC: Imaginos, part 7 - The One

[Johnny Firic]

7. I AM THE ONE YOU WARNED ME OF
--------------------------------

As has been suggested (in the FAQ and elsewhere), this song and the two
songs that follow ("Astronomy" and "In the presence...") are anecdotal in
structure, lacking a coherent 'story'. "The One" is entirely devoted to
Imaginos' songs.
In the first verse, there are two clues that this, in fact, is the song that
should follow "Blue Öyster Cult". The first line has already been discussed.
Now look at the fourth line: "And songs to haunt the one that's saved". The
presence of the word "songs" clearly indicates that Imaginos is "the one
that's saved", which then clearly means, "saved from drowning". Such a
reference to himself would be extremely unlikely if this song ("The One")
belonged to a later stage of his life, in particular if it took place AFTER
realizing he isn't in fact human, but 'descended from the stars'. Whereas,
after this inference - after realizing he is 'descended from the stars'
(which takes place in "Astronomy"), we have the song "In the presence of
another world", with frequent occurrences of "another world", "space",
"stars", even "milky way" (and he don't mean the chocolate!) - clearly (and
understandably) his life has taken a completely new turn after "Astronomy".
In such a setting, the reference to himself as being "saved" (from drowning)
would clearly be an anachronism. It's true that 'star-words' are present in
"The One" as well (e.g., "Notation from the stars", "starry wisdom"), but
this can be expected, since he's just realized there's a connection between
himself and Les Invisibles, although the nature of the connection is as yet
unclear to him. Also, in the second verse (beginning with "Just call me
Desdinova"), there is so much talk about the "starry wisdom", it's clear
that: (1) this is something new and exciting to him, and (2) he does not yet
possess the knowledge that would take the excitement away - the knowledge
that he, beyond all doubt, got in "Astronomy", as will be shown later.
The line "I'll sit myself behind that clock, and play tunes on its belfry"
is to me perhaps the single most remarkable line in the entire cycle. It is
a reference to his 'premonitions' of the future: he 'sees', across the ocean
and across 50 years, his future house in England, in Cornwall (I'll explain
all this later, I promise, just keep reading...).

Finally in the last verse (beginning with "Five fingers have I..."), there
is an elaborated, symbol-laden, description of the process of his
songwriting. We learn (that he feels) that the songs are intricate and take
up all the skill he's got to write (and perform?) - this is shown in the
line "Five fingers have I, to play them like ten" - but nonetheless, they
are slightly repetitive ("... to play them again"). Then, he asserts that
the music amplifies the inherent power of the lyrics ("decimal chains" -
meaning metrical verses - "whose mimic cry / whose notes will never, never
fly"; obviously it takes the music to 'make them fly'). The final lines
provide additional insight into the lyrics: "Until they quit those timely
tunes / and enter that system from outside". What is meant here is that
'they' (the [lyrics of] the songs) can never achieve their goal, or reach
fulfillment, while they remain conventional ("timely", or 'within the
system') - - so that, in an extremely exaggerated, pretentious and corny
way, you could say that these lines sublime the entire BÖC 'philosophy', the
concept of the 'career of evil' - speaking strictly metaphorically, of
course.
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