Blue Oyster Cult CD

Also available in a 3-pack with TYRANNY & MUTATION and SECRET TREATIES.
Blue Oyster Cult: Eric Bloom (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (vocals, guitar); Joe Bouchard (vocals, bass); Albert Bouchard (vocals, drums); Allan Lanier (guitar, keyboards).
Producers: Murray Krugman, Sandy Pearlman.
Reissue producer: Bruce Dickinson.
Recorded at The Warehouse, New York, New York in October 1971. Originally released on Columbia (31063). Includes liner notes by Lenny Kaye.
Digitally remastered by Vic Anesini (Sony Music, New York, New York).
Personnel: Eric Bloom (vocals, guitar, electric guitar, keyboards); Albert Bouchard (vocals, guitar, harmonica, drums); Joe Bouchard (vocals, guitar, piano); Donald Roeser (vocals, guitar, keyboards, synthesizer); Allen Lanier (vocals, guitar, keyboards).
Liner Note Author: Lenny Kaye.
Recording information: CBS Studio B, NY (07/21/1969-10/??/1971); The Warehouse, NY (07/21/1969-10/??/1971).
Photographer: Sandy Speiser.
Two years before Kiss roared out of Long Island with its self-titled debut, Blue Öyster Cult, the latest incarnation of a band assembled by guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser and drummer Albert Bouchard in 1967, issued its dark, eponymously-titled heavy rock monolith. Managed and produced by the astronomically minded and conspiratorially haunted Sandy Pearlman, BÖC rode the hot, hellbound rails of blistering hard rock as pioneered by Steppenwolf, fierce mutated biker blues, and a kind of dark psychedelia that could have only come out New York. The band's debut relied heavily on the lyrics of Pearlman and rock critic Richard Meltzer, as well as Pearlman's pioneering production that layered guitars in staggered sheets of sound over a muddy mix that kept Eric Bloom's delivery in the middle of the mix and made it tough to decipher. This was on purpose -- to draw the listener into the songs cryptically and ambiguously. From the opener, "Transmaniacon MC," the listener knew something very different was afoot. This is dark, amphetamine-fueled occult music that relied on not one, but three guitars -- Bloom and keyboardist Allen Lanier added their own parts to Roeser's incessant riffing: a barely audible upright piano keeping the changes rooted in early rock and the blues, and a rhythm attack by Bouchard and his brother Joe on bass that was barely contained inside the tune's time signature. From the next track on "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep," elliptical lyrics talked about "the red and the black," while darkening themselves with stunning riffs and crescendos that were as theatrical as they were musical, and insured the Cult notice among the other acts bursting out of the seams of post-'60's rock. Other standouts include the cosmic "Stairway to the Stars," the boogie rave-up "Before the Kiss, a Redcap," that sounded like a mutant Savoy Brown meeting Canned Heat at Altamont. But it is on "Cities on Flame With Rock & Roll," that the Cult's sinister plan for world domination is best displayed. From its knotty, overdriven riff to its rhythm guitar vamp, Vox organ shimmer, its crash cymbal ride and plodding bass and drum slog through the changes -- not to mention its title -- it is the ultimate in early metal anthems. Add to this the swirling quizzicality of "Workshop of the Telescopes" that lent the band some of its image cred. [The 2001 remastered edition by Legacy gives punters four bonus tracks in the form of demos recorded by the band's first incarnation as Soft White Underbelly. These are not merely throwaways: it is readily apparent that by 1969, BÖC was well on their way to creating something new and menacingly different. The only questionable item is the last track: a cover version of Bobby Freeman's "Betty Lou's Got a New Pair of Shoes," that is utterly devoid of interest.] ~ Thom Jurek
Although Long Island, N.Y.'s Blue Oyster Cult would become one of the top rock bands of the '70s with such metallic radio hits as "Don'tRolling Stone (3/30/72, pp.54-56) - "...with the Blue Oyster Cult, New York has produced its first authentic boogie beast...an almost too-perfect melange...great ideas and deft touches, it'll grab you..."
Q (8/01, p.146) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...chugging Steppenwolf-goes-to-college rock..."
Mojo (Publisher) (9/01, p.122) - "...This record still sounds great....The bonus tracks are fascinating....you've got an evening's worth of air-guitar nostalgia. Special."