Imaginary
-Located on the album(s): "Evanescence EP" as Track #3; "Origin" as Track #3; "Mystary EP" as Track #5; "Fallen Promotional LP" as Track #5; "Fallen LP" as Track #7.
-BMI Work #6389429
-Length Time: 4:01 (EV EP); 3:32 (Origin); 3:19 (v1 2001-2002 Demo); 3:28 (v2 2001-2002 Demo); 4:17 (Mystary); 5:09 (Fallen Pre-Master); 4:17 (Fallen)
-Acoustic Version Available? [YES] - See: Acoustic in Little Rock 01-13-03.
-Live Version Available? (EV EP) [YES] - See: Live in Vino's, Little Rock 05-07-99. (Origin) [NO] - SEE NOTES. (Fallen) [YES] - See: Live @ Rock AM Ring 2003.
-Acapella Version Available? [NO]
-Instrumental Version Available? [NO]
Lyrics:
Imaginary - Evanescence EP Version:This is a much slower version than the others. This is the original version. It starts out with a guitar, and ends with a piano melody of the chorus. Back ups are in italics.0:00 - 0:08
Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming
Cannot cease for the fear of silent nights
Oh how I long for the deep sleep dreaming
The goddess of imaginary light
In my field of paper flowers (
Ahh)
And candy clouds of lullaby (
Paper flowers)
I lie inside myself for hours (
Ahh)
And watch my purple sly fly over me (
Paper flowers)
1:07 - 1:14
I linger in the doorway
Of alarm clock screaming
Monsters calling my name
Let me stay
Where the wind will whisper to me
Where the raindrops as they’re falling tell a story
If you need to leave the world you live in (
Ahh)
Lay your head down and stay awhile (
Paper flowers)
Though you may not remember dreaming (
Ahh)
Something waits for you to dream again (
Paper flowers)
2:20
Ahhh
Ahhhh
Ahhhh
Ahhhhh
Ahhhhh
3:21
3:22 - 4:01
Song:
Imaginary (Origin Version)This version starts out with a piano, and is much faster than the Evanescence EP Version. Back ups are in italics.0:00 - 0:07
Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming
Cannot cease for the fear
Of silent nights
Oh how i long for the deep sleep dreaming
(oh how i long for the deep sleep dreaming)The goddess of imaginary light
(the goddess of imaginary light)0:24 – 0:26
In my field of paper flowers
(ahhh ahhh)And candy clouds of lullaby
(paper flowers)I lie inside myself for hours
(ahhh ahhh)And watch my purple sky fly over me
(paper flowers)0:50 – 0:56
I linger in the doorway
Of alarm clock screaming monsters
(monsters)Calling my name
Let me stay
Where the wind will whisper to me
Where the raindrops as they’re falling
(falling) tell a story
If you need to leave the world you live in
(ahhh ahhh)Lay your head down and stay awhile
(paper flowers)Though you may not remember dreaming
(ahhh ahhh)Something waits for you to breathe again
(paper flowers)Ah ah ah ahhh ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ahhhh
Ahhhhhhh ahhhhh ahhhhhh
Ahhhhhhh ahhhhh ahhhhhh
Ahhhhhhh ahhhhh ahhhhhh
Ahhhhhhh ahhhhh ohh ahhhh
In my field of paper flowers
(ahhh ahhh)And candy clouds of lullaby
(paper flowers)I lie inside myself for hours
(ahhh ahhh)And watch my purple sky fly over me
(paper flowers)3:01 – 3:32
Song:
Imaginary (v1 2001-2002 Demo)This version begins with a guitar that is slightly different than the "Fallen" version. Back ups are in italics.Ahhahhh Paper flowers
I linger in the doorway
Of alarm clock screaming
Monsters calling my name
Let me stay
Where the wind will whisper to me
Where the raindrops
As they’re falling tell a story
In my field of paper flowers (
Ahhh)
And candy clouds of lullaby (
Paper flowers)
I lie inside myself for hours (
Ahhh)
And watch my purple sky fly over me (
Paper flowers)
Don’t say I’m out of touch
With this rampant chaos - you’re reality
I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge
The nightmare I built my own world to escape
In my field of paper flowers (
Ahh)
And candy clouds of lullaby (
Paper flowers)
I lie inside myself for hours (
Ahh)
And watch my purple sky fly over me (
Paper flowers)
You can leave the world you live in
Cause inside you may not remember
But something waits for you to breath again
2:24 - 2:38
In my field of paper flowers (
Ahh)
And candy clouds of lullaby (
Paper flowers)
I lie inside myself for hours (
Ahh)
And watch my purple sky fly over me (
Paper flowers)
3:03 - 3:18
Song:
Imaginary (v2 2001-2002 Demo)This version begins with a beautiful string and piano intro. Back ups will be in italics.0:00 - 0:15
I linger in the doorway
Of alarm clock screaming
Monsters calling my name
Let me stay
Where the wind will whisper to me
Where the raindrops
As they’re falling tell a story
In my field of paper flowers (
Ahhh)
And candy clouds of lullaby (
Paper flowers)
I lie inside myself for hours (
Ahhh)
And watch my purple sky fly over me (
Paper flowers)
Don’t say I’m out of touch
With this rampant chaos - you’re reality
I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge
The nightmare I built my own world to escape
If you need to leave the world you live in (
Ahh)
Lay your head down and stay awhile (
Paper flowers)
Though you may not remember dreaming (
Ahh)
Something waits for you to breathe again (
Paper flowers)
2:01 - 2:50
In my field of paper flowers (
Ahh)
And candy clouds of lullaby (
Paper flowers)
I lie inside myself for hours (
Ahh)
And watch my purple sky fly over me (
Paper flowers)
3:15 - 3:28
Song:
Imaginary - Pre-Master, Mystary, & Fallen VersionThis version begins with strings and a beautiful "Ahh Paper flowers" done by Amy, and ends with the same beautiful "Ahh Paper flowers" backed with a guitar. The second "Ahh Paper flowers" is backed with a choir. Italics are back up vocals.Ah ah ah ahhh Paper flowers
Ah ah ah ahhh Paper flowers
I linger in the doorway
Of alarm clock screaming
Monsters calling my name
Let me stay
Where the wind will whisper to me
Where the raindrops
As they’re falling tell a story
In my field of paper flowers (
Ah ah ah ahhh)
And candy clouds of lullaby (
Paper flowers)
I lie inside myself for hours (
Ah ah ah ahhh)
And watch my purple sky fly over me (
Paper flowers)
Don’t say I’m out of touch
With this rampant chaos – you’re reality
I know well what lies beyond my sleeping refuge
The nightmare I built my own world to escape
I’m my field of paper flowers (
Ah ah ah ahhh)
And candy clouds of lullaby (
Paper flowers)
I lie inside myself for hours (
Ah ah ah ahhh)
And watch my purple sky fly over me (
Paper flowers)
2:07 – 2:23
Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming
Cannot cease for the fear of silent nights
Oh how I long for the deep sleep dreaming
The goddess of imaginary light
2:49
Ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah
Ah ah ah ah ahhh
3:05
In my field of paper flowers (
Ah ah ah ahhh)
And candy clouds of lullaby (
Paper flowers)
I lie inside myself for hours (
Ah ah ah ahhh)
And watch my purple sky fly over me (
Paper flowers)
Ah ah ah ah Paper flowers
Ah ah ah ah Paper flowers
3:56 – 4:17
Song:
Some Things To Think About/Debate Over
-This song was played live and put on the "Anywhere But Home Live CD" as Track #12 (5:25). [Zenith, Paris 2004]
Song:
-During the Fallen tour, this song was usually after "Tourniquet," but before "Whisper."
-According to old discographies, the v1 demo of Imaginary had the added label of (Monsters) attached to it. EvLore states that "Monsters" was the working title for Imaginary, but no real proof of this has ever surfaced. It might have been leaked as "Monsters" and then Ev fans who heard it, and realized it was Imaginary, just simply renamed it as Imaginary (Monsters) to avoid confusion.
-The Pre-Master Mix of Imaginary, also called the Long Intro version, takes Tourniquet (Fallen)'s outro and attaches it to Imaginary (Fallen) - thus having a "long intro." EvLore states that, originally, this is what Imaginary would have sounded like and Tourniquet (Pre-Master) was going to NOT have the violin orchestral part as its outro. Sound-wise this would not have made a difference to the listener, since Tourniquet was still going to lead into Imaginary. Officially, however, the songs just would have had different ending and beginning times respectfully.
Song:
-The Imaginary Promotional Single was released on October of 2003. The tracklisting is the following:
(1) Imaginary (Fallen)
Imaginary was released as a promotional single in Spain to see how well it would do. It charted well (#17? According to ev.it and EvReference) but did not become an actual single. The "music video" was Imaginary from Cologne. I seem to recall that they used the Album Version of Imaginary over the Cologne video, but I need to find it again on YouTube (if anyone can point me to it, that would be nice!).
-The only version of the ORIGIN Imaginary, played live, that we know of is Live @ the TNT Powerhouse, Arkansas on Feb. 03, 2001. This has not been released yet. It was Track #8.
-According to Music Notes:
(1) Imaginary is written in E Minor (thanks
jakebryan for the correction!)
(2) It is set in a time signature of common time and performed in a tempo of 76 beats per minute
(3) Amy Lee's vocals range from B3 to C5.
SOURCE-A "funny" song meaning as posted by Ben Moody:
Imaginary:
Ben smoked some bad payote and Amy wrote down everything he saw
-Originally, the v1 demo of Imaginary (as first seen on the Not for Your Ears Bootleg) came with the label "Post-Origin Demo," considering this (along with Lies & Whisper) was the first "Post-Origin" demo of the song. With the release of the second Imaginary demo (a demo "leaked" later than the first), the label soon fell out of favor with the EvCommunity. This is why currently, only Lies and (once again) Whisper have the label, but neither Imaginarys do. On some old discographies, however, you can still see the old label listed. Imaginary v2 is sometimes called 2.0 or Post-Origin Demo 2.0 on the old discographies as well. An example of this would be the old Ev MediaWh0ringPage.
06 3:18 Imaginary (Post Origin Demo 1)
3:27 Imaginary (Post Origin Demo V.2)
-The difference between Imaginary (Mystary) and Imaginary (Fallen) was something that was debated about for many years. Myself and Double A also discussed this to some extent. Originally, people thought that the Imaginary (Pre-Master)/(Long Intro) was the Mystary version, but that didn't make sense as discographies labeled it Imaginary (Mystary Edit) and an "edit" would mean a shorter, not longer (like the Pre-Master) song. They also gave it a "4:03" duration.
the controversial "Imaginary(Mystery Edit)" or the version of long intro
Mystary (13th January 2003)
US CD-R
Released by Sound Asleep Entertainment
5. Imaginary [Mystary Edit] <4:03>
Once people realized it wasn't the Pre-Master, they then thought it was the v2 2001-2002 demo. You can occasionally see this mistake on YouTube videos. After that was rejected, people started speculating:
Well the difference on the "Imaginary" on "Fallen" is where Amy is singing "Swallowed up in the sound of my screaming..."
The cello part, which is VERY low, on "Swallowed" is not in the "Mystary EP."
Imaginary: a little shorter (4:11) but it's hard to hear any differences to the Fallen version
Of course, when one downloads
Syd's Mystary Rip from EvRef, you don't get any special edit, but instead the Fallen Version (4:17 and all). So it is in my judgment that the Mystary and Fallen Version are the same, or their differences are so small that it is just down to some finalized mixing/leveling edits that were made when Fallen LP came out. Double A and I talked about this on the old ev.it forums, but our differences kept changing day by day, so we kind of stopped and went on to something else
-On the Mystary EP, this track has one skip in the beginning (0:01).
-David and Amy's take on the Imaginary Ev EP version from The Making of Fallen:
"David: Remember that old old school version of this song with the clipping vocals? You know I never listed to it . . .
Amy: People in, everybody in Little Rock that loves this song is going to FREAK out. Like I mean, like some people really YAY IMAGINARY, you know it's our encore, oh my gosh.
David: They will listen to that.
Amy: They will pee their pants!
David: If I get any any, just one radio interview where someone says . . .
Amy: "I like the old Imaginary," you're like WELL YOU'RE STUPID!
David: [Your *mumbles* um *mumbles*]
Amy: I want to be in it [referring to video, puts camera on speaker]
David: But that old one, I dunno if I told you Amy but I, the old one on the little EP, I never listed to it because I just didn't liked that [multiple?] guitars in the beginning.
Amy: You hated it?
David: No!
Amy: So you just didn't hear the song?
David: Yeah I really liked the song, but I only listed to it once. Then I couldn't never find it again! Cause, I [never sat through?] those guitars in the beginning."
Double A you'll have to help me fill in the blanks on some parts of this transcript, but you all get the ideas. I will add that I agree with Double A's confusion on what "clipping vocals" he is talking about. I don't recall the Ev EP version having that, but yet again I don't like that version of Imaginary either xD.
SOURCE 0:36 - 1:22-When Imaginary was done acoustically in Little Rock (2003), both the Fallen middle 8 ("swallowed up in the sound . . .") and then after the second chorus from the EP/Origin/v2 demo ("if you need . . .") was sung together. The only other time she has done this is when Amy sung Imaginary live in Sao Paulo in 2012 (. . . well, sort of. See the Brazil video for how she did it -
SOURCE).
-Imaginary, according to old posts from EvBoard, were about Amy's old room and "running away" from your problems.
This song was apparently written about Amy's old room and how she would go there to escape the troubles of her teenage youth.
-Imaginary was used in a commercial for the movie
The Village.
-Imaginary is David's favorite song:
What was your favourite Evanescence song to write?
i love "going under" and "my last breath". even though it was partially already written before i joined, "imaginary" is my favorite.
SOURCE-Imaginary was ORIGINALLY going to be the fourth single instead of Everybody's Fool. Amy had wanted this, but Wind-Up did not because they are jerk-faces. One of many jerk-face moves:
"Imaginary" was one of the very early songs written by Evanescence and was a local favorite from their small following in Little Rock. The first released version is on the Evanescence EP released in 1998, and was intended to be released as the fourth single. However, due to Evanescence's record label, Wind-Up Records, "Everybody's Fool" was made the fourth single instead.
Spain had Imaginary as a single, but the next one will probably be My Immortal since they didn't have MI as a single...and if they don't have MI as a single, they are nuts. The video is apparently a live performance from Cologne, Germany (Ben Moody's last show from what I understand).
Imaginary was expected to be the next single over here because Amy said it in an interview, but something must have changed between then and now.
Imaginary was the heavy favorite out of the two, but neither won out in the end...Wind-up COULD change it, but I doubt it.
It’s unknown at the moment whether there will a fourth single from Fallen, but if Evanescence’s label decides to release another song to radio, Lee said she’d like to see “Imaginary” get the push.
“I think it’s very epic,” she said. “It’s one of those big Aerosmith or Black Sabbath kind of songs. It’s like an opus, with the choir and the rock and the programming. I love that song.”
SOURCEAmy also talked about making an animated video for the music video for Imaginary. She was inspired by a fan video originally listed on the website Anime Music Videos. The author, Dave, wrote this:
This video is one that I am particularly proud of. It's a fairly standard video with an emphasis timing and lyrics matching. However, the timing on it was pretty meticulous, and the lyrics matching was fairly subtle. The song itself is mind boggling with it mystifying mixture of beautiful music and haunting lyrics. When I first started plotting the video, several animes came to mind, but Shamanic Princess' mixture of beautiful scenery and haunting imagery, fit the bill for the footage I needed for the video
It competed in the Masters at AWA 8. Hsein Lee, Master winner at AWA 7, came up to me after the competition and told me he thought that it kicked ass, ended up giving it his AWA 8 Creator Award.
Something else that you might want to know. I was contacted by Amy Lee, the lead singer of Evanescence (the band that sang the song), and she told me that she loves the video. ^.^|/ Always nice to have the approval of the band! It helps that Amy is a huge anime fan.
Check it out.
Dave
SOURCEAmy had this to say about the video:
I love that video! If it's the one I think you're talking about, it's really really cool. It was made to the demo version of the song, by a guy in little rock. I actually had a copy he gave to me for a while but I lost it when my cd collection ran away in europe. He gave it to me at a show about a year ago (i think his name is dave) and I was really moved. I love anime. When it hits the chorus there's a girl in a field with all of these wildly blowing red flower petals. Love that video. If imaginary had been a single, I wanted to make an anime video for it - after seeing this one.
love
amy
Video:
-On the choir in Imaginary:
“During the bridge of ‘Imaginary,’ there are probably 70-plus people performing on the song at that moment,” explains Fortman. “There's a choir that's been doubled, there is a string orchestra with 22 players doubled, then you add all of the bandmembers, and it's huge. That section has so much depth to it. There's no purpose to look at it as a live band at that point.”
SOURCE-There was an EvRumor that on the v1 demo of Imaginary, the middle 8 part states "suicide" instead of "cause inside." EvBoarders claimed that Amy "officially" posted the lyrics and it said that, but the post got deleted. The likelihood of Amy posting lyrics to a DEMO of Imaginary are unlikely, and so I conclude they were lying. Besides, putting "suicide" in that part makes no sense lyrically compared to "cause inside" which connects to the next line much better.
THANKS to DoubleA for the lyrics and the videos are from FallenEvArmy!