Blue Oyster Cult: Classic or Dud?

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.

a week and a half of nothing but BOC... I think I've opened up my veins too many times.

ny'ers with wheels: they're playing a free show in long island on saturday.

http://oysterbaytown.com/departments/community-and-youth-services/cultural-and-performing-arts-capa/music-stars-2014/

"veins in my eyeballs
damage that i've done
veins on the stairway
veins in my skull"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs8jrK8Q_ek

^^last ever BOC song with Richard Meltzer lyrics iirc

One of the two indispensables from revolution by night. Though shadow of California is pretty good too.

Xpost goddamn them for playing NYC area as soon as I get to Minnesota >:[

holy crap "Then Came the Last Days of May" has the weirdest fucking reverb

entire first album just the oddest sound-world, totally unlike anything else

Yeah the *vibe* of that first album is really something else. Like it actually sounds like there was evil in the air.

it does! the kind of evil that can only be evoked by a band who are actually all living in a big house together.

uggghhh the fucking segue into "she's as beautiful as a foot" SO PERFECT

And that looped-and-reverbed-unto-eternity "Telescope-ope-ope-ope-oPE-OPE-OPE-OPE-OPEOPEOPEOPEOP..."

Its like the sonic equivalent of the album cover's vanishing point.

Deeply unnatural production and equalization on this record, just unright and uncanny and downright unamerican!

Drug the debut out earlier tonight thanks to this revive. In the liner notes they say it was recorded on the cheap in an 8-track studio known for recording jingles!

Jingles that eventually drove people to madness and murder?

That explains the bizarre reverb and fidelity. It works.

"Veteran of the Psychic Wars" in 81

check out this motherfuckin buck solo damn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pFdkkjGiEs

Yeah that's pretty dope.

OK so look at the NYTimes book review section today. There's a new crime novel by JK Rowling writing under a pseudonym and it's titled Career of Evil, and is apparently stuffed with further overt BOC references. Liek tons of them.

This delights me and it can't help but enhance the visibility of BOC.

WHAT

Review by M Kakutani today. It reads like a joke! I'm v happy for my boys.

Amazing, no? It's still not going to convince me the Harry Potter books are worth reading...

haha! that's awesome

E Bloom is an SFF nerd so I'm sure he has commented on this by now

This is great, if it turns out there's a chapter called She's As Beautiful As A Foot I might even read the thing.

Chapter 7
Screaming Dizbusters

anybody know what synths they used on Fire of Unknown Origin? Don't Turn Your Back came up on shuffle and those pads grabbed me.

Man I just spent ten minutes researching that, couldn't find anything but a list of what he used live in the 90s. Where are the gear nerds when you need them?

I'd like to know too. I love the synths on that record. There's not a ton of choices for polyphony in 1981 right?

There's a good shot of the keyboard rig in the live video a few posts northward (at around 4.55), difficult to tell though. Maybe a Memorymoog?
A clue: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/r-i-p-allen-lanier-of-b-o-c.326402/page-3#post-9260256

On a similar note: http://www.synthfind.com/moog/moog-minimoog-model-d-309/

Also this thread is great: http://www.hotrails.co.uk/blueskybag/samjudd/oldroadies.htm

best band ever

Fire of Unknown Origin is one of the best synth-on-a-rock-record rock records, no doubt.

See also "deadline" on the previous album

OK so Sam Judd is my new favorite person, that thread is awesome. And CLUE -- on this thread:

http://www.hotrails.co.uk/history/1980.htm

Mr. Judd mentions loading patches into the Prophet V and having the Oberheim worked on. This was during 1980 and the synths on FOUO and Cultosaurus sound about the same generally.

I was already wondering if it was a Prophet V because that was just about the only polyphonic synth at the time right?

Yeah, in 1980, the two main contenders were the Prophet-5 and the Oberheim OB-X. Moog were still pushing the Polymoog, but it's fairly weak-sounding - not the sort of thing BOC would have been using. In the interests of completeness, I would also note that by 1980 Roland had released the Jupiter-4 and there were a couple of other Japanese and German polyphonic oddities available, such as the Korg PS-3300 and the PPG 340. But big bands like BOC were using Sequential Circuits and/or Oberheim.

Both of which are mentioned in that 1980 roadie diary. Sounds like the minimoog was still on tour with them that year too.

Obv Lanier has a shitload of synths around him in that youtube m@tt posted

Prophet 5 and Oberheim OBX-A were I think what Japan pretty much used exclusively on Tin Drum, so they were in good company.

Arc of a Diver by Stevie Winwood is almost entirely Prophet 5 I think, except for the drums -- lol not that that necessarily constitutes good company but I do love it.

I'd figure those glassy pads on the song 'Fire of Unknown Origin' to be from an Oberheim. They have a similar sound to Van Halens synths and he used Oberheims.

the 1980 tour thread is awesome, love the contrast between the inside dope & backstage geekery of the roadie diary VS the civilians memories "it was my first concert i was 14 and on acid..."

This clip is pretty awesome. Bet you never figured to see Charles Grodin interviewing Blue Oyster Cult either.

This quote on the Youtube page is pretty funny too.

Gerber Bernstein3 months ago
"Edgar Allen Poe is wearing Ace Frehley's pajamas, and rockin' !"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0X5YpOkSz4

Paris 1975 this is fucking godlike

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGI99kQ13hA