Suggested by The Identity Matrix, this is our first look into the discography of one of America's best-loved hard rock bands, and yet in ways they are also one of her biggest-kept secrets. If you mention the name Blue Oyster Cult to anyone who doesn't know their music, there's a pretty good chance that they will know “Don't fear the Reaper” or maybe “Godzilla”, but other than that they're really unknown outside of their fanbase and heavy metal/hard rock in general. Which is a little odd, when you consider they've sold over twenty-four million albums, and have released fourteen studio records.
If you want to get the full lowdown on them, check Unknown Soldier's
http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...y-history.html where you will find all you need to know about BOC, seventies and eighties hard rock and heavy metal, and a whole lot more besides. He's done such a thorough job on BOC, and knows them so much better than I, that there's really little point in me trying to add my small contribution, so let's just move right along to their first self-titled album.
Album title: Blue Oyster Cult
Artiste: Blue Oyster Cult
Genre: Hard Rock
Year: 1971
Label: Columbia
Producer: Murray Krugman, Sandy Pearlman, David Lucas
Chronological position: Debut album
Notes: Yes I know there's an
umlaut over the "O" in Oyster, but I'm a lazy ****er and anyway it was only added for effect. The word does not actually have any such accent, so for handiness' sake I'm leaving it off. Send your lawsuits to the usual address...
Album chart position: 172 (US)
Singles: “Cities on flame with rock and roll”
Lineup:
Eric Bloom: Lead vocals, “stun guitar”, keyboards
Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser: Lead guitar, lead vocals on two tracks
Allen Lanier: Rhythm guitar, keyboards
Joe Bouchard: Bass, lead vocals on one track
Albert Bouchard: Drums, lead vocals on one track
Review begins
And we're off and running with “Transmaniacon MC”, cool bass line and some sweet organ and piano. The vocal is pure rock and roll, delivered with power and grit, and a fine solo from “Buck Dharma”. I guess you'd call this a real road song! Like the descending riff in the chorus. Kind of more in the blues mode is “I'm on the lamb but I ain't no sheep” (lol) with a great driving riff and rolling percussion, while Buck tries out the mike for the first of two attempts with “Then came the first days of May”, a real laidback blues ballad which really showcases not only his voice but his skills on the softer side of the frets. A real standout (though if I'm honest, really the first one to impress me on the album so far) with some great vocal harmonies and backing vocals as well as a sweet little blues solo. I must admit, I far, far prefer Dharma's voice to that of Eric Bloom. It just has more of a musical quality to it, while the main vocalist sounds a little too rough and raspy for me.
Back to the stride blues for “Stairway to the stars”, as Bloom takes the vocal duties back. I remember this one: I think I featured it as a “Random Track of the Day” way back when. It's pretty good to be fair, and yeah, Bloom's voice suits this song. Some odd little handclaps and a smoking solo; we could be picking up the quality here. And some energetic piano too. Liking this more and more. Maybe the first two tracks were just a slowburning start to the album. The oddly named “Before the kiss, a redcap” (apparently a reference to, um, doing drugs) is another good one, rocking along on a boogie blues rhythm with a great little bass solo followed by what sounds like banjo but surely is not. Speeds up on the back of this into an almost bluegrass tune. Sweet. Yeah, this is picking up now. Love the sharp organ riffs at the end, and then we're into psych/blues territory with “Screams”, on which we get to hear another bandmember try out his lungs, this time bass player Joe Bouchard. He's not bad. Lovely rippling piano running along this but it's mostly driven on the fluid guitar lines of Dharma and Lanier. The oddly-phased vocal gives it a real dreamy, psychedelic quality.
Touches of an embryonic “Don't fear the Reaper” there for a few moments; wonder if that's where the riff began? No time to ponder that, as we're into “She's as beautiful as a foot” (what?) which continues the psych weirdness (as if the title wasn't evidence of that already) and slows things down nicely before we hit “Cities on flame with rock and roll”, the only single, with vocals taken by (I assume) Joe's brother Albert, who usually bashes the skins. I've heard this one too, and it's a stone cold rocker, Bouchard doing a pretty good job on the vox, which just goes to prove I suppose that not only were all the members of BOC great at their chosen instrument, they could all sing, some better than others. “Workshop of the telescopes” reminds me of something early Uriah Heep might have tried, very psych again, quite acoustic in its way. Not mad about it to be honest, bit strange. The album closes then on “Redeemed”, which sort of re-establishes order, but you can hear it's not a song written by the guys, though they had some imput into it. Very folk/Country with a splash of blues thrown in. Not the worst closer, but far from the best I've heard.
TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS
Transmaniacon MC
I'm on the lamb but I ain't no sheep
Then came the last days of May
Stairway to the stars
Before the kiss, a redcap
Screams
She's as beautiful as a foot
Cities on flame with rock and roll
Workshop of the telescopes
Redeemed
Again, it's a debut and you have to allow some leeway, but this still doesn't impress me as much as I had hoped it would. True, it improves in leaps and bounds once the first two tracks are past, but for me it stumbles a little on its way out the door too, and though there are some good, even great tracks here, there aren't enough for me to pronounce this a great debut album. I know they polished up their sound and am looking forward to future albums such as
Secret Treaties and
Agents of Fortune, but for me, right now, this isn't doing it.
Rating:
