Blue Öyster Cult Album by Album Thread

With the release of the Columbia Box Set it seems like a good time to give this great American band their very own album by album thread, so here it is:


Well…what better place than to start at the beginning? They had some cool songs they recorded for Electra prior to their name change to Blue Oyster Cult, but this is where it all really starts. I actually did not hear this album until around 1978 after I already owned On Your Feet or On Your Knees. The songs are mostly strong with a few remaining active in their live sets for many years. The recording quality is a bit lifeless, but even that can’t keep these good songs down. We got the Creepy “Transmaniacom MC”, She’s as Beautiful as a Foot” and “Workshops of the Telescopes”, the rockers like “Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll” and “Before The Kiss”. Then Came the Last Days of May is a fine debut by Roeser. Not much wrong with this one, “I’m On The Lamb…” will be vastly improved imo when changed on the next album to “The Red and the Black”. Donovan’s Monkey is a leftover from the Electra days is is pretty damn cool. Great songs, great art and great song titles –the mold is set. And your thoughts?

from wiki:
Blue Öyster Cult is the eponymous debut album released in January 1972. The album was well received by critics. Lester Bangs gave the album a generally positive review in Rolling Stone stating, "with the Blue Öyster Cult, New York has produced its first authentic boogie beast, and with any luck this one should be around for awhile" telling readers that "I don't think you should miss this album."[4] Circus wrote that "it could well be the album of the Seventies",[8] while Robert Christgau in The Village Voice called it "the tightest and most musical hard rock record since - dare I say it - Who's Next".[5] The record was named an honorable mention on IGN's list of "Top 25 Metal Albums"[9] and has been called "Heavy metal for people who hate heavy metal."

Side one

1. "Transmaniacon MC" (Sandy Pearlman, Albert Bouchard, Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, Eric Bloom) – 3:21
2. "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" (Pearlman, A. Bouchard, Bloom) – 3:10
3. "Then Came the Last Days of May" (Roeser) – 3:31
4. "Stairway to the Stars" (Richard Meltzer, A. Bouchard, Roeser) – 3:43
5. "Before the Kiss, a Redcap" (Lanier, Pearlman, Roeser) – 4:59

Side two

1. "Screams" (Joe Bouchard) – 3:10
2. "She's as Beautiful as a Foot" (Meltzer, A. Bouchard, Allen Lanier) – 2:58
3. "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll" (Roeser, A. Bouchard) – 4:03
4. "Workshop of the Telescopes" (Pearlman, A. Bouchard, Roeser, Lanier, J. Bouchard, Bloom) – 4:01
5. "Redeemed" (Pearlman, Harry Farcas, A. Bouchard, Lanier) – 3:51

2001 CD reissue bonus tracks

1. "Donovan's Monkey" (Meltzer, A. Bouchard) – 3:50
2. "What is Quicksand" (Meltzer, Lanier) – 3:40
3. "A Fact About Sneakers" (Meltzer, A. Bouchard) – 2:50
4. "Betty Lou's Got a New Pair of Shoes" (Bobby Freeman) – 2:34

 

YEAH! Bring it on, looking forward to this thread and put on the first to follow along. Not sure I agree about the "lifeless" recording quality, the sound of the early BOC records I kind of like! I dig the super duper mega crushed Buck Dharma guitar sounds. They must have chained up twenty compressors in a row on that guy's guitar sounds. But anyway thanks for starting this, I'm here for the duration!

I only wish I knew what Pearlman was on about... a book on his lyrical contributions would be really neat.

 

The best version in digital format is the Mofi Ultradisc, nothing comes close IMO. This album still remains in my heavy rotation playlist, I never tire of classics like Last Days, Cities on Flame and Stairway to the Stars.

Good idea to do this.

 

I agree the Mofi is the best I've heard, and She's As Beautiful As A foot is my favorite off of this album.

 

Love that song too. What a vibe! The band really was something different. Pearlman wanted America's answer to Black Sabbath, but he achieved something even greater (and I love Ozzy's Sabbath).

 

In the early 70s my school friend Vol worked at a local supermarket that had a record rack. We used to hang out in the little bedroom of his family's mobile home because he had an Electrophonic stereo. We met after school one day because he had a new album (I hope he paid for it) by a group called Blue Oyster Cult. Waaa? What does THAT mean? Anyway, it did have a cool cover (in an odd sort of way). Black and white.

We put on side one and wow! What is the music? And what do those song titles mean? And then came "Then Came the Last Days of May". Haunting guitars...creepy backing vocals ("What fun..."). Amazing! A song about a drug deal gone bad! That was it. I was hooked. I was 15 and didn't understand all of it but I understood enough to know it would be worth trying to figure out the rest.

That was many years ago. I've seen them in concert more times than any other group...from the arenas of their laser days to a very small fairgrounds stage as part of a three band lineup...the other two being ARS and BTO...that was my son's first rock concert (he was 8).

Someone a long time ago also called their music "...thinking man's heavy metal". I'm still hooked.

 

Great story No Static...

 

One of my favorite debut albums. I'll never get tired listening to it.

 

Great idea for a thread. Big fan of BOC and of this album. Favorite song is "Stairway to the Stars".

 

Love BOC, but the first 2 are a little raw for me.

 

Let me know when you get to 'Club Ninja'.

 

I can't hear that song without thinking of Sarah Jessica Parker.

 

Damn, I just realized that album was made when men still walked on the Moon, it's almost 41 years old!

 

This is one of the best, if not the best, debut albums in American rock. Love the music, love the mystery of it, still love the "underground" feel to it.

.

 

If I could only pick one BOC album this would be it. Whenever I see a mint copy on vinyl I just can't leave it and in fact found an '80s "Nice Price" repress brand new recently.

On digital, the remaster is interesting for the bouns tracks but I prefer sound on the original Columbia.

When they played "Transmaniacon MC" live at The Brook, Southampton, England a few years back, that was the track that made the gig for me.

The dark feel of the album and the whole mystique behind early BOC was very influential on my early music tastes.

Edit: ah and I nearly forgot the early artwork, very simple but so, so distinctive!

 

Thank you for starting this thread. I always liked all the early BOC albums and it was about time I revisited them again. The raw, stripped-down sound of "Then Came The Last Days of May" is a favourite.

 

Although the mid-70s is my favorite era for BOC, this debut is completely timeless and revolutionary. Holds up very well today in ways other contemporary records don't per say. Great guitar tone from Buck too. I need to give it another listen!

 

A solid debut, though not one of my very favorite BOC albums. It's always sounded very muddy/muffled. I've still got my older brother's first vinyl printing and it sounds like you're listening to it through a wall. Love the mixing however--it's a great headphone album. Favorite tracks have always been "Last Days of May" (a top 5 BOC song for me), "Before The Kiss" and "Redeemed." Lately I haven't been able to get "Workshop of the Telescopes" out of my head. Lots of cool and weird guitar in that song.

 

I think, it's one of the best ROCK debuts...

 

I came to BOC in the early '80s thanks to the Heavy Metal soundtrack. I went back and picked up the first two LPs at the local Wherehouse because they were only $3.99 each!!

Now, like pretty much any teenager of the time, I had a pretty crappy stereo in my room. But I vividly remember that even on that stereo there was a startling amount of tape hiss present on the first BOC album. And the recording sounded just kind of dreadful and flat.

Little did I know it, but I'd just run into my first lousy reissue. A formative vinyl experience, and one we've probably all shared.

It was never a great-sounding LP on vinyl, but the MoFi is another matter completely. LOVE IT.

 

Nice Family Guy reference Master Shake....and Scott even Club Ninja has "Perfect Water", a late period classic.

 

The artwork reminds me of an HP Lovecraft short story and Stairway to the Stars and Workshop of the Telescopes completes the picture.

 

Ah yes...I think the artwork plays a great part of the essence of the album and of this band. The iconic logo, the symbol of Kronos, was used by artist Bill Gawlik on his master thesis in college. Sandy Perlman liked the symbol so much, he hired Gawlik to do the album cover...and the symbol became the bands logo. Gawlik also did the artwork for the bands second album. The artist listened to the Cult's first album over and over. After 24 straight hours of work Gawlik told Sandy Pearlman, "This is tyranny and mutation!"

 

Love the first album from start to finish. The first three albums are my favorites by the band. Now i want to here the mofi.

 

The debut was one of the last BOC albums I heard. When I became a huge fan around '97, I would go to the CD store and get a BOC CD every week or two. They had most of them, but not this one. I loved the songs I had heard from the Workshop of the Telescopes comp, so I asked the store owner if he could order me a copy. Soon I had it, and would listen to it over and over, loving everything from the lyrics to the playing to the contrast in Eric's and Buck's vocals.

And as mentioned earlier, it's great with headphones.