Blue Oyster Cult - POX

eric telling us about listing to buck's demo for godzilla: "all i could hear was cash registers."

"listening"

Fascinating quote from Hutter.

they really knew how to open an album. listening to The Revolution By Night right now and "Take Me Away" is such a good intro. (and kinda the opposite of the next track "Eyes On Fire" which i don't think is anyone's fave.)

still one of the best things for utter buck-ness on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAi1mIHb2FU

and this still best for utter bass-ness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZRiV0qaJkQ

ETI: I love how no one in the band is wearing a shirt with sleeves. A great version too -- definitely tops the studio version.

one of my favorite parts of the BOC live show was the "Godzilla" intro: Eric Bloom setting the scene, "so, you're all alone, there at home, chilling out, smoking a ...joint [wild applause], when you start hearing some strange kind of noise"...{bass drum thump]..."it's getting louder!"...[THUMP THUMP THUMP}..."could it be?...oh my God, it IS!"...enter Spinal Tap-esque Godzilla head with illuminated eyes, breathing smoke machine fog...

OMG bass solo. "without whom all this would not have been necessary"

That ETI clip may have been the only time in BOC history that all members of the original line-up sported facial hair (stubble notwithstanding).

a woman in my store right now used to work with albert bouchard at a school for at-risk kids in harlem. they put on an opera that the kids wrote. see, you learn all kinds of things when you play BOC in your store.

good god where the hell is your store?

For me the only way to do this is one song per album...

Transmaniacon MC
7 Screaming Diz-Busters
Subhuman
ETI
I Love The Night
Mirrors
Deadline
Veteran of the Psychic Wars
Shooting Shark
[skips Imaginos and CLub Ninja]
Harvest Moon
[scowls at running out of room cuz there's still "Pocket" from the last album]

go ahead. you can do it.

ugh, i'm not so sure about that...

"Before The Kiss, A Redcap"
"The Red And The Black"
"Dominance And Submission"
"Career of Evil"
"E.T.I. (Extra Terrestial Intelligence)"
"Godzilla"
"Don't Fear The Reaper"
"Golden Age of Leather"
"Joan Crawford"
"Veteran of The Psychic Wars"

could do ten more in a flash

ok, i just starting writing down the first songs that entered my head as absolutely all-time faves, and stopped when I reached ten. didn't rank them, just listed whatever entered my mind in order-

E.T.I.
OD'd on Life Itself
Burnin For You
Black Blade
Dominance and Submission
M.E. 262
Career of Evil
Golden Age of Leather
Stairway to the Stars
Transmaniacon MC

the older i get the more i really just think christgau sucks so much. i find his tone and whole persona just incredibly irritating beyond belief. i used to sort of "admire" him because it feels like you're supposed to, but his whole smug non-committal half-zing backhanded compliment thing is annoying as fuck.

^word is bond

In no order:

E.T.I.
Veteran of the Psychic Wars ("Extraterrestrial Live" version)
Dominance and Submission
Astronomy
Stairway To The Stars
7 Screaming Dizbusters
Subhuman
Mirrors
I Love The Night
Transmaniacon MC

Damn, 10 is too few! Damn, can't believe I had no room for "Reaper!" And damn, I picked the wrong day to quit smoking!

(and fuck that cowbell sketch)

metal mike, meltzer, AND christgau all seem to agree that BOC were great partly because they were better/smarter/more clever/more self-aware than your average metal band:

"Says R. Meltzer: "This is really hard rock comedy." Musically, Long Island's only underground band impales the entire heavy ethos on a finely-honed guitar neck, often at high speed, which is the punch line."

plus, xgau's whole: they're really funny and clever and if you don't get that cuz you're so zonked out well forget you.

which, i'll be honest, bugs me. obviously if BOC were JUST funny/clever/smarter they wouldn't be what they are. or they would be a different band altogether. they didn't sell so many records because of their witty lyics. and having buck in your band automatically makes you a better band no matter who you are. so, xgau did get that right.

read something online somewhere today where someone said that BOC are both underrated and overrated and i see a germ of truth there. the thinking man's/critic's metal tag gets too much play. even by me! (duh the guy quoting all the quotes) when list after list you just can't help notice how GREAT and utterly COOL the songs are. on a completely gut level. no critiking required. and they managed that neat trick of being progressive (without being boring or self-indulgent and, no, 4 hour BOC solos are NOT self-indulgent they are required listening) AND heavy AND completely catchy and later way poppy and they did it really well. yet, so did a lot of other people. think that's where i diverge with xgau line of thinking. thin lizzy were smart. stooges were smart. mc5 were smart. alice cooper band was smart. friggin' sabbath were SMART. no end to smart heavy stuff. so, i - though i'm younger than these crit dudes - never saw a need for an antidote to hard rock thuggishness. plus, i like tons of "dumb" stuff too.

o yeah, Christgau sucks big time. there isn't any sense ever that he actually enjoys music. It's just his "job" to listen to every album that comes across his desk. what a horrible life.

this is the best

<3 Byron

haha! Byron! i spent a nice evening with byron a couple weeks back down at the feeding tube. he's fun to talk to. byron is just as crazy as xgau if you ask me. though i would probably agree with byron way more about music. i've totally consciously or unconsciously ripped both of them off a ton so there is that. been reading both of them since i was a mere boy.

and he totally ENJOYS music, stormy. you can't say he doesn't. i just don't get a lot of his loves and he hates probably most of what i like. i don't hold that against him though.

Fascinating quote from Hutter.

I've read that Bangs piece many times, and I can't help thinking he made up all the Kraftwerk quotes himself.

i actually had drunken conversations with both byron AND christgau in the last month. both very pleasant evenings and conversations really. they both have really big brains.

oh but that's what i wanted to add: creem's whole THE STOOGES ARE THE BEST BAND IN THE WORLD thing and all that from back then. i didn't have to fight those wars. i didn't have to champion BOC as an antidote to anything. so its a totally different worldview/experience that those guys had. i have never felt threatened by uh i dunno Bread or James Taylor or whatever rock band those hepcat crits thought was phoney or whatever st the time.

yeah I was being over the top in criticizing Xgau; i mean, i own the 70s and 80s guides and i've read them both pretty much from start to finish. and i do think he is a great writer. but almost NEVER agree with him on anything. and he is such a killjoy. and i do wonder if his talent would be better applied doing .... something else. of course he must enjoy on some level all of the records that he ranks highly. but i really do think there is some quote out there somewhere where he talks about the reviewing as his job, and sort of states that he can't afford to get too invested in 'music' qua particular artists, albums, etc

The Guides show how over time he's gotten into some acts he initially dismissed, like Sonic Youth, who have gotten at least one A+, and he sez "I love 'em to piecees." And he's long-time friends with some musicians, but the thing is, Stormy, it's not fair to the readers if you're too invested in particular artists. Like Chuck quoted Byron (in an interview, so no secret), as saying of Sonic Youth and the Swans, "Those people are my friends," and he'd never say anything to offend them. This as a reply to Chuck expressing some of what he thought were these bands weak points, and implying that however true such comments were, he, Coley, was in no position to agree. Got so bad, Mykel Board even put out those parody records, as Swanic Youth and Swan Jovi, although they were advertised in Forced Exposure, Coley saw the humor of the whole thing. But being friends or even just sort of pen pals, I've seen how musicians can look for, even assumme an advantage in that. Good that Bangs gave Lanier a hard time in Creem, recounting drunken arguments, when he thought they were turning into the kind of arena hacks they'd started out turning into glorious parodies. Speaking of arena rock, I wasn't a professional writer then, but my friends who were (also photographers) got so fucking sick of that shit in the early 70s--it wasn't like being in high school and having these occasional weekend adventures, if you were in NYC especially, like Xgau, who also went to clubs a lot (and had been writing about shows, band profiles, etc, in between reviews, for six or seven years before BOC made it downstate), you too might have an aversion to seeing the same moves, on stage and in the audience, every night. One reason punk had to happen, for crits and others. But BOC were great when they were any good at all (he's really wrong about On Your Feet) Music is about the power of association, and it can be really hard to get past the social associations--certain sounds can remind you of certain assholes, and you stop listening before you follow the sound to the artist's intended effect--or even if you do follow it--so xgau knew perfectly well what they were doing, but the assholes from last night's show, and tonight's, and tomorrow night, kept giving him static, Plus, he's never approved much metal, only Motorhead and Slayer come to mind. His loss, of course.

Sorry to get into that "you" shit, just bad rhetoric, I've had kneejerk responses too of course.

no strong opinion on christgau. read his consumer guides for years as a matter of course and never got much out of them. they mostly seemed mechanical, and i never got a bead on where he was coming from.

coley was a god to me in my late teens & early 20s, his FE salad days, and the dog story is funny, but i just can't get on board with that attitude. i love the bands and records he bashes xgau for liking, but i've never thought anyone was a better or worse critic on the basis of their fucking taste. i don't give a shit about that. i just want to read good writing that expresses interesting thinking. that somebody prefers some nameless bette midler record i'll never hear to clear spot? i don't give a shit about that.

anyway...

i cut "don't fear the reaper" and "burning for you" from my POX. i cut them because they loom so large over the band's pop career that it seems redundant to actually mention them. they were the first BOC songs i ever loved, and i love them still, so trust me, they're in here:

1) The Red and the Black - Tyranny and Mutation
2) Black Blade - Cultosaurus Erectus
3) Before the Kiss, a Redcap - Blue Oyster Cult
4) Career of Evil - Secret Treaties
5) The Subhuman (live) - On Your Feet or On Your Knees
6) Screams/She's as Beautiful as a Foot - Blue Oyster Cult*
7) Dominance and Submission - Secret Treaties
8) Astronomy (live) - Some Enchanted Evening
9) Godzilla (live) - Some Enchanted Evening
10) Unknown Tongue - Cultosaurus Erectus

* cheating, yeah, but i can't separate 'em

i love the bands and records he bashes xgau for liking, but...

uh, make that, "i love the bands and records he bashes xgau for disliking, but..."

xp

I get annoyed by Xgau bashing. He's a great writer. The point of the best writing is not that you're expected to agree.

can't find my s/t LP, but just unearthed the 2001 reissue, with four bonus Soft White Underbelly tracks. Don't know if s/t was re-mastered too much, or not enough, but listening on good headphones, immediately reminded of the reason I didn't use headphones much back in the day: instruments crowd the vocals. Also, the guitar solos aren't doing much, it's more about the groovy exotic textures, like in "Screams," and the fluidity of transitions, transformations, like passing through the snaaake--still, a bit subtle for '72 boys (time of Quaaludes, cheap booze, dirtweed; nobody I know could afford decent coke, except those shady trust fund kids)Were tney really going for a mass audience for this, or crit-bait? If so, guess it was publicity for the tours, which they quickly became known for. But I still like most of the songs, and some of the performances (yeah, "Before The Kiss, A Redcap," for inst) Really smitten anew by "Redeemed": sounds like a sinister Band song, as if Robertson had gotten lured deeper into "Jupiter's Hollow." After all this conjectural consideration by the masterminds, the Soft White Underbelly tracks jump right out. Much faster, more nimble, no prob w Dharma solos here, or Lanier's keys, Al's drumming, damn--reminds me, what are Brain Surgeons NYC up to these days? I like 'em. Also, anybody heard Dharma's solo album? Or more Soft White Underbell? Here's the ones here:
"Donovan's Monkey," "What Is Quicksand?" "A Fact About Sneakers," and "Betty Lou's Got A New Pair of Shoes."

the first BOC album was remastered in 2001, but still sounds muddy as hell. agree that the guitar solos aren't really jaw-dropping, but i think they generally serve the tunes and moods quite well, for ex the surging melodic ascent at the center of "transmaniacon MC". i'm also somewhat surprised by the critical acclaim heaped on the debut at the time, as it seems a bit uneven and formative in retrospect. the songs i love best are "transmaniacon", "before the kiss", "screams"/"she's a s beautiful", "cities on flame" and "workshop of the telescopes" (terribly underrated imo). the others are interesting, but not quite there. maybe i'm slighting "stairway to the stars", i dunno...

never got the hang of the SFG/SWU stuff. faster and more nimble, yeah, like tyranny and mutation minus the heavy metal, but too SF-style jammy and structurally loose for my taste. "arthur comics" is the one SFG track i keep coming back to.

These four tracks are very concise, though chock full of goodness. Yeah, "She's As Beautiful As A Foot," music *and* words, Meltzer done good.

Last I heard Joe Bouchard was in a band with Dennis Dunaway. (Playing guitar.) I hope there's a lost Allen Lanier album out there somewhere, perhaps a treasure trove of troubled torch songs, in the vein of "Dance The Night Away". (One of the bonus tracks on the remastered Agents of Fortune.

"Gil Blanco County" is a beautiful one from the Stalk-Forrest Group album. Sounds a little like Notorious Byrd Brothers.

You don't say! Intriguing, esp. considering the twisted rootsiness of "Redeemed," and the twangy, slippery garage(revving up for the arena) boogie feel at times in these BOC/SWU tracks. Also maybe a foretaste of the sinister Byrdsy serenity now of "Don't Fear The Reaper."

i cut "don't fear the reaper" and "burning for you" from my POX. i cut them because they loom so large over the band's pop career that it seems redundant to actually mention them.

yeah me too. but i feel bad not voting for any songs w/meltzer lyrics - "stairway to the stars" instead of "godzilla" would be my do-over

don't understand why xgau would even come up on this thread, it's not like he wrote any lyrics for BOC. "in thee" not exactly running up the votes here

then again, this is DEEP: "history shows again and again how nature points up the folly of men Godzilla!"

http://makemyday.free.fr/68/68poster42.jpg

then again, this is DEEP: "history shows again and again how nature points up the folly of men Godzilla!"

― demolition with discretion (m coleman), Sunday, April 15, 2012 3:45 PM (20 minutes ago)

OTM

This is impossible, this is not a real top ten, these are ten.

Mommy
Black Blade
Flaming Telepaths
7 Screaming Diz-Busters
Deadline
She's As Beautiful As A Foot
Veins
Wings Wetted Down
Dominance and Submission
A Fact ABout Sneakers

Mommy probably does not belong in there but I have put it on every mix tape ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN5pkn5L62E

I hate dem dames!

Flaming Telepaths
7 Screaming Diz-Busters
Deadline
Wings Wetted Down

yeah, flirted with all these BOC. my PanotherX (w "reaper", "burning" & the studio versions of the live songs i mentioned earlier still sidelined but implied):

Transmaniacon MC
Workshop of the Telescopes
Wings Wetted Down
7 Screaming Diz Busters
Harvester of Eyes
Flaming Telepaths
This Ain't the Summer of Love
Deadline
Fire of Unknown Origin
Kick Out the Jams (live) - championed upthread by m@tt, i've listened to it probably 30 times since, so great and, yeah, better than the MC5's original
Arthur Comics

Non box question: has anyone seen Blue Coupe play ? It's Dennis Dunaway from the Alice Cooper band (the "Coupe") and the Bouchard brothers from BOC (the "Blue"). I've heard good things.

damn! that could be cool.

This is a band having fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKiJzZ5YKZs

i mean that's not a whole lot sillier than eric bloom circa 2012......that said the real thing still have buck dharma and there are still moments with him where you're just real amazed to be in the same casino

true.

pretty

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gVmETShDrc&feature=channel&list=UL

wow

Wow indeed.

that led me on a youtube link journey that made me discover that bonnie tyler has a total eclipse of the cult

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lairGgAh_MI&feature=related

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

XD

they did reaper too!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUdZt18W18o&feature=BFa&list=UL7gVmETShDrc

Got my tickets for the Oct 28th times square show. Hope it doesn't get 'special guest'ed to death-- I really just wanna see a fired up regular BOC show.

Box set is out of my price range but I'll buy it anyway. Remastered Knees, Cultosaurus, Fire all at once? I mean, christ.

I think it's gonna run in the 130 buck range.

^^^the box set that is, not the concert...

lolol WRONG LINK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUdZt18W18o&feature=BFa&list=UL7gVmETShDrc

ok this is fucking weird.

this is a marching band playing burning for you, not hear n aid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke1DwXupckk&feature=related

and this is the high school choir that i'm WATCHING RIGHT NOW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUdZt18W18o

Wow, winterguard and a pagan ribbon batallion. Go 9th ward marching band!

lol, i have an album of that (9th ward marching band). quintron put it together. has covers of "burnin for you", "crazy train", "slow ride", bunch of other jams. pretty fun.