Blue Oyster Cult: Classic or Dud?

This thread also illustrates the shameful decline of Photobucket. It was horrible even during its heyday, but it has turned into something worse than death. The picture of Christopher Walken has a massive watermark and covered in blur. It's like Atonement, or the old practice of building churches on top of pagan monuments.

Something remains of the original, but it's distorted and blurred. Perhaps that's what the owners of Photobucket are trying to tell us. Perhaps Photobucket is actually an art project on the theme of transience and the impossibility of history. What's to say that the blurred, watermarked Walken isn't his true form? What if the pristine, non-watermarked Walken of 2007 was the aberration? What did the people of 2007 know, anyway? Why should we let them form the dominant narrative? It's 2019, and the present belongs to us.

I am at the theater in Tarrytown NY waiting for BOC to take the stage. It’s going to be awhile because right now there’s a guy in an old man hat with a funky acoustic guitar and after that there’s UFO who I have never heard nor thought about hearing but anyway

Fuck yeah BOC

UFO is a fine band.

sweet should be awesome
I would like to see UFO

Who is in the current iteration of UFO?

Rob De Luca, Vinnie Moore, Phil Mogg, Neil Carter, Andy Parker
(pasted that in from their website)

Pete Way too unhealthy, Michael Schenker too crazy, Paul Raymond too dead so you only get 2/5 of the classic line-up (unless you think Mechanix is classic-era UFO in which case Neil Carter counts).

I kinda don't but 2/5 isn't bad...I think that's also the ratio BOC is working with.

oh shit Vinnie Moore, he's a shredder

I swear when we got tickets UFO was on the bill! But it was just the acoustic guy and then BOC.

Great show, though the sound was a bit off. Buck’s vocal mic and leads not loud enough for my taste. I might have been spoiled by the spectacular sound last time I saw them (in Manhattan).

Their walk on music is now the end title theme from The Mandalorian <3

Been on a big BOC kick lately, started when I picked up the surprisingly great Albert Bouchard Re Imaginos. Feel like it's time for the Stalk-Forrest Group comp to get reissued again, going for crazy money.

Well, guess I should have checked discogs first, maybe not "crazy" money. The copies on Amazon are insanely priced though.

the bar is bloom

i support using CGI technology to replace orlando bloom with eric bloom in all the movies he's been in

I finally got my hands on a copy of Heaven Forbid, so now I just need Curse to complete my BOC studio albums collection. Not sure I'm willing to pay $30+ for it just yet, so I'll keep waiting patiently.

it's sort of out there again, as an import though. vinyl too.

https://www.frontiers.shop/new-releases/1022/blue-oyster-cult-curse-of-the-hidden-mirror-cd-jewelcase?c=8

Thanks for the tip. Gonna go sit by my mailbox.

Heaven Forbid has plenty of great moments. "Harvest Moon" is a top 10 BÖC track, in my opinion.

Yeah, “Harvest Moon” is killer.

I'm enjoying Heaven Forbid, but I will say the Buck songs >> the Bloom songs, for the most part.

that equation holds true for a lot of their latter day catalog

Fair, but the way Heaven Forbid alternates between the two for much of the album really underscores the difference.

partially, Buck's singing style is so soft, like he doesn't really raise his voice or strain at all, so it's held up remarkably well...Eric's voice is way more shot. Don't know if that started to affect his ability to write.

no opinions on the new album? I thought it was surprisingly listenable, if overlong

yeah i think people are positive generally, esp considering how late it is in their career, thread here:

Blue Oyster Cult - The Symbol Remains (2020)

oh snap I missed that- thanks!

Re-listened to Agents of Fortune and Fire of Unknown Origin this morning. The latter might be my favorite of their albums; at any rate, it always sounds ridiculously great whenever I listen to it.

it's the best one!!!!

Shame it all fell apart with Albert Bouchard (the primary writer) around then, I think they had one great new wave-y album left in them.

Probably in the minority here, but I vastly prefer the demo version of "Fire of Unknown Origin" (tacked onto the Agents reissue) to the one that was eventually released. You can practically hear Patti Smith singing the earlier version, and I'll take Joe B. over Eric Bloom most any day.

yeah that one is pretty great

I think they had one great new wave-y album left in them.

― my shear modulus is weakening (Matt #2), Wednesday, February 24, 2021 9:33 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

they made it, it's called the revölution by night

does suffer for albert's absence tho true

that's an underrated one. obv "shooting shark" is a live staple, i really love "veins" which is the second-to-last richard meltzer lyric they used i think (they used his "spy in the house of night" on club ninja but i think they didn't ask him and melz got really pissed and didn't talk to them again)

Albert Bouchard (the primary writer)

Well observed.

Been on a big BOC kick lately, started when I picked up the surprisingly great Albert Bouchard Re Imaginos. Feel like it's time for the Stalk-Forrest Group comp to get reissued again, going for crazy money.

― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, February 11, 2021 12:41 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

listening to this again and it's really worth your time, definitely interesting to hear what he thought imaginos was going to be, his voice is a little shakier at points but still pretty good and it's really a nice sounding record (imaginos is just produced like fucking garbage)...but it *feels* like a BOC album even if it's technically a solo album

I got FoUO recently after rwading about it on here, funnily enough the post thay convinced me i needed it was derogatory iirc.

It's my third favorite BOC album after Tyranny and Secret Treaties. I wouldn't fault anyone for saying it's their best album.

listening to this again and it's really worth your time, definitely interesting to hear what he thought imaginos was going to be, his voice is a little shakier at points but still pretty good and it's really a nice sounding record (imaginos is just produced like fucking garbage)...but it *feels* like a BOC album even if it's technically a solo album

Yeah, I played Re Imaginos again last night and it's really good. It's no patch on prime BOC, but it's nice to hear something closer to Bouchard's original version and you are otm, it sounds incredible.

woah this is cool - blue oyster cult by voices

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odfQ11PByac

I'll take Joe B. over Eric Bloom most any day

Every time I listen to a BOC song sung by a Bouchard I think "I wish Eric was singing this".

Both of you are wrong.

xp love that demo, it's the best version

FoUO and OYFoOYK are I think tied for my favorite at this point, with the latter to be understood as an avatar for all the BOC bootlegs I have mainlined

Speaking of which, I scoured all over the damn place trying to find bootlegs where they perform the more interesting deep cuts from Revolution By Night (“Veins”, “Shadow of California” and “Feel the Thunder”) - I was only able to find one and its in pretty terrible sound quality

Also - i think it’s a little cruel of buck that he either performs “Shark” or “Harvest” at a given show but never both of them!

Veins is a really great deep cut

It’s top notch and hooky as fuck

Since you mention OYFoOYK I thought I'd mention that I checked it out a while back and was blown away by how great "Born to Be Wild" sounded, especially the mental white noise section toward the end. It might as well be late 80s Sonic Youth at that point.

Just sharing this here because I only just found out about it myself, but Bouchard's already got a follow-up to Re-Imaginos coming out in a few weeks (maybe digitally even sooner, this week maybe?). It's the second part of a now planned trilogy, Re-Imaginos 2: Bombs Over Germany.

tracklist:

“When War Comes”
“Independence Day”
“7 Screaming Dizbusters”
“OD’d on Life Itself”
“Il Duce”
“Bombs over Germany”
“Before the Kiss (A Redcap)”
“Three Sisters”
“Quicklime Girl (Mistress of the Salmon Salt)”
“The Red and the Black”
“Dominance and Submission”
“Shadow of California”
“Cities on Flame (with Rock and Roll)”
“Half Life Times”

oh wow, interesting

really wish this project could have been done with the whole band when lanier was still alive but still really cool to see something more approximating the original plan

oh wow, interesting

really wish this project could have been done with the whole band when lanier was still alive but still really cool to see something more approximating the original plan

Very cool - I have not got round to getting reimaginos yet but I’ll get both when vol 2 comes out

that tracklist is unfuckwithable i must say

mistress of the salmon salt is underrated.