Best Blue Öyster Cult Album

It always made me happy that Current 93 covered "This Ain't The Summer of Love." Their version isn't very good, but it's the principle of the thing.

I also added some umlauts to the thread title bcz they make me happy, too.

richard meltzer writes the hottest lyrics

DOMINANCE...submission

...radios appear

I seriously think that album wins on the basis of Astronomy....what a great song that Metallica had to go and fucking butcher

course Career of Evil is no slouch either...

Maybe my favorite heavy not metal band that isn't Alice Cooper. First three albums are all classic, and I dunno that any one stands head and shoulders above the rest. Surprised that Fire of Unknown Origin and Cultosaurus Erectus got so little love on the original poll. Would advise the curious to start with the first three, and if those do it for you, to move up through the latter two.

tracklist for a 2-disc comp I made for some friends a while back:

the red and the black
cities on flame with rock and roll
dominance and submission
career of evil
screams
she’s as beautiful as a foot
subhuman
hot rails to hell
7 screaming diz-busters (brutally edited)
transmaniacon mc
before the kiss, a redcap
teen archer
harvester of eyes
flaming telepaths

arthur comics (stalk-forrest group)
this ain’t the summer of love
don’t fear the reaper
godzilla
black blade
veteran of the psychic wars
joan crawford
unknown tongue
burnin’ for you
don’t fear the reaper (demo)
minutemen - the red and the black
fu manchu - godzilla
thrones - black blade
green river - swallow my pride

no astronomy frown

Astronomy has to be one of my top ten BÖC songs.

yeah i like it too, though it's not a top ten favorite or anything. dunno why I dumped it, especially relative to say teen archer. just wasn't feeling it at that moment, and it's long, and there was too much other stuff off secret treaties i couldn't live without.

When I saw them live, Astronomy seemed to be the big crowd favourite, but Harvester of Eyes would be my Secret Treaties pick, should anyone wish to poll it.

bombers at 12 o'clock high!

The guitars on ME 262 rule. Astronomy rules too.

the instrumental break towards the end of "Tenderloin" is so weird and cool...sort of almost prog breaking out of an FM rock song, the only thing i can think of is that prog part of "Stone in Love" by Journey

On Your Feet Or On Your Knees live version of ME262 kills 1000 limey flyboys.

Contenderizer you gave Spectres a rough time on that comp, damn!

I'm so happy that april 20th and 21st have turned into BOC ILM love days.

Seconded.

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

good ol' Eric Bloom...always loved his cheesy intros to "Godzilla"...("you're just sitting at home, chilling in front of the tube, smokin' a joint...then you hear a thump!...and another one...and it gets louder, and louder, and...wait!...did you just hear that?...could it be?...could it be??..it is!...it's him!...the big fella...the music king...God-ZILLLLLA!!!")

The Workshop of the Telescopes anthology is actually a pretty good place to start. Missing some of my favorites, and there are some strange omissions (no "Joan Crawford"), but it's actually a pretty solid overview of their career.

...and the joke's on you

...and the joke's on you

...and the joke's on you

...AND THE JOKE'S ON YOU

...AND THE JOK-

Overall this is not really worth reading except for this amazing fact:

These lines I needed the printout to confirm. Not every album came with a lyric sheet. Hell, oftentimes it COST too much. And if the lyrics were dumb, nobody included them. But on the cover of this Blue Oyster Cult album it said you could SEND AWAY for the lyrics. Which I did. And they came back on COMPUTER PAPER, green and white striped, with perforations on the edges. This was back before THERE WAS SUCH THING AS A PERSONAL COMPUTER!

I wish I had a job typing up BOC lyrics & mailing them to people!

OMG BOC invented the difference engine!

Babbage Oyster Cult

xpost they need better fan club merch, I really tried to convince myself into any of the stuff on their website but it's too lame. WHY CAN'T I JUST HAVE HOODIE WITH BOC CROSS ON BACK?

how is babbage formed?

Contenderizer you gave Spectres a rough time on that comp, damn!

Yeah, it's true. I know it's one of their most popular albums, but I've never been a fan. Prefer Erectus and FoUO. I did use the The Golden Age of Leather intro (uncredited) to open disc II, and flirted with both Fireworks and Nosferatu. If I'd been making a comp for even halfway fans, I'd have cut the covers and more obvious hits in favor of stuff like that, Astronomy, ETI, Buck's Boogie, live versions, etc. But the audience was almost entirely unfamiliar w the band.

Hey, I sent away to that Long Island address for those dot-matrix printed lyrics - they were still distributing 'em as late as '84! Maybe even later.

C'mon man Celestial The Queen!

Oh BTW contenderizer, I know you said you used to be a True Swamp fan, FYI I am doing new material online now, 1 new page of story per week:

trueswamp.wordpress.com

(sorry BOC)

Oh man, Jon, you are right about the BOC site merch. I think I'm gonna order the shirt for chicks w/just their logo on it, though.

Chicks get better choices it ain't fair.

To think I had a pin of the Fire Of Unknown Origin cover when I was 14 and did not conserve it like a grail.

I will tell you what, Jon Lewis, that is the first time ever in my life I have seen chicks get the better choice of band t-shirts.

Soft Boys reunion tour-- blue ringer T with orange rings, orange crab silhouette on front, girls only. One of the best band shirts I've ever seen.

NOT BITTER

Wow, thanks for pointing out those True Swamp pages, Jon. So great to see all them little guys again! Love how you get one good laugh out of every page ("how about you boys shut up and listen", titmice, etc).

OT

I know it's one of their most popular albums, but I've never been a fan.

^^^ Spectres is the only one I don't rock on the regular. I'm hoping some day it just clicks, but right now it's kind of dull.

The only bit of BOC merch I own is the T-Shirt they were selling when they filmed/recorded this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51JQ0QFV13L._SS500_.jpg

it says "I WAS THERE!! Chicago, June 21, 2002!!" in a pretty cheesy looking layout. but I had to have it anyway. I never really wore it for years. but with the passage of time it felt sufficiently burned-in that I now regularly rock it with pride.

Yeah Spectres and Mirrors are undeniably on a lower level than the other 6 albums in the original streak, but I still love them a lot for their highlights. You cannot not have a song called 'The Great Sun Jester' in your life IMO.

(also, ty contenderizer!)

although when I was first getting into them in the mid-90s I seriously contemplated a tattoo of the BOC logo, I fell for them so hard.

(fifteen years later and I still don't have a single tattoo tho. them and the Germs circle are the only band-related ones I've ever toyed with. I just don't think I care enough about tattoos to bother. maybe one day.)

x-post

Maybe I should talk to my friend who has a silkscreen and see about running off a dozen simple BOC-cross shirts for ilxorz only. Is white ink on black really hard to do on home silkscreening gear?

when i first got the LP I was fairly meh on 'Spectres' (although I always dug "R U Ready 2 Rock" and used it as the intro music for a 70s metal radio show I did), but I bought the CD remaster last year and it kinda became the album of the summer for me. The poppiness just suddenly clicked. "Goin' Through the Motions"! Good driving album.

Yeah the remaster did well by Spectres.

Embarrassing disclosures dept... when I am getting ready to take the dogs out I often sing the following to them, to the tune of R.U.:

Do you wanna go out?
[high pitched voice]'Yes, we do!'
Do you wanna go out?
[high pitched voice] 'Daddy, yes!'
Do you wanna go out?
[high pitched voice] 'We do!'

oh yeah and

whoooo willl walk with youuuu?
Aw doggies with you!

speaking of BOC covers, my favorite is espers doing "flaming telepaths"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jxj2D2jEqok

My own embarrassing disclosure: I used to draw the Kronos-cross on the blackboard EVERY DAY upon entering my 12th grade calculus classroom. Never explained what it was for fear of risking my cool mysterioso aura.