Blue Oyster Cult: Classic or Dud?

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.