Blue Oyster Cult: Classic or Dud?

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.