These tracks were also played on the tour but omitted. OD'd On Life Itself Stairway To The Stars Career Of Evil Flaming Telepaths Dominance And Submission Astronomy Transmaniacon MC
Their next studio album was bit of a departure from the old sound. From ALLMUSIC: If ever there were a manifesto for 1970s rock, one that prefigured both the decadence of the decade's burgeoning heavy metal and prog rock excesses and the rage of punk rock, "This Ain't the Summer of Love," the opening track from Agents of Fortune, Blue Öyster Cult's fourth album, was it. The irony was that while the cut itself came down firmly on the hard rock side of the fence, most of the rest of the album didn't. Agents of Fortune was co-produced by longtime Cult record boss Sandy Pearlman, Murray Krugman, and newcomer David Lucas, and in addition, the band's lyric writing was being done internally with help from poet-cum-rocker Patti Smith (who also sings on "The Revenge of Vera Gemini"). Pearlman, a major contributor to the band's songwriting output, received a solitary credit while critic Richard Meltzer, whose words were prevalent on the Cult's previous outings, was absent. The album yielded the band's biggest single with "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," a multi-textured, deeply melodic soft rock song with psychedelic overtones, written by guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser. The rest of the album is ambitious in that it all but tosses aside the Cult's proto-metal stance and instead recontextualizes their entire stance. It's still dark, mysterious, and creepy, and perhaps even more so, it's still rooted in rock posturing and excess, but gone is the nihilistic biker boogie in favor of a more tempered -- indeed, nearly pop arena rock -- sound that gave Allen Lanier's keyboards parity with Dharma's guitar roar, as evidenced by "E.T.I.," "Debbie Denise," and "True Confessions." This is not to say that the Cult abandoned their adrenaline rock sound entirely. Cuts like "Tattoo Vampire" and "Sinful Love" have plenty of feral wail in them. Ultimately, Agents of Fortune is a solid record, albeit a startling one for fans of the band's earlier sound. It also sounds like one of restless inspiration, which is, in fact, what it turned out to be given the recordings that came after. It turned out to be the Cult's last consistent effort until they released Fire of Unknown Origin in 1981.
I have all their live albums and despite this being the earliest, and therefore drawn from a smaller pool f tracks, it is probably the best.
The Black and White period is over and what remains is a bizarre mix of pop, hard rock and dark mystery. I love this album…it was my first exposure to BOC and it remains a favorite. Side one is right up there with side one of Tyranny and Mutation as the best album side ever. The lead off This Ain’t the Summer of Love is dark, and poppy plus the nice harmonies. The harmonies are excellent throughout actually. Alan's True Confessions is poppy, but it is still a very good song that happens to be surrounded by excellent ones. Vera Gemini is otherworldly (thanks Patti) and is one of my absolute favorite tracks. ETI and Reaper are justifiable classics as well as concert staples. Reaper has more staying power than most songs subject to such heavy radio rotation. Side two tracks take some abuse as not being as strong as side one’s, but that doesn’t mean there are not some excellent songs here. Morning Final is a dark classic that is often overlooked…it is my favorite headphone track on the album. Debbie Denise is pretty cool, the vibe is bizarre on this one. Tattoo Vampires is pretty good too. The bonus tracks include a very nice version of Fire Of Unknown Origin and a neat demo from Albert called Sally.
Interestingly, if you fast forward to the Long Day's Night live album recorded in 2002, the first 3 tracks are: Stairway To The Stars Burnin' for You OD'd On Life Itself
I own the MFSL CD and UK gatefold LP of this one. Will give it a spin now! Here’s a link to the album: Blue Oyster Cult "Agents of Fortune" - Full Album - YouTube
"Agents of Fortune" is a great album. Not as hard as the earlier ones but hard enough in places and very melodic, they probably needed to go this route to get more commercial success. Difficult to remember what an awesome song "Don't Fear...the Reaper" was the first 100 times you heard it. The stun guitar we found as awesome at school as Mike Pinder bending notes on the mellotron. Also "Sinful Love" sounds like the kind of song the fictional band Strange Fruit from the film "Still Crazy" should have performed.
Although the later albums have their moments, none of them were as good as the first 3 in my opinion.
Agents Of Fortune ushered in the next era of Blue Oyster Cult. A band so flush with songs that two of their best didn't make it onto the album!?? I think with Agents BOC took the next logical step in their progression with incredible confidence and with incredible success. I bought the album a few months after it was released and after taking some spins with it and getting to understand the album I was impressed. The band wasn't running out of ideas.....their musical ideas were expanding. I regard the next three studio albums as the second great BOC trilogy.
It's good but not great. Not too much to say that hasn't already been touched upon here. "Reaper" is still both their best and most overplayed song, sort of like if the Byrds were creepy. "This Ain't the Summer of Love" and "E.T.I." are fantastic, worthy of being on the earlier albums, and "Vera Gemini" and "Tattoo Vampire" are also good in the way that some of the lesser tracks on previous LPs were, but a lot of the rest is just okay. 1976 was a weird year for many '70s bands. The Stones, Zeppelin, Doobies, Skynyrd, ZZ Top, etc. - all released albums which were pretty good, but not top-tier in my opinion. The Cult falls into this category. I like the album, just not as much as what went before. But to be fair, it's not like they would release a better one any time soon either.
I Don't agree.....The followup album Spectres is a much better album than Agents and a stone cold classic. Had BOC left Debbie Denice and Tenderloin off of Agents and used Fire Of Unknown Origin and Sally instead they would have had a stronger album. As it is Agents hit's home with it's strongest songs ETI, Reaper, Summer Of Love and I will include the criminally overlooked Morning Final as well. But in my opinion the next album Spectres reveals BOC's true character. More on that later.
LOL, of course - it's just that saying you disagree with someone because they like an album better than you, I mean... really? God, if I did that - then that's pretty much all I'd say every day around here. "I disagree, I like this other album over here better," or "No, that's not right, the album you just disparaged is actually their best." Of course, I realize that there are folks here who do just that.
Agents is not a top tier Cult album IMO. Apart from two great songs (ETI and Reaper) there is not much that I like. Luckily it was not my first exposure to BÖC (that was either On Your Feet or the first one I believe). If this was my first hearing of them it is doubtful I would have explored their catalog further and became the huge fan that I am now.
Yes I realize saying "I disagree" is gratuitous and unnecessary. But we still have to have a discussion here and the only way I see that happening is to disagree when I disagree otherwise I would just post "ditto". I should have said I completely agree with you about everything you stated except for all that stuff you said about BOC.
Exactly opposite of my experience with this album: it was my first exposure to BOC, I loved it right away, I think most of the songs are very good to excellent and I discovered the black and white albums only after I digested this one. I still rate Secret Messages a bit higher -but only a bit!
I suppose you can guess what my favorite BOC album is by my long-time avatar. I've been listening to BOC since I bought On Your Feet when it was the NEW album. The origins of the bands name are... well, there is more than 1 explanation. One I heard was that albert brought in a new ludwig drum kit, finished in something called "blue oyster pearl" and Pearlman or Meltzer was inspired by that. No mention of the amazing bootleg "Fantasy Distillation of Reality"? Its a live EP thing from around time of first album and tyranny - Buck plays his rear end off, quite amazing that he was so good, even back then. We got tix to go see them in Atlanta in Feb, this will probably be about the 10th time I've seen them over the years.
for those of you curious as to what they looked like during the On Your Feet era - good pro shot concert here from Paris France. Take note of how little Bloom actually plays guitar. Some chords here and there and the rest of it mostly Buck. However, Bloom does the neat guitar melody line on Flaming Telepaths... I always figured THAT was Buck.
My god who'd have thought their are B.O.C. elitists in the world. The unspoken word here is commercialism. His album sounds 1000% better than their first four and I really have to disagree harshly with anyone who honestly thinks that any of their first three have an edge in the songwriting. You may like the early sound but Agents is their best album, period, exclamation point.
Agents of Fortune I consider this album good rather than great, and I rank it around the middle of the pack in the band's discography. B.O.C. hit the nail on the head with E.T.I. and Don't Fear The Reaper, and there are other strong tracks (This Ain't The Summer Of Love, Tattoo Vampire) on board, but taken as a whole it doesn't reach the same heights as Tyranny And Mutation, Secret Treaties, Cultosaurus Erectus, and Fire Of Unknown Origin--my top 4 B.O.C. faves. Still, it was a change in direction that probably needed to happen after the sonic assault of the Red And Black trilogy. So then, Agents Of Fortune gets a solid B grade from this listener.
