Best Blue Öyster Cult Album

i may form a religion based on "extraterrestrial live"....seriously godzilla is so fucking nuts on this

On your Feet or On Your Knees is also a v impressive live album imo.
The gatefold image rules, too.
http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/albumofthemonth_images//boc_onyourfeet_gatefold.jpg
You can't really see that the audience all have pillowcases over their heads in this img, tho.

I just recently discovered Cultosaurus Erectus, and have to the conclusion that I, along with everyone else at ILM, seriously screwed up by not having in my top ten of the recent 80s Albums poll.

*have come to the conclusion*

listening to cultosaurus erectus for the first time. damn you are right this is a nuts album! black blade! the weird cocktail jazz breakdowns in the middle of monster's AOR goth metal...woah.

"fallen angel" is kinda ELO-ish

Agents of Fortune is the apex of AOR

Fucking BOC forever IMO.

confession time: i do not have a single Blue Oyster Cult album. where should i begin.

Oh fuck dude! I'd say start this way--

1. Secret Treaties (get the remaster)
2. On Your Feet Or On Your Knees (live)
3. Agents Of Fortune (get the remaster)
4. Fire Of Unknown Origin

i know, i know. it's a glaring blind spot. i blame my older brother. but thanks for the reccs, i will check out secret treaties! super cheap on amazon.

fyi - tyranny and mutation has "the red & the black" that the minutemen cover

yeah i think Tyranny is the one album of theirs I've heard in full. Otherwise I just know the hits.

That live album will show u their deadly side, how they 'played like they got knife fight in the alley afterward' to paraphrase patti smith.

(but she said that abt Television live)

i got agents of fortune cuz of dont fear the reaper but the entire thing rawks p fukken hard

this is more once you get to be a super fan, but i really love the totes over the top arena antics of "extraterrestrial live"...

Yeah ETL Live is nice. The two studio records from that era, Cultosaurus Erectus and Fire Of Unknown Origin, are both terrific (and underrated for some reason). Fire Of Unknown Origin in particular is wall-to-wall awesome-- I might actually like it a little more than Agents. Also both these records sound good even in their early CD incarnations (they haven't been remastered yet).

You want a good live introduction to the very early sound of the band? "For the Heavy Metal Kids and the Yardbirds[/i] which was originally done as a promotion, I think, but wound up bootlegged. I'm almost certain it was ripped to the net awhile back. Anyway, four tunes, including tear ass versions of "The Red & The Black," "Buck's Boogie" and "Cities On Flame." Invigorating stuff from 72. Used copy on Amazon asks for 37 bucks, way too dear.

googling!

you should have to pay too much for their later 70s stuff on vinyl either, always see decent copies of a lot of those

Gorge I think those 4 tracks might have been included on the Workshop Of The Telescopes anthology? I feel like they have appeared in one of the Sony Legacy remasters anyway...

No, not all of them. The version of "Cities on Flame" isn't from that. I'm checking with the booklet. Hmm, yeah, you got "The Red & the Black" and "Workshop of the Telescopes" from it on that box. Not bad. And I think you're right, they were put in pieces on the early remasters.

DOMINANCE, submission....

Such little love for Fire of Unknown Origin?

Dude I just said I rate it above Agents of Fortune!

[puts on blue priest garb]

joan crawford video is still one of the most nuts things ever

Agents Of Fortune and Spectres are really of a piece, aren't they? They're right up there with Fly Like An Eagle/Book Of Dreams and Kid A/Amnesiac in my book. (I speak here are 2-album tandems that stand apart from the remainder of the artists' catalogue, in terms of both sound and quality, and were probably also recorded at the same time, even though issued separately).

And fuck that whole "cowbell" thing...it's pretty much all BOC are remembered for these days!

yeah, i mean that and Godzilla are what I think of ... but then Allen Lanier sort of pops up around the edges of the CBGB scene (as Jon alluded to above) so I'm curious to see what these records are like.

(By the by, the demo of "Fire of Unknown Origin" (which was originally to have appeared on Agents of Fortune, and appears as a bonus track on the AoF reissue) is awesome, as is the Allen Lanier track "Dance the Night Away", which reveals him to be a languid crooner in the same vein as Dennis Wilson and (much later) Epic Soundtracks.

I'm tempted to get that Patti Smith book for the two paragraphs or so she writes about Lanier...

Mirrors is another great BOC MOR album. (I like to think of BOC as the Fleetwood Mac of metal, at least from Agents to Fire.) Mirrors has Lanier's best track, "In Thee". (Probably written with Patti Smith in mind. "Maybe you've bought your ticket, going back to Detroit".)

I missed the original poll, and would have contributed another vote for Fire of Unknown Origin. I readily admit it was my first BOC album, and that tour was my first BOC concert, which was also my first rock concert, period. But it's still a fine, fine album.

http://img.amazon.ca/images/I/41hPlFST%2B4L._SS400_.jpg

this can be found for around $15

where? about $25 from a third party seller on amazon ... still a good deal, I guess.

Those don't have the bonus tracks, though, do they? They're worth the couple extra bucks you'd pay for the individual albums.

especially the 'Secret Treaties' ones -- totally essential!!

weird that that set skips past 'Spectres', too. That's the BOC album I've been playing the most over the last year or so

i think those original album classics things do have bonus tracks. at least the Sonny Rollins one I have does ... no liner notes, but a bunch of extra tracks.

all but mirrors have bonus tracks. maybe the price went up in the last few months (i bought it in january on amazon.ca marketplace for yes $15).

Dude I just said I rate it above Agents of Fortune!

That's nice, but it still got no votes.

DOMINANCE...submission.

"so I'm curious to see what these records are like."

Do it, you wont be disappointed.

I voted Tyranny in this poll, but could have voted Spectres, which is awesome, but Buck's guitar on Death Valley Nights is a particular hight point.

rad. can't believe they were the opener! for KANSAS! i would really think that BOC would be the bigger draw, but I guess these are weird scenes/times.

― tylerw, Tuesday, May 22, 2012 5:07 PM (23 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

we did feel a bit burned, and just a general sense that the world is an unjust place.

one thing i learned there are SUPER HARDCORE KANSAS FANS....like SUPER hardcore....I talked to this really haggard old drunk that had seen them 46 times....he also...(bizarrely given his age)....was a big Tool/Perfect Circle fan

i saw like assloads of ppl wearing all types of kansas t-shirts.

the world is definitely SO unjust!
that's cool that there are hardcore kansas fans, maybe Kansas rock? resisting urge to google "best Kansas bootleg".

I still have time for 'Dust In The Wind'.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/carryon.jpg

"This is a Kansas casino. Always has been. Always will be."

http://vivalesbootlegs.blogspot.com/search/label/KANSAS

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VIt42ZwDrR4/SVeqCHx9III/AAAAAAAABxE/qMaLTA8U8V4/s400/Kansas+Mayhem+SYmphony+Pittsburgh+76+front.jpg

Awesome! thanks for the report.

yeah my story is way lamer. i went up with my brother-in-law, we ate at the baraboo uno's, got there during 'burnin' for you,' no tickets at the will-call AS I WAS PROMISED, dude hooked us up anyway, rocked out to böc, stayed for kansas who were competent and professional, drove home.

Great show report from upper mississippi sh@kedown there! I only ever saw them back in the 80s, 1984 (great), 1985 (not great) and 1989 (Aldo Nova on 2nd gtr iirc, pfffft). Next time they're in the UK I promise to see them again, even though it's just Buck + Eric + session dudes these days.

*tries to resist Mayhem Symphony*

lol i dunno, dl-ing kansas bootlegs might be the kind of internet k-hole you never wake up from, you know?

still though: MAYHEM SYMPHONY

The way he sings "I'm Burning for You" is almost as delicious as a candy bar.

http://www.odinartcollectables.com/images/BlueOysterCultOnYourFeet.jpg

lol I'm probably the closest thing ILX has to a SUPER-HARDCORE KANSAS FAN.

anyways, m@tt, that whole concert sounded like lots and lots of fun. Sucks they only played 5 songs, but meeting them sounds amazing. I totally should see if they are playing Michigan in the next few months.

http://doublefuneral.tumblr.com/post/81358919620/fuckinrecordreviews-of-all-the-things-weve

http://31.media.tumblr.com/9bb0e83f12c80ef3b8af8b4e1005edec/tumblr_n3bimgsRg21stk2lwo1_400.png

!!!!

Huge