Blue Oyster Cult: Classic or Dud?

RIP.

I tried to offer some thoughts on Lanier's influence, since I haven't really seen too many sites/news outlets do so today.

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/post--allen-lanier-of-blue-öyster-cult-dead-at-67

Aw damn. That "Flaming Telepaths" Moog solo is alltime

RIP

Sorry, here's a proper link to my Lanier obit:

http://on-msn.com/1cERWxl

Jesus fucking christ

Jesus FUCKING Christ

real tears rn

can't even

listening to burnin for you, the synth pads on this song are so crucial

He looked really bad onstage at the 40th anniversary show in NYC. But I didn't expect this.

Hey hold on, how did I miss this, RIP Allen.

CELEBRATING ALLEN

When we were in the planning stages for last year’s 40th Anniversary celebration show one of the “surprises” was going to be Allen joining the band on stage with guest vocalist Patti Smith performing one of the many BӦC songs for which Patti had written the lyric.

Sadly, the show was postponed by Hurricane Sandy, and Patti was out of the country on the rescheduled date.

I captured a rehearsal take on my cell phone, and Patti has been gracious enough to let us share it with everyone.

So here’s Eric, Buck, Richie, Jules, and Kasim joined by Allen and Patti for “Career of Evil”.

SLS

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151766278794780

aw sad that didn't happen

Nice obit here : http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/features/allen-lanier-1946-2013/

That's a good obit.

I love when Dharma is referred to as "Donald Roeser". Im like, who????

So stoked for the free BOC show at the MN state Fair

I was gonna be there this week and next week too!!! Had to postpone our mn trip cause of my stupid arm. Then the boc announcement arrrgh

Just saw them in Boston.
Good (not great) show (I'd kinda prefer hearing 'Tyranny...' from beginning to end!)... pretty short set list too. 8-10 songs or so.

Still... first time I've gotten to see them and I'm happy I did.

Just found out these guys are playing near here next week (with Foghat). I've been listening to the first two records pretty much every day for the past couple of weeks, so it was a nice surprise to find out. I always have the hardest time convincing myself to go to shows, but I think I should really try to go to this one; my list of shows I regret not going to is long enough already.

Go. They were great when I saw them a year and a half ago. And nothing lasts forever, so go.

Saw em last summer and it was great. State Fair free stage and they still pulled out some deep cuts

did they do "Lips in the Hills"? That was a highlight of the anniversary show

Nope but Golden Age of Leather, the Vigil, and Black Blade were unexpected

That was a pretty awesome show! Maybe a few too many extended solos toward the end (didn't bother me too much but my wife and friends weren't having it at all), but a pretty solid set overall!

OK, thanks to the Classic Rock poll thread I started combing through BOC's catalogue in search of something else that sounded as great as Reaper, in that same vein. A week later I still haven't found it but I found this other incredibly weird band instead. Like some of the earlier posters here, I've tried here and there to get BOC over the years, but found it an opaque mix of intriguing and awful without a consistent point of reference. However, after listening to Veterans of Psychic Wars about 2 dozen times this week, they've started to win me over on sheer unpredictability alone. So far I've responded best to Fire of Unknown Origin & Cultasaurus Erectus, but there's obviously much much more to discover.

they've started to win me over on sheer unpredictability alone. So far I've responded best to Fire of Unknown Origin & Cultasaurus Erectus, but there's obviously much much more to discover.

lol, that was exactly my entry trajectory: "reaper" on late 70s radio, followed by "veterans" on the heavy metal soundtrack in the summer of '81. FOUO and cultosaurus are two of my favorites, love the mix of true cult oddity and streamlined 80s pop. i don't know what you've heard and haven't, but "opaque mix of intriguing and awful" fairly describes my reaction to some of their most successful releases. think the best approach is just to marinate in the first three albums until your marbles start to roll around on the floor.

Secret Treaties is pretty perfect

Blue Oyster Cult has become a favorite of mine in the past few years. I have been listening to them on and off forever, but I think I was always wished they were a heavier rock band like Sabbath and some of their hits might indicate. It seemed their aesthetic finally kicked in for me and I really like them now. The first couple albums they seem like a very dark and evil version of the west coast ballroom rock bands then they morf into a group really under their own rules. It's really arranged music at times kind of like prog rock, but not ornate. I think some of this is how they would switch off on keyboards to extra guitars and the multiple vocalists. Their music can be kind of intricate, which might be why you don't see too many covers of BOC. I think they hold up pretty well.

In the past week I've been through Agents-Fire, and am going back to the first few now. I had put on Secret Treaties the other day and couldn't take the goofiness of Career of Evil, but upon going through this thread last night and listening to a live 'Astronomy', I think I'll give it another go today. Maybe I'm conflating a few of the posts upthread, but somebody described BOC as this strange mix of Black Sabbath, Steely Dan & Hawkwind, and that about seems right to me.

Secret Treaties is their magnum opus IMO. Fire of Unknown Origin's my second fave.

40 min later, Secret Treaties, A+, thanks all

He's found the awful truth, Balthazar

Details of import down at conry's bar IMO

WELL IT'S SO LONELY IN THE STATE OF MAINE

Now ladies fish n gentlemen

He's found the awful truth, Balthazar

Perhaps he just wants to know where winds come from?

I had put on Secret Treaties the other day and couldn't take the goofiness of Career of Evil

big part of the appeal, once you get your mind right

BOC was not afraid to be a bit absurd and trashy, it's kind of their tie to what went on in NY in the later 70s. "She's As Lovely as a Foot" indeed. They had a wide sound and did quite a few different type of numbers and styles.

I've never heard any of the later BOC records, but I am getting curious.

The BOC milestones:

S/T: deeply strange band who all live in a big house together and sound like it. First 3 records all have a governing "band" sound and lyrical ethos pretty much.

Agents of Fortune- the first record where they all got pro quality 4 track recorders for their pads, inaugurating the era of 'buck songs' 'Albert songs' 'joe songs' etc, which may sound radically different from one another. The aesthetic distance between 'reaper' and 'sinful love' is vast.

Cultosaurus Erectus: in comes Martin Birch from his proto-nwobhm stomping grounds to pull together a band sound again for this and Fire... a glorious sweet spot of totally successful SFF-infused hard rock. Yessss.

Revolution By Night - the first album without Albert illustrates what a critical part of the gumbo he was. Weird atmospheric 80s production and a p bad drum sound, and solo turns from iirc letterman's future sax player. Yet about half the album is great, especially the bizarre patti smith lyric 'shooting shark' and 'veins'. The same cannot be said for the next album Club Ninja.

Imaginos - surely the misbegottenest most difficult to explain rock record ever. Originally a kind of Albert solo album with heavy pearlmanisms made after his ouster from the band, that version suppressed and recut as a boc album with Eric and buck and a studio hireling rerecording the vocals. Session singer is comically hair metal but gets the unforgettable lyric HE WAS ME! AND I WAS CAAAALLED! [group vox] FRANK, EN, STEIN! The original Albert version of this album is all on YouTube in c90 sound quality and is well worth hearing. But so is the official version. With this, boc became a strictly live band for about a decade.

Heaven Forbid and Curse of the Hidden Mirror - reunion albums for a band that never broke up or stopped touring. The Buck-Eric-Allen core intact. SF writer John Shirley brought in to fill the sandy pearlman role. Between these two albums there is one really good album's worth of songs, with Buck bringing the highlights: 'harvest moon' which they wanted to evoke a haunted territory over time a la Stephen King's It and the super hooky 'Pocket'. Some cringey lyrics on here too. Annnnd back to strictly touring for another decade and a half.

Last year: RIP Allen
This year: new Albert solo album which I really need to get

The... End?

club ninja has a couple really sweet ones at least - "perfect water" and "dancin' in the ruins". they never put out a record that didn't have two or three great tunes. which i'm fine with actually

the super hooky 'Pocket'.

so otm. what a jam

Yeah aero I was stoked when you threw love its way a couple years ago. Idk if buck realizes how awesome it is... they play 'harvest moon' live still but not 'pocket' I don't think...

Tyranny and Mutation remains one of the sickest trips to the gutter of all time. I don't do drugs anymore but I can taste that sulfuric bitterness in my sinuses every time I put this motherfucker on.

There is a certain dread and malevolence bubbling under the surface of their slick AOR that is alternately cheesy yet more unsettling to me than lots of more heavy/extreme/"evil" metal bands

I think the two early live records "On Your Feet or On Your Knees" and "Some Enchanted Evening" are pretty ace. The recording quality (either live or overdubbed) is good on On Your Feet and exceptional on Enchanted Evening. Many of the early record numbers are edgier and meaner sounding live too. They are not Yes or Crimson, but some of BOC's tunes have some pretty elaborate arrangements.

"The Subhuman" on On Your Feet is legendary, s is the slight Lou Reed dis

I love the way On Your Feet... starts, with that giggle from a bandmember...such a weird production/mixing choice, like you're eavesdropping on them backstage right before they run onstage for the show.

Yeah that version of subhuman is guitar heaven

One of my top 5 live albums for def

you know, i think i saw one of the shows where "on your feet" was recorded. 10/5/74 at the academy of music. with triumvirat! they were sort of an elp knockoff, or so my memory tells me. man, look at those double and triple bills in '74.

http://www.hotrails.co.uk/giglopaedia/1974.htm

Aerosmith feud starts

wonder what that was all about?

I'd like to know! I don't think that was covered in the Popoff book.

lol triumvirat

BOC just destroyed the place. The "feud", I believe, relates to Aerosmith pulling the plug on BOC's use of FX as their warm up act. Then, quid pro quo, Aerosmith's entire sound and power mysteriously vanished mid set for them. Joey Kramer, Aerosmith's drummer did his solo acoustic, which was lame - I remember he goofed, grabbing his own head of hair and slamming his head into a drum while simultaneously using his kick pedal. Funny... but not as amusing as when singer Steven Tyler lept on stage after power resumed wanting to know "who was the cunt who shut us down."...

I remember that the set was very short after the power outage... It was a magical night in rock & roll.