moseleymoles on Blue Oyster Cult
One of the joys of the old place (both of them now) was the threads in which a slightly less celebrated act was given a thorough airing in a thread dedicated to them. In that spirit here’s my take on an act that if they ever had their due, have now slipped well off the radar. So welcome to the Blue Oyster Cult thread and if you’ve never heard anything by the Cult beyond Don’t Fear The Reaper don’t be afraid..
BOC started in the late sixties as an American answer to the emerging heavy metal/hard rock acts from the UK, particularly Black Sabbath. Their first three albums: BOC, Tyranny and Mutation, and Secret Treaties, mine a fairly conventional rock sound – enlivened by Donald ‘Buck’ Dharma’s guitar and lyrics that mined mysticism, World War Two and arcane mythology amongst others.
After building up their reputation as a hot live act, their phase as top-notch album-sellers started with the live album On Your Feet or On Your Knees, and two subsequent studio albums, Agents of Fortune and Spectres. These albums saw their sound coming into focus and the airing of a slew of their best-know songs,including Godzilla, ETI and of course Don’t Fear The Reaper – most of which are collected on the live album Some Enchanted Evening.
Like many metal acts the eighties saw a shift in sound, first heard on the wonderfully named Cultosaurus Erectus (great sleeve too). My first introduction to them beyond Reaper came from their 1981 album, Fire of Unknown Origin.This married their hard rock background to poppier song structures and, with videos that worked on MTV, lifted them to another level. Joan Crawford, Veteran of the Psychic Wars, Burnin for You – the album’s got barely a weak link. I had this on a cassette with the second Def Leppard album on the other side – and played Fire.. to death
It couldn’t last – and The Revolution by Night (1983) sees a disastrous tipping of the scales in favour of the pop and soft rock sound that was dominating FM radio. There’s syndrums, swathes of keyboards, multitracked backing vocals, slap bass and even the odd sax break. That new producer Bruce Fairbairn is best known for Bon Jovi says most of what needs to be said. It’s all a far cry from the megastomping rock sound of live album Some Enchanted Evening that had sold millions five years previously.
And there I part company. I’ve never heard Club Ninja (85) or anything later or (sadly) seen them live. But their run of albums from Agents…through to Unknown Origin is as good as many more heralded acts. Never lookers, and without a charismatic lead vocal sound, their lack of visual and vocal presence perhaps partly explains their low profile in rock history. Other thoughts welcome.
In addition to one of the great rock logos – seen alongside AC/DC, Rainbow, Motorhead etc on the bags of heavy metal lads at school, they have used a starry roster of guest lyric writers from Patti Smith (kid you not) to authors such as Michael Moorcock (who wrote the lyrics to the track below) and John Shirley.
The 5-album classics set containing live lps On Your Feet… (summarises their early albums), Some Enchanted Evening (the next two), with studio sets Cultosaurs and Fire of Unknown Origin and Revolutions By Night – was what rekindled my connection with the Cult and is a good place to start.
And while Don’t Fear The Reaper will keep the writers in coinage, there’s much more from the Cult than this radio staple. So let’s have your BOC memories, anyone seen them live? favourite albums/tracks etc. Anyone going to argue for the post – Fire of… oeuvre. Over to you.
Their 1979 album Mirrors is a lost classic. The Vigil is one of the best rock songs ever….
Astronomy – another top BOC tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V7KPZtcOVQ
In Thee.
Another great tune from Mirrors.
Godzilla.
I will stop now!
I wanted to buy the 12″ Don’t Fear, record shop guy told me it was £2.99 but Agents of Fortune was only £2.49. I bought the album, and it’s all I need after I bought Secret Treatise on a trip to Canada.
Still an amazing logo and Morning Final is ace along with Then Came…
Fair that I discard them, sorry
I meant “After that…”
Sorry Unky, I utterly diskard taht as wet weedy and even, a drag.
That post was aimed at Astronomy.
I have to disagree of course, the heavy bits of Some Enchanted… Eg Godzilla, RU Ready To Rock are properly metal – and most of On your Feet is early seventies hard rock.
They had a tendency to wibble in the slower songs, and as discussed above from Cultosaurus on their sound changed quite significantly – Revolutions… Is weedy, there’s a song where they do a very unconvincing call and response chant ‘B-O-C you can be whatever you wanna be! ‘
For all those, who abandoned the later BOC, I strongly urge you to listen to Imaginos (1988, I think). Up there with Spectres, if not better.
And BTW, yes, respect to BOC and then some.
Plenty of love for BOC here, it’s been a topic at mingles with Lenny Law, Fortuneight and Neil Jung amongst others. The 17-CD Columbia box set has everything you need and more (way too much for the casual fan, tbh), and periodically drops to £30 or so which is a snip.
I saw them on the Club Ninja tour, and they were great even if the album’s some way from their finest hour. By then both Bouchard brothers had left, but I got to see them a couple of years ago as two thirds of Blue Coupe with Dennis Dunaway of the Alice Cooper band – basically three old gits having a whale of a time playing together, and impossible not to come away without a broad grin on your face. They sell autographed cowbells on their merch stand, y’know.
Got that box after it was mentioned a year ago on here – it is a thing of beauty. Lovely sleeves, shiny box – yes a bunch of live downloads that you may never listen to, but a real treasure trove.
It all started with Secret Treaties for me. I always saw myself as Charles the Grinning Boy from “Dominance Submission” (ooh, matron). Still have that one on the iPod.
What a great thread !
I first heard BÖC on a CBS compilation album(remember them?) – Buck’s Boogie, a five minute plus guitar riff the like of which I hadn’t heard before. Within a year or so I’d purchased “On Your Feet” and was off to see their inaugural UK gig at Hammersmith Oden – prefaced by a tortuous set from Motörhead (all those umlauts in one evening….)
BÖC were a bit of an enigma – there were no pictures on album sleeves, the lyrics were indecipherable (hornswoop me bungo pony anyone?) and the general vibe a little dark. Live they really impressed me – from the strobe lights of “Flaming Telepaths” to the cheesy but fun segment where all 5 band members played guitar during “Me 262”. They played rock n roll with deft touches of blues and bonkers.
I went on to catch them on every return to the UK over the next 10 years. The quality of the albums varied – “Don’t Fear The Reaper” became a huge hit and put Don Roeser’s kids through college (or so Lenny Law told me, and he got that direct from Don).
Many of the live stalwarts were songs that I never really cared for – “Godzilla”, “Reaper”, “Cities On Flame”, but they would be balanced out (for me at least) by “Dominance & Submission”, “Shooting Shark” or “Golden Age of Leather”. As time went on, both Bouchard brothers quit (Albert on drums and Joe on bass) and as the line-up rotated around Eric Bloom and Don Roeser so the album sales ebbed and the recording contract ended after Club Ninja.
Two Oyster Cult (Eric & Don) carried on with a cast of others. As a live act they could still draw a crowd – even if was to a club in Cocoa Beach in Florida (July 1988) where mid holiday and unable to believe my luck I caught them along with 500 other happy punters (and Johnny Winter a few days later). And then saw them again less than a year later having sold out Hammersmith Odeon.
Club Ninja wasn’t the last album – when Columbia wouldn’t release “Imaginos” as an Albert Bouchard album, they finally released it as a BÖC project but unsupported it sold badly and the next 11 years were album free. The layoff paid dividends – the 1998 album “Heaven Forbid” stands out for me as one of the best efforts, from the menacing metal of “See You In Black” and “Hammer Back”, to the hooks and riffs of Don Roeser’s “Damaged – top drawer BÖC. The follow up album “Curse of the Hidden Mirror” was nowhere near as strong and BÖC once again found themselves without a deal, which is where they remain today.
BÖC had a 40th anniversary celebration in New York at the end of 2012 which saw all the original members join the current incarnation on stage. Original member Allen Lanier played that night but sadly died 9 months later. Eric Bloom turned 70 on his last birthday; Don Roeser is merely 67, but the band still tour pretty much week in, week out criss crossing the USA and occasionally getting further afield – indeed they will be in beautiful downtown Maidstone later this year at a festival. Ritchie Castellano is one of the new boys (only 12 years in the band) who has taken on the guitar and keyboard role previously filled by Lanier. He’s a hugely talented, versatile musician – he’s also been BÖC’s bass player and even fills in for Roeser – as happened a week or so back. I would wholeheartedly recommend Ritchie’s “Band Geek” podcast to BÖC fans – some amusing road stories, some great cover tunes and guests delivered with enormous enthusiasm and all round geekyness.
My favourite recording is an audience tape from a fan funded gig in November 2008, at Maxwell’s Bar in New Jersey. The fan’s voted on the set list, and out went all the aforementioned stalwarts that I was tired of hearing – yes a gig totally “Reaper” free – replaced by “Career of Evil”, “Teen Archer” and “Beautiful As A Foot”. And no fucking cowbell.
Hardcore fans should stop by here – not only a great name for a site (Hot Rails To Hull) , but an awesome amount of data
http://www.hotrails.co.uk/index.htm
Their album covers were great . Come on, vote for your favourite. I’m going for Some Enchanted Evening.
Fire Of Unknown Origin or Extra Terrestrial Intelligence Live
Ok.
Sound of brushwood blowing down the street.
Think I’ll just mosey along….
I don’t have much to add, except to say that I’m a big fan too. I started with Secret Treaties, then bought everything after that on release day as far as Club Ninja. I saw them on the Spectres tour when I had a migraine which wasn’t a lot of fun, and again a few years later at the Hammy Odeon. I still play them quite a bit.
If you like them I’d recommend the pre BOC recording by Stalk-Forrest Group, especially St Cecilia and Ragamuffin Dumplin. Both like the best of BOC but with a slightly late 60s psych edge. Here you go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paC7QMsz6ZI
Mirrors is a good album.