Best Blue Öyster Cult Album

i honestly don't have a desire to listen to any other music right now

On Your Feet would be a good candidate for those remastering jobs they were doing a few years back.

this vinyl pressing sounds pretty great, so much better than what i was listening to on computer

yeah, OYFOOYK is great. one of the last cult albums i got around to, as i'd heard from someone that it wasn't all that great. lies! better than the album versions in some cases ("harvester of eyes" <3). always struck by the super-sharp division in sound between the tracks off the first and third albums and the T&M tracks. makes sense that studio albums might have a different vibe, but they almost sound like a different band on "hot rails to hell" and "the red & the black".

yeah harvester of eyes is way better, as is last days of may and the subhuman jam is fucking unreal

between the horror of space
and the terror of time
my heart is crystal
down the line
...i'm screaming

It really does belong with Live 1969 and The Blow Up and Aghartha in that pantheon of double live benificent monoliths. One has to conclude at this point that the Legacy remasters won't include it, which is FUCKING DUMB.

yeah especially because columbia apparently needs to release a new greatest hit comp about every 6 months

Some of which are live without saying so! Knees really could use the remaster too, the sound on the CD is meh. I wonder if anyone has a sweet vinyl rip in the blogosphere, like that great Raw Power one Tyler linked to a couple years ago...

yeah listening to the vinyl it's like a whole 'nother record

i like how they START with a mega-jam on The Subhuman that basically sounds like a "last song" jam, like "buckle up!"

well how about that!

via wikipedia:

[Rudy] Sarzo was born Rodolfo Maximiliano Sarzo Lavieille Grande Ruiz Payret y Chaumont,[1] in Havana, Cuba on November 18, 1950. He emigrated to the United States in 1961.

dang, now that's a name

How do you pick Rudy Sarzo as yr stage name when you could just easily be MAX GRANDE?

there's literally like 10 great stage names in that name

Rodolfo Maximiliano Sarzo Lavieille Grande Ruiz Payret y Chaumont would have looked great on the credits of a Whitesnake sleeve.

He looks like a MAX GRANDE

rapper Grande Pay
crooner Rodolfo Max Sarzo

and so on

Payret y Chaumont

^^that's a hella expensive champagne

Does anyone have any love for Extraterrestrial Live?

I am loving this BOC thread. That E Bloom interview is the nuts!

Sarzo was born Rodolfo Maximiliano Sarzo Lavieille Grande Ruiz Payret y Chaumont,[1] in Havana, Cuba on November 18, 1950. He emigrated to the United States in 1961.

Did he come over on a raft made up of his extra names

this thread slays so hard you people are awesome

I still think the "Godzilla" from Some Enchanted Evening is one of the very best BOC tunes. It's such a powerful performance. I Dj that all the time.

Just friend requested John Shirley, thanks to this thread. He added me within minutes. Talk about cyberpunk.

cyberpunk as fuck!

yeah harvester of eyes is way better, as is last days of may and the subhuman jam is fucking unreal

― dave coolier (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, February 13, 2012 10:03 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark

dropped out for a couple days, but it's interesting to me that the best songs on OYFOOYN (imo, and apparently iyo, too) are the quieter, less aggressive tunes from the first and third albums. like, to my mind, it's all about "subhuman", "harvester", "last days of may" and "before the kiss". if it weren't for that tragically overlong, noodly breakdown, i'd add "ME262" to that list. much more raw and energetic than either the studio original or the live version tacked onto the extended some enchanted evening. need to make an edit, i guess...

speaking of SOE, it deserves more love itt. "r u ready 2 rock" is a dumb lead track, and i don't care about either of the covers*, but the faster take on "godzilla" is great (nate OTM there), and i think the live versions of "ETI" and especially "astronomy" flat blow the originals away. the only way in which it's worse than OYF is that it's only half as long.

* i can't think of a band i like that's been so ill-served by their cover choices. no one on this earth needs rote takes on the likes of "born to be wild" and "roadhouse blues". and while they do a bit better on "kick out the jams" and "we gotta get outta this place", when it comes to these songs, it's not like i ever think "well, the original is great, but you know, i really wanna hear the BOC version."

Does anyone have any love for Extraterrestrial Live?

― broom air, Monday, February 13, 2012 5:55 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wish i did, but no, not really. weirds me out that allmusic trashes on your feet and shrugs off some enchanted evening, saving their "the one to own" praise for extraterrestrial. it's a great selection of songs and the band delivers them capably, but it's pretty dull compared the the other two. the sound is big in the 80s style but rather canned and plodding. none of the songs really compete with the original versions, and why the thin, cheezy sound effects in "black blade" and "joan crawford"? do like the call-and-response bit at the end of "dominance and submission" (one of my favorite BOC tunes), but i miss the weird devo nerdiness of the original.

real talk: when i was in HS, i bought this cheap-o BOC greatest hits CD that had the live verison of "kick out the jams" from SOE on it.

i always feel guilty but i felt that way the first time i heard it and everytime since...the MC5 version (which i didn't hear much later in college) always seems kinda slow and ploddy and not-rocking compared to the BOC version IMO

like i feel bad for thinking that but i do :/

Isnt Maserati GT a Yardbirds song? They crush that song on On Your Feet....

yeah i think it's a yardbirds tune

weirds me out that allmusic trashes on your feet

i actually kinda like the gonzo dumb arena theatrics of extraterrestrial live a lot but it's weird to me that they would trash on your feet, which the other two aren't even in the realm of IMO

re UMS: lol, me too. i heard the SOE live version of "kick out the jams" long before i ever heard the MC5 (courtesy of the columbia record and tape club who sent me the BOC album by mistake). was my intro to both bands, really, tho i'd heard "don't fear the reaper" on the radio. seriously loved BOC's cover at the time, was maybe my favorite track on the album, but i tend to skip it nowadays. not sure why.

re bill: i may be in the minority here, but i only like the first minute and a half of "maserati GT", when it sounds like a coda to "before the kiss". the song itself i could do without, but then i'm not a big fan of bluesy, jammy hard rock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYbAWZ8yPks

[tilt]

90s FMV game featuring the music of Blue Oyster Cult and a pre-cowbell-era Christopher Walken

walken goes hard in that trailer!

the song itself i could do without, but then i'm not a big fan of bluesy, jammy hard rock

^fair. I am a big fan of that kind of stuff, however.

* i can't think of a band i like that's been so ill-served by their cover choices. no one on this earth needs rote takes on the likes of "born to be wild" and "roadhouse blues". and while they do a bit better on "kick out the jams" and "we gotta get outta this place", when it comes to these songs, it's not like i ever think "well, the original is great, but you know, i really wanna hear the BOC version."

I can't speak for the live "BTBW" cover, but I feel the b-side studio version is a fantastic re-tooling of the original.

Very interesting point about the covers. You would think they would be savvier about it. Maserati GT is pretty hip though. Someone should do a comp of others' covers of BOC. Mike Watt is a huge fan, as you must all know.

I listened to ETL all the time when I was a kid but haven't for years. I remember thinking that the version of Hot Rails to Hell was the nuts. I also had no love for On Your Feet or On Your Knees as a laddie, so I'm glad this thread brought me back to it. I do miss the production that the studio records bring -- they are pretty good at getting good sounds -- but good grief is the band on fire on that record. It's almost exhausting to listen to.

The other reason for this post is that I can't quite bear to see this thread fall off the front page of ILXOR

Lol otm re: your last point

Someone should do a comp of others' covers of BOC.

when i made an "intro to BOC" comp for my friends, i included the minutemen's "the red and the black", the thrones' "black blade", fun manchu's "godzilla" and green river's "swallow my pride" (a huge and obvious nod to "this ain't the summer of love"). also dig the screamin' diz-busters (aka nomads) cover of "this ain't...", though i didn't include that.

front and back covers to that comp:

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/BOCart1.gif

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/BOCart2.gif

"light of darkness, light of light"

Light seeking light doth light of light beguile

in hindsight, i can't imagine why i didn't umlaut the 'O'

wow! sucks that i missed this thread revive, was out of town on vacation all last week, didn't visit ILX. great Cult Conversation !

last year was only the second year out of the last 13 or 14 where I did not see BOC at least once in concert (I can't remember exactly when my streak began, but it was definitely 1999, if not 1998..) So bummed about that! but the two times they played Chicagoland in 2011 just didn't work for me. One was the same night as Marshall Crenshaw's Detroit tribute at Symphony Center (with brother Wayne Kramer!), and the other was the same weekend as Pitchfork fest (the same reason I missed them in an earlier year.) I thought about taking the Amtrak to downstate Illinois for their performance in Effington in October, but in the end I just couldn't justify the expense

MIRRORS > CULTOSAURUS, IMNSHO !! (although "Black Blade" is one of the greatest tracks)

also, Agents of Fortune is sort of flawless. blows my mind that someone could like the first three but "not get into it" or whatever someone said upthread. Spectres, too. Those two are not as heavy as the first three, no. But the songwriting and playing is still amazing. First five albs are essential

yeah, it's weird, but i've been listening to a LOT of cult over the last couple weeks, and those two are still v hard for me to get with. i love "summer of love", "reaper" (duh) and "very gemini" off agents, but the rest of the songs do nothing for me. when it comes to spectres, i love "godzilla" (of course), the intro to "golden age of leather" (but not the song), and "fireworks" (as music, though the lyrics are gross). i am starting to realize that, though they include some of the band's best songs, these are my two least favorite BOC albums, overall. this side of imaginos anyway. despite the lack of classics, as albums, i think i prefer mirrors and even the two post fire of unknown origin albums. or at least my ideal world, boiled-down versions of them. this make me some kind of fucked-up freak, i know, but so be it.

and cultosaurus erectus is MAGNIFICENT.

lol @ "very gemini"

i'm pretty sure I've mentioned it on ILX before, but I was at this gig (and have the commemorative T-shirt to prove it):

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Oyster-Cult-Long-Night/dp/B00006L923/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1329640819&sr=1-1

As many times as I've seen BOC, that was the last time I saw them play "E.T.I." Really bums me out that they dropped it from the regular setlist, possibly my favorite BOC song. Also, you know, becuz of thred I am now listening to my CD reish of Agents (somewhat crappy bonus tracks -- the BEST bonus tracks of the reissue series were totally all those unreleased tracks that made it onto the Secret Treaties CD) -- and I forgot about the lyrical reference to "Balthazar" in "E.T.I."!! Just saw Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar for the first time ever this week. nice confluence

Another song they stopped playing in concert since that gig is "M.E. 262". that sucks

on the other hand, they continue to pull cool shit out of nowhere -- when I saw them in 2010, the second song was "The Golden Age of Leather"!!!