special introductory paragraph!
Blue Oyster Cult
Tyranny And Mutation
Secret Treaties
On Your Feet Or On Your Knees
Agents Of Fortune
Spectres
Some Enchanted Evening
Mirrors
Cultosaurus Erectus
Fire Of Unknown Origin
The Revolution By Night
Club Ninja
Imaginos
Cult Classic
Heaven Forbid
Curse Of The Hidden Mirror
St. Cecilia: The Elektra Recordings (by Stalk-Forrest Group)
Blue Oyster Cult are a NYC-based rock band who began their stupid asshole
career doing wicked cool guitar tunes about dark topics, then started having
a bit of success and became poppier in hopes of earning even more record dough, before losing all their fans and having to return to dark topics again, even though they weren't any good anymore. Also of note is the fact that all five band members wrote material and split lead vocal duties, and most of their lyrics were written by Helen Wheels, Patti Smith, Richard Meltzer, Sandy Pearlman and several other friends of the band. Yet another interesting thing about
Blue Oyster Cult is that when you take the first letters of each word in
their name, you get "B.O.C.," which is actually the name of another popular
'70s hard rock band that had a hit with "(Don't Fear) The Reaper."
Echoey drums way off in the background, slithery but sleazy rock and roll
wankoff guitar lines with a touch of menace, a bass player and a fuzzy-haired D&D player by
the name of Eric Bloom put out this weird, wild record way back when I was
just a load in my daddy's diaper. Let me start this whole thing over, in hopes that you haven't read this beginning section
and will instead begin at the end of the review and read it
backwards, like our friends in the Chinese Kingdom. All I know is what I hear, and what I hear is
a bunch of hellishly cool guitar lines (basic straight-up hard rock,
but darker!) and curiously bizarre song titles like "I'm On The Lamb But I Ain't
No Sheep," "Before The Kiss, A Redcap" and the most fucked-up tune on here,
"She's As Beautiful As A Foot." The record ends with a surprisingly normal
C/W-type pretty tune, but the rest of it sounds exactly like what a band
called "Blue Oyster Cult" SHOULD have sounded like in 1972. None of this stuff is as eerie as
"Don't Fear The Reaper," but it all aspires to giving you the slight willies
while making you shake your fist in the air as if unconcerned.
The alternately eerie and funny "Stairway to the Stars" and the gritty-but-pleasant "Last Days of May" are
favorites of mine, but doesn't anyone else recognize that the album kind of dies down a little toward the
end? I mean, after hearing "Transmaniacon MC" and "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" I was
inevitably disappointed with the dumb anthem "Cities on Flame" (much better in concert) and the just plain
weak double entendre of Workshop of the Telescopes" and "Redeemed".
My Rating: 8
1. Both bands were unfairly categorized. The Moody Blues are labeled a
progressive rock band, but their songs lack the diversity, themes, meter,
structure and grandiosity of those by standard-bearers Yes and Genesis. BÖC
are labeled a heavy metal band, but, with few exceptions, lack the
full-frontal guitar assault and power of, say, Black Sabbath in the
seventies or Judas Priest in the eighties.
2. All members of both bands sing lead vocals. Sure, some more than others,
and Allan Lanier only sang lead for only one song in BÖC's entire catalog
(AoF's True Confessions).
3. In spite of #2, two members form the core of the bands' leadership (MB:
Justin Hayward & John Lodge; BÖC: Eric Bloom & Buck Dharma) and thus sing
most of the songs, especially later in their careers. Plus, they are all
guitarists.
4. All members of both bands play multiple instruments.
5. One of the main members of both bands, both of whom were extremely
influential early in both bands' careers (MB: Mike Pinder; BÖC: Al Bouchard)
either quit or was fired. Ironically, both would sue their respective
former bandmates in the 80s.
6. The replacements for both of the above members (MB: Patrick Moraz; BÖC:
Rick Downey) quit out of anger and disillusionment because they were treated
as sidemen and were not permitted any more active involvement with the
group. Moraz sued his former bandmates as well.
7. One of the other members of both bands, both of whom were influential
early in both bands' careers and provided very strong and diverse songs to
their catalogs (MB: Ray Thomas; BÖC: Joe Bouchard), slowly faded away toward
the end of their bands' heydays and contributed weak songs (Ray: "Celtic
Sonant"; Joe: "Light Years of Love").
8. Both bands professed an interest in "space" themes. In order to get
there, the Moodies spoked pot. BÖC sniffed coke.
9. Both bands employed well-known producers to "revitalize" their sound,
both of whom helped bring some commercial - if not necessarily artistic -
success after their prime (MB: Tony Visconti for Other Side of Life in
1986; BÖC: Martin Birch for, especially, Fire of Unknown Origin in 1981).
10. Both bands contributed soundtrack material to shitty movies (MB: Karate
Kid II; BÖC: Bad Channels).
11. Both bands released albums in 1986 that were very controversial amongst
their hard-core fans (MB: Other Side of Life; BÖC: Club Ninja).
12. Both bands released compilation albums that included re-recordings of
their classic material
13. Both bands are flogging the oldies circuit today (MB in Las Vegas, BÖC
in a bar & grill near you).
Anyway, on to the first album.
The new remastered version takes care of some of the production problems and
gives it a new clarity, but all in all this remains one of the Boc's best
albums. My faves are "Transmaniacon MC" and "The Last Days of May" (may be
Buck's second-best-ever vocal performance; first? Well, guess!) and "Cities
on Flame With Rock and Roll" - likewise one of Al Bouchard's best vocal
treatments - he doen't sound so stoned or restrained here and makes this
tune sound like a heavy-metal Cream. In fact, Al cites Black Sabbath's "The
Wizard" and King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" as influences. Not
sure I hear the latter, but the former is pretty obvious. Contrary to
popular opinion, I dig Joe Bouchard's "Screams" - little acid-tripped-out
spooky tune (tells the story of how the former country bumpkin first came to
New York). Play this tune while you're stoned and stare into the perpetual
images on the cover, and get fucked up!! Now, while many hardcore fans
don't seem to care much for "She's as Beautiful as a Foot," it's too unique
and wacky not to like it. "Workshop of the Telescopes" is a
psychadelic/sub-Latin workout that kind of doesn't fit - neither does
"Redeemed," but at least as a closer it works well as a mood-lifter. "I'm
On The Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" would sound much better on the next album.
"Stairway to the Stars" is OK.
The bonus tracks are worthwhile, especially the Soft White Underbelly's
"Donovan's Monkey." They should have re-recorded this for "Tyranny &
Mutation" - it would've fit right in.
Overall, not a metal album, rather a hint of what is to come, but what a
great hint it is. Their second (or maybe third) best overall. Second-best
cover artwork. A strong 9.
BOC's first album is excellent and in my opinion, in their top three best records. Right now they sound sort of a cross between ZZ Top's hard rock sound without being overly blusey, and Alice Cooper's sinisterness without the theatrics, yet is far more distinct from lesser bands of the era like, Foghat or someone. This album is somewhat more distinguishable for having more of a "motorcycle rock" sound (I guess that's the best term) and cool riffs all over the place-espcially Transmaniacon MC and Cities On Flame, and the awesome rockabilly section of Before The Kiss, A Redcap. What's also to be appreciated about this band (at this stage) is that they seem to do psychadellic songs instead of the obligatory ballad, hence Then Came The Last Days in May, Screams and She's As Beautiful As A Foot. Too bad they would drop this trend, because they really excelled in this genre.
OBSERVATION: One of the key figures in the history of the Blue OYSTER Cult
is producer Sandy PEARLman. OYSTER??? PEARL??? Am I the only one who
smells a conspiracy here????
I don't find
this one quite as compelling and tunefully obese as the debut, but it does
offer some more cool menacing tunes, as well as some less mischief-laden but
still great rock tunes like the hardcore speed rocker "The Red & The Black,"
rockabilly-riffed "O.D.'d On Life Itself" and of course the classic "Hot
Rails To Hell." Yep, that's right - the very same
"Hot Rails To Hell" that was later covered by Mr. Tesco Vee and his
Meatmen on the Pope On A Rope LP! And I really must give it to BOC - at this point in their career, they were able to make anything sound malevolent. Even the "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress" riff somehow winds up sounding as creepy as a spider capturing your soul in its clutches of pure EVIL. The Blue Oyster Cult 'mystique' and 'concept' is a bit difficult to make out in whole, but it seems to encompass such aspects as conspiracy theory, numerology, alien visitation, vampirism, time-traveling motorcycle gangs, and dying dead people bleeding. And how about these more song titles?
"Mistress Of The Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl)"? "7 Screaming Diz-Busters"?
Why only 7? Why not 8 Screaming Diz-Busters? I mean, if you're paying
for 7 anyway, you might as well go for 8 in case you get a sweeth tooth after
work one day. I realize I'm preaching to the converted here, but if
any of you have a tight connection with Eric Bloom, maybe you could
give him a call and find out what's up with what I consider to be an
incredibly cost-ineffective oversight. So in short, the arrangements are definitely more
ambitious than on the predecessor, but a lot of the melodies aren't
as instantly memorable. Still a great piece of hard rock though. I give it a very low 8, where the first one
gets a very high 8. If you could do me a favor and draw me up some new
little symbols to differentiate "low 8" scores from "high 8" scores, I'll
use them and give you no credit whatsoever.
Overall, the album definitely has some low points, which are in turn balanced by the high points, so it
deserves credit. And hell, it's not like this is any worse than Mirrors. A shade less effective than the debut,
so I'll warrant it a high 7.
These aside, it seems to me Tyranny & Mutation struggles a bit living up to
the intense, spaced-out cover artwork (coolest for a BOC album if not the
coolest of ANY album, EVER). It's also not quite as engaging as the first
album. "Wings Wetted Down" is a good mood piece that might have fit better
on the first album ("Screams' " little psycho-diddy parts might have worked
better here). "Quicklime Girl" is loads of fun, very melodic and has that
wavery, sixties-pot-induced organ solo. "Seven Screaming Diz Busters" (diz
is a cock cleft, apparently) is almost great, but it strains to sustain its
purpose throughout its seven minutes. "O.D.'ed on Life Itself" does little
for me, and "Baby Ice Dog" smells like decade-old Alpo. It's Patti Smith's
first, but not her best, lyric for the band.
The new, remastered version makes this CD sound bitchin' in my truck, and it
sounds better than the first album. Extra tracks include the studio version
of the kick-ass "Buck's Boogie" (I find it interesting that Buck didn't even
write this piece - Al Bouchard did. He is the dominant writer on this album
but does not sing). The rest of the extras are live versions - the best?
"Dizbusters," which has Eric Bloom ranting about like Ted Nugent.
As such, I reluctantly bestow upon it the highest seven (with a bullet) I
can muster. Cutting "Baby Ice Dog" in favor of "Buck's Boogie" could've
been all the bullet it needed, but no! I may like T&M more with repeated
listenings, but compared with the schizoid first album and what's to follow,
a 7.9 (with that stupid little repeating bar that you learned about in
algebra placed over the nine) sounds almost right, dodgammit!
1.THE RED AND THE BLACK: BLANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BLANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CHA! SPEEDY RIFFS LIKE THE DOORS WILD CHILD! CANADIAN MOUNTIES! BEING CHASED BY HUNGRY WOLVERINES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUCK DARMA IS AN AWSOME PLAYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO WANKING! 10/10
2.O.D.'ED ON LIFE ITSELF: SOUNDING LIKE ROY ORBISON THE TRACK BLASTS! ERIC BLOOM TALKS ABOUT COCAINE! REALLY! 10/10
3.HOT RAILS TO HELL!!!!!!!!!!!: FIERY SONG ABOUT A MAN AND HIS CAVE OF FIRE! 9/10
4.7 SCREAMING DIZ BUSTERS: ODD TITLE WITH ODD ARRENGEMENTS! 9/10
5.BABY ICE DOG: HUH? WEIRD! I MET THE BITCH! 8/10
6.WINGS WETTED DOWN: THE BLACK HORSEMAN LONELY ARRNEGEMENT PLUS A LOVELY SWRILING GUITAR SOLO! 10/10
7.TEEN ARCHER: SWEET TEEN ARCHER! TASY LOOKING! BABE I NEED YOU! TAKE ME BY THE ASS AND LICK ME! NO DRUM SOLOS! 10/10
8.MISTRESS OF THE SALMON SALT QUICKLIME GIRL: WHAT THE HELL IS A QUICKLIME GIRL??? YOU MEAN THE LITTLE MERMAID AERIAL! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM SWEET LOVELY MERMAID ! AWSOME STUFF SOUNDS LIKE 1969!
9.CITIES ON FLAME WITH ROCK AND ROLL LIVE!: SOUNDS LIKE IT RECORDED IN A GYM! BAD BUT YOU GET USED TO IT!
10.BUCK'S BOOGIE!: BUCK RULES! SOUNDS LIKE IT COULD BE IN HAPPY DAYS WHERE THE FONZ BANGED HIS HEAD! AND MR. CUNNINGHAM BANGED HIS GIRL LEATHER TUSCADERO!
11.7 SCREAMING DIZ BUSTERS LIVE: LONGER THAN THE STUDIO VERSION! IT SHOWS ONCE AGAIN BUCK DAHRMA IS GOD! FUCK CLAPTON! FUCK BRYAN ADAMS! HE IS THE ONE! ERIC GOOFS AROUND AS HE SAYS ABOUT ELTON JOHN !
12.O. D. ON LIFE ITSELF! FINAL JAM
THIS IS THE SHIT! 10/10
of it's bizarre balancing of heavy, maniac rock-bordering on metal during the first half with the moody, mellow and subtley creepy tracks that took up the rest of the damn thing. the second half sounds - at least to me- like a bridge between BOC and Tyrrany... heavier, but still with the power in the atmosphere itself, not guitar bombast. blah blah blah-
i'M SURE 100 hundreds of fans have actaully said all this before, and done a better job of it!! sooooo.....5 stars outa 5.
and you know what else is cool? munch'ems. foo.
It just feels right, sounds right... Side A is a thrill (especially the first three tracks), but it's side B that really hooks me. "Baby Ice Dog" and "Quicklime Girl" are favorites.
Which does bring me to a bit of a complaint about BOC-I really think they should have focused on more serious and darker material as such. Too often they seem to be a bit lazy with their irony/tongue in cheek attitude when they probably could bring forth stuff like Wings Wetted Down (not that they are bad at being toungue in cheek, as I mentioned with Hot Rails To Hell, but then we've had to put up with Godzilla and Joan Crawford). Hell, even Don't Fear The Reaper is pretty much devoid of irony, and most people only know them for that song!
Then again, the band really weren't really behind all the lyrics and concepts (plus it was the 70s, you know...) and there's also some excellent bonus tracks here, including Buck's Boogie and an extended live 7SDB, which has some of the greatest guitar playing ever in the midsection (I could swear there's a point where Buck moves back and forth between Chuck Berry and Sweet Leaf-before Eric Bloom has a corny spoken word section about selling his soul-"You gotta sign in BLOOD!""And I thought, Whoa, that's heavy") that reminds me why I got hooked on BOC: I saw them at a dodgy county fair somewhere in Wisconsin back in 2001. I wasn't expecting much, I wasn't an enormous fan at that point, the No Cowbell movement hadn't even caught on greatly at that point. Yet, they brought the house down-it truly was a fanstasic show and the tune that sticks out in my mind that night was Buck's Boogie. I've seen them twice since, and while they are a worthy live band still, that first time I saw them still tops it.
More great goodness from Ian Astbury's Blue Oyster Cult. One thing I should mention
is that part of the overall Flue Oyster Bult approach is to throw in jazzy
guitar chords where you'd expect normal r'n'r Johnny Thunders chords to go.
For example, instead of "E-A-D," you might get "E-A-jazzy chord that you
weren't expecting". Which I find neat because in the history of rock music,
nobody has ever used a jazz chord. One question for you though, while I've
got your ear in my hands -- on these early releases, Eric Bloom is credited with playing "stun guitar". What the stuck is
a fun guitar? Ah yes, the actual album. Well, not much to say that you
can't already guess. More of the same early B.T.O. mayhem on this release,
with song titties like "Dominance And Submission," "Harvester Of Eyes" and
the AWESOME, HILARIOUS anthem of meanness "Career Of Evil." The record also
includes the classic "Astronomy" - later to be covered by Metallica! Did
you hear me? METALLICA!!!!! Of St. Flanger fame! Say - what the donkey is up with this album cover? It's a drawing of the band
members (some of whome have mustaches -- remember, this was the height of
the drug era) in front of an aeroplane - and guess who's flying the plane!
Robert Hays? No - a SKELETON man!!!!! I'm out of onions. Do you think
it's okay if I make spaghetti with bunions?
Oh, hey, and there's some mediocre stuff here, too. "Career of Evil" is a failed attempt at black humor ("ME
262" works much better), and "The Subhuman" is a strange little bluesy throwaway. But, then again,
nothing's really bad, so I bestow upon the record another high 7. Er...bon appetit?
A few more synthesizers and keyboards come into play to broaden the BOC
sound, with good results. "Astronomy" is BOC's ultimate peace day
resistance - at times the press often lumped BOC into the progressive rock
camp because of this one, but there isn't much in the way of 'progressive'
here - just some great soundscapes, a searing vocal and a nice, blistering
rush to its conclusion. "Flaming Telepaths" is a building crescendo of
mayhem, and the way it suddenly collides into "Astronomy" is one of hard
rock's most intriguing moments. And the joke's on you.
"Harvester of Eyes" sounded dumb at first, but it's grown on me with its
slow lumbering power chords toward the end and some more Eric Bloom
incoherent Ted-Nugent-like rambling. "Cagey Cretins" kicks ass with an
incessant riff. "Subhuman" is a moody, almost jazz-like piece that carries
you from the commercial but macabre and funny "Career of Evil" to the
God-like masterful power of "Dominance and Submission." Yes, Ryan, only Al
Bouchard should sing this one as only he can. Together with that opening
riff prevalent throughout the song, the funny vocals and lyrics and the
hyper-orgasmic guitar solos, this is Blue Oyster Cult at the absolute height
of its powers! It will be time.
The so-called Imaginos Strain myth is in full steam by this point (insert
sound of flatulence here), but the best way to enjoy Secret Treaties,
Tyranny & Mutation and Blue Oyster Cult is to listen to them in one sitting
to get immersed into the feel of what Blue Oyster Cult the band was all
about at that time. Astronomy's fading winds end BOC's "Black & White"
period, probably the most unusual, underrated and obscure chunk of music
ever to exist in American rock 'n' roll (but what a chunk it is). A star!
So, is this the 10? Well, probably not. "ME 262" is fun and boisterous but
kind of messy vocally, and "Harvester of Eyes" and "Career of Evil" are
excellent fillers. Still, with three of the greatest tunes in the world,
the cool Cagey and Subhuman and some worthwhile unreleaseds, I bestow upon
the beloved Secret Treaties a 9 -- a stronger 9 than the debut, but not
quite that elusive 10. Looking out toward the road ahead, I agree, Mark -
we may never find it. What you got there, man?
I spent my entire Junior and Senior Years of High School with this record (and Jethro Tull Benefit) in art class.........
Ahhhhhhhhhh the still lifes I did to Secret Treaties.........never did findout who's record it was.......but I'm sure it wouldn't have played correctly on a decent turntable after a thousand plays on the record player (with the # 9 needle) from the AV Department. Needless to say.....it became my favorite BOC production.........song for song..........waited a long time for the CD to issue.
The rest of the material produced after this point doesn't hit the same consistancy.............NOT to say they are done as a band after this......WE all have our own taste in tunes.
Check out Kazaa sometime and see what the BOC people have listed as the songs worth owning..................................................that is if Metallica hasn't shut them down.
and the Jokes on you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BOC’s first three albums appealed to me straight away on first listen because they didn’t sound too slick like anything from Agents onwards. The later stuff took a bit of getting used to. I didn’t know any BOC songs besides “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” until about 1996, and was quite shocked by Agents Of Fortune and Spectres, the first two albums I heard. I was so unsure of whether I could actually say I liked them or not that I listened to the albums over and over again. I still don’t know. I don’t think there’s a single BOC album that’s perfect. There was always good and bad songs on the albums, though I’m being generous where the last few albums are concerned.
I think musically they were very talented. They probably weren’t as accomplished as some of the hair metal that came later, but there’s this musical depth there that the later stuff usually doesn’t have. I think that is the main factor that got me interested. That and the intriguing words. A lot of heavy metal to me is cartoon-like and I just can’t buy it, but somehow BOC have this creepy quality to their music that is like no one else I’ve heard.
I'm not the kind of person who finds it necessary to release a double-live
album after I've only released three studio albums, but I'm not in control
of the record business. Not ALL of it anyway. The sound on this album is
disappointingly muddy, but the playing is good. Song selection only so-so,
though it's neat to hear three otherwise unavailable tunes (covers of "I
Ain't Got You" and "Born To Be Wild," as well as a great guitar "workout,"
as we say in the business, called "Buck's Boogie" -- you see, the guitarist
goes by the name "Buck Dharma" even though it's not his real name. He also
has a mustache and looks like an accountant). Also, I like to think of
early Blue Oyster Cult as tight and spickle. This album has too much bland
jamming and song extension, sucking all the concise malevolence out of the
songs. GREAT inner gatefold picture though, showing the band as five guys
with guitars on stage -- no drumkit, keyboards, vocal mic, none of that -
just five guys with guitars. Still not as awesome as the hilarious dust
sleeve pic from their second LP -- it's an onstage shot of two of the guys
rubbing their guitars together up over their heads, like swords.
Unbelievably dopey, and a move that I once emulated with bassist Nathan
Means in my old short-lived Chapel Hill band Lima. The move broke my
string, my drive and my career. Nathan, on the other hand, is a huge rock
and roll star in the band Trans Am now. I don't even DRIVE a Trans Am,
much less play in the band.
(a few minutes later)
That should've been all I needed to say but I fuckin' hit the return key by
mistake, (fuckin' computers, y'know, just like a broad, push the wrong the
button and they just split) like the MISTAKE you've made about B.O.C. You
seem to be a person of considerably good taste so why haven't you given at
least one of these albums a 10.
I think this is a really shitkickin' live document of a band during their
peak, though, I could do without the covers. I really don't think the sound
is all that bad, in fact, on headphones it's a pretty awesome brain taser.
You gave a 10 to all those shitty bands like Led Zep, Rush and CHRIST,
you even gave Bad Religion a fuckin' 10. Personally, I would give the first 3
albums a 10 (they're available in a boxed set). Come to think of it you
didn't even give one of these a 9!!!
I think you really are gay and the broad you pose with is really your
sister helping you cover up for reasons for liking bands like ... The Cure,
for one. Just kiddin', man. I'm just a little bit disappointed with your
decision. Listen to the first 3 in one sitting and maybe you'll catch that
creepy vibe; but what could give YOU a creepy vibe when you're already
fingering your sister, eh, Pringle?
That upside down coat hanger crack was hilarious, though.
Success sucked the soul out of this band, even though Cultosaurus
Erectus showed a flash of their earlier genius.
Didja know that Richard Meltzer actually wrote some of the early Angry
Samoans stuff, too?
Has "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" on it. Not sure why "Don't Fear" is in
parentheses. This album (another super-high 8 on the Mark Prindle Scale Of Death!) features more
piano in the mix than the others and more sort of "arrangements" going on the
songs rather than the straightahead creep cock rock they put on the first
three records. Might have been an attempt to have some radio hits, dunno!
Worked though. Really enjoyable, diverse and accessible album with
forboding tunes like "Tenderloin" resting right alongside bouncy pop tunes
like "True Confessions" and "Debbie Denise." I still have no clue what
it is that Blue Oyster Cult were trying to accomplish, seeing as how their
image was a heck of a lot more macabre than most of their tunes, but I'm
glad they were at least capable of writing tons of boner rock wickies.
Fuckin' NYC leather-clad weirdos. One thing though: "Sinful Love" is one
ugly, shitty song. In fact, I hate it so much, I mixed up the letters and
got "This Song Sucks Dicks." Look, I don't know letters. What do
I look like, Captain Kangaroo or some shit? Lick my twat. Look, I don't
know anatomy. What do I look like, a twat doctor?
You hit the nail right into tha coffin, mate! This album rules! Easily the
most consistent, diverse, and sonically interesting album BOC ever made...it
seems to have the right balance between heaviness, moodiness, creepiness,
poppiness, and bizarreness to really give the album that signature Cult
sound. All of their other albums have too much of one of the above mentioned
qualities, resulting in inconsistency because when they try to lean too
heavily in one direction their material sounds a little forced and suffers
as a result. Just listen to the fantastic songs on here: "This Ain't The
Summer Of Love" opens the album and immediately sets a dire tone. It's
awesome! That song would be very effective as the main soundtrack to one of
those slasher movies! I'm not crazy about "True Confessions" though...very
poppy and not even cool poppy like Alice Cooper's 70's ballads! Then we have
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper", which of course is the one song by BOC that
everybody knows, and it's a pretty damn fine tune, although it sounds
nothing like anything else they ever recorded! Very eerie, mellow vocal
melody and sort of a laid back, sleepy feel to it. "E.T.I." has an
interesting riff, but it's kind of weird sounding...not one of their best
rockers. "The Revenge Of Vera Gemini" is a damn fine song...again eerie
sounding and with Patti Smith (ooh! another rebellious artist!) doing some
guest vocals. Ya gotta love the signature BOC sound...eerie, yet catchy
melodies, lots of layered vocal harmonies, awesome guitar playing courtesy
of Buck Dharma, who I think is one of the most underrated guitarists in
rock, strange subject matters and lyrics (often sci-fi influenced) and Eric
Bloom's almost ghostly vocal delivery (when he wants to at least). Anyways,
on to the other tracks! Unlike our derranged Prindster, "Sinful Love" is
actually an amazing tune...one of the best on the album! Undeniably catchy
melodies yet with a dark under-current...I love that style! "Tattoo Vampire"
is a great rip roarin' rocker! "Morning Final" and "Tenderloin" are both
awesome funkier spacey sounding tunes...just great stuff and all very
original. That's what's great about this album...it's the one they least
veered toward cliches on. I'm not crazy about the album closer "Debbie
Denise", a very poppy little number...if they really had to keep it on the
album, then they should have stuck it somewhere in the middle, leaving the
amazing, darker "Tenderloin" at the end, which I think would have a more
powerful effect. So, I would give this one a 9 out of 10, simply because the
2 poppy songs seem a bit uninspired and out of place, and "E.T.I" is a tad
generic...otherwise, fantastic! Also worth mentioning is that the production
on this album is far superior to the first 3 albums...it's very thick,
layered, and generally more bombastic. Lotsa cool uses of different
instruments and melodies.
But flaws aside, there's still a lot of great tracks on here. I'll admit Al Bouchard's "Sinful Love" does suck,
lyrically and musically, and I'm not too big a fan of the man's "Revenge of the Vera Gemini", but his
"Debbie Denise" is a rather heart-tugging tribute to old style rock (you do have a heart, don't you, Mr.
Fratzl?), and one of the best numbers on this album. As for the others: I always found "Tenderloin" a bit too
sappy at first, but then I heard it again, and recognized its greatness, "True Confessions" is a great, rowdy
pop number, "This Ain't the Summer of Love" is an excellent heavy metal addition to the record, "Morning
Final" is an overall tolerable Joe Bouchard piece, and "Tattoo Vampire", later cited in works by Stephen
King, is the most macabre thing the band ever did. Oh, yeah, "(Don't Fear) the Reaper" is also great, and
always will be. But that was a given. However, I will say that even better is the follow-up track "E.T.I.", a
solid, catchy alien abduction number, and the only song on here that's helped by the strange production.
Pity Eric Bloom doesn't do his "they've found the saucer
nooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOS!" thing he does live. It's entertaining, in a stupid sort of
way. Like the Blue Oyster Cult overall. Huh.
My Rating: A High 8, but a lower one than I gave the debut.
The delights of cosmic smurfdom reign supreme on several trax, check out
ETI. Perfect. Shows what you can do with five notes and a fuzzbox. Great
lyrics too, something about anal probing aliens. The truth is out there,
and man you can bet that ole Cris Carter waz paying attention. Vera
Gemini is sorta like attending a baptismal for Virginia Wolf. When I
mixed up the letters to Sinful Love I came up with "Boot Boys Kill For
Kicks", go figure. Look, I don't know Prindle. For my money, the most
eerie track is Morning Final- hamburger all over the highway(thanx FST).
Finally, Reaper is the one song that I'll request at YOUR funeral.
Final grade, a nine with a silver tipped bullet.
Don't get me wrong, I love this band. They kicked some shit when I saw
them live. I fuckin' love the first three records and Cultosaurus Erectus,
some of the finest and strangest straight up hard rock to ever be recorded,
but this stuff is just mediocre radio friendly tripe. What's with all the
multiple backup vocals on this, huh? Sounds like the Osmonds. Sabbath must've
seemed relieved that they could still be leaders of the pack, but, shit, look
what THEY came up with in '76, fuckin' Technical Ecstasy!!!!! Rock'n Roll
Doctor, in deed. 1976 was a bad year for rock with the exception of AC/DC's
High Voltage, but nobody even heard that until like 1978. Oh yeah, there was
Aerosmith's Rocks, too. I still have fond memories of sucking face (with your
mother) to Frampton Comes Alive, though.
No, I didn't forget the Ramones came out in '76 too, but that was pretty
underground. Whom, by the way, were fans of those of the upside down coat
hanger persuasion: which, FYI, is a symbol for Kronos (Saturn) a Greek God
who in a fit of disgruntlement ate out his niece or something. Fame or the
nexus of the crisis?The origin of the storm has passed FFFOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHH!!
Time to fertilize the fields.
As we stood in line at the theatre, my heart raced. Would the songs be as good as on the album? Would it be better than RENT? Inside, a smelly dude in a Kingfish Trident shirt assured me he'd seen the production ten times, and that it was even better than MAMMA MIA. Of course, I had my doubts.
When the curtain rose, all my concerns were laid to rest as the cast broke into the opening number, "This Ain't the Summer of Love": 30 bikers who all looked like the leather guy from the Village People scooted their shiny new Harleys around the stage in tight formation. Their brand new leather jackets were as shiny as their hogs. As the all male chorus repeated "This ain't The Summer....This ain't The Summer..." chorus for the last time, parking their bikes center stage, and slapping each other on the ass in time with the drums, chills ran up my spine. Absolutely perfect. The numbers kept coming: each one a knockout: "True Confessions" with it's Fonzie piano, "Don't Fear the Reaper" sung by a soprano seated on a pink grain thresher, and the show's highlight, "The Revenge of Vera Gemini", which bore an incredible resemblence to WEST SIDE STORY's "Somewhere", with the male and female leads looking heavenwards, singing "We're gonna swim like the fish".
I don't want to spoil the rest for you, because you MUST see this production for yourselves. Let me just say this: When the hero returns at the end, wearing his dried-cum-incrusted leather pants, and sings to Debbie Denise, I cried....and I don't cry very often. So forget CHICAGO - theres not enough lingere in the world to save that stinker. And forget CATS.... AGENTS OF FORTUNE is the finest Broadway Musical ever.
1.THIS AIN'T THE SUMMER OF LOVE: you and your hippie dreams are over!!!! as 5 bikers gang up and with gold leather on the jacket and pants.
2.TRUE CONFFESIONS: IF USHER IS WHINING ABOUT THE CONFFESIONS THEN THIS ONE SOUNDS LIKE CHICAGO! YES IT'S CUTE BUT IT DOES SOUND LIKE RHODA!!! THE SITCOM!
3.DON'T FEAR THE REAPER: DO DO DE DA DO DE DA DO DE DA DO DE DA! YEP! THE METAL VERSION OF TURN TURN TURN! SWEETLY LAID BACK. USED TOO MANY TIMES BUT STILL IT REMINDS YOU OF ROMEO GETTING A FACE FULL OF COKE AND JULIET AND HER CUTE UNDERWEAR. MMMM.
4.ETI- EXTRATERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE: COSMIC TUNE. DIG THE LASER SOUND AFTER THE SOLO! MEN IN BLACK!
5.THE REVENGE OF VERA GEMINI: PATTI SMITH. MMMM SEXY ENCOUNTER WITH THE POET AND THE LOVER. NO MORE HORSES WE GONNA SWIM LIKE THE FISH. MMMM VERA VAGINA!
6.SINFUL LOVE: SOUNDS LIKE CHICAGO! MOST OF THE SONGS DO SOUND LIKE ROHDA!
7.TATTOO VAMPYRE!: SWEET JULIYA IS THE TATTOO VAMPYRE!
8.MORNING FINAL: DEATH OF THE SCHOOL TEACHER WHO BORES YOU! PIANO LED INTRO INTO SMOOTH JAZZ BACKING. EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA! XCLUSIVO! XCLUSIVO XCLUSIVO! XCLUSIVO XCLUSIVO! XCLUSIVO! XCLUSIVO!
9.TENDERLOIN: SWEET MIMI LEMUX! TASTY TENDERLOIN! SWEET TASTY TENDERLOIN! SMOOTH ROCK BAKING, PRETTY SYNTHS, HARD GUITAR.
10.DEBBIE DENISE: I LOVE SWEET SEXY PRETTY DEBBIE DENISE! I WAS OUT ROLLING A JOINT WITH MA BAND! SWEET PRETTY DARLING. GREAT BALLAD
11.FIRE OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN: 1976 DEMO. DESERT FEEL. NOT UNTIL LATER YOU CAN POLISH THE DEMO.
12.SALLY: SUCKS!
13.REAPER DEMO: SOUNDS LIKE A CAMP FIRE DEMO.
14.DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY; COMING SOON THE POP HIT SPECTRES.
agents of fortune is boc at the peak of the arena rock throne. yippe! a 10.
Great news! The success of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" made
Blue Oyster cultstart trying too hard for hits and more coke money! Their songs are no longer fucked up beyond repair, instead relying more on
tired "scary" riffs that aren't scary, as well as incredibly stupid audience
pandering like disco beats, predictable hard rock chord sequences and a song
entitled (are you ready for this? I'm embarrassed to even write it) "R. U.
Ready 2 Rock." And oh yes, the song is every bit as inept as the title would imply.
After four really good albums, Spectres comes a major, major letdown. For the first time, B.O.C. don't seem like freaks from a
sickass part of New York who have an incredible way with a riff - instead,
they seem like a group of tiring musicians who are trying really hard to
create songs that radio DJs will enjoy. If it's any indication, that stupid single "Godzilla" is one of the most
memorable tunes on here. Please, top musicians, you must stop snorting
cocaine! Everybody! Nazareth, Patrick Hernandez, everybody! Cocaine is
destroying your ability to tell the difference between good music and bad!
And that means YOU, Mother's Finest! Walter Egan? YES! Everybody! Boz
Scaggs? No, not Boz Scaggs. No wait! You were trying to fool me!!!!
YES, Boz Scaggs too! EVERYBODY!!!!!
Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about. No, screw that--I do. This album deserves at least some minor
attention. The BOC released a lot of other, more offensive pieces of crap throughout their career, allowing
this album the rating of a high 6. Of course, with the big man Mark and sidekick Roland here calling the
album "stupid" and "gay fuck-ass", respectively, I guess my comments won't assist anything. But my
opinions should be voiced, right?
Right, guys?
Am I out of the club now?
Well, mostly the production. This isn't all bad, by any means, it helps increase the spooky atmosphere of fantastic songs like "Nosferatu" and "Death Valley Nights," but, for the first time, the production IS a bit overdone and weak-sounding, detracting from the band’s power. This is most apparent in the two songs that would appear on their next live album: "Godzilla" is still great here, but it sounds more like a novelty tune than the stomping rocker that it would soon become. RU Ready 2 Rock is not as bad as you make it out to be: OK, it's a goofy song, but it KNOWS it's goofy, and it's winking at you. But, the production here makes it sound pretty wooden--another example of a song that needed to be stripped of the overproduction to really come into its own.
But, aside from the production, it's hard to escape from the fact that this album has a bunch of great songs on it. Aside from "Godzilla," how about "Golden Age of Leather"??? A spooky multipart biker epic that manages to rock out and swing from boogie-rock to a freakin' boys choir without missing a beat. And yeah, "Death Valley Nights" IS one of the best hangover tunes ever written, Alfred’s weary, audibly pained vocal is perfect, and here, the atmospheric production and tinkly piano really add to the effect. The last three songs are all great: “Goin' through the Motions” is one of the poppiest things they ever recorded, but it’s a great, quirky glammy pop song, infinitely superior to, for example, almost anything on “Revolution by Night.” “I Love the Night” is one of Buck Dharma’s best creepy-yet-sweet ballads ever (how about a love song about a VAMPIRE?). Speaking of vampires, BOC really had a thing for ‘em, because the NEXT song is an even better vampire tune—Joe Bouchard’s SUPER creepy and nasty minor-key rocker Nosferatu. Love how that classical-sounding piano goes with those guitars, and the way that Bouchard sings "he vanished into DUST, left her all alone!."
The rest? They ain’t bad, folks. Yeah, the disco beat on “Searchin’ for Celine” is a shock at first, but they manage to make it weird and ironic, as usual. “Fireworks” has its strange, Albert-Bouchard sung descending melody, only to become corny and poppy on the chorus, but those kinds of contrasts are one of the things that made BOC interesting. Like most everything Joe Bouchard has ever written, except for a couple of those 80’s tunes, Celestial the Queen is really quite good, with that kind of stately, almost baroque-sounding piano stuff that this album features a lot of (did you know that Joe Bouchard is a kick-ass classical piano player, and that he made up the great intro to “Joan Crawford, although Allen Lanier played it???)
Anyway, back to this album: it’s a bit less consistent, and the production, while it sometimes goes with these tunes well, sometimes gets in the way. But, it’s still a damn good album.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I've never played "Nosferatu"
and not had the skin on the back of my neck crawl during the
instrumental part following the death of Nosferatu. Plenty
scary enough for me, every single time.
In short, I'd have to say I agree with welsberr and boschol who are above me. god, that sounded wrong
Jesus christ, didn't they just put out a live album like five minutes ago?
Do we honestly need another one this soon? Apparently so, according to Eric Bloom and his minions (the ones with less facial hair who don't
wear leather pants and actually write the songs), if for no other reason
than to give us a couple more energetic cover tunes ("Kick Out The Jams" and
"We Gotta Get Out Of This Place"). Plus, oddly enough, it turns out that
"R.U. Ready 2 Rock" actually WORKS in a live setting! It's a very
appropriate way to get a crowd roused up. Didn't work worth a crap as a
studio song though. Sterile. Bland! Anyway then, the recording on here is
much clearer and crisper than on the last live album, but it's only half as
long so keep that in your panties, Johnny Carson.
No, your other panties, Johnny Carson!
Hey, if you skeptics still aren't convinced, consider how important an album this was. On Your Feet
captured the band live when it was a big act. Some Enchanted Evening captured them live when they were
MEGASTARS. Oh Yeah!!!
My Rating: A high 8
THAT'S what a live album every two years will do to ya.................
.....I was wondering at this time(such a LONG time ago)...........what happened to the band?????????????????
NICE album cover though........and the best version of Godzilla..............but hey, when you have stuff like Van Halen, Styx and Kansas this one pales by comparison.
This was their attempt to leave their macabre image behind and 'go pop,' with Cheap Trick producer Tom Werman along for the ride. Looks like somebody's run out of inspiration though, because even the BEST songs on here sound more suited to Boston and
Foreigner than that cool band who once serenaded us with
"You're As Beautiful As A Foot." And yes, it's hilarious that the Bouchard brothers wrote a parody of The Cars' "Just What I Needed" that wound up making the final track listing (check it out - "You're Not The One (I Was Looking For)" -- the similarity is a hoot!), but otherwise this is a bunch of suckass blow. The band
looks like a bunch of tools on the back cover too. Did somebody replace the
original Blue Oyster Cult with a bunch of Hall and Oates sidemen or
something?
I mean, I don't think that this stuff was in Sandy Pearlman and Richard Meltzer's original vision. Why'd they
let such a great metal outfit go south? So quickly?
Tom Berman, who was hired by Columbia to work on the record, produces here (instead of the Clash's
Pearlman), and the album sounds great, but not one song sounds like a Blue Oyster Cult song--even if
some are kinda catchy--which is extremely disappointing. "Dr. Music" is a piano-driven, banal Kiss ripoff
("Calling Dr. Love", anyone?), "The Great Sun Jester" is sappy arena rock, "In Thee", despite how well it's
written, isn't anything more than a adult-contemporary staple of 70's AM radio, "Lonely Teardrops" is very
disco-ish, "You're Not the One I Was Looking For" might as well have been a 1983 Billy Joel hit, and
"Moon Crazy" is some kind of freakish cabaret thing that I never want to hear again or I'll have to tear
somebody's throat out and hurl it at a nice old lady trying to cross the street.
I will admit that aside from that last song, I am able to allow myself to be immersed in some of the music,
particularly "In Thee", if I just forget it's being played by the BOC. So the album deserves some points.
And--surprise, surprise! Two songs are actually good Blue Oyster Cult songs! Don Pedro Roeser's "The
Vigil" is pretty slickly produced and relatively unclassifiable style-wise, but I really like it for some reason. It
just seems like...the smartest thing on the album. "I Am the Storm" is a little more of a guilty pleasure, but
it's still a piece of fun, if conventional, metal. Of course, the subject matter is rather untruthful. The B.O'Cult
hadn't been any kind of storm for three straight years.
My Rating: A very well-produced 4. Swallow that, Tom Berman!
FUCK YEAH!!!! The Blue Oyster Corporation is back playing GRITTY WEIRD
GUITAR ROCK again!!!! No more dippy pop aspirations, this is the Cult as they began and should have always stayed - a
little off the mark, a little too skrewy for mainstream success, but perfect
for guitar rock fiends like me. The song titles still aren't as cool as
they were back in the old days, but the riffs and slightly menacing air are!
For example, dig the first song "Black
Blade" - That ain't no guitar playing a chunka-chunka guitar line. Sit
between your speakers - it's TWO guitars! One is playing "chunk" and the
other is playing "-ah"! And how about that bizarre chorus -- "BLACK
bla-bla-bla-bla-blade! BLACK bla-bla-bla-bla-blade!" That'r teahre
CTTOPREDSe! TORPSE! TORPSE! For elsewise, have you ever heard a goodtime
rocker as bizarre as "Hungry Boys"? It's just an ODD way to approach an
otherwise tired musical cliche, eh? Good stuff. A
really low 8 sure, due to a few overblown Who-esque moments on side B, but
an 8 nonetheless! An ignored comeback from a band that has never made a
perfect album, but has made several really good ones. However, even I am
astonished by the stupidity of the "rock n' roll celebration" in the middle
of "The Marshall Plan." What is this, Tormato? And if so, can I
have a copy? I really like Tormato.
Incidentally I don't think he makes much of a job of this, it's nowhere near as good as Pearlman &
Krugman's production of their early stuff (or M.Birch's work with Deep Purp either)(of course). Their
last album you could call "really good" though.(I haven't read that far yet, but I bet yr going to give
fuckin Imaginos a 10.)
The rest, unfortunately, isn't as easily rave-able. "Hungry Boys" and especially "Monsters" are excellent,
and really, yes, bizarre, and I guess that's what makes 'em great tunes. "The Marshall Plan" is also a solid
rocker, and I can deal with the "rock'n'roll celebration", even though Don Kirshner, in a guest spot, sounds
as bored as a robotic priest. I also like "Divine Wind", which is reportedly a jab at the Ayatollah Kohmeini,
and the speedy, heavy "Lips in the Hills" too. But all of these are sabotaged as classics in my mind when I
think of "I'm on the Lamb and I Ain't no Sheep", and how stellar, un-commercial, and dark it was, and the
Cultosaurus Erectus stuff seems like it suffers from the known syndrome of GOING-FOR-MAINSTREAM,
which scientists are trying to find a cure for in Monrovia, which is the only country named after an
American president, which is irrevelent in this review.
But seriously, add to the above list of selections the mediocre synthesizer-pop of "Fallen Angel" and
whaddaya get?
A relatively good record called Cultosaurus Erectus that's worthy of a middling 7. Thank you, good night.
Just got all my old vinyl out of storage at long last, played this lp
after reading your review and thoroughly enjoyed it, (the record that
is). I've got a copy of Tormato too by the way. Saucy ninety million
marvellous !
I really enjoy odd melodies. Like "Don't Turn Your Back." Simple, but
there's just something *different* about it. Bass guitar bouncin' around
between those tentative, questioning chords. Blue Oyster Cult are good with
stuff like 'at. You've heard "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," right? Just
strange little riffs. Not necessarily SCARY and definitely not heavy metal
(thank god -- they'd suck at that); just slightly strange. It's when they
go OVERBOARD trying to create a threatening ambience that they just fail.
Their harder rock tunes, for example, are generally pretty lame --
predictable, bland fist-thumpin' singalongs (the chorus to "Sole Survivor"
is a perfect example of this - it's even dumber than the Asia song with the
same title! And that's saying quite a hell of a bit of lots!). And what
the funk is up with "Joan Crawford Has Risen From The Grave"?
There's NOTHING good about that song! Is it meant as a joke? It doesn't
even work as a joke!!!! Sheesh. Fire Of Unknown Origin is good old classic
hard rockin' (w/keyboards!) leather pant wearin' Blue Oyster Cult (as
opposed to the more radio-friendly shyt), but the set list here isn't quite
as consistent. Still has oodles of well-arranged music
though, including the classic "Burnin' For You," which will have you burnin' for yourself.
Anyway, the album lacks the punch of it's predecessor, the songwriting
of Mirrors, and the overrall QUALITY variety which made Agents so good.
It's even lower on my list than Spectres, 'cause it has less strong songs.
The vibe is definitely cohesive, and it sounds like an album unlike
Spectres, but it's just not as good overrall. The only thing I come away
with is a creepy enjoyment...which in itself is good, but I just can't
remember the songs very well....
Martin Birch still produces, and this is Albert Bouchard's last album with the group. Let me just say that he
was a great songwriter, and a great drummer and probably wouldn't have left after he heard his brother
Joe's "Light Years of Love" on the next album, Revolution by Night. But he did leave. Bastard.
As for the songs, highlights include the opening "Fire of Unknown Origin", which is really dark, cool, and
well-written, "Burnin' for You" of course, the great rocker "Sole Survivor", "After Dark", which is both poppy
and morbid at the same time, and "Veteran of the Psychic Wars", which has some great guitar parts and
will be recognized by sci-fi geeks everywhere and was the only good part of the movie Heavy Metal. They
should have a director's cut of that movie with everything edited out except that song and the gratuitous
female nudity (yeah, I'm kidding, I ain't no pervert).
Well, I guess I'm done--this record is difficult to review for me, because it has something that's kind of...off
about it. Something that hurts it critically all along the way that I can't put my finger on. Otherwise, it's
great stuff, even though not exactly faith-keeping for the B.O.C. Oh, well.
Finally, let me just say something critically that isn't difficult for me to discern: "Joan Crawford" is the best
damn song the band ever did. It's dark, heavy, catchy, macabre, and FUNNY AS HELL. I mean, you have
all of these wierd lines about a town reacting to some kind of horrible occurrence as if Godzilla was coming
their very way, ravaging and pillagine and destroying, and then--bang!: "Joan Crawford has Risen From the
Grave!!!" Let me tell you, I'm not the kind of guy that likes to laugh, and I fell out of my chair. That part with
"Christina...mother's home" is also great. And fuck, the song's much better than Mommie Dearest.You all
who hate it have no brains. Sorry. I'm done now.
My Rating: A high 8
1.FIRE OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN: MOODY DISCO TUNE WITH DARK SYNTHS AND THE VOCALS ARE EVEN DARK. DEATH COMES SWEEPING AND DEATH COMES DRIVING.
2.BURNING FOR YOU: MUCH OF THE ALBUM WAS ORIGINALLY SET TO BE THE SOUNDTRACK TO THE HEAVY METAL FLICK BUT THEY ONLY HAVE ONE SONG.
3.VETERAN OF THE PSYCHIC WARS: A DEADLY DEATH MARCH WITH DARK SYNTHS AND A STELLAR VOCAL BY RIC BLOOM LEADS YOU INTO THE MIND OF A SPACE MAN. HEAVY DRUMS AND SYNTHS CRASH ONTO YOU.
4SOLE SURVIVOR: BASS LINES AND SYNTHS LEAD THE SONG INTO A DARK PLACE WHERE A MAN CHEATS DEATH AND ESCAPES THE STARSHIP!
5.HEAVY METAL: GREAT FLICK GREAT SONG. THE GUITARS SOUNDS LIKE LASERS.
6.VENGENCE THE PACT: BASED ON THE MOVIE THIS IS THE ADVENTURES OF SEXY WARRIOR PRINCESS TAARNA THE MUTE WARRIOR WHO KICKED ASS IN THE HEAVY METAL FLICK! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YEAH!
7.AFTER DARK: SPEEDY TRACK WITH A KILLER SPEED METAL SOLO BY BUCK DARMA!
8.JOAN CRAWFORD: SPOOKY PIANO, DARK MUSIC, SOUNDS, SYNTHS, A CRAZED MANIAC OF A MOM! JOAN CRAWFORD HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE!!!!
9.DON'T TURN YOUR BACK; AAAAAAAAAAAAAH MORE SWRILING SYNTHS.
COOL ALBUM. 10. WHERE IS THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIVE ALBUM?.
I don't like to cuss, so I'm going to restrain myself here and simply ask,
"What the fornication is this defecation?" Bad pussy metal, that's what it
is. Bad pussy metal with godawful chord sequences that make you feel like
you're listening to Poison or the Bullet Boys, but without those bands'
highly developed senses of charisma. Disgustingly bad. One of the choruses
is: "B! O! C! You can be whatever you wanna be! You got the power, we got
the key! B! O! C!". I think it's about eating corn backwards. I honestly
don't know what happened here - they had to replace their drummer (one of
the main songwriters), but I'd hate to think that that would affect the
GUITAR lines in such a drastic manner. Two of the songs have that old magic
-- "Shooting Shark" and "Veins," which reminds me of the fine early 80s TV
movie Rona Jarrett's Mazes And Monsters, starring a young Tom Hanks
in his finest role since He Knows You're Alone. It was about a fantasy gamer who
got so caught up in the fantasy that he lost his mind and wakes up with
blood on his hands thinking that he may have killed somebody. Ha ha ha ha
ha ha ha! Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho! He he he he he he he! Ha ha ha ha ha ha
ha! Which reminds me: Don't buy this album; buy something by
Flipper. Is it gramatically correct to use both a colon and a semi-colon
in the same sentence like that? I don't want to end up getting butt-entered
in grammar prison.
When I first heard it, yeah, I was left on the verge of vomiting, shocked at how despicable a piece of shitty
80's rock could've wandered into such a great metal band's catalog. But after several listens more, and
then several critical listens, I discovered that only a few songs could truly be deemed shitty.
"Shooting Shark", "Veins", and the abysmal "Light Years of Love", which is most certainly the worst song
ever recorded (hear that, Dave Barry?) are my picks for the black spots of the record. The former and its
follower are both just too-traditional 80's style synth-pop, the first with a mechanical-sounding bass line and
drums that may as well have been programmed on a screwed-up computer and then played backwards
onto the track, and the second with synthesizers that shroud the guitars. And crummy lyrics. Of course,
they're by Richard Meltzer, so that was a given. And don't even get me started on "Light Years", which is
"Hot Rails to Hell"'s Joe Bouchard's songwriting death knell. Hell, it even dares to castrate Buck Dharma's
solo by handing him an acoustic guitar. Sappy Disney crap, I say. And Bouchard's voice even sounds like
a Sesame Street muppet getting a root canal without anasthesic.
But some of the other tracks are more forgivable. "Take Me Away" and "Eyes on Fire" are two classic-style
rockers, the best on the album, and some of the best the band ever recorded. "Shadow of California", "Feel
the Thunder" and especially "Dragon Lady" are quite admissable heavy tunes, and "Let Go", which is a
return to form musically for the band but has the prestigous "B.O.C.!..." lyrics, may be a piece of
"pussy-metal" crap, but consider this: the band was always intended to be a musical comment on the
industry of the day, so...could the song maybe be a parody of bad metal anthems? Just a thought...they
should really make a karaoke version, though.
All in all, the album really isn't the "defacation" certain people (ahem) have made it out to be. Mark and the
rest of you, give it a few more listens, and you may soon see what I mean. Or not. Oh, well.
My Rating: Once again, a low 6.
Well, to my astonishment, this is the FIRST Blue Oyster Cult album that I’ve been completely unable to like! OK, so I don’t really know Mirrors, and Club Ninja is fairly weak, if underrated, but this one actually manages to suck. The problem? Well, as eloquently stated above, this is pussy-metal. Bad candy-ass cock-rock. WUSSY metal would be more like it. It really does sound kind of like Survivor or something! Of course, a lot of it is the production, with those huge, booming, ugly reverbed 80’s drums, but I can think of badly produced BOC tunes which are actually pretty good, once you get past the production. Here… THE SONGS SUCK EVEN WHEN YOU DISREGARD THE PRODUCTION.
OK, so the two singles, “Take me Away” and “Shooting Shark” are still pretty good, if overproduced, but I was kind of thinking that they would be the weaker, poppier tracks, and that there would be some much better songs here somewhere. Boy, was I wrong! OK, so I do like “Feel the Thunder” pretty OK, for the atmospheric beginning part, and the fact that it does manage to rock fairly hard. But the rest? Eeew! “Let Go” is easily the worst song that the band has ever done (unless “Mirrors” actually contains a worse one that I haven't heard). Since we already have quotes from its lyrics above, I’ll spare y’all. “Eyes on Fire” is actually a reasonably well-written song (written, in fact, by an outside writer) but it’s so incredibly predictable and bland—a perfect Survivor tune. Plus, it’s almost heartbreakingly pathetic to hear Eric Bloom sing lines like “Don’t she, don’t you see I’m crying out loud can’t she tell I need her now?” Whatever happened to singing about wholesome subjects like horny toads, doing it to your daughter on a dirt road, cagey cretins, vampires, drug murders, and alien abductions??? Then, “Dragon Lady,” OK, there’s a melody there, but, again, pathetically cliqued cock-rock lyrics. Unfortunately, most of the album is like that.
I’ll venture that “Veins” is probably the closest to being an OK song, besides the singles, has a bit of a new-wave feel that I'm partial to. “Shadow of California” starts out like a very ugly, weird ZZ-top number, but by the end, it the weirdness gets somewhat endearing, and I will admit a slight soft-spot for one of the most hated songs in the band’s whole catalogue—“Light Years of Love,” which sounds like some of Neil Young’s confused-sounding synthesized 80’s stuff. But, this is grasping for straws. This is a bad album, people! OK, so it’s BOC, so it’s a high 3 or maybe even a low 4, but that’s pretty pathetic for the band that recorded “Secret Treaties”…
Was it because Albert left? Well, he WAS one of the bands most interesting members, as well as a prolific songwriter. You would think that he wouldn’t have allowed that horrible drum sound, although Imaginos started out as an Albert solo album, and the drum sound is that album’s biggest weak point… Anyway, I don’t think he would have allowed the band to make such a bad album, but obviously, there was more than just his absence making this album suck.
This is an oddly scattered record that tries
to be an awful lot of things at once. First of all, what would
YOU think if you brought home the latest album by your favorite
hard rock band and discovered that the
first THREE songs (out of a mere 9) were all written by
outside songwriters -- as is a FOURTH track later
on the disc? You'd have to figure that either your favorite band
is in creative turmoil or the record company
is pushing them around for not selling enough records. And then
wouldn't you feel a bit queer (gay) when
you discover that three of the four outside songs sound like bad
Judas Priest??? No joke - especially the
lead-off track "White Flags," which is a hilarious Billy Idol/Iron
Maiden soundalike that has since gone
down in history as "eww". As for the originals, there's
definitely a few memorable melodies in there (the
catchy chorus and overdramatic fade-out in "Madness To The
Method," lots of neat bits in the sci-fi "When
The War Comes," the wicked-cool guitar stomp of "Spy In
The House Of Night," the pleasantries of
"Perfect Water"), but none of the songs totally "doit"
from start to finish. They careen around between
BOC-style hard rockin', off-kilter jazzy chord sequences
and disgustingly bad '80s metal with no regard for
theme, flow or my unbelievably huge fuckin cock.
Certainly an intriguing record filled with whimsy and
whirligigs, but if it's a choice between purchasing
this CD or giving $16 to a homeless person so that he
can eat for a few days, buy the CD and give it to the
homeless person as a gift.
Ok, would somebody please explain to me how the hell a great band like BOC,
who put out a lot of magnificent music, especially in the early 70's, could
create something so putrid??
It's that same old disease again...ya, you know what I'm talking about...the
one that almost never ever fails to take hold...the one that grabbed all the
great classic 60's and 70's bands by the balls and made them completely
shitty in the 80's. It has struck again! And this just might be BOC's worst
album. Actually, never mind...IT IS their worst album. I would have given
Imaginos a 3 or a really low 4 at most, and The Revolution By Night maybe 4.
In fact I almost feel guilty giving this album a two because it probably
deserves less than that. It's just really really lame mid 80's commercial pop
rock that goes nowhere, has almost no interesting melodies, and just sounds
like they're trying so hard to have a hit. It has none of the qualities that
made vintage BOC so great. It doesn't even really sound like them anymore and
the fact that two of the original members were gone by now, and more
inexplicably, the fact that FOUR entire songs on this album were written by
outside writers has a lot to do with that...
What the fuck?? Did the band members have so little confidence in their own
ability to write ten decent songs for the first time in three years that they
felt it necessary to hire outsiders to do the work for them, who then
actually made it even worse by contributing really terrible songs? What
poppycock! Why did they even bother putting out an album at all then under
the BOC name? Almost half the album isn't by them...as a fan I would have
felt really ripped off by this at the time...where's the logic?? Actually,
FUCK THIS!!!!!! Just for that alone I'm taking one point off...THERE! A
ONE!!! LIKE THIS GARBAGE TRULY DESERVES!!!!!!!!!
YEAH BEBBE.
That's right. Had the band not prepared listeners for this with their crummy pop experiments beforehand, I
may be reacting differently. But though it's not a heavy metal comeback, this is the album where the
BOC found a sound that gelled and employed it throughout, and disposed of all of the possibly weak
tracks, and made audiences and critics want to RESPECT their more mainstream work.
Okay, so that's not how history shows it, but that's how it should've been. Joe Bouchard hated the record
so much, he left the band (hypocritica
Very strong debut by one of rock's greatest enigmas, rivalled only by Agents
Of Fortune as their best album. It's mean, dark, creepy, offbeat, and just
plain weird like no other mainstream record of the era. The production is
unfortunately not good, muffling the true power of this material, but the
band was rarely this consistently interesting again. Along with Alice Cooper
and Black Sabbath, this unquestioningly laid the foundations for the gothic
rock genre which was to appear in the late 70's.
Okay,first of all I love this band ,and own their first 9 albums,play most of
them constantly,and plan on commenting on quite a few of them if Pringle will
print them(he didn't print my KISS comments for some reason,another band I
love)[Rich's note: Yeah, that's what happens when you don't follow directions
and don't include the name of the band or album in the subject of your message].
I'LL make this short,I like this album better than the second one.
Strange fucking album. The founders of American metal didn't exactly start
out that way did they? Aside from the classic "Cities On Flame..." and
"Transmaniacon MC" there is no shade of metal anywhere. There are other
good songs, such as "Then Came The Last Days Of May," "Before The Kiss, A
Redcap," and "Workshop Of The Telescopes" but nothing that would make you
think of the heavy metal genre. In fact, with songs like "She's As
Beautiful As A Foot," "Screams," and "I'm On the Lamb, But I Ain't No
Sheep," it seems the Cult is still wringing out the acid-hippie cloth. A
unique and valuable album, but only for the B.O.C. fan.
Yep--the Blue Oyster Cult's self-titled debut was certainly one of the best they released, the one that
started the whole love-it-or-hate-it shebang, and the source of some of the band's most competent
songwriting. The satire or social commentary that was supposed to be rampant throughout all of their
releases is here in its clearest form, Mr. Donald "Buck Dharma* in the 21st Century" Roeser's solos are as
riveting and able as they have remained througout the years, and the production is quite admirable (if you
can get past the muddy sound quality on the CD), what with the atmospheric, driving drumbeats you
pointed out, and the dark, spooky sort of overtones that hover over the album from start to finish. A
reccomended first purchase for those interested, so they can see how the band was before they all
became caricatures--back when they were hailed by Rolling Stone as a "boogie beast", and approximately
fifty-four seconds before Lester Bangs got really irritated with 'em.
Speaking of Blue Öyster Cult theory table salt, I have a BÖC theory of my
own, called the Moody Blue Öyster Cult Theory. You see, Blue Öyster Cult is
the Moody Blues of heavy metal. WHAT?! you say ... and I reply: check this
out (they might even be the same band):
Figured I should add comments after all these years. Besides, I have mono and am really bored (I don't think I have mono because I'm really bored, BTW).
A little poppier, but still heavy and dark and creepy! Great melodies
abound, there are faster riffs, and the production is vastly improved over
the first album...just a bit spottier here and there, but not by much!
Better production,but the songs aren't as good as they were on the first
album.That's not to say this sucks,it does'nt,just a little weaker.
Apparently, so far I'm the only reviewer to think this is better than the
previous record. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the debut, but it was
unfocused, and it had a little too much 60's influence for me. (FYI-There
is little music I enjoyed from the 60's, and NONE from the early 60's, and
that includes the Beatles, the Stones, the Who, etc. And that's the good
60's bands too...so you can only imagine what I think of the "hippie"
music! It's just not my thing...I did enjoy The Who and the Stones during
the 70's by the way) Tyranny & Mutation steps the intensity and rockability
(is that a word?) up a notch. However, it is an album of two halves; hence,
the "Red" and "Black" sides. The first half of the album (the Black side)
is straight-forward classic metal, with "7 Screaming Dizbusters" and "The
Red And The Black" being my faves...(I like the "Lamb" version of "Red and
Black" from the debut too, but this newer version is the way it's meant to
be played. In fact, this is a prime example of the contrast between the
first two albums). The second, more colorful half (the Red side), echoes
back to the first album's 60's rock, but it is done better; "Baby Ice Dog"
and "Teen Archer" being my faves on this half. Sure, the album might not be
as intriguing as the first, but as far as the songs go, it is more
consistent.
Hmmm...I'm not sure. Tyranny and Mutation doesn't really posess the sophistication of Blue Oyster
Cult's first record, nor the polished production--but then again, it's difficult to argue with a raw, energetic
piece of metal like "The Red and the Black" or "Hot Rails to Hell", or a great slice of blazing boogie-rock
like "OD'd on Life Itself". But about "The Red and the Black"; why did they have to steal music from "I'm on
the Lamb..."? For pete's sake, couldn't they write their own goddamn piece of effective music? Oh,
well...there's no use arguing with the higher points on the record, because it immediately slips into an
easily mock-able period of mediocre mystic-rock right after "Hot Rails" and doesn't redeem itself until the
kitschy, demented "Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl)".
Yes! "The Red & The Black" is the speed-funk-blistering-rock bastard child
of its predecessor. "Hot Rails to Hell" is Joe Bouchard's piece de
resistance, a pre-punk almost surf-rock-sounding slab of metal that rules no
matter how you slice it. And "Teen Archer" is Buck Dharma's hilarious rant
(Best line: "Ballin' all night, ballin' all day; she won't ball on me" ...
Story of my life) and first-rate jam session tour-de-force.
This piece of music came out back in the midst of Philadelphia's heydey of Crystal Meth. Fast, urgent, and in synch with the Crank Crowd. With due respect to other reviewers, I found it a better produced album than its predecessor...Personal favorites are Hot Rails & O.D.'d on Life Itself
Tyranny & Mutation is my favorite B.O.C. album, and I have them all. Why? The 8 songs are all gems and the production, while strange, actually adds a lot to the sound. To me, this is what B.O.C. is all about -- from the frenetic guitar-driven "The Red & The Black" to the eerie keyboard-laden "Wings Wetted Down", it's all here and without any fluff. I like 'em all, but love this one the most.
BÖC got class, BÖC could swing and stun. A fascinating record. The American answer to Black Sabbath, it’s true but faster, with more style and less suicide, more university and less proletariat, more sixties and less Bible. It works particularly well on vinyl : one side of heavy rock, cold cold rage on speed tempo, no boredom and another side with more psychedelic influences. No reggae side. Bloom’s voice is sounding better than on the first one, the Bouchard brothers at their best ( what a firm and enthusiastic bass and drums family! ), Buck is a real killer, also elegant on “Teen archer”. Alan Lanier on keyboards is more fluid and efficient than Manzarek or Jon Lord. The lyrics, oh well, they should not be taken seriously maybe, it’s just the atmosphere. The band is having fun, clearly on “Teen archer” and “Quicklime”. It’s OK to have a good fun on the B side after the killing on the A side . You write about jazzy chord, Mark, you’re right. If only jazz albums had brutal guitar work like on this one…
what do you get when you mix biker boogie, dark mysticysim, screaming metal and 5 guys in whiplash leather and a serious death obssesion??? well this is boc aka blue oyster cult!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One of the main mysteries of the Universe, along with " what's in a black hole ?","why does time slow down when speed increases ?", "Is there a God ?" or "How come George Bush is president of the United States ?", is that one : how did B.O.C. manage to release an album that bad between two good ones ( B.O.C and Secret Treaties ) ? Another mystery is : how come so many people think Tyranny and Mutation is a good B.O.C. album ? In fact, the last is the biggest one ...
This is actually one of my personal favorites. as far as I'm concerned their first three albums were all awsome in their own way, but this one I enjoyed - and here we go with an explanation, helios.marzel- becauuuuuuuuussssee(!)
You can count me as one of those who much prefers this to the first
album. I consider this, along with "Agents of Fortune", to be their
best. The first album might have come off better with some
production, but the songs weren't all there, either. This is their
heaviest album, full of that kind of slow pothead thuddiness that was
so typical of early-70's metal. "Wings Wetted Down" and "Teen
Archer", in particular, are very close in spirit to Sabbath. The
menace and doom are stronger here than on any of their other early
albums. This must have been a real shock to those hippies in 1972,
still grooving to James Taylor and Pure Prairie League. A high 9-star
album in my book.
Y'know, I was a rabid BÖC fan for years, and it wasn't until I saw 'em live in June of 2006 that, for some unknown reason, I kinda stopped caring (though it really was a great concert). Thing is, in all the years I've been listening I could never quite decide on a favorite album. If I HAD to choose, though, I'd go with this one (probably followed by Cultosaurus or Secret Treaties). I don't know how many people agree with me there. In fact, a lot of people seem to see it as the low point of the first three albums, while it's always seemed like the best to me.
I disagree-this is my favorite album by BOC! It expands a bit on the previous record, while keeping what I liked about them-while adding a few smarts here and there. Like Hot Rails to Hell-it begins really fast and meanacing, but somehow turns into a surf rock song midway through. Cool! More riffs in Red And The Black and 7 Screaming Diz-busters, plus it contains my all-time favorite BOC song Wings Wetted Down-why couldn't they have done more stuff like this? I love that heavy psychadellic sound-Kyuss must have lusted over it.
This was the album that brought them much controversy on both sides of the
Atlantic, and was probably therefore the album that put them into the
mainstream spotlight (there's no such thing as bad publicity!)! Apparently a
lot of people got their panties all in a knot over the fact that the plane
featured on the front and back of the record is the ME 262, the first
turbine engine warplane, invented near the end of World War II by the
Germans. Not only that, but on the album there is also a song called "ME
262" which has lyrics written from the perspective of a German fighter
pilot shooting down Allied planes, along with other themes here and there (eg.
"Career Of Evil", "Dominance And Submission") in some of the other
songs that led people to believe that these Brooklyn boys were goose-stepping
their way to promoting fascism and glorifying nazism. Kinda funny
considering that Eric Bloom, the lead singer, is Jewish, as well as the
management/producing team they had at the time. In Germany, where the
anti-hate laws are so strong that they infringe on freedom of speech quite a
bit more than here in North America, the album was actually banned! I don't
know if it still is now, but it was at the time. Mind you, the fact that
neither BOC, or their management, OR their record label ever denied all
these rumours/allegations only fuelled this erroneous perception.
As for the album itself, it's another solid entry musically, with the
aforementioned interesting lyrics, but some of the songs are a bit
pedestrian. I'd say it's a notch below the first two albums in overall
quality. Some of the riffs are quite boring, and there are a few weak hooks
here and there, and the production is quite flat indeed. These early albums
could have made a much better impression had they been produced better.
Still, "Flaming Telepaths" and "Astronomy" are two of the finest examples of
the superb songwriting this band was capable of.
My favorite by B.O.C. , All the songs are good.I play it all the time.Best
song ---Hard to choose one ,actually.
Secret Treaties is the best of BOC during their early "metal" (and
practically unproduced!) years. Every song has a good riff and a good hook.
"Flaming Telepaths" is the best of the lot, with "Astronomy" a close second.
"Subhuman" is also an underappreciated classic. If you are eager to hear
pre-"Reaper" Blue Oyster Cult, this is the one to get.
As has been mentioned, the Blue Oyster Cult's Secret Treaties was pretty much the commercial
breakthrough for the band, which is rather inexplicable, because there's really nothing here that's
drastically different from the first two records' material. And it's also the second
still-not-as-good-as-the-debut album. But anyway, there's not much to say about what's on here, except
there's a bit more humor to be found in the lyrics. I think. As for the high points, "Flaming Telepaths" and
"Astronomy" are indisputable, untouchable classics (particularly "Astronomy"--so many different versions
the Cult tried out, and not one as good as the original recording found here), "Dominance and Submission"
is great (and personally, I like it better when Al Bouchard is singing it), and "Harvester of Eyes" and "Cagey
Cretins" are great rockers, albeit lyrically incomprehensible. To be bought if you have the first two records
and you liked 'em, or just to get "Astronomy".
This was the BOC album that turned me on to the group. And, even though it starts out with the rather
limp "Cagey Cretins", I still hold up side-2 to be one of the finest album sides in rock.
"Dominance and Submission," "Flaming Telepaths" and "Astronomy." When you
got three of Blue Oyster Cult's best songs on one album, how can it not be
considered one of their best, if not best overall? Now that it's
remastered, you get the better sound and extra tracks: "Boorman the
Chauffeur, " (Joe Bouchard's only vocal here), "Mes Dames Sarat" (which in
English means Mes Dames Sarat), the infamous cover and studio version of
"Born to be Wild" and "Mommy" (pre-punk insanity -- perfect for Mother's
Day!). But wait, there's mo'!
Love the W-site LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, this would have to be my fave BOC album with Agents Of Fortune a close second, but both albums have throwaway songs. It’s Dominance And Submission, Subhuman, Flaming Telepaths and Astronomy that do it for me, the others I can take or leave (ME 262 is quite good too). Going by what I’ve read on the net, Sandy Pearlman was the guy who wrote conceptual stuff (eg. Astronomy) and Richard Meltzer was interested in rock music’s urgent side, that it shouldn’t be built to last, there for “the moment” et al (eg. Cagey Cretins, which is going just a little too far with the sarcasm there I think). Without actually knowing who wrote Flaming Telepaths, my guess is that perhaps they both contributed to the words, it seems to be a mix of those two styles. Perhaps I’m wrong though.
The production kinda ruins this one for me. The life of the guitars have been sucked out, there's too much organ and not enough cowebell (okay! I'll stop!) Maybe I'm off because I haven't heard the remastered version, and I'm not usually one to complain about production per se, but there's moments like, say how on Astronmomy the kicking in of the guitar just sounds really wimpy when it needs more power (they haven't even mastered that one well on live albums.) The Metallica version isn't great (but better than most of the other covers) but I do think they got the guitar down better. That said, this still is a good album and the change towards the jazzy sounds you noted can be interesting, but I think they can do better. Despite the complaint, Astronomy rules, and I love the segue of Flaming Telepaths into it, and The Subhuman is interesting (I like it better on the following live album). Cagey Cretins is kind of amusing-I could have sworn that it was in a Scooby-doo cartoon (during on of those chase scenes set to bubblegum music where they run past the same table twenty times.)
Pretty good live album, breathing some necessary life and power into their
early classics, many of which sound absolutely tepid in their studio
versions. That's why live albums at the time were a necessity for any
serious rock band, but I think nowadays live albums are totally obsolete. If
anything, because today's studio albums already sound perfect, live albums
do the opposite and make the material sound weaker. The only cases in which
I can see worth in modern day live albums are for bands that play complex
music just to see how they pull it off on stage, or for bands that improvise
a lot and vastly alter their studio recordings in front of an audience, but
there are so few bands with that sort of instrumental skill in the
mainstream nowadays that good or interesting live albums are indeed a
rarity. I mean really, why would anyone want a live Marilyn Manson album??
Gimme a break.
A seven. Whatever, I say. Because On Your Feet was, essentially, Blue Oyster Cult's first real piece of
shit. Not only is the sound quality ridiculously and distractingly bad, but that particular flaw detracts from
the power of such classic tunes as "The Red and the Black" and "ME 262". That's a pretty major problem,
along with the fact that a lot of great songs from the first three albums are omitted. "Astronomy", anyone?
How about "Flaming Telepaths", "Dominance and Submission" or "Stairway to the Stars"? And where's
"OD'd on Life Itself"? And why replace these great songs with tunes that represent moments of a Cult show
you can only see and not hear, like the guitar duel on "Born to Be Wild"? I'll admit there are some good
selections--"Buck's Boogie" is here at its best, raw and exhilirating, "Subhuman" never sounded better, and
"Seven Screaming Diz-Busters" is an improvement over its dull studio counterpart--but still, the demerits
reign rampant throughout the album, and the BOC would create a much more successful live album seven
years later with Extraterrestrial Live, which renders On Your Feet somewhat obsolete.
My Rating: A mildly generous 5 (for the fact that the album doesn't forget "The Last Days of May")
Hey, krinkledick,
From now on,the band would never create an album with the cohesiveness of Secret Treaties....
Nice confusion on this live album : an explosive « Subhuman » to begin with, a wilder sound than on the studios lp’s, feedback and larsen, a huge « Last days of May », a raw and long « Seven screaming ». The slowest track on it, “Last days”, is the most violent song, cool thing. It’s Albert Bouchard ‘s favorite. This man has taste : no drums solo on it ! I think it’s their better live album. It’s not polished or kinda “Star Wars” show like « Enchanted evening », not a tired and old band like on « ETL ». “On your feet” sounds perfectly vicious and top of the seventies. Anyway, the Sabbath live are catastrophe ( have you heard Ozzy ruin the “Sabotage” tracks on “Past lives” ) “R’n’r Animal” is overrated, “Steppenwolf live” not so bad and more bluesy. Even “Space ritual” doesn’t stand the comparison though it has a much more beautiful cover. So, you’ve got this one, you metal freaks.
OH YEAH BEBBE.
Sounds nothing like their first three,no better no worse.Tenderloin is
awesome,another one that sticks out is The revenge of Vera Gemini,Patti Smith
helps out on that one.Great,just like the others!
One of my favorite albums of all time. My first BOC album, which led me
into the rest of their stuff. And this has it all! The great newer metal
of "Tattoo Vampire," and "E.T.I.," the classic rock of "This Ain't The
Summer Of Love," and the Stonesish "True Confessions," the twisted Cult
classic "The Revenge Of Vera Gemini," and finally the new element of Cult
music: pop rock; featuring the three best songs on this masterpiece--"(Don't
Fear) The Reaper," "Tenderloin," and my fave "Morning Final." All is great,
all is good....well, maybe "Debbie Denise" could go...but it's a nice warm
down nevertheless. The production is better too. A good pickup for all
fans of music.
Hmm. Not really sure why everyone's so crazy about this one record (I've seen five star reviews from
people who gave Paranoid a four). If anything, it's a step down from stuff like the debut album, with poppier
songs overall and annoying production that relies too much on some sort of reverb effect. I guess it's
supposed to be "atmospheric". It probably should've induced a massive pants-shitting amongst fans of the
band, but instead, the BOC became stars. And even more mystifying is that this sudden change of style
wasn't induced by any member, producer, or label change. Weird.
Leather, Leather, everywhere leather. Geez, wasn't it required by law to
own this platter back in the 70's? Gawd awful car wreck musick. Just
what da fuck is a Blue Oyster Cult anyhoo? OK, how to describe what's
here. Imagine, if you will, NSYNC with testicles and a serious death
obsession. No Kiddin' this is bubble gum boy band metal!!! Agents O'
Fortune is the good puddin.
This one is the beginning of the end for a band that once meshed an acidic
morbid wit with a crunching down tuned boogie and churned out some
mesmerizing melodies that made you feel very, very ... odd. True originals. I
can't believe how much people rave about this release considering it's a
precursor to the heap of dung that amassed their later works. "Tenderloin",
"True Confessions" and "Debbie Does Denise" seem like rejects from another
band like ... I don't know, The Starland Vocal Band, for example. I remember
hearing this when it came out and the one track that stood out was "The
Revenge of Vera Gemini." I've since bought the remaster with the bonus tracks
(the bonus "Sally" is the best song on the whole thing and, of course, it's a
reject from this album) and the liner notes state that they all had bought 4
tracks for their homes to come up with their own songs to offer up (or up
chuck) to the contribution of this album. Who did they think they were
anyhow, Queen? I don't know, this stuff is so fuckin' far removed from the
first three albums it seems like all they did at home was have a buncha
groupies lounging around saying, "So Mister rockstar, why doncha play me a
song?" As he huffed up another rail of coke and replied, "Sure, baby, here's
one I wrote 'specially for you called ummm... True Confessions." While she
accompanied him on the skin flute. This sounds more like a couple of solo
efforts than by a band as a whole. I would love to hear what E. Bloom came up
for this since he has no song credits at all. "Tattoo Vampire," "E.T.I."
"This Ain't the Summer of Love" and "The Revenge of Vera Vagina" are the only
real ensemble pieces here or show any resemblance to B. O. C. of old. I left
out the hit because it reminds me of Classic cock radio, but I did enjoy the
demo of it with somebody doing the drum track by pounding on a coffee table.
Surprised it doesn't have somebody in the background reacting to it and
griping, "Hey, man, watchit, you're gonna spill the coke!!!!"
Imagine my surprise when my wife announced that we were going to New York to see the latest Broadway smash "AGENTS OF FORTUNE"! Finally, someone did this fine album justice and presented it the way it was truly meant to be!
Ha ha, we COULD'VE used more cowbell.
gotta have more cowbell, baby! yeah snl! mr.walken as a record producer and the band played the songs and someone bangs the cowbell! bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang! las agentes de fortuna!
This one I don't get. Everyone raves about it, and it was the first album I got by them (mainly due to Reaper, and I heard that they were more of a heavy band that didn't sound like Reaper) but even without hearing anything else by them I thought it was a sell-out. This Ain't The Summer of Love made things sound promising from the get-go, but after that most of the album sounded like a friggin' ELO record. Reaper is by far the best song here, and I'll also give it ETI and Morning Final (reminds me of the Futurama theme, what with the bells and New York location and whatnot), but nothing else comes close to the earlier albums.
WHOA! Major letdown after the brilliant Agents Of Fortune! Mark, I think
you're dead on when you accuse them of clamouring for more hits after their
first big taste of success. This is a completly disjointed album that veers
way too far towards predictable pop rock for my liking...while Agents Of
Fortune was a masterful blend of pop and their early dark, eerie style, this
is a mess. Some of the songs are downright GAY, and makes you want to flog
them for so ruthlessly whipping out their wannkers and jacking off over
a hairy ass while abadoning their trademark style. Some of the melodies are
very well done however, but they often suffer from the wussy pop production.
They sound so desperate that it's actually embarrassing to listen to certain
parts. "Godzilla" was the big hit and has a neat heavy riff, but it's just
silly and overblown...when did they become a novelty act? "Fireworks" sounds
like an attempt to copy "Don't Fear The Reaper", "The Golden Age Of Leather"
has some nice vocal harmonies at the start, but the lyrics are a stupid low
brow nod to bikers and the riff is something I've heard a million times
before. "Searching For Celene"?? What a gay fuck-ass song. "Going Through
The Motions"? It's pathetic keyboard boogie!And don't even get me started on
"R U Ready 2 Rock", with quite possibly the worst song title (AND spelling!)
in rock history...is this Quiet Riot?? Where did the witty intelligence go?
Quite frankly, this band has always sounded out of place and awkward playing
happy music. Man, there really isn't much here...I still like "I Love The
Night" because it's haunting, ghostly melody is more in the style that
they pull off so well, even if it's a bit long, and "Nosferatu" is an awesome
goth song that sounds much more like it was recorded for the great Agents Of
Fortune album than this smorgasbord of shit.
I'm suprised you gave this one such a low rating,Pringle,It has some pretty
amazing songs on it ,actually.I agree witth you on R.U. Ready 2 Rock
though,it sucks.Some good songs include Fireworks,I love the night,and one of
the creepiest songs they ever did,Nosferatu. Oh,and Death valley nights
kicks ass too!
Another solid effort, but how could it be anything other than a letdown
after their masterpiece of '76? This is really the only album BOC put out
besides the debut that seemed to lack a focus, and the ONLY album that
lacked cohesion. A hard pop-rock anthem, then weird cheese rock, then slow
pop rock, then hard rock, then radio-friendly rock, then super-cheese, then
just two stupid, gay-rock songs, followed by (should have been radio hit)
soft-rock tune, then strange rock again. The only constant is that it is
all still rock music, but it's a "Singles" album. Some of these potential
singles are great, like "Godzilla," "Death Valley Nights," "Fireworks," and
the absolutely amazing, "I Love The Night." But some like "Going Thru The
Motions" sound exactly as the title suggests. Then some are just fucked up,
like "Nosferatu," and "Golden Age Of Leather." What the fuck is that? BOC
at this point is becoming Buck Dharma's band. And this direction is what
works at this point. Any attempt to capture the classic BOC (Eric Bloom)
sound, is decent at best. Luckily Al Bouchard is adaptable. Still a good
album, just super-uneven.
All right, calm down, now...Spectres was a letdown, but it wasn't a bad album. A lot of the songs on here
are well written...they just lack the identity and originality of the past Cult stuff. Okay, ther is some crap,
like the (b)anal "Searchin' for Celine", which is borderline disco and much too bass-driven, or the
too-poppy "Fireworks", or the kitschy "Nosferatu"...but there's some great stuff as well. "Godzilla" is a
genius song, and the culimnation of everything the Cult had stood for as a musical outfit up to that point.
"Death Valley Nights" is another indisputable classic, the best thing on here, and the most touching
hangover song ever. And they may be kind of...okay, really light, and really commercial and really
unoriginal, but I still have a small place in my heart for the closing trilogy of "Celestial the Queen", "Going
Through the Motions", and "I Love the Night", which are good in a kind of succumb-to-the-loveliness kind of
way.
Hey! Mark, Roland, hold up! I'm gonna back Ryan up on this one and even
surpass him. Why? Because Spectres is a fine Blue Oyster Cult product
indeed! I bought the used LP after reading your comments and waited for a
"stupid-gay-ass-fuck-smorgasbord-of-shit." It's not. In fact, I find it
overall more pleasing than "Agents of Fortune" (pleasing, but not better).
I think this is because I went into "Spectres" with low expectations, and
when I purchased "Agents" (the new, remastered version with extra tracks), I
went into that with very high expectations that were not met ("True
Confessions," anyone? And yeah, Mark, "Sinful Love" does smoke a snausage).
Anyway, looks what's here: "Godzilla" is a hoot! Kind of an "Iron Man" with
a sense of humor. Come on, man, it's not like it's called "Barney" or "Big
Bird," for cryin' out fuck! "Golden Age of Leather" takes some silly lyrics
and backs them up with a real tough rocker. Ryan got it right - "Death
Valley Nights" IS the perfect hangover tune. "Searchin' for Celine" is a
funky pop-rocker that fades out with a terrific, rollicking solo, and "I
Love the Night," more so than "Fireworks," reminds me of "(Don't Fear) the
Reaper," but it's one of Buck Dharma's finest. "Nosferatu," if it actually
did belong on "Agents," would blow away most every tune on that album (save
"the Reaper"). Another Joe Bouchard triumph! Unlike "Celestial the Queen,"
which sounds like a metal Moody Blues - Mike Pinder in leather. "Goin'
Through the Motions" is pure pop made worthwhile by Eric Bloom's psychotic
voice. Perhaps if the title "R U Ready (Eddie?) 2 Rock" was spelled out, it
might have received a little more credit. It's really a cool anthem.
Better than "Heavy Metal - the Black and Silver" and the anemic "Let Go" of
a few years later. Shit, Quiet Riot, my ass. Close the curtains, light a
candle, have a smoke and a glass of port, and give Spectres another
chance, got it? Good!
This is in support of spectres. I rank this as one of my favorites. Right up there with Cultosaurus Erectus,Fire of Unknown Origin, Agents of
Fortune and their first two albums. I think Agents of Fortune is overrated and a LOT of people associate their best known song (Don't Fear (the
Reaper)) with it being from their best album. Maybe nobody but true fans would buy their less known albums and know others are just as good.
The biggest complaint would be the lack of continuity. Take it for what it is. Seems like a lot of people want the "old" sound. But I think by staying
with what's working you become stale and don't grow as a musician. How can you criticize someone for wanting to be successful? BOC gets into
my soul and makes me feel connected to the universe. The lyrics are great and sung with passion. This is one of my favorite bands and it seems
to me their sound grew as they did.
I want to add my voice to the chorus of those defending this maligned work. Yes, after 4 great albums (all 9's, in my opinion), this was a bit of a letdown--only a low 8 or so. So, what was the matter with it?
"relying more on tired "scary" riffs that aren't scary"
You nutwads who are putting this album down are so far from reality you should be working for Fox News.This is BOC's greatest record-a classic-better than most bands greatest hits-I Love The Night IS BOC's best tune-the album is consistently great from start to finish.I luv the first three studio records but this is THE ULTIMATE BOC.Could have used a better EQ though.
i love this fucker- what was so great about agents of fucking fortune that made it any better than this? For fucking chrissakes, Nasfaratu is one of their finest tunes. I'll take nasfaratu over five fucking reapers and E.T.I's, thank you. Death Valley nights, Golden age of leather, Fireworks. and godzilla- yes FUCKING GODZILLA, people, because the monster king commannds our obedieance! (ugh, alright so im a shitty speller. but i don't care about spelling when I'm pissed off. WAAAAAAAAAAUUURGH!) I make no apologies for my love of this album- would you rather I sing high praise of Club Ninja? I thought not!!!! I'ts got that eerie vibe of their first album, all the way down to the lost-in-the-corridors-of Dracula's castle style reverb. even the weaker sections are nowhere near as pathetic as the stinkatude of some of the stuff off Agents(debbie denise? sinfull love? true confessions? ETI? What kind of crap is that?)
Being less than thrilled by AOF, I thought I'd give them another go with their other most acclaimed album, and found more of the same. I think Godzilla could have been alright, but the lyrics are beyond lame-amusingly though, I can picture them messing around in the studio, stumbling across the riff and one of them declaring, "Whoa, that sounds like a dinosaur, man!" (producer Bruce Dickenson marches in and tells them "Work with it, baby!"). But the one song here I'll give props here is the Golden Age Of Leather. That one doesn't seem to be held in high regard, but I think it's well arranged with the multi-parts and rocks more convincingly than everything else here. Everything else blows, though.
What the fuck is this for? There's only been two studio albums since the
last live album, and they were recorded and produced better than the early
albums, so why the hell would we need this? It's just another obvious
cash-in, of course. Seeing that their two most recent studio records were
very successful, and since at this time in the 70's live albums by rock
bands were extremely popular, they must have figured releasing another live
album now that they had become a household name would cement their
popularity. What a cheesy, if logical, marketing ploy. Just get one of their
three live albums...there's no need to own all of them.
Listen, please, and this is primarily directed toward Mr. Roland Fratzl (by the way, good call, Mark!)--
Blue Oyster Cult's Some Enchanted Evening can, I suppose, be labelled a marketing gimmick, and a
somewhat blatant one at that. It was released, yes, a mere three years after the first live album, On Your
Feet or On Your Knees, and it's really only half the record it should've been. Back in 1978, Sandy
Pearlman probably was thinking "Okay, another year, another album...just something to hold off our 652
fans while we work on our next genius piece of work, Mirrors!". But, then, if this really puts you off, consider
these merits: a) The sound quality is a shit-load better than that of On Your Feet, allowing maximum
enjoyment of the record, b) we get blazing, energy-feuled versions of both pairs of favorites from Agents of
Fortune and Spectres (including a stellar version of the mediocre "R. U. Reddy 2 R.O.C.K.in the USA"),
c) the album nearly makes up for the great tracks missing from On Your Feet by including one of the
best omitted songs, "Astronomy", and d) to top it off, we get two great cover songs. What the hell more
could you want out of a one-record album? Fuck, if you wanted a COMPLETE concert, go out and buy the
damn Concert for Bangladesh. And to all other BOC fans--go out and buy this!
LMFAO again......like ya! 5 Minutes ago.........Just saw them live during the 4th of July.........at Ogden Utah...........crowd of about 300.........
The cover of "Kick Out the Jams" is interesting but the only reason I own this CD is the live version of "Astronomy". The Secret Treaties version is great, but the addition of a great Roeser solo makes the live cut much more powerful.
Very similar to Spectres, and that's not good. While Spectres has at least a
few great songs and a lot of shit, this one doesn't have any songs that are
great, but the overall quality of the writing is probably a bit higher here.
It's certainly moer consistent and less maddening to listen to. "Dr. Music"
starts off ok but then steals the riff from Roy Orbison's "Pretty
Woman"...do they think people are so stupid that they wouldn't notice
something that obvious? The chorus is pretty bad too, with stupid bitch
back-up singers. What happened to this band?? I mean, "In Thee" is a nice
soft ballad, and "I Am The Storm" is the best song here, but then there's
that disco song at the end, which, instead of being an over the top campy
number that I could have respected is actually quite lazy and boring, and
while there are some good riffs and melodies here and there, like in "The
Vigil", "Moon Crazy", and a few others, the production is bland and slick,
and there's nothing even remotely threatening or off the beaten
path...they've become a simple pop rock band that really isn't unique in any
way, and they can't even do pop rock very well. But you can bet your
stainless steel cock ring that they had plenty more gays waiting for them
backstage.
I disagree again,I think MIRRORS is a pretty descent album,a lot poppier than
what your used to hearing from B.O.C.,but does that make it a bad album,no.
I don't know what everyone else is hearing, but this is a damn good album!
"Dr. Music," okay--it's cheesy, I understand that one. Other than that, how
can you not like these tunes? "The Great Sun Jester," "In Thee," "Mirrors"
(oh so good!), "The Vigil," "I Am The Storm," "Lonely Teardrops,"....This is
a more focused Spectres, with BOC going with what's been working since
"Reaper" hit the airwaves. The old BOC is officially no more, but that's
good since they seemed to lose that part of themselves on the last album.
This album is tighter, better produced, and more consistent than any
previous effort minus Agents. Tom Werman surprisingly cleans up the sound a
bit too much...but it's definitely still loud and clear! Other than this
possibly "overly-cleansed" sound, and possibly "Dr. Music" I cannot see what
everyone's problem is with this album. Yes, it is poppy, but it's good
pop-rock. And that's only a few songs, the rest is deep and heavy (albeit
in a radio-friendly way)! I dunno, I give up trying to convince
anybody...try to accept the new direction and see the songs for what they
are, if not necessarily for how they are recorded, and you'll love it too...
How, a mere four years after they were playing such great, dark, hard rock, did the BOC decsend into the
level of some sort of third-rate radio-friendly crowd-pleaser piece-of-shit (AAAAAARRRRGHH!!!!!) pop band?
Ehh...this isn't a good album, but I get a lot more enjoyment out of this one than Specters at least, if only for the Vigil. That is a cool song! Very epic, rockin', and has several melodies running through it. It's kinda of a precursor to the next album. I think there's one or two other songs on here that aren't bad, but I don't feel like relistening to it again.
The stupid "rock'n'roll celebration" section in "Marshall Plan" I figure is a joke, a goof on this
album's producer's most famous producees (Deep Purple)(Martin Birch).I guess it's still pretty stupid
tho'.
My sentiments exactly. A vast improvement over the last two studio efforts,
but I think the eight is a knee jerk reaction on your part Mark, after
listening to those bad albums...it isn't that good either, not like the
first four albums anyway. It's a real treat to hear the mean, weird, sci-fi
influenced BOC back again though, virtually dropping all of the recent
misguided and ill executed pop leanings. The best song here, and an unknown
classic, has to be "Unknown Tongue". It should be a goth anthem! "Black
Blade" isn't too bad, but why does the echoey chorus make me think of the
intro to the 80's cartoon Thundercats, where their brave leader Lion-o holds
aloft his magic sword and screams "HO!!!!!!!!"?? Hmmm, kinda reminds me of
He-Man too!
Black blade rules! So do all the rest,I especially like DIVINE WIND,kinda
creepy!
I knew the instant I saw Martin Birch's name on the back cover this would
kick ass! He is definitely my favorite producer of all-time. (Check out
his shit with Maiden, Sabbath, Rainbow, MSG, Whitesnake, Deep Purple, it all
sounds great!) I was not disappointed. This is BOC at their heaviest! It
is NOT a return to form. This is nowhere near the music of Agents or
Treaties. It is a more mature weirdness, and definitely calls for heavier
production unlike those older albums. It is a natural progression from
Mirrors, because the songs themselves aren't that different. It's just the
production job that's definitely night-and-day. Mirrors could have
benefitted from a heavier sound like this (and if it did, you'd all agree
that album is just as good as this one). Anyway, the rock hits hard with
tunes like "Black Blade," "Monsters," "The Marshall Plan," and my fave "Lips
In The Hills." (Just a side note--notice how the "Alien" track on each BOC
album tends to be one of the best songs from that particular album? Just a
thought to ponder.) And the lighter tracks are treated nicely too:
"Deadline," and "Unknown Tongue" are Mirrors-type tracks which fit in quite
nicely here. Has anyone noticed how "Fallen Angel" sounds exactly like The
Who? Great tune too. This is my second favorite Cult album, and damn...
it's weird too!
Much better than Curse of the Mainstream Mirrors, but still a little poppy and commercial. Critical
thoughts aside, I really like the album, and enjoy it every time I put it on. Then again (back to criticizing),
the only songs on here that I can hold absolutely nothing against are the bone-crunchin', ass kickin' rocker
"Black Blade", which would still melt ears today if people would go out and buy the damn album, and the
macabre closer "Unknown Tongue", whose demerits are forgivable because the song obviously strives for
the campiness it reeks of. Love the piano part on there, too.
Bout ye Smark arse?
Moving on into a more fantasy-based territory with the return of the emphasis on guitars, they now kind of sound like a bridge between arena rock and Iron Maiden or someone. Which really isn't a bad thing, but the songs are a bit more power chord-y (as opposed to the old riffs) than I'd like, such as the opening to Black Blade, which gets better midway through (cool ending with the vocal effect). I also like Monsters and Divine Wind, but could have done without the Marshall Plan and Unknown Tongue (both lose points for ugly Ian Anderson-esq lusting over teenage girls).
Continuing the comeback! Never in my right mind would I have ever even
remotely thought that a 70's band's early 80's albums would actually be
better than their late 70's ones! People, you have to understand that this
is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, rare
exception to the rule! This is one of their best albums in terms of
songwriting, once again finding a consistent balance between melodic pop and
forboding hard rock. I think they were inspired to write strong material
because originally this whole album was going to be the soundtrack to the
Heavy Metal animated movie that hit theatres in 1981, so there was more at
stake than usual. It certainly would explain why a lot of this stuff is
diverse...they had to adapt the individual songs to the corresponding scenes
in the movie. Unfortunately for them, the film studio told them rather late
in the game that only one Blue Oyster Cult song would be included on the
soundtrack, with the rest coming from various other bands. So the band then
just released the material they wrote for the film on this album instead.
The album is kinda hard to describe...there are very solid poppy melodies
from start to finish, but they are catchy without sounding stupid or
commercial as on past efforts. 1981 being the height of the new wave
explosion, there are a shitload of keyboards and synthesizers here, but they
never become overbearing, and actually, dare I say it, help greatly in
creating the moody soundscapes that make this a great listen. Again, I can't
effectively describe how it sounds, but like Mark said, there are tons of
really unique, catchy, yet ODD melodies here that aren't necessarily heavy,
but create a very dark, gothic, brooding atmosphere that only BOC could
create, and boy do they do it well. The production is very clean and crisp,
but I would say that at the same time it blunts the potential power of some
of the harder songs, like "Heavy Metal", which sounds rather impotent
compared with other bands at the time. More vintage haunting vocal harmonies
everywhere. "Veteran Of The Psychic Wars" is the only song that was included
on the Heavy Metal soundtrack, and it's one of the most interesting
experimental tunes ever made by this band. It sounds like a death march
awash in electronic keyboard sounds...I just love it. Unlike Mark, I think
"Soul Survivor" is a great song...it's not a "fist pumping hard rock" song
at all, but rather a dark pop tune with a great groove driven by a simple
yet beautiful bass line and gothy chorus. And how about that sudden shift
into a cool speed-metal jam in the middle of "After Dark"? Awesome! And
"Joan Crawford Has Risen From The Grave" is also great, with it's eerie
classical piano intro (showing off the talents of Allen Lanier) leading into
a weird sounding dark boogie section with a chorus that won't leave your
cranium! The middle part is silly though with the dumb sound effects. It was
one of the hits, along with the huge hit "Burnin' For You", with the
obligatory early 80's music video set in some post apocalyptic setting with
big titted girls straight out of Mad Max/Blade Runner staring lustily at the
camera, just like in Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself" video, and Kiss's
"Lick It Up" video, and Helix's "Rock You" video, and Motley Crue's various
videos, ad nauseam...why did so many bands have videos like that back then??
The only song I don't care for is the last one. This was their last good
album for the next 17 years, so the road's getting very bumpy just ahead. If
they had spent their whole career putting out albums like this their legacy
would certainly have been much greater. 9 out of 10.
Just when you think they couldn't get any weirder than the last album, they
do. And it's with mixed results. To this day, I don't get why everyone
praises this album so much. Sure, it's got a few things going for it:
"Burnin' For You," "Heavy Metal...," "Don't Turn Your Back, " and a really
good eerie vibe through it all; but it just doesn't quite deliver the goods
for me. And what the fuck is with "Joan Crawford?" To me, that's WAAAYYY
OVERBOARD!! It's creepy, scary, and humorous just for the sake of being
creepy, scary, and humorous. IT'S A TERRIBLE SONG!!! How this is a hit is
beyond me...
Essentially, this is a sort of retread into the territory of Agents of Fortune--the attempt at a new, more
commercial style after some heavy stuff that is respected by critics and audiences. That's how I see it, at
least. And, like Agents, it is one of their best, and it has some great tunes on it that you get to like if you
can ignore the plaguing synthesizers courtsey of Mr. Allen Lanier. Ooh, by the way, the musicians diversify
their work on this record, with a bunch of non-bassists playing bass on some tracks and the bassist
playing keyboards and the lead guitarist playing percussion and it's a whole bunch of complicated shit.
Like the music.
1981 was the year of the synthesizer. computers and rick james were hot at the secne and boc needs a hit. a cover of dwarf people and wizards look at you and this is fire of unknown origin
I kind of disagree again and find this to be one of their more consistent albums. The only song I really dislike is Joan Crawford, and the first song sin't as good as everything else, but this might be my favorite since at least Secret Treaties. Despite more synths here or there, it doesn't become painfully 80s sounding, and they have some interesting guitar tones on here (like Heavy Metal.) Don't Turn Your Back returns to that dark tone they used to do well, while sounding different musically, After Dark is intense (nice solo!) and that weird laughing in The Pact fits what you said about how they can come up with odd melodies. I thought for a while that Veteran was a rip-off of Hawkwind (that title appears somewhere in Warrior at the Edge of Time) but then, Micheal Moorcock co-wrote it (as with some stuff on the previous album.) I wish they would have kept up this allience.
Ah, I see Prindle's got his touch back. "What the fornication is this
defecation?" will be plagiarized by me many times in the years to come.
Their first album rules. I should get more stuff by BOC.
Fuckola. Easily the worst album yet, probably at least partially a result of
one of the original members of the band leaving before the album was
recorded. Partially also because once again, they've abandoned what they do
best in order to cater to the trends of the time, in this case bad hair/pop
metal. I just don't understand why they kept doing this, because they always
fall flat on their faces when they take on styles that don't come naturally
to them...will they never learn?? I can understand that they thought they
had to do this to make "hits" but the problem is that their material really
suffers when they try hard...as you can see, all the albums in their history
where they just concentrated on writing in their own unique style were
really solid efforts with nary a dud, while the rest are mostly
unimaginative trash. And why use so many outside songwriters on this album?
Last time I looked, they were a solid rock band with a decade long legacy at
this point, not N'fucking Sync. All this did was dilute the sound and make
the band not really sound like themselves anymore, although they really took
this to the extreme on the next album, Club Ninja (see my scathing review
below). It certainly starts off promising enough with "Take Me Away", a
charging, energized sci-fi inspired song in the vein of their classic
style...this is the sort of fast driving rock song that should have been on
the last album. But the album immediately goes into a total nosedive right
after that...it's almost like "Take Me Away" was a leftover from the last
album's recording sessions because the rest sounds nothing like it, ranging
from nauseating pop metal to gut wrenching new wave...terrible album, with
maybe only slight glimpses of improvement in patches of other songs, but
nothing concrete. A 3 is about right, but the next one hits rock
bottom quite predictably actually.
Oh no...I understand and agree with much that has been and will be written
about this album. Birch has left, and an unproven Bruce Fairbairn takes
over (you know, before he knew what he was doing). Damn, bet you all would
listen to Mirrors now won't ya?!? Well, maybe not...but it's a hell of a
lot better than this. I must say though, once you get used to the
super-poppy sound, it grows on you. "Take Me Away," "Shooting Shark," and
uhh...others I cannot seem to remember right now are actually pretty good
songs...just produced waaaayyyy too poppy. And I enjoy Mirrors' production
too. Where's the bass and drums and all the bottom-end shit? Verdict: The
album can stand as is...barely...but it needed the bottom-end at the very
least so the production, for me, wouldn't be an issue. Song-wise, it's
bright and well-written for the most part, a nice change of pace from the
bleak and uninspired last album. But the darker, moodier songs on
Revolution (ie. Shadows Of California) should not be on an album such as
this.
Well, Mark, Roland, and Grant. I'm going to get really controversial now. I, a legitimate Blue Oyster Cult
fan, as well as a legitimate amateur critic, do not find this record to be bad. In fact, I find it to be merely
mediocre. I would warrant the record a 6, and here's why.
OK, this one DOES bite it, big time. I remember being back in 9th grade, in the early 80’s, already being somewhat of a BOC fan, and hearing “Take me Away” and “Shooting Shark” on the radio. At the time, I thought “Pretty good songs. Kind of like BOC Lite, but good nonetheless.” Anyway, for some reason, this was one of the few BOC albums I never owned, and never really heard, excepting probably a couple of times when I was at some teenage kegger and too wasted to pay attention. Finally, last year, I bought it, with reasonably high expectation. I think I was thinking that it would be like “Fire of an Unknown Origin,” only poppier, something like that.
hey man! I do have a sweet daughter who loves debbie gibson ! and tiffany! do not blame me or flame me I like it! no no no no no no no ! do not flame me ! shooting shark is like a journey/genesis/duran duran song! it is superslick dance rock so sweet and tasty! my 6 year old kira loves the song and she does a dance that it is kinda like punky brewster! drum machines are like very 1986!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! take me away is computer space rock! I mean it is not starship! very cool! debbie gibson can dance to that! I picture her and tiffany In a slumber party in their panties aka valley girl! yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean critics are asssholes! man! if I can start my own website I can have all the reviews but I may get tired. me and my kira both gave revolution a 9!
1/10
While agree that BOC's Club Ninja is probably the lest liked of
all, It does, in my opinion, have value. You should listen to the Perfect Water track
sung by Buck once again. Listen to it objectively. I liked your sight however.
Madness to the Method is an awesome song. I suggest you get your club
ninja album back out and spin this tune a few times, puts goosebumps on
me everytime I hear it. Sometimes a BOC album can be an aquired taste,
and you know what they say about aquired tastes... that there more
pleasing to the senses. By the way Donald (Buck Dharma) Roser is the
greatest guitarist on the planet.
Wow. What a wonderful review on Club Ninja and Revolution By Night.
Personally, I don't think you're fit to review anything. I bet people try to
run you over with their pickups everyday. You aren't fit to be reviewing BOC
albums. Take your reviews and shove them up your ass - really hard. Maybe
you'll choke and die on them.
I'll try to make this brief. But do you mind, if I start with a quote from Mr. Roland Fratzl that I think applies
to this album? Ahem...