# The Strange Magic of: Blue Öyster Cult



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I am not the audience toward whom Heavy Metal is directed. I much prefer Lite Metal; groups such as The Scorpions, for instance, or the late version of the group here, BOC. The quintet of Eric Bloom, V and G; Allen Lanier, keyboards; Albert Bouchard, D and V; Joe Bouchard, B and V; and Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, G and V. BOC didn't start as a Lite Metal band; they were all over the place musically, but slowly mutated into an AOR group along the lines of Foreigner or REO Speedwagon, a trend which others would regard with horror and disgust but which suited me just fine. The albums A Fire of Unknown Origin, and The Revolution by Night had loads of good songs--"Take Me Away", "Shooting Shark", "The Pact", others, and this song, _Burnin' for You_. I, too, am all for giving the Devil his due.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

One of my favourite bands from my younger days but I wasn't a fan of everything they did during their 71-81 heyday. They were unorthodox and they were versatile - at least three of the band were multi-instrumentalists and all five of them composed at some point or another.

The 'black and white' period of the first three albums is my favourite - the tinny production of Sandy Pearlman actually gave the music a kind of otherworldly, dark space quality which also dovetailed perfectly with the often unorthodox subject matter contained in the lyrics. After this, 'Don't Fear The Reaper' was their calling card but, evergreen as the song is, I still regard it as more of a clever Byrds pastiche than anything else. The rest of their 70s output was spotty - the slightly more conventional _Agents of Fortune_ and _Spectres_ albums had their weak links but the best from both would have made for a killer album.

_Mirrors_ from 1979 is the album few liked as it seemed to be an attempt to show that they could compete in the MOR radio-friendly world world of bands like Joe-Walsh-era Eagles, although tracks like 'The Vigil' and 'The Great Sun Jester' showed they could still cut it in the obscurity stakes. I actually saw them on that tour but sadly they weren't allowed to bring their eye-watering light and laser show to the UK.

The following two albums, _Cultosaurus Erectus_ and _Fire of Unknown Origin_ were again flawed but both had some great stuff on them. After that, the slide - drummer Albert Bouchard was kicked out in 1981 and they then went through a slow but sure fall from grace as new developments in the world of hard rock/heavy metal overtook them.


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## bharbeke (Mar 4, 2013)

"I've got a fever! And the only prescription is move cowbell!"

"Don't Fear the Reaper" is the only song of theirs I know, and I think it is just okay. However, the SNL sketch involving it more than justifies their existence.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Here's _Shooting Shark_, from The Revölution by Night. This appears to be an often-performed number by the current BOC making the rounds. Classic AOR MOR music.


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

Another one dug up from the crates. 

I like this series, Strange, but it makes me feel a bit old. (Cue son in background; "that is because you ARE a bit old, dad :lol


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

bharbeke said:


> "I've got a fever! And the only prescription is more cowbell!"
> 
> "Don't Fear the Reaper" is the only song of theirs I know, and I think it is just okay. However, the SNL sketch involving it more than justifies their existence.


I had to check it out. He was right--more cowbell was the answer! And go back to The Chambers Brothers' "Time Has Come Today" for corroboration of the power of the cowbell.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

"Oh-no!-There goes Toe-Kay-Oh! Go Go Go Godzilla!"


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

_Tyranny and Mutation_ is without doubt my favourite album - all killer, no filler.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

elgars ghost said:


> _Tyranny and Mutation_ is without doubt my favourite album - all killer, no filler.


BÖC had a real gift for album titles, Tyranny and Mutation being one of their best. It is the early album I also like best: Teen Archer, Stairway to the Stars, Wings Wetted Down, and that rather scary Mistress of the Salmon Salt.....


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

_Stairway to the Stars_ was actually off the debut album but yes, it's still a great track.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

elgars ghost said:


> _Stairway to the Stars_ was actually off the debut album but yes, it's still a great track.


Thanks for correcting my wandering memory. You can drive my motorcar!


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## Guest (May 24, 2016)

I saw BOC five times. The first was the "Agents of Fortune" tour followed by the "Spectres" tour and then three more times. They seemed to have passed their brightest moment after "Spectres". Btw, the "Spectres" tour remains to this day the best rock concert I ever saw. It was truly mind-blowing. P-Funk comes in second (*CRAZY SHOW!!!!*), ELP comes in third and Gentle Giant was #4 even though they were the opening act for Renaissance. I did like "Mirrors" and had that album. I had "Cultosaurus Erectus" but wasn't crazy about it. The fire definitely died down after "Spectres."

The first three albums were unique documents of rock music and to that they owe a lot to Sandy Pearlman, their manager. He crafted their image and co-wrote most of their songs as well as mixing the albums. His writing ability and knowledge of the occult, secret societies and the writings of Lovecraft really allowed his imagination to run wild. They produced some unique rock in that period--by far the most radical rock of that period. They tore new vistas into rock the way we fans imagined them tearing open rifts in space-time and unleashing unhuman forces upon the earth. During this period, they played chords that punk rockers claimed to have invented years later.





What a rhythm guitar lick!





Only the Cult would dare venture into jazz in this fashion. In 1972, I was a teenaged kid doing acid, pot, shrooms, cactus, discovering sex and reading Lovecraft and Satanic literature so you can imagine what the Cult meant to me then. There was nothing else like it.





One of the best Cult tunes ever. And the song before this on the album--"Hot Rails to Hell"--the way it segues into this just blew me away and lit me on fire. Eric Bloom, the main singer, back then had this big bushy mane of hair with a big busy beard and mirror shades and a leather jacket--I saw him and I thought, "Man, this dude IS F--KIN' GOD, MAN!!!"





I saw them do this one live a number of times. The drummer, Al Bouchard, sings it on the record but live Eric Bloom always sang it. During the middle of the song, he get the whole audience to yell DOMINANCE!!!! over and over again. I
d be sweat-drenched and hoarse by the time it was done. Loved it.





The Spectres tour was the only time they performed this song live as many times as I saw them. And it was awesome! I was on the main floor with my friends and my girlfriend who was black. We became an item because we both loved hard funk and hard rock and these nasty, dirty, _mean_-looking biker dudes come up and sit among us. I mean, these guys were scary-looking and I'm worried how they might treat my girl because when I say she was black--she was _black_--no mistaking it. The chairs in front of us were occupied by a big, burly biker dude and his girl and part way through the show, he kept collapsing back on us and we'd push back upright and after a couple of minutes he'd collapse on us again. Finally, we pushed upright too far forward and he plummets off his chair just smack face-down in the aisle. His leg is intertwined between his and his girl's chair. I don't how it could have ended up like that. I figure I'd better go help him up in case he comes up swinging but he was so drunk he didn't know what was going on. So I get him on his feet and he smiles at me sheepishly and says, "Thanks, man! It's these lousy, godd--n chairs, ya know?" "Yeah," I said. Sure, that's what it was--the chairs. It was pretty funny. And the meanest looking of the bikers treated my girl like a perfect gentleman. When she dropped her program by accident, he picked it up and handed it back with a smile saying, "Whoops, there you go, ma'am." So that was cool. The Cult was totally awesome and the bikers were cool so I had a great time. My favorite rock show.

Btw, if you didn't see a P-Funk show in the 70s, you weren't doing sh-t!


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I looooooove "Don't Fear the Reaper" - their albums never really clicked with me though.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Art Rock said:


> I looooooove "Don't Fear the Reaper" - their albums never really clicked with me though.


I bought Agents Of Fortune as a teenager in 1976. I didn't care for most of the other material, but I agree that Reaper is a classic. The catchy arpeggiated guitar riff, along with the brilliant solo make it hard to resist.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

A bit more early Öyster: _Wings Wetted Down_. Why are those birds always chasing me in the rain?






Blue Öyster Cult provides yet another example of a group beginning with an idiosyncratic sound and a smallish group of early, committed fans, then for all sorts of reasons they then begin to lose their idiosyncrasy/broaden their sound, and find they are appealing to a newer, larger audience. Some/many early fans are dismayed, lose interest,; there's talk of "selling out", etc., and that the group is now offering a generic product devoid of that special sauce they had at the beginning. I tend to observe these expressions of displeasure from a distance, in that I am not all that committed to any group or artists (though I obviously have my favorites as do we all) but rather to whether anybody's particular effort pleases me or not, irrespective of what album it's from or from what era in the evolution of the group/artist. Plus I have a very broad aperture concerning the sorts of music that please me, so when a group like BOC begins, as they did, to offer more anthemic--even "generic"--material as they did on, say, The Revolution by Night, I say I like the following songs A,B,C, etc., and have little interest in X,Y, and Z. But it is very likely true that those artists most likely to retain our interest over decades and perhaps will be remembered longest by the most people will be those whose material is always uniquely their own: Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, the Stones are easy examples, and it's fun to run through one's mind who else might join their ranks in your choosing.


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## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

The first three albums are the best, I think they went a bit downhill after that.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Bumping this for Vronsky.


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