what dedicated listening thread should we do next (the poll)

having trouble picking a lyric/title

DEATH COMES SWEEPING THROUGH THE HALLWAY LIKE A LADY'S DRESS: the official ilm track-by-track blue öyster cult deep listening thread, 1972-1988

Time To Play BOC-Sides

lmao

If we do BOC, we probably should start with the Stalk-Forrest Group album.

my idea was to start with the first böc album and then get to the stalk-forrest group/soft white underbelly to fill in a few days of context before tyranny and mutation unless i hear dramatic objections. not everyone's gonna be immediately enamored with deadhead böc, and it's also stretching it a little to refer to st. cecilia as an album

also chronology is overrated

but i was thinking of starting this on monday

(to my point above, i'm also trying to avoid the redundancy of covering "i'm on the lamb"/"red and the black" three separate times)

Sticking to chronology would mean a bunch of stuff before arriving at the debut, which as you say might not be the best way to start and keep people interested (in addition to St. Cecilia, there's also some audition demos recorded afterwards that were added as bonus tracks to the reissue of the S/T, all in all making for about two weeks of listening before getting to the real albums).

Actually less than two weeks--Those CBS demos are almost all already covered on St. Cecilia.

yeah i think i'll introduce the stalk-forrest group during "i'm on the lamb" and then expand further after the s/t's done

cool, can't wait to do this, i'm already writing up the first few tracks

psyched

wgaf about demos, stick to official releases

(full disclosure: I know nothing about the BOC catalog)

I own a couple of BOC records I've neglected so this would be kewl

wgaf about demos, stick to official releases

they're the only songs credited to the soft white underbelly. regardless i will not be spending four days on them. maybe one

on a weekend

XP To Shakey: I confused matters by bringing up the CBS demos. The band--when they were the Stalk-Forrest Group--had recorded an album's worth of material (known as St. Cecilia) for Elektra Records in '69-'70. The label dropped them after a failed single, and the rest of the material stayed in the vault for 30 years until Rhino Handmade put it out.

Most of those songs also didn't resurface in BÖC's repertoire.

so

who's up for Kenny Rogers

I'd do Rush or Sly & the Family Stone. Not really in the mood for any of the others tbh.

Sly catalog is pretty small, really.

True. I'd still be down, but that's just me.

Sly, defintely.

well that's three of us... is that enough for a quorum? I'd be happy to run it. I guess we'd have to decide whether to include Sly productions/side projects like the Stone Flower records stuff etc.

lot of great early stuff worth checking out imo

doesn’t need to be comprehensive, but it would be fun to hear some of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whZ0SCHcb2A

maybe we should compile a list first

I'd never heard of that Stewart Bros track before, for ex., that predates what I thought were his earliest releases

sounds good, i’ll put a list together

Thanks!

I know all the Sly & Family Stone + Stone Flower stuff, but his pre-Family Stone stuff is all over the place

so i think this should be sufficient:

stewart four - walking in jesus name 78 (1952)
stewart brothers - the rat 45 (1959 **conflicting info here, may not be sly**)

v/a - “sly stone: the doo wop years” (covers most of the rest of the early releases, be sure to OMIT tracks 15-19)

demonstrators - sunset violets 45 (1964)
sly stewart - i just learned how to swim 45 (1964)
sly - buttermilk 45 (1965)
sly - temptation walk 45 (1965)

v/a - “listen to the voices: sly stone in the studio 1965-1970” (i’ll let you decide what’s worth including here: demos, rarities, some non-stone flower productions, the french fries 7” is essential imo)

sprinkle in stone flower releases as you see fit and i think we have a party

n.b. this isn’t a comprehensive list, or even anything close. just stuff i’ve either enjoyed or always wanted to check out, and think would make a good prelude to the family stone stuff.

that looks like a solid starting point to me - I'm inclined not to include productions, albeit mostly because including the Beau Brummels doesn't seem apropos lol

OK so we're doing this, yeah?

Sure, I'm in.

budo, what is this:

demonstrators - sunset violets 45 (1964)

I don't have the liner notes to "listen to the voices" does anyone know what years the following tracks are from?

Freddie and the Stone Souls Something About You
Freddie and the Stone Souls Superfunk
Sly and the Family Stone Man Does Not Live
Sly and the Family Stone Take My Advice

sorry that should say “sweet violets” and on second thought i think we can skip that track, demonstrators was a group sly apparently played in

i have no idea about the years on that comp as i just have the files, sorry :/

I think the two Freddie Stone tracks are 1965, not sure about the other two. whatever, I'll just throw them in there ahead of the first proper album. I think I have a relatively full list together, about 170 tracks. Will start tomorrow