Blue Oyster Cult: Classic or Dud?

this band was so fundamentally weird it's crazy.

it's true. smarter than they seemed and fucking odd.

Odd but fucking kick-ass. I love BOC. Sad that they are only known for the two or three classic rock radio hits-they don't do them justice.

...not that those couple-three hits aren't deservedly famous, of course.

I totally agree, that wasn't clear from my post.

If Gorge is reading this, it would be great if he could post that Creem Metal article he discussed a year ago.

and not just weird lyrically but they were such and odd mix musically, like you can hear (esp. on the early stuff) the vestiges of San Fran psych and Steppenwolf proto-hard rock boogie but there's something more menacing and angular about how they do it...also a metal element that's almost more there as an abstract feeling than *actual* metal music....then later stuff like "Joan Crawford" is what? AOR Goth?

Here's an excerpt from "Fear the Cheaper" which ran in the Voice back in 2001. It was a review of For the Heavy Metal Kids and the Yardbirds -- a Euro boot of Columbia's promo boot of BOC live ca. 72. Originally, it went to radio but there was enough fan and critical interest to ensure that it was issued commercially in a small run. It's also been in and out of reissue semi-regularly. The rendition of "Buck's Boogie" from it might have been the one that wound up on The Guitars That Destroyed the World anthology from around the same time. I can't remember, too long ago.
=========
...But the real reason for this tear is the re-arrival of For the Heavy Metal Kids and the Yardbirds, a live EP/CD of BÖC performing at a pizza parlor in Rochester in '72 that, I am informed, floats in and out of limited bootleg circulation every few years. The provenance is that it's a CD of a famous Columbia promo issued to radio shortly after the appearance of the first Blue Öyster Cult album.

For the Heavy Metal Kids has fairly obviously been mastered from original plastic. Listen close and you detect the light surface noise and rumble of turntable machinery, perfect in this case because it is precisely what BÖC sounded like back in someone's smelling-of-caked-joy-rag bedroom circa 1972. The tone is hot, airless as if heard in a stereo-equipped pine box, the band pressing stiflingly close upon the audience through a paralyzing smog of brutish, antique amplification.

Eric Bloom laughs maniacally and asks, "Wazzup, man?" as japing bullyboys chant, "You'd kill, you'd maim." This is eclipsed by the best performance of "Cities on Flame With Rock and Roll" on record. The number stalks the room in a transfixing exhibition of vulgar power, the signature riff pitting the guitar against the kick bass and floor tom in a bare-knuckles gang fight with the singer as referee. The packaging is a gatefold decorated with the half-menacing faux-Hunter S. Thompson gibber of "Transmaniacon MC." The disc even takes a stab at furthering the mythos of Gawlik.

In other words, the beating heart of For the Heavy Metal Kids brings everything BÖC's history merits to the table-its early mysterious harshness, the strong whiff of an impression that those who partook of it were members in a dream-world club of intellectual men of action and heavy-handed motorcycle thugs-everything the expected age-of-information product does not or will not provide.

And it's on a weird label named Munster.
=========

"Menacing" is an accurate way to describe the first three records. Even the strange way they (esp. the first two) were recorded gives you the willies. They were much freakier than their neighbors in Kiss, who came across as a cartoon.

xpost

Thanks Gorge

Alright, I don't get this. I'm crazy about this song "I Love The Night" but I tried to play the album that has Don't Fear The Reaper on it and the style just doesn't work for me. Do they have anything else like "I Love The Night"?

Yeah, that's about right. Liking "I Love the Night" at the expense of the other stuff cited doesn't get BOC. Run along now.

Bimble, I would check out Cultosaurus Erectus. "Deadline" is pretty close tonally.

^^^That's my fave BoC album!

Going to see 'em tonight! Or at least, Buck Dharma, Eric Bloom and some other dudes. Still... pretty psyched!

Has anyone seen them in the last few years? Perhaps on this tour? Or even at any point at all??

will be worth it just to see Eric Bloom do that mock "what's that noise?" bit right before they kick into "Godzilla"...

There's this insane "giglopaedia" thing here that is trying to document every show they ever did. Pretty insane.

cool!...I camped out for this concert:
http://www.hotrails.co.uk/history/images/1979/tickets/790921a.jpg

Wow. Is that 1978??

1979

also went to this one:
http://www.hotrails.co.uk/history/images/1980/tickets/801005a.jpg
(this was the Ronnie James Dio Black Sabbath, so not really the dream line-up it appears to be)

No, that's still a dream concert man. The Black and Blue Tour is legendary!

Specter, where are you seeing them? They are still great, even if they are touring small halls.

Holy shit, that Hot Rails to Hell website is great. BOC is definitely a group that lends itself to that sort of fanaticism, for whatever reason.

I have a few BOC cassettes but I just downloaded their greatest hits off emusic. I felt like doing something uncool. You guys are all a bunch of dorks talking about some records no one wants to hear. I am really loving listening to this, it sounds so seventies like nothing else. Probably because they only play two Blue Oyster Cult songs on the radio. That makes them cool and mysterious to me now.

"You guys are all a bunch of dorks talking about some records no one wants to hear."

Thanks.

Every time "Burning for you" comes on the radio I get very stoked.

it sounds so seventies like nothing else

^^this!

I've tried and failed to express somehing along hese lines before, but their whole sound and feel is some kind of purified essence of everything I look for in 'Classic Rock' a big part of which is definitely what Myonga von Bontee choicely refers to as 'arcane mysterioso read'.

(t key RIP)

and it was 'arcane mysterioso dread'. you get the point, hopefully.

And I think I might have scoffed when Tim Ellison said their best record was St Cecilia, but nowadays that doesn't seem so ridiculous to me. It's probably the one I play most.

Super stone idol CLASSIC.

BOC were almost as much a worldview as a band in a way. I have a mega sweet tooth for MYSTICAL BULLSHIT and they built that castle higher than anybody.

BOC kind of make me think of Alan Moore and his self-invented 'god' which is just a stuffed toy. It's all an obvious sham, but somehow that just frees the rational mind to let the magicqk in to do its work.

Their most unimpeachably awesome records-- On Your Feet, Tyranny And Mutation, Secret Treaties, Cultosaurus Erectus, Fire Of Unknown Origin. But every one of their LPs has at least a handful of brilliant things, and while their dud tracks are outrageously dudly, there's something really fascinating about the dud-ness that draws you back for many re-listenings.

They keep playing NYC without me noticing and I REALLY need to catch them soon.

By the way, do any of you past-expiry dudes know if that Goldmine article is online anywhere?

You guys are all a bunch of dorks talking about some records no one wants to hear.

you are burt_stanton and I claim my $5

This dork always wants to hear some BOC

My professor in college was their producer. Murray Krugman. What a wacky guy he was...

He now runs his own label called Silverwolf Records. Heres what he releases:

http://www.silverwolfmusic.com/catalog/popup_image.php/pID/98

(He seriously explained to us that he couldn't understand why this singer was upset with this photo)

If that didn't work follow this link: http://www.silverwolfmusic.com/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/28/products_id/98

WAU.

BOC flat-out rock. Buck, IMO, ~may~ be the most creative guitarist ever. Going back to the original post - i've heard some tremendous live BOC boots - Live in the West is the best one with the best sound quality....

I was walking by a house today...their door was open & "Godzilla" was playing REALLY LOUDLY. It totally made my day.

Awesome. Need more escapist seventies rock. There is nothing like listening to this on a warm summer night.

Buck Dharma is one of the top few modern American guitarists, his voice unique in classic rock.

The only other two post-Hendrix, are Billy Gibbons and Ted Nugent. Nugent has no singular solos,
Don Roeser (Buck) does. The solos in "Reaper" and "Burning for You" are immediately recognizable as part of American classic rock. No one else does anything like that.

Try to recall a solo which reinforces a tune like Buck's. You can't. Duane Allman never quite achieved that level of FM arena imprint. And no one in Lynyrd Skynyrd outside of Gary Rossington did.

One can point to Eddie van Halen. But Buck composed solos in the context of BOC. And they were far more lyrical than EVH. You gotta hear "Last Days of May," another tune with an absolutely melodically crushing lead guitar bit.

Gorge, you need to listen to some Neil Young friendo. Particularly "Like A Hurricane" or "Southern Man"...

"BOC were almost as much a worldview as a band in a way. I have a mega sweet tooth for MYSTICAL BULLSHIT and they built that castle higher than anybody"

This - also no other band has, at least to my Italian ears, that same totally American/ totally mysterious feeling. I'm thinking to songs like Dominance & Submission and the way they effortlessly link pop culture to arcane, almost Lovecraft-like dizziness.

You gotta hear "Last Days of May," another tune with an absolutely melodically crushing lead guitar bit.

^the version on "On Your Feet or On Your Knees" is fucking spectacular. I played that version 20 times in a row one time it is so friggin mindblowing.

Inspired by this thread, I listened to "On your feet" exactly one hour ago!

Buck Dharma is one of the top few modern American guitarists, his voice unique in classic rock.

OTM. The man is smooth as silk. He can play horizontally across the guitar, vertically, whatever. His scales, selection of notes, and sound are all his own. He doesn't grandstand, shred, etc. He's really improvising, within a r'n'r context, but still keeps to the song. He plays through and around the meter of the song, with power, humor, and melodicism. Wow.

Buck is the shit. As I said on another BOC thread, the two 'reunion' albums (Heaven Forbid and Curse Of The Hidden Mirror) contain a handful of awesome Buck-penned tunes ('Harvest Moon', 'Pocket', 'Stone Of Love'). The duds on these two albums are almost unbearable but you do need to hear the Buck joints.

Buck is the shit. As I said on another BOC thread, the two 'reunion' albums (Heaven Forbid and Curse Of The Hidden Mirror) contain a handful of awesome Buck-penned tunes ('Harvest Moon', 'Pocket', 'Stone Of Love'). The duds on these two albums are almost unbearable but you do need to hear the Buck joints.

the first four jams on Heaven Forbid are varying degrees of good-to-fucking-awesome - the soloing on "X-ray Eyes" is fucking awesome and the chorus ("Do not envy the man with the x-ray eyes") is all time BOC classic. The album cover is so appallingly gauche that it's difficult not to be moved by it.

damn man there are a lot of solid jams on this record, kind of an ideal july evening play! high quality!

Ok, I have here in the store a copy of Heaven Forbid coupled with a somehow mysterious compilation called Cult Classics.
Should I buy it?
Consider that I'm terminally in love with Imaginos - the great BOC album that never was.

I haven't heard Imaginos, but Heaven Forbid is kinda blah to my ears. Some good songs, no doubt, but they try to heavy it up a little too much. And Cult Classic looks like a re-recorded greatest hits. Is it cheap? If it's cheap I would buy it.

Its quite cheap, but the cover of Heaven Forbid is a powerful repellent. On the other hand, Imaginos frequently walks the thin line between horrible and great, but I love it.

okay, so i said some stupid shit itt way back when, and would like to make up for it cuz over the past three years or so, blue oyster cult have become one of my favorite rock bands ever in the history of the world, ever, eclipsing a lot of shit i would once have thought indisplaceable. classic a 1000 times over, casting bat wing shadows down ages unnamed. i grew up with BOC and alice cooper, but always ranked them second to KISS (in my innocence) and then the stooges (when manhood rudely took me). and motorhead, maiden, ac/dc and on. but now, most days, oyster boys are calling me.

secret treaties is one of the most perfectly constructed rock albums of all time

^^ haha, i came in here to say something along very similar lines.

they really have everything that's good about rock...the drive of punk, the chops/gorgeous production of classic rock, weird/oblique disturbing biker version of steely dan lyrics, pop hooks, strange instrumental breaks, etc etc

and hella cheap used copies EVERYWHERE

haha yeah absolutely

with a somehow mysterious compilation called Cult Classics.
Should I buy it?

Cult Classics is a redo of the band's favorited tunes. Some hacks in the mix playing stuff that was recorded by original band members kicked out. It was done to get some new royalties flowing from stuff Columbia had probably choked them off on. It's decent but not essential.

Thanks for the info!

I can only repeat what Matt and all the others wrote above: Blue Oyster Cult are a kind of adult pleasure, their greatness is in how they do not really fit any musical niche while being at the same time the quintessential 70's band.

Maybe I am the only one, but I find the Screams/ She's As Beautiful As A Foot couplet from their first album one of the most outright bizarre moments in classic rock.

Until now, I've only owned the 2CD best-of Workshop of the Telescopes, but I just took the plunge and ordered the first five studio albums and Fire of Unknown Origin from Barnes & Noble.com. Happy birthday to me.

Yeah, those two songs are seriously fucked up. Great stuff though. I even like the C&W song Redeemed.

xpost

Love to hear your take on those, unperson. My personal favorite is Tyranny and Mutation, but I love all of it through Spectres.

x x xposts

couple of songs, even - but couplet is ok anyway.

i have a weird affection for Club Ninja

So I finally dove in last night, picking up a really cheap threefer with the self-titled debut, Fire of Unknown Origin, and Extraterrestrial Live. Only listened to the self-titled so far, but really wishing I'd have given these guys more of a chance years ago.

it all seemed so innocent at first...

Hilarious video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KhMomocD28

was just listening to Cultosaurus Erectus. very underrated; Deadline in particular is really great and The Marshall Plan just really fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhFNxiaills

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVR290bND7E

^ some days my favorite BOC outside the 1st three. agree that "deadline" is a secret classic. added without apology:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCxL3-Fl7bM
B*L*A*C*K B*L*A*D*E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIznbshinug
U*N*K*N*O*W*N T*O*N*G*U*E

True story: I used to work in an auto salvage yard, and one day a customer noticed my Clash t-shirt. He said, "Hey, you know that album Give 'Em Enough Rope? My partner produced that." "You mean Sandy Pearlman?" "Yeah, we worked together for years, did all the Blue Oyster Cult stuff..."

I couldn't pass up this opportunity. "So, that means you worked on 'Don't Fear The Reaper'...?" The man sighed, looked at the ground, and said, "Yeah....yeah. I think I'm the only person on earth who doesn't think that sketch is funny."

(Yes, it turned out to be Murr4y Kru6man)

That sketch just totally isn't very funny. It's as awful as any other awful saturday night live sketch.

that story is kinda sad! :(

Extraterrestrial Live is currently helping me make it through a rough afternoon of office programming.

BÖC are great because it's equally fun to sing along with the words and the riffs. "Lucifer... the light! Bermp-ba-derna-derna! FROWM!"

So, Phil posted this news on twitter:

BLUE ÖYSTER CULT: 'The Columbia Albums Collection' Due In October

Damn. That is gonna be hard not to pick up.

Cannot believe it/am beside self/678&%&GRE#BIGB#FV^b8of)&*E#%^&

Gonna try to go to the concurrent Times Square show too.

Amazing.

Looks like "On Your Feet ..." is finally being remastered. I wonder if that will be released individually? I pretty much have everything else. I only have the vinyl On Your Feet and its old and not great shape.

I dunno I mean only 6 out of these 16 CDs have been out in the remaster series. Pretty worth it IMO!

I would be surprised if these get individual releases. They still haven't issued the Sad Wings and Rocka Rolla remasters from the Priest box. Or any of the Cheap Trick remasters, either.

Yeah, stuff in the boxes tends to stay in the boxes - the bonus disc of live Mahavishnu Orchestra stuff would generate huge interest if it got a stand-alone release, but they're not doing it.

Wonder if the early CD's will come with those lyric sheets (printed in that "futuristic" font) that you could get with a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

Oh man, I need to get this… Probably going to be damn expensive, though.

Up for $112 bucks on pre-order at barnes and noble today...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s?view=grid&store=Music&CAT=1025851&PRO=13

Wanna buy one of Albert Bouchard's guitars? Only $550.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/190731028279?item=190731028279&ViewItem=

If you stood that guitar up it would probably be taller than Al.

man i hope that's not the box art, not that cool :(

Tonight's Times Square show rescheduled due to frankenstorm.

http://bestbuytheater.com/eventdetail.php?id=37375

The above link does not say to when, but Al Bouchard said on BOC-L that it's resched to tomorrow night...

^make that NEXT monday night, not tomorrow. I misread.

~O~M~G~

So the rescheduled Times Square 40th anniv show is happening tomorrow night. And E. Bloom just announced on fb that Albert and Joe are going to be playing at least 5 songs with them! And Allen Lanier even!

(plus not very subtle hints that a certain rather famous occasional BOC lyricist will get up for some guest vox) (NOT michael moorcock).

AIIEEE so psyched!

Um.... holy shit how did I miss this?

So...how was this? I might have journeyed out if not for the spotty post-Sandy LIRR service.

It was awesome. For the moment, here's the set list and I'll try to get more descriptive later. Awesome highlights marked with ***

[current lineup takes stage to 'Game Of Thrones' theme. E. Bloom, Buck Dharma, Richie Castellano (gtr, keys), Kasim Sulton (bass), Jules Radino (drums)]
1. This Ain't the Summer of Love
2. Golden Age of Leather
3. Burnin' For You
4. Harvest Moon***
5. ME 262
6. Then Came the Last Days of May***
7. Lips in the Hills***
8. Shooting Shark (guest: sax player from Letterman band, apparently an old time friend of the band)***
9. Godzilla (including portions of 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot', 'Bang the Drum All Day', 'Paradise by the Dashboard Light' and the theme from 'Night Court')
10. I Love the Night***
[brief break, return with acoustic setup and additional percussionist]
11. Harvester of Eyes***
12. Astronomy***
13. Gil Blanco County***
14. Death Valley Nights (guest: Albert Bouchard, vocals)
15. In Thee (guest: Allen Lanier, guitar)
[brief break, return to electric setup]
16. Summa Cum Laude (song recorded for the soundtrack of Teachers but rejected, included on the new box set apparently)***
17. Arthur Comics
18. Black Blade
[brief break, return without Castellano/Sulton/Radino but Bouchard/Bouchard/Lanier instead]
19. OD'd on Life Itself
20. Career of Evil***
21. The Red and the Black***
22. Don't Fear the Reaper [orig lineup joined by current lineup-- 8 ppl onstage]

wow, would have loved to go. i heard they were going to do one more song with albert singing (cities on flame, maybe?) but bumped against an 11pm curfew so went straight to reaper.

Amazing setlist imo

Just as FYI, there's a recording of this on D 1 m 3 @ d 0 z 3 n

9. Godzilla (including portions of 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot', 'Bang the Drum All Day', 'Paradise by the Dashboard Light' and the theme from 'Night Court')

!?

Well, basically the 'bass solo' in the middle of Godzilla consisted of Bloom listing all the bands Kasim Sulton has been in (Joan Jett, Utopia, Meatloaf) with the band busting into a few bars of a corresponding hit. And then Sulton did an unaccompanied solo which if my memory isn't playing tricks on me was riffing off Night Court (and if my memory is playing tricks on me maybe it was Seinfeld...)

9. Godzilla (including portions of 'Hit Me With Your Best Shot','Bang the Drum All Day', 'Paradise by the Dashboard Light' and the theme from 'Night Court

Did the same bit when I saw them

Wow @ the Stalk-Forrest stuff!

been working through the lovely Columbia box set. sound quality is terrific. haven't gotten quite all of it listened to yet but - the Rarities disc - "stepping razor" is killer; another cover, "it's not easy" shows how underrated Albert B. may have been - his playing is economical and jazzy. Best of the Broadcasts has awesome versions of "lips in the hills" and "black blade".
never heard imaginos before. "del rio song" is a treat. and "perfect water", mentioned upthread, has such a incredible Buck solo, i hate to say that it's up there with Hendrix 'cuz i don't know what that even means.......

I wondered if anyone had broken down and bought it. Sounds pretty great.

y'all might've already seen this but if not: http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=1285

it's so lonely in the state of maine

Gonna buy it pretty soon. Maybe before end of year. Outdoor Miner did you download the free concert recordings that come with it yet?

Tyler, thanking u, cool that they have it track by track since I was at the show and I can just grab the ones that were awesome.

not yet. first few days the link wasn't working and haven't gone back for 'em. but in case you're wondering they're all shows from the 1980's:
old waldorf, sf, 1980; Bond's, nyc, 1981; perkin's palace, pasadena, 1983; santa monica civic, 1986. obv a few tracks show up 2 or 3 times but the sets are pretty varied overall. really glad to have another live version of 7 screaming diz busters. that's one they always rework brilliantly....i've heard the '83 show before and it is a goodie

how much is the box set? i really want this bad....

around $120?

jon, so the *** are the ones worth grabbing?

I only have the waldorf show out of those, and I'm sure that will sound better than the boot i have. Exciting!

tyler, yeah in my opinion. But the only actual dud was In Thee. You should hear the whole show cuz why not.

Since y'all are gonna hear this show now, I'm curious what you think about the long solo section of 'Last Days Of May'. Castellano takes a several minute gtr solo, then Buck takes a several minute gtr solo. It put me very specifically in mind of when I saw Nusrat Fateh Khan & Party in Seattle in the early nineties-- he had this younger qawwali singer at his right hand who kept doing all these long super-flashy melismas and then Nusrat would come in and just crush his young techy ass with one syllable.

also thinking of breaking down & buying the set

(typing onna ipad, how the fuck do people do this?)

Basically, I'm hoping there'll be a good deal on it on dec. 26th.

Anybody heard the remastered "On Your Feet...."? Is it a significant improvement?

I've heard it (On Your Feet). It sounds fantastic.

Shit, i think you just cost me $120 or however much the box costs!

I've also heard the remaster of Cultosaurus Erectus, which sounds great too. So I'm assuming they did a really good job on the other studio albums that haven't been tweaked since whenever.

Yeah I'm hoping this box will spark a renaissance of Cultosaurus appreciation. Such an amazing album.

what about mirrors, kinda hate the brassy 80s production on that, hopefully mastering can help

Cultosaurus Erectus is so crewsh

Martin Birch FTW

i think tom werman produced mirrors, that guy sucks

have you read the Martin Popoff BOC book yet? (if not DO IT)

no i haven't, i read a chapter online once seemed cool, seemed really trainspotter-ish but that's kinda what i want

yeah it's exactly like a really really long BOC zine with access to all the players, you'll love it.

Looks like these may be the droids / individually released remasters you're looking for. Anyone heard anything about this? Would be psyched for a really good sounding OYFOOYK

http://www.culturefactoryusa.com/new-releases/view/productdetails/virtuemart_product_id/106/virtuemart_category_id/4

awesome, looking forward to that

there's a youtube of redcap from march 5th that claims to be "remastered", but i can't tell the diff

I'm still gonna opt for the box set. Just got my (modest) annual bonus, maybe now's the time.

Apparently, the movie Oblivion has a close up of the Some Enchanted Evening sleeve in it. Come with me, young man...

Just scores the Martin Popoff book -- very satisfying. Thanks for the tip, Mr Spatula

I'm seeing reports on fb that Allen Lanier has died.

Eric Bloom posted this on FB

My great friend Allen Lanier has passed. I'll miss the guy even though we hadn't spoken in awhile. He was so talented as a musician and a thinker. He read voraciously, all kinds of things, especially comparative religion. We drove for years together, shared rooms in the early days. We partied, laughed, played. All BOC fans and band members will mourn his death. Ultimately smoking finally got to him. He had been hospitalized with C.O.P.D. It was Allen who heard some old college band tapes of mine and suggested I get a shot as the singer in 1968. A lot of great memories, over 40 years worth. Maybe he's playing a tune with Jim Carroll right now.

Fuck.

That sucks. He was the coolest (certainly the tallest!) of the Cult. His association with Jim Carroll and Patti Smith made them way hipper than their metal peers. And though he couldn't sing, he still managed to write some of their most touching tunes. RIP.

Oh no, not entirely unexpected but very sad to see another guy from that era go. Check out his playing on Nosferatu, Joan Crawford or Flaming Telepaths to hear what a hard rock keyboard player should be. RIP.

oh man RIP :(

RIP.

I tried to offer some thoughts on Lanier's influence, since I haven't really seen too many sites/news outlets do so today.

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/post--allen-lanier-of-blue-öyster-cult-dead-at-67

Aw damn. That "Flaming Telepaths" Moog solo is alltime

RIP

Sorry, here's a proper link to my Lanier obit:

http://on-msn.com/1cERWxl

Jesus fucking christ

Jesus FUCKING Christ

real tears rn

can't even

listening to burnin for you, the synth pads on this song are so crucial

He looked really bad onstage at the 40th anniversary show in NYC. But I didn't expect this.

Hey hold on, how did I miss this, RIP Allen.

CELEBRATING ALLEN

When we were in the planning stages for last year’s 40th Anniversary celebration show one of the “surprises” was going to be Allen joining the band on stage with guest vocalist Patti Smith performing one of the many BӦC songs for which Patti had written the lyric.

Sadly, the show was postponed by Hurricane Sandy, and Patti was out of the country on the rescheduled date.

I captured a rehearsal take on my cell phone, and Patti has been gracious enough to let us share it with everyone.

So here’s Eric, Buck, Richie, Jules, and Kasim joined by Allen and Patti for “Career of Evil”.

SLS

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151766278794780

aw sad that didn't happen

Nice obit here : http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/features/allen-lanier-1946-2013/

That's a good obit.

I love when Dharma is referred to as "Donald Roeser". Im like, who????

So stoked for the free BOC show at the MN state Fair

I was gonna be there this week and next week too!!! Had to postpone our mn trip cause of my stupid arm. Then the boc announcement arrrgh

Just saw them in Boston.
Good (not great) show (I'd kinda prefer hearing 'Tyranny...' from beginning to end!)... pretty short set list too. 8-10 songs or so.

Still... first time I've gotten to see them and I'm happy I did.

Just found out these guys are playing near here next week (with Foghat). I've been listening to the first two records pretty much every day for the past couple of weeks, so it was a nice surprise to find out. I always have the hardest time convincing myself to go to shows, but I think I should really try to go to this one; my list of shows I regret not going to is long enough already.

Go. They were great when I saw them a year and a half ago. And nothing lasts forever, so go.

Saw em last summer and it was great. State Fair free stage and they still pulled out some deep cuts

did they do "Lips in the Hills"? That was a highlight of the anniversary show

Nope but Golden Age of Leather, the Vigil, and Black Blade were unexpected

That was a pretty awesome show! Maybe a few too many extended solos toward the end (didn't bother me too much but my wife and friends weren't having it at all), but a pretty solid set overall!

OK, thanks to the Classic Rock poll thread I started combing through BOC's catalogue in search of something else that sounded as great as Reaper, in that same vein. A week later I still haven't found it but I found this other incredibly weird band instead. Like some of the earlier posters here, I've tried here and there to get BOC over the years, but found it an opaque mix of intriguing and awful without a consistent point of reference. However, after listening to Veterans of Psychic Wars about 2 dozen times this week, they've started to win me over on sheer unpredictability alone. So far I've responded best to Fire of Unknown Origin & Cultasaurus Erectus, but there's obviously much much more to discover.

they've started to win me over on sheer unpredictability alone. So far I've responded best to Fire of Unknown Origin & Cultasaurus Erectus, but there's obviously much much more to discover.

lol, that was exactly my entry trajectory: "reaper" on late 70s radio, followed by "veterans" on the heavy metal soundtrack in the summer of '81. FOUO and cultosaurus are two of my favorites, love the mix of true cult oddity and streamlined 80s pop. i don't know what you've heard and haven't, but "opaque mix of intriguing and awful" fairly describes my reaction to some of their most successful releases. think the best approach is just to marinate in the first three albums until your marbles start to roll around on the floor.

Secret Treaties is pretty perfect

Blue Oyster Cult has become a favorite of mine in the past few years. I have been listening to them on and off forever, but I think I was always wished they were a heavier rock band like Sabbath and some of their hits might indicate. It seemed their aesthetic finally kicked in for me and I really like them now. The first couple albums they seem like a very dark and evil version of the west coast ballroom rock bands then they morf into a group really under their own rules. It's really arranged music at times kind of like prog rock, but not ornate. I think some of this is how they would switch off on keyboards to extra guitars and the multiple vocalists. Their music can be kind of intricate, which might be why you don't see too many covers of BOC. I think they hold up pretty well.

In the past week I've been through Agents-Fire, and am going back to the first few now. I had put on Secret Treaties the other day and couldn't take the goofiness of Career of Evil, but upon going through this thread last night and listening to a live 'Astronomy', I think I'll give it another go today. Maybe I'm conflating a few of the posts upthread, but somebody described BOC as this strange mix of Black Sabbath, Steely Dan & Hawkwind, and that about seems right to me.

Secret Treaties is their magnum opus IMO. Fire of Unknown Origin's my second fave.

40 min later, Secret Treaties, A+, thanks all

He's found the awful truth, Balthazar

Details of import down at conry's bar IMO

WELL IT'S SO LONELY IN THE STATE OF MAINE

Now ladies fish n gentlemen

He's found the awful truth, Balthazar

Perhaps he just wants to know where winds come from?

I had put on Secret Treaties the other day and couldn't take the goofiness of Career of Evil

big part of the appeal, once you get your mind right

BOC was not afraid to be a bit absurd and trashy, it's kind of their tie to what went on in NY in the later 70s. "She's As Lovely as a Foot" indeed. They had a wide sound and did quite a few different type of numbers and styles.

I've never heard any of the later BOC records, but I am getting curious.

The BOC milestones:

S/T: deeply strange band who all live in a big house together and sound like it. First 3 records all have a governing "band" sound and lyrical ethos pretty much.

Agents of Fortune- the first record where they all got pro quality 4 track recorders for their pads, inaugurating the era of 'buck songs' 'Albert songs' 'joe songs' etc, which may sound radically different from one another. The aesthetic distance between 'reaper' and 'sinful love' is vast.

Cultosaurus Erectus: in comes Martin Birch from his proto-nwobhm stomping grounds to pull together a band sound again for this and Fire... a glorious sweet spot of totally successful SFF-infused hard rock. Yessss.

Revolution By Night - the first album without Albert illustrates what a critical part of the gumbo he was. Weird atmospheric 80s production and a p bad drum sound, and solo turns from iirc letterman's future sax player. Yet about half the album is great, especially the bizarre patti smith lyric 'shooting shark' and 'veins'. The same cannot be said for the next album Club Ninja.

Imaginos - surely the misbegottenest most difficult to explain rock record ever. Originally a kind of Albert solo album with heavy pearlmanisms made after his ouster from the band, that version suppressed and recut as a boc album with Eric and buck and a studio hireling rerecording the vocals. Session singer is comically hair metal but gets the unforgettable lyric HE WAS ME! AND I WAS CAAAALLED! [group vox] FRANK, EN, STEIN! The original Albert version of this album is all on YouTube in c90 sound quality and is well worth hearing. But so is the official version. With this, boc became a strictly live band for about a decade.

Heaven Forbid and Curse of the Hidden Mirror - reunion albums for a band that never broke up or stopped touring. The Buck-Eric-Allen core intact. SF writer John Shirley brought in to fill the sandy pearlman role. Between these two albums there is one really good album's worth of songs, with Buck bringing the highlights: 'harvest moon' which they wanted to evoke a haunted territory over time a la Stephen King's It and the super hooky 'Pocket'. Some cringey lyrics on here too. Annnnd back to strictly touring for another decade and a half.

Last year: RIP Allen
This year: new Albert solo album which I really need to get

The... End?

club ninja has a couple really sweet ones at least - "perfect water" and "dancin' in the ruins". they never put out a record that didn't have two or three great tunes. which i'm fine with actually

the super hooky 'Pocket'.

so otm. what a jam

Yeah aero I was stoked when you threw love its way a couple years ago. Idk if buck realizes how awesome it is... they play 'harvest moon' live still but not 'pocket' I don't think...

Tyranny and Mutation remains one of the sickest trips to the gutter of all time. I don't do drugs anymore but I can taste that sulfuric bitterness in my sinuses every time I put this motherfucker on.

There is a certain dread and malevolence bubbling under the surface of their slick AOR that is alternately cheesy yet more unsettling to me than lots of more heavy/extreme/"evil" metal bands

I think the two early live records "On Your Feet or On Your Knees" and "Some Enchanted Evening" are pretty ace. The recording quality (either live or overdubbed) is good on On Your Feet and exceptional on Enchanted Evening. Many of the early record numbers are edgier and meaner sounding live too. They are not Yes or Crimson, but some of BOC's tunes have some pretty elaborate arrangements.

"The Subhuman" on On Your Feet is legendary, s is the slight Lou Reed dis

I love the way On Your Feet... starts, with that giggle from a bandmember...such a weird production/mixing choice, like you're eavesdropping on them backstage right before they run onstage for the show.

Yeah that version of subhuman is guitar heaven

One of my top 5 live albums for def

you know, i think i saw one of the shows where "on your feet" was recorded. 10/5/74 at the academy of music. with triumvirat! they were sort of an elp knockoff, or so my memory tells me. man, look at those double and triple bills in '74.

http://www.hotrails.co.uk/giglopaedia/1974.htm

Aerosmith feud starts

wonder what that was all about?

I'd like to know! I don't think that was covered in the Popoff book.

lol triumvirat

BOC just destroyed the place. The "feud", I believe, relates to Aerosmith pulling the plug on BOC's use of FX as their warm up act. Then, quid pro quo, Aerosmith's entire sound and power mysteriously vanished mid set for them. Joey Kramer, Aerosmith's drummer did his solo acoustic, which was lame - I remember he goofed, grabbing his own head of hair and slamming his head into a drum while simultaneously using his kick pedal. Funny... but not as amusing as when singer Steven Tyler lept on stage after power resumed wanting to know "who was the cunt who shut us down."...

I remember that the set was very short after the power outage... It was a magical night in rock & roll.

a week and a half of nothing but BOC... I think I've opened up my veins too many times.

ny'ers with wheels: they're playing a free show in long island on saturday.

http://oysterbaytown.com/departments/community-and-youth-services/cultural-and-performing-arts-capa/music-stars-2014/

"veins in my eyeballs
damage that i've done
veins on the stairway
veins in my skull"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs8jrK8Q_ek

^^last ever BOC song with Richard Meltzer lyrics iirc

One of the two indispensables from revolution by night. Though shadow of California is pretty good too.

Xpost goddamn them for playing NYC area as soon as I get to Minnesota >:[

holy crap "Then Came the Last Days of May" has the weirdest fucking reverb

entire first album just the oddest sound-world, totally unlike anything else

Yeah the *vibe* of that first album is really something else. Like it actually sounds like there was evil in the air.

it does! the kind of evil that can only be evoked by a band who are actually all living in a big house together.

uggghhh the fucking segue into "she's as beautiful as a foot" SO PERFECT

And that looped-and-reverbed-unto-eternity "Telescope-ope-ope-ope-oPE-OPE-OPE-OPE-OPEOPEOPEOPEOP..."

Its like the sonic equivalent of the album cover's vanishing point.

Deeply unnatural production and equalization on this record, just unright and uncanny and downright unamerican!

Drug the debut out earlier tonight thanks to this revive. In the liner notes they say it was recorded on the cheap in an 8-track studio known for recording jingles!

Jingles that eventually drove people to madness and murder?

That explains the bizarre reverb and fidelity. It works.

"Veteran of the Psychic Wars" in 81

check out this motherfuckin buck solo damn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pFdkkjGiEs

Yeah that's pretty dope.

OK so look at the NYTimes book review section today. There's a new crime novel by JK Rowling writing under a pseudonym and it's titled Career of Evil, and is apparently stuffed with further overt BOC references. Liek tons of them.

This delights me and it can't help but enhance the visibility of BOC.

WHAT

Review by M Kakutani today. It reads like a joke! I'm v happy for my boys.

Amazing, no? It's still not going to convince me the Harry Potter books are worth reading...

haha! that's awesome

E Bloom is an SFF nerd so I'm sure he has commented on this by now

This is great, if it turns out there's a chapter called She's As Beautiful As A Foot I might even read the thing.

Chapter 7
Screaming Dizbusters

anybody know what synths they used on Fire of Unknown Origin? Don't Turn Your Back came up on shuffle and those pads grabbed me.

Man I just spent ten minutes researching that, couldn't find anything but a list of what he used live in the 90s. Where are the gear nerds when you need them?

I'd like to know too. I love the synths on that record. There's not a ton of choices for polyphony in 1981 right?

There's a good shot of the keyboard rig in the live video a few posts northward (at around 4.55), difficult to tell though. Maybe a Memorymoog?
A clue: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/r-i-p-allen-lanier-of-b-o-c.326402/page-3#post-9260256

On a similar note: http://www.synthfind.com/moog/moog-minimoog-model-d-309/

Also this thread is great: http://www.hotrails.co.uk/blueskybag/samjudd/oldroadies.htm

best band ever

Fire of Unknown Origin is one of the best synth-on-a-rock-record rock records, no doubt.

See also "deadline" on the previous album

OK so Sam Judd is my new favorite person, that thread is awesome. And CLUE -- on this thread:

http://www.hotrails.co.uk/history/1980.htm

Mr. Judd mentions loading patches into the Prophet V and having the Oberheim worked on. This was during 1980 and the synths on FOUO and Cultosaurus sound about the same generally.

I was already wondering if it was a Prophet V because that was just about the only polyphonic synth at the time right?

Yeah, in 1980, the two main contenders were the Prophet-5 and the Oberheim OB-X. Moog were still pushing the Polymoog, but it's fairly weak-sounding - not the sort of thing BOC would have been using. In the interests of completeness, I would also note that by 1980 Roland had released the Jupiter-4 and there were a couple of other Japanese and German polyphonic oddities available, such as the Korg PS-3300 and the PPG 340. But big bands like BOC were using Sequential Circuits and/or Oberheim.

Both of which are mentioned in that 1980 roadie diary. Sounds like the minimoog was still on tour with them that year too.

Obv Lanier has a shitload of synths around him in that youtube m@tt posted

Prophet 5 and Oberheim OBX-A were I think what Japan pretty much used exclusively on Tin Drum, so they were in good company.

Arc of a Diver by Stevie Winwood is almost entirely Prophet 5 I think, except for the drums -- lol not that that necessarily constitutes good company but I do love it.

I'd figure those glassy pads on the song 'Fire of Unknown Origin' to be from an Oberheim. They have a similar sound to Van Halens synths and he used Oberheims.

the 1980 tour thread is awesome, love the contrast between the inside dope & backstage geekery of the roadie diary VS the civilians memories "it was my first concert i was 14 and on acid..."

This clip is pretty awesome. Bet you never figured to see Charles Grodin interviewing Blue Oyster Cult either.

This quote on the Youtube page is pretty funny too.

Gerber Bernstein3 months ago
"Edgar Allen Poe is wearing Ace Frehley's pajamas, and rockin' !"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0X5YpOkSz4

Paris 1975 this is fucking godlike

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGI99kQ13hA

Their current drummer, Jules Radino, is also a realtor on the side in case anyone is ever looking to purchase some property on Long Island.

http://ricerealty1.com/real-estate-agents/

Don't Fear The Realtor

Real Estate Agents of Fortune

Secret Closings?

i wonder if he knows don deitrich of borbatmagus, maybe they talk shop

The real Sharona from 'My Sharona' is a big time realtor.

http://www.mysharona.com/about/about-sharona/

So are Neil Smith, the "platinum god" drummer of the original Alice Cooper group, and Bill Janovitz (Buffalo Tom.)

Gretchen from Mary's Danish is also a real estate agent. I think someone from Social Distortion is too.

There was a funny SNL skit some years back, Rob Schneider (if memory serves) played a former hair metal singer turned real estate agent. Hilarity ensued.

Joking aside it makes a lot of sense there aren't a lot of careers where you can make a lot of money (potentially) that you can enter later in life and without a degree, so for ppl that spent a lot of their working years chasing music I could see the appeal. Also it's a flexible hours thing if you want to keep playing

They’re OK, the last days of May
But I’ll be breathin’ dry air
I'm leaving soon
The others are already there (all there...)
Wouldn’t be interested in coming along
Instead of staying here?
It's said the West is nice this time of year
That's what they say

when i last saw them play, Buck did a KILLLLERRR solo on that tune

by sheer coincidence, I'm bumping BOC today for the first time in awhile. Cultosaurus Erectus. So fucking good. Them and martin birch were a match made in heaven.

tyranny and mutation is so fucking fast

eric was interviewed on his home turf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAEdzkpN6oo

ooh thanks!

"What is your favorite word: ROCKIN"

like they even had to ask.

"I Love the Night" is so gorgeous

yes!!! my favorite böc song

I can't decide which is the superior of the two vampire jams on Spectres, this or Nosferatu.

BOC is never really recognized for their harmony singing, but they are so amazing at it, like the "I....I.....I....love the night" stacked harmonies or the beginning of Golden Age of Leather, Beach Boys level

in the mainstream BOC isn't taken seriously or recognized for anything beyond the hits, a couple of which are maybe regarded as borderline novelty songs. But I mean they're no more of a joke band than The Beatles, or any number of other all-time bands, many of which they're considerably better than.

tyranny and mutation should be the gold standard of how to play rock music

yeah I listen to these records and I always notice something new they are extraordinary well crafted rock records

also Buck is consistently left off greatest guitarist rock lists and seeing him live he is godlike

also they are so strange.... like not in an avant garde way but so quirky and distinctive they go from off the shelf boogie to occult weirdness on a dime

like RU Ready to Rock that odd, mournful round of "I only live to be born again" that comes from nowhere in an arena rocker

I mean they're no more of a joke band than The Beatles

I enjoy me some BOC, but any band that records "Godzilla" is at least one of the greatest joke bands of all time, even if the fans are (?) often in on it.

The band is definitely weird, jumping from boogie butt rock to psychedelic neo-prog to an extent that I've never been able to really wrap my head (as a modest fan) around the love many have for them, save for the fact that there's not much to hate. Which is enough! Like, Lynyrd Skynyrd is an incredible band with incredible songs, objectively better than BOC (imo), but I can see why the band could turn some people off. Same with, I dunno, Rush. But BOC is just so goofy and under the radar, *despite* at least a couple of ubiquitous hits. They're like the best known best kept secret.

Hmm, speaking of Skynyrd, has "more cowbell?" supplanted "Freebird" as the thing dummies yell out?

Agents and Spectres are so wonderfully all over the place..."True Confessions" and "Debby Denise" are basically doo wop, "Celestial the Queen" and "E.T.I." power pop, and "Goin' Through The Motions" is Mott The Hoople circa "Roll Away The Stone" (appropriately co-penned by Ian Hunter)..."Tenderloin" could easily fit in on a Fleetwood Mac album of that era...

They're one of those bands where their signature song is pretty much atypical of their ouevre in general, Focus is another I guess. For some reason I still can't remember a note of Cultosaurus Erectus despite having played it a bunch of times over the last few decades, maybe it's just not for me.

Mirrors was spotty, but Erectus started a run of really bad albums, as far as I'm concerned. It's a long way from "Morning Final" to "The Marshall Plan"!

They’re so thrilling at their best. on your feet or on your knees is mad good hard rock

but Erectus started a run of really bad albums, as far as I'm concerned

henry fire of unknown origin is an amazing album

Yeah, "Veteran" is among my favourite BOC songs.

This thread revival has made me put on "The Red and the Black" and I thank you for that.

I think I was first introduced to that song via fIREHOSE.

I'm listening to Secret Treaties right now and goddamn how did they do this?

perfection

also "Deadline" is a great sleeper off Cultoraurus Erectus

Oh man Deadline is my favorite track on that album, brilliant song

I came across a copy of The Fireclown at a book fair today and bought it for the insane cover illustration. Consequently had “The Great Sun Jester” stuck in my head the rest of the day.

Which is funny cause I had “pret-ty girls can’t look aWAY” stuck in my head this morning after I was thinking about the subject of body dysmorphia. Mirrors is the least of the original 8 record hot streak to me but I guess today was a Mirrors kind of day.

BOC are a kind of touchstone for me, such a perfect blend of lame-cool dumb-deep. When I had to fly to MN a few weeks ago to take my mom to the hospital and I thought she might die I put on my lil BOC symbol pendant before going to the airport.

They’re so thrilling at their best. on your feet or on your knees is mad good hard rock

i like the live Days of May way better than the studio version - my fave track on the album. Buck's solo is inspired! And his solo at the end of Subhuman burns my ears (in the best way). Some Enchanted Evening is better though in some ways (except for the lousy We Gotta Get Out of This Place) - the live Astronomy is awesome, and their Kick Out the Jams is KILL!

When I saw them live (the anniversary show promoting the box set) last days of may was a big highlight. Buck’s solo was *mwah*

yeah Last Days of May is the signature guitar showcase in the set

All the foregoing comments OTM. I was just thinking about *Some Enchanted Evening* the other day. Not their best live album for sure, but super interesting that the two covers are both obviously and deliberately chosen Vietnam songs -- one the most popular for the soldiers in Vietnam (We gotta get out of this place) and the other the signature song of the Chicago 68 protests (Kick Out the Jams)

"lame-cool dumb-deep" as mentioned above is like the best thing classic rock can do, looking forward to diving in beyond the hits

i was at one of the gigs where they recorded "on your feet." 10/5/74 at the academy of music. the opening act was triumverat, sort of an ELP knockoff, though apparently it was originally supposed to have been t rex. that would have been preferable.

The older I get, the higher this show goes on my "best shows ever" list...

Somewhere on ILM is a post about one of my favorite concert experiences: fIREHOSE opening up for Blue Oyster Cult at a dead movie theater in Riverside sometime in 1987. Watt babbled about opening up for his heroes and even wore his old Secret Treaties shirt.

BOC hadn't released an album in years (Imaginos doesn't really count), there was maybe 30 people in the audience, the Bouchard brothers were long gone, and the soundsystem was mostly crap so the first third of the show was slogging pretty badly until Eric Bloom went on this five minute berserk rant about frustration, UFOs, being "On Tour Forever," paranoia, shitty gigs, etc. etc. that blew up into an AMAZING version of "Take Me Away" that simultaneously blew out the cobwebs and gave them a full tank of rocket fuel because the rest of the gig was the LA Forum in 1975, even if there weren't any lasers.

― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, April 3, 2007 1:30 PM (twelve years ago)

damn that sounds good

a perfect blend of lame-cool dumb-deep

this is a great capsule description tbh, whenever i try to explain why BOC is great to people I always run up against a wall there.

Frontenac Chateau, baby

Playing the Big E on 9/15 and Staten Island in October. I am certainly going to one of those.

Saw them a few weeks ago, and they so good that they shamed all the other geezer pleaser bands on the festival bill. They played The Vigil, Dancing in the Ruins, Harvest Moon, Hot Rails to Hell, it just blew my mind. Buck was sublime on guitar.

Hell yes I’m up for some Vigil

Buck's still one of the best guitarists on Earth

been doing a discography run. is every böc album good? i'm on club ninja and it's fantastic

Club Ninja has some really hokey moments ("Beat 'em Up" is pop metal trip by periodic Judas Priest collaborator Bob Halligan Jr., also recorded by Lee Aaron in 1985) but "Dancing in the Ruins is perfect. One of BÖC's absolute best tracks.

I've been super obsessed with 1998's Heaven Forbid album lately, especially "Harvest Moon", which is one of the best autumn songs I have ever heard.

Heaven Forbid has several great tracks but yeah harvest moon is the crown gem

This thread also illustrates the shameful decline of Photobucket. It was horrible even during its heyday, but it has turned into something worse than death. The picture of Christopher Walken has a massive watermark and covered in blur. It's like Atonement, or the old practice of building churches on top of pagan monuments.

Something remains of the original, but it's distorted and blurred. Perhaps that's what the owners of Photobucket are trying to tell us. Perhaps Photobucket is actually an art project on the theme of transience and the impossibility of history. What's to say that the blurred, watermarked Walken isn't his true form? What if the pristine, non-watermarked Walken of 2007 was the aberration? What did the people of 2007 know, anyway? Why should we let them form the dominant narrative? It's 2019, and the present belongs to us.

I am at the theater in Tarrytown NY waiting for BOC to take the stage. It’s going to be awhile because right now there’s a guy in an old man hat with a funky acoustic guitar and after that there’s UFO who I have never heard nor thought about hearing but anyway

Fuck yeah BOC

UFO is a fine band.

sweet should be awesome
I would like to see UFO

Who is in the current iteration of UFO?

Rob De Luca, Vinnie Moore, Phil Mogg, Neil Carter, Andy Parker
(pasted that in from their website)

Pete Way too unhealthy, Michael Schenker too crazy, Paul Raymond too dead so you only get 2/5 of the classic line-up (unless you think Mechanix is classic-era UFO in which case Neil Carter counts).

I kinda don't but 2/5 isn't bad...I think that's also the ratio BOC is working with.

oh shit Vinnie Moore, he's a shredder

I swear when we got tickets UFO was on the bill! But it was just the acoustic guy and then BOC.

Great show, though the sound was a bit off. Buck’s vocal mic and leads not loud enough for my taste. I might have been spoiled by the spectacular sound last time I saw them (in Manhattan).

Their walk on music is now the end title theme from The Mandalorian <3

Been on a big BOC kick lately, started when I picked up the surprisingly great Albert Bouchard Re Imaginos. Feel like it's time for the Stalk-Forrest Group comp to get reissued again, going for crazy money.

Well, guess I should have checked discogs first, maybe not "crazy" money. The copies on Amazon are insanely priced though.

the bar is bloom

i support using CGI technology to replace orlando bloom with eric bloom in all the movies he's been in

I finally got my hands on a copy of Heaven Forbid, so now I just need Curse to complete my BOC studio albums collection. Not sure I'm willing to pay $30+ for it just yet, so I'll keep waiting patiently.

it's sort of out there again, as an import though. vinyl too.

https://www.frontiers.shop/new-releases/1022/blue-oyster-cult-curse-of-the-hidden-mirror-cd-jewelcase?c=8

Thanks for the tip. Gonna go sit by my mailbox.

Heaven Forbid has plenty of great moments. "Harvest Moon" is a top 10 BÖC track, in my opinion.

Yeah, “Harvest Moon” is killer.

I'm enjoying Heaven Forbid, but I will say the Buck songs >> the Bloom songs, for the most part.

that equation holds true for a lot of their latter day catalog

Fair, but the way Heaven Forbid alternates between the two for much of the album really underscores the difference.

partially, Buck's singing style is so soft, like he doesn't really raise his voice or strain at all, so it's held up remarkably well...Eric's voice is way more shot. Don't know if that started to affect his ability to write.

no opinions on the new album? I thought it was surprisingly listenable, if overlong

yeah i think people are positive generally, esp considering how late it is in their career, thread here:

Blue Oyster Cult - The Symbol Remains (2020)

oh snap I missed that- thanks!

Re-listened to Agents of Fortune and Fire of Unknown Origin this morning. The latter might be my favorite of their albums; at any rate, it always sounds ridiculously great whenever I listen to it.

it's the best one!!!!

Shame it all fell apart with Albert Bouchard (the primary writer) around then, I think they had one great new wave-y album left in them.

Probably in the minority here, but I vastly prefer the demo version of "Fire of Unknown Origin" (tacked onto the Agents reissue) to the one that was eventually released. You can practically hear Patti Smith singing the earlier version, and I'll take Joe B. over Eric Bloom most any day.

yeah that one is pretty great

I think they had one great new wave-y album left in them.

― my shear modulus is weakening (Matt #2), Wednesday, February 24, 2021 9:33 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

they made it, it's called the revölution by night

does suffer for albert's absence tho true

that's an underrated one. obv "shooting shark" is a live staple, i really love "veins" which is the second-to-last richard meltzer lyric they used i think (they used his "spy in the house of night" on club ninja but i think they didn't ask him and melz got really pissed and didn't talk to them again)

Albert Bouchard (the primary writer)

Well observed.

Been on a big BOC kick lately, started when I picked up the surprisingly great Albert Bouchard Re Imaginos. Feel like it's time for the Stalk-Forrest Group comp to get reissued again, going for crazy money.

― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, February 11, 2021 12:41 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

listening to this again and it's really worth your time, definitely interesting to hear what he thought imaginos was going to be, his voice is a little shakier at points but still pretty good and it's really a nice sounding record (imaginos is just produced like fucking garbage)...but it *feels* like a BOC album even if it's technically a solo album

I got FoUO recently after rwading about it on here, funnily enough the post thay convinced me i needed it was derogatory iirc.

It's my third favorite BOC album after Tyranny and Secret Treaties. I wouldn't fault anyone for saying it's their best album.

listening to this again and it's really worth your time, definitely interesting to hear what he thought imaginos was going to be, his voice is a little shakier at points but still pretty good and it's really a nice sounding record (imaginos is just produced like fucking garbage)...but it *feels* like a BOC album even if it's technically a solo album

Yeah, I played Re Imaginos again last night and it's really good. It's no patch on prime BOC, but it's nice to hear something closer to Bouchard's original version and you are otm, it sounds incredible.

woah this is cool - blue oyster cult by voices

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odfQ11PByac

I'll take Joe B. over Eric Bloom most any day

Every time I listen to a BOC song sung by a Bouchard I think "I wish Eric was singing this".

Both of you are wrong.

xp love that demo, it's the best version

FoUO and OYFoOYK are I think tied for my favorite at this point, with the latter to be understood as an avatar for all the BOC bootlegs I have mainlined

Speaking of which, I scoured all over the damn place trying to find bootlegs where they perform the more interesting deep cuts from Revolution By Night (“Veins”, “Shadow of California” and “Feel the Thunder”) - I was only able to find one and its in pretty terrible sound quality

Also - i think it’s a little cruel of buck that he either performs “Shark” or “Harvest” at a given show but never both of them!

Veins is a really great deep cut

It’s top notch and hooky as fuck

Since you mention OYFoOYK I thought I'd mention that I checked it out a while back and was blown away by how great "Born to Be Wild" sounded, especially the mental white noise section toward the end. It might as well be late 80s Sonic Youth at that point.

Just sharing this here because I only just found out about it myself, but Bouchard's already got a follow-up to Re-Imaginos coming out in a few weeks (maybe digitally even sooner, this week maybe?). It's the second part of a now planned trilogy, Re-Imaginos 2: Bombs Over Germany.

tracklist:

“When War Comes”
“Independence Day”
“7 Screaming Dizbusters”
“OD’d on Life Itself”
“Il Duce”
“Bombs over Germany”
“Before the Kiss (A Redcap)”
“Three Sisters”
“Quicklime Girl (Mistress of the Salmon Salt)”
“The Red and the Black”
“Dominance and Submission”
“Shadow of California”
“Cities on Flame (with Rock and Roll)”
“Half Life Times”

oh wow, interesting

really wish this project could have been done with the whole band when lanier was still alive but still really cool to see something more approximating the original plan

oh wow, interesting

really wish this project could have been done with the whole band when lanier was still alive but still really cool to see something more approximating the original plan

Very cool - I have not got round to getting reimaginos yet but I’ll get both when vol 2 comes out

that tracklist is unfuckwithable i must say

mistress of the salmon salt is underrated.

Not sure if anybody here reads Maggot Brain, the periodical published by Third Man Records, but a recent issue had a great and lengthy article about the lyric sheets you could send away for, the address of which was printed on the back covers of the first three (I think) BOC albums.

I love watching extended live versions of "Veteran" where Dharma really stretched out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pFdkkjGiEs

Ha, that was meant for the Fire of Unknown Origin thread but it works here too.

Not sure if anybody here reads Maggot Brain, the periodical published by Third Man Records, but a recent issue had a great and lengthy article about the lyric sheets you could send away for, the address of which was printed on the back covers of the first three (I think) BOC albums.

That was a great read! Shortly after I read it I ended up at a antiques shop that had a surprising number of (way overpriced) BOC vinyl, but I went through all of them just in case someone had stashed those printed out lyric sheets in one of them.

I too hunt for those lyric sheets in second hand shops, that somebody might have stashed away in an old BOC record jacket, but still have not hit pay dirt.

The debut came out 50 years ago today!

For someone relatively new to the band, are the first four albums generally the ones to check out? Or is a compilation better?

the first two are of a piece. on the next two the concept starts to unravel, and they start the long road to becoming...something else, which is still really good, but requires a little more injection of...faith? it's kind of like the monkees, where they emerge without warning as a real band made up of individuals. this really doesn't come through on the comps.

it's sort of one or the other. you either commit to the deep dive or you don't. the deep dive is rewarding, but you have to put in the effort.

i would say start with secret treaties or fire of unknown origin then fill in the blanks as you see fit

First album retains a little more of the psychedelic feel, and the songs are shorter.
Tyranny & Mutation and Secret Treaties head fully into occult-ish hard rock/prog, this is their peak.
Agents of Fortune and Spectres introduce some soft rock and sound a touch less cohesive (they weren't really writing as a band by that point) but are still mostly great.
Mirrors is a soft rock misstep.
Cultosaurus Erectus heads back to the earlier sound, although I think it's overrated largely due to having a memorable cover.
Fire of Unknown Origin is a surprisingly successful incorporation of new wave influences.
Then Albert Bouchard left and they didn't do anything much worth a shit after that.

And that's my personal rundown of their oeuvre!

Oh yeah, check out the pre-Oyster Stalk-Forrest Group album too, very much a psych rock band at that point though

Then Albert Bouchard left and they didn't do anything much worth a shit after that.

The "Take Me Away" video is awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1NYhbiiiFw

As is the one for "Shooting Shark"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvsthsbbLfM

revolution by night is a sleeper
curse of the hidden mirror was surprising good as was the symbol remains

Could get the first two or three albums and then the Workshop Of The Telescopes 2xCD for the rest.

Their discography is so weird. Just based on how it sounds, and the quality of the material, I would expect Fire to come either right before or right after Spectres, not that late in their career.

"Fire of Unknown Origin" itself was a leftover from Agents of Fortune.

Workshop of The Telescopes is a little lopsided, with the second disc covering Agents-->Club Ninja, shortchanging Fire of... in particular. Still, it's the most panoramic comp the band ever got (not counting the Columbia albums box).

https://www.allmusic.com/album/workshop-of-the-telescopes-mw0000176248

become an obsessive BOC fan right away imo

^^Probably the best course of action, lol.

A cool thing about BÖC is that they only had a couple of radio staples that Classic Rock stations could run into the ground, so digging into the catalogue reveals a lot of hidden in plain sight gems.

Also the regular remasters of the first five studio sets on CD are loaded with quality bonus material and only list for $7 a pop (and frequently can be found for less).

good point they have extraordinarily quality bonus tracks

ums otm, C. Grisso/McCain otm

i started with some enchanted evening (a favorite of the 'rocker' kid at my ymca camp 2 years my senior who played the drums and wore a bandana everywhere, BOC were his favorite band) and then agents of fortune. did not become an obsessive fan right away, but the 'tyranny & mvtatvion'/ 'secret treaties' one two punch did the trick eventually.

Spectres is the album I've played most in recent years, a real sleeper, at least two-thirds top notch Oyster (as I've taken to calling them).

i will admit that i listened to fireworks on repeat for more than an hour the week after halloween.
i kinda suspect they were trying to make certain songs sound more like reaper. there are textural, uh, similarities.

I've grown to really love Mirrors in recent years. "The Vigil" us one of their greatest moments.

I like "In Thee" a lot too

I love most of “Mirrors” in spite of itself. The aforementioned songs, but also the title track, “You’re Not the One (I Was Looking For)” is a decent stab at power pop, and “Dr. Music” is high grade cheese. The only song I’ve never really got behind is “Great Sun Jester.”

In Thee is fucking incredible

otm

i like mirrors quite a bit but i baseline like every böc album

In Thee is so gorgeous. Allen Lanier was an underrated songwriter, and ridiculously cool too, this song addressing his ex partner Patti Smith as well as mentioning his bud Jim Carroll.

I see that Sony kinda/sorta replaced the Workshop comp in 2013 with a two-disc Essential set (itself not to be confused w/the onesie version of the same name issued in 2003). First disc drops the live/studio rarities for other live stuff, and some tracks were dropped from Disc 2 to make room for a little more from Cultosaurus & Fire of...

Still not perfect, but maybe a bit more well-rounded and easier to get.

https://www.discogs.com/master/647582-Blue-%C3%96yster-Cult-The-Essential-Blue-%C3%96yster-Cult

i actually think the 1976 live version of Astronomy on youtube would be a pretty great place to start. like, if that doesn't set you on your way to becoming an obsessive fan it prob wasn't meant to be.

A few years ago I went to explore Hobart beach in Eaton's neck on a day off in the middle of winter. It's a very remote spot that's unreachable on public transit and I got stranded there for hours trying in vain to find a cab to drive me back to the LIRR station in East Northport. It was freezing and so dark i could barely see to move forward. There were distant lights across the harbors to the south and east, but Lloyd's Neck to the west appeared blacked out. I could make out a bunch of constellations, Orion and others. I just had this feeling of like, this is exactly the atmosphere of 'Astronomy' by Blue Oyster Cult and I had to cue it up a couple of times.

Sometime after that I found out Joe Bouchard wrote the melody while walking along this same beach at night. I came across a blog entry all about this written by a ghost hunter or something.

Their music for me is very evocative of certain locations on the North Shore of Long Island, or vice-versa, it's almost site-specific. Part of what I like about it.

that was a beautiful post deflatormouse

I live on the North Shore of Long Island - any other specific locations song combinations you know of?

aw thanks ums, i wish i'd taken photos that day but didn't have a smartphone then.

pbkr check this link:
https://www.hotrails.co.uk/prehistory/features/band_houses.htm

The Great Neck house is about 15-20 minutes from me. Shame it's been replaced by a mcmansion.

Cool link on the early days. Thanks!

I lived in Sea Cliff for a while, we must have been practically neighbors.

Went to a couple of parties at Albert Bouchard's house in GN when I was in high school or just after. I think he's moved to the city since but afaik Eric Bloom still lives there!

Uh, holy shit. That's where I've lived since 2001.

SC

Whoa

On the other hand... i mean, of course, where else would an ilxor live in northern Nassau?

I lived on 14th av between 2006 and 2009-ish. I am still out there ALL THE TIME (like every couple of weeks), we would prob recognize each other.

I lived at the Glen Cove Mansion for a month while I was between apartments. Business was slow and the monthly rate was insanely cheap. For others reading this, it's a late 19th c estate on 55 acres that was converted to a conference center hotel in the 70's. When it was empty, it felt exactly like The Great Gatsby meets The Shining. SERIOUS Blue Oyster Cult vibes there and in the surrounding area, though i don't know of a direct BOC connection to that particular spot. I was playing their first 3 albums almost exclusively during that time.

On Pratt's beach down the street, there's a private island across the tiny creek where you can see into the house Jackie O rented right after JFK was assassinated. At times it's idyllic, at other times it's pretty creepy. That's another place I associate with BOC.

Ha, we're on 15th near Prospect and were during that time as well. We were kind of homebodies then, but who knows. If you're back in the spring let me know and we can do a beer on the porch and spin BOC.

My wife runs up in the Glen Cove area a lot, so she knows all those private roads and estates there better than I do.

mineola man here. i think eric bloom lives in port washington. when he did his interview at the port washington library he sure sounded like a local. (search 'Inside the Musician's Mind' with Eric Bloom of Blue Oyster Cult).

I was on the other side of the border from Long Island, but of course I went to LI a lot for my friends's bar and bat mitzvahs, to visit relatives and, most of all, to go to the A&S (was it in Hempstead?) and see the ducks outside.

TSF, I think you're a little older, were you old enough to hang at My Father's Place in Roslyn? I've heard stories about that place and I drive by that location regularly. The BOC links Deflatormouse posted mentioned them playing there early on.

Was TSF ever at MFP? Is the Pope Catholic?

i wish i'd spent more time at MFP, but i can't complain. it was a nice place, converted bowling alley i believe. roughly equivalent to nyc's bottom line.
long narrow tables (later on they removed the tables up front). bar food. strangely enough i'm not sure i ever saw boc there. i'm sure i've mentioned this but i grew up best friends with eric bloom's nephew and wound up seeing my fair share of boc shows incl. the 12/31/73 academy of music show with the stooges and teenage lust and kiss. also saw them at the academy w/ triumverat! saw them open for the faces at msg. saw them at the palladium w/thin lizzy. saw them at the coliseum opening for kiss. i also attended a passover sedar with eric & his fiance -- my family was going to nj, but i wanted to stay local so my friend & i could see renaissance /elo at the westbury music fair. which we could basically walk to. this probably all sounds like fantasy land, but those were some heady years.

anyway back to my father's place, off the top of my head, here are some shows i've seen there. i'm sure there are some i am forgetting.
new york dolls (early '75, i was underage)
television
johansen (prob. multiple times)
captain beefheart
steel pulse
iggy (with some sex pistols in his band)
gang of four / buzzcocks
pfurs
go-gos
ian hunter
xtc
grandmaster flash and the furious five
x
marshall crenshaw
dave edmunds
nrbq
jonathan richman
doc watson

Ok, there you go, lol.

oh yeah, patti smith too, in her neck brace. delbert mcclinton. muddy waters!!!

Ok, this:

the 12/31/73 academy of music show with the stooges and teenage lust and kiss

and this:

saw them at the palladium w/thin lizzy

is just too much.

I fucking love this thread

yeah that lizzy show was great. iirc boc's equipment truck never arrived, with included their laser light show. so they were forced to play a bare-bones set using amps that all had "dictators" stencils on them. most memorable thing about the lizzy set was the guitarist (don't remember which) breaking an important string right at the start of his big lead break and carrying on, completely unphased, with a truly wicked solo.

kiss was...unanticipated. i think they were a last-minute addition to the bill (maybe to delay boc's set until actual new years at 12am?). i had never heard of them. some of their primitive pyrotechnics came close to landing on audience members, and gene simmons ignited his own hair unintentionally. in retrospect i cannot believe our parents let us go to that. i was 15 i guess.

Sometime after that I found out Joe Bouchard wrote the melody while walking along this same beach at night. I came across a blog entry all about this written by a ghost hunter or something.

here it is. I could def talk a bit more than the author does about the specific resonances between their music and the location. I just worry it might be too much?

If you're back in the spring let me know and we can do a beer on the porch and spin BOC.

You're on!

i think eric bloom lives in port washington.

I know he lived in Port for a time in the 70's, I have been under the impression that he's lived in GN for years, don't remember why, but there was a Newsday(?) feature on their band house in Thomaston where he basically said as much (can't find it). I have ties to both towns and visit these places a lot but never run into him lol

. i also attended a passover sedar with eric & his fiance -- my family was going to nj, but i wanted to stay local so my friend & i could see renaissance /elo at the westbury music fair. which we could basically walk to.

love this so much!! that's an enviable gigography for sure

looking back at the ad for that elo show (https://rocktourdatabase.com/sites/rocktourdatabase.com/files/1974-04-06_0.jpg) i see that it was rescheduled to passover. i doubt we would have gotten tickets if it had originally been scheduled on passover. that must have been 1974. elo was touring their "on the third day" album. i'm sure i've told this before too but it's a good story so...

during the sedar meal, my friend bobby's mother (eric's sister) served potato kugel, a traditional dish like a potato pudding. eric commented "good kugel, joan!" afterward i must have remarked to bobby that "good kugel, joan" was not something i ever expected to hear a rock star say. recall that the iggy / boc show we had seen at the academy was just a few months before this.

the next time eric was over at bobby's house -- i always made a point of being there when eric was over -- bobby's parents had just gotten a new living room couch. eric tried it out and announced "good...cushions, joan" while glaring at me. clearly the "good kugel, joan" story had made the rounds.

can i out my buddy bob? i think there is a family resemblance.

Well, that's the best thing i've ever heard. xp

I could def talk a bit more than the author does about the specific resonances between their music and the location.

One thing is, the 'gothic horror stories blog' author describes Long Island as being full of ghosts. And I think what creates the haunted atmosphere- it's not just remnants of the Gold Coast era, though that's part of it. the north shore is a place with strikingly unique terrain, exposed glacial till and Cretaceous clays, unstable bluffs that are eroding, an irregular shoreline with various 'necks', the ridges of a terminal moraine paved over by this blandish mid 20th c suburbia. Moving through these sites, you're constantly confronted with that Ice Age past. All of this used to be nature.
One of my favorite things about BOC's music, lyrics and cosmology is a transhistorical and nonlinear property, temporal layers coinciding in a way that's very unsettling. The transparency of foreground elements that reveals all this other stuff lurking behind and beyond...

Not long after moving here I was walking around on a late-autumn night and had this sudden feeling of being able to see the place as it had been in the the 17th or 18th century. I imagined the village mostly gone and pirate ships hiding out in the harbor with brigands on the hills and paths. I get that "temporal layers coinciding" every couple years at similar times.

BOC definitely has vibes of 50s pirate/horror comics.

Arthur Comics, even.

Lol, I've never heard the Stalk-Forrest stuff - there you go!

my friend always used to tell people his uncle was in a rock band -- soft white underbelly, stalk forest group....nobody cared. we knew they'd hit the big time when, on the LIRR ride home from the boc / rod stewart & the faces gig, bob defended the band to some drunken rod stewart fan and said his uncle was their singer, and the guy responded "yeah and my grandfather's jerry garcia."

i remember when bobby told me they'd changed their name to blue oyster cult. when he'd asked why i think eric said "i dunno, our manager told us we're blue oyster cult."

Great thread, it reminded me of when I was in my first studio job, and a producer there appeared with an American intern one day.

A tiny, funny, and cool girl, super friendly and talkative. After a few days we got to talking properly about music and she produced one of those big cd wallets (for her Discman) She was very into alt/college rock and played me a few things I'd never heard, things like Sarah Mclachlan, The Connells & The Rheostatics iirc.

Well, after a time it came to light that she was Buck Dharma's daughter. I wonder how she's doing nowadays and if she's involved with music somehow.

She and a friend of mine had a little holiday fling and on leaving she passed me a mixtape to give to him, it had 'The Golden Age of Leather' on it.

A tiny, funny, and cool girl, super friendly and talkative.

after seeing BOC at a casino, we ran into Eric and Buck at a in-casino sports bar later, got a pic w/them and my lord Buck is a tiny tiny person

when he'd asked why i think eric said "i dunno, our manager told us we're blue oyster cult."

This is some lol, svengali, stuff.

The last month of this thread is absolutely golden, especially deflatormouse BOC/psychogeography posts and TSF startling first hand accounts. Amazing shit.

"she has a nice voice" was as much enthusiasm as eric could muster when he heard we were seeing elo/renaissance.

For real! This thread is the greatest.

i see Imaginos is now on streaming, was missing for a long time

albert seems to have released imaginos II, with contributions from all the other guys.
https://albertbouchard.net/imaginos-ii-bombs-over-germany-minus-zero-and-counting-credits

interesting...Ross the Boss on a few tracks. who is "Prince Omega"? is that what he's calling himself now?

wikipedia says However, a bad review of a 1969 Fillmore East show caused Pearlman to change the name of the band – first to Oaxaca, then to the Stalk-Forrest Group. Pearlman also gave stage names to each of the band members (Jesse Python for Eric Bloom, Andy Panda for Andy Winters, Prince Omega for Albert Bouchard, La Verne for Allen Lanier) but only Buck Dharma kept his.

jesse python

i vow to start a wrestling faction containing all of these pseudonyms

lmaooooo Jess Python is the best, of course that would be Eric's name

Ross the Boss also plays on alberts Brain Surgeons album Denial of Death which is urgently, urgently recommended to those itt

ross the boss was in the version of the brain surgeons i saw in 2006 in a friend's parents' backyard in brooklyn (a benefit for AIDS research my friend called "brooklyn woodstock"). ross does a serviceable buck dharma. just as fast but not as precise and not nearly as melodic.

brain surgeons is pretty good, though that guitar tone is pretty beefy sometimes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM-0Kni9dEA

such a beautiful song, they were so good live

The last month of this thread is absolutely golden, especially deflatormouse BOC/psychogeography posts and TSF startling first hand accounts.

First of all, thank you. Also, "Good kugel, Joan" kinda got stuck in my head and remained there all week. Also, I'd never heard of "psychogeography" so I Googled it- yeah, this stuff interests me for sure. Honestly I worried I was posting too much stuff that might be perceived as only tangentially relevant. My last post about "temporal layers coinciding" was supposed to tie all this to BOC more concretely, but stopped short of that in the end and just reads as another personal impression. I mean, Pearlman has said one of Imagonos' special powers is the ability to move in and through time, like, it feels safe to say they were thinking along those lines.

One thing I've thought a lot about over the last few years is whether a record can be narrative. Some records seem to have a narrative quality, but the narrative is ultimately elusive and can't be pinned down. Imaginos isn't really one of those. It's just very unclear and confusing and seems to require additional explanation. And I always saw this as a failing until I realized that the ease with which BOC's music is able to eacape its assigned function is the very thing, the very perverse thing I love so much about 'em.

Take this post:

and not just weird lyrically but they were such and odd mix musically, like you can hear (esp. on the early stuff) the vestiges of San Fran psych and Steppenwolf proto-hard rock boogie but there's something more menacing and angular about how they do it...also a metal element that's almost more there as an abstract feeling than *actual* metal music....then later stuff like "Joan Crawford" is what? AOR Goth?

― M@tt He1ges0n, Thursday, April 10, 2008 12:50 PM (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

To me, this excellent and very OTM post upthread hits on possibly the most important about this band without actually saying it, which is that their music constantly evades whatever it's supposed to do, or even whatever I personally think it does. Nothing is what it seems like and there's no "real" thing on the other side we can all agree on, just some glimmer of an illusion that feels like the whole story.

The enduring mystery of BOC to me is: how does this band that plays, yeah, Steppenwolf proto-hard rock boogie via SF psych achieve an incongruous supernatural allure, and is everyone else even hearing this or is there something wrong with me?

Also, "Good kugel, Joan" kinda got stuck in my head and remained there all week.

haha it's been stuck in my head since 1974! great posts -- i hear what you're hearing too, for what it's worth.

I can't honestly think of any subsequent acts you could say were heavily influenced by BOC, in the way you can with Sabbath or Zeppelin or Lizzy or whoever. They were just too weirdly eclectic, and sounding anything like them is incredibly difficult to achieve anyway. Was Joe Bouchard the secret weapon in terms of arrangements, I wonder?

Anyway, if anyone can recommend a BOC-influenced act please let me know! And don't say Ghost, they sound more like the first couple of Europe albums tbh.

Radio Birdman had a lot of love for BOC.

Their first album was called Radios Appear, for Pete's sake.

Yeah I really really love this thread. BÖC had long been on my list of music nerd acts that (outside of the big three formidable classic rock staples) I just didn’t “get”. I had legitimately tried, too, at varying points. I’ve owned Tyranny, Agents, and Spectres for years and would pull them out every so often. Unlike with others where I secretly suspect I may just be right (Waits, Zappa), BÖC was one where I was pretty sure I was not.

Anyway I was mildly stoned and listening to E.T.I. a couple of weeks ago and it sounded absolutely amazing. Something unlocked for me and I believe I may have found the awful truth.

welcome to the club. I know what you mean, they have a certain "magic eye painting" quality, they were a band that I knew from the small handful of classic rock radio staples but sometime this switch flipped and I had a period of being obsessed with them

xpost it doesn't translate into their music sounding like BOC but the Minutemen were huge BOC fans

For me the only thing that quite compares is the original Alice Cooper band. Not sure the comparison quite does justice to either group, but there is some kind of sui generis weirdness to both that can get overlooked and is hard to find elsewhere.

Afghan Whigs and R.E.M. two bands where the BÖC influence is noticeable, as hs been noted before, although obvioiusly those bands also have other things in their bloodline.

Afghan Whigs sub out HP Lovecraft for Elmore Leonard maybe.

To my knowledge, Husker Du are the only other band to list "stun guitar" in their album credits, so there's that and them.

Plus, umlauts appear.

ha I never thought of that but of course, esp since the board game used lines over the u's not umlauts

https://images.app.goo.gl/kyYn93fXzzEh7zB17

my half-serious monkees comparison upthread is worth considering for half a second. hired hands grow wings to become some strange kind of meta-version of the original concept. of course they were too early to have been influenced by boc, and boc were not necessarily influenced by them.

So you are comparing Sandy Pearlman to Raybert/Kirshner?

heh i think pearlman's concept was a little more out-there. maybe it gave them more room to grow. maybe his whole master plan was to have them grow into and inhabit the concept? wait, i'm getting the idea for an album here...

Has anyone in the band, or the other "outside" lyricists, ever talked about whether Pearlman imposed lyrical guidelines or limits to preserve the BOC conceptual brand? Were certain topics or approaches encouraged or discouraged?

these sort of touche on it a little bit. i think pearlman started branching out and getting involved with other bands, and losing his influence over boc. especially when reaper came along. albert seemed the one most influenced by him.

https://drankf.medium.com/imaginos-sandy-pearlman-blue-oyster-cult-and-me-b90d41ee7119

https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/interviews/albert-bouchard-on-blue-oyster-cult-sandy-pearlman-and-re-imaginos

touch

Voivod have a touch of the flavor IMO