Blue Oyster Cult...

CanookieWookie · January 02, 2012, 04:45:08 PM

Where should I start? What are their "heaviest" albums?

Please & thank you.

Damocles74 · January 02, 2012, 04:52:04 PM

I bought "Fire of Uknown Origin" last week and, pfft

Burnin' For You and Joan Crawford are cool tracks, but that 80's synth is so cheesy!

CanookieWookie · January 02, 2012, 05:11:40 PM

Thanks, but not to helpful.

Damocles74 · January 02, 2012, 05:24:18 PM

I would like to know as well

I wonder what albums inspired "GHOST"?? hahaha

libertycaps · January 02, 2012, 07:31:37 PM

Start at the s/t & go chrono from there. Once you hit a meh stop.
BOC is like Scotch....an acquired taste.

Woody · January 02, 2012, 08:21:17 PM

Quote from: libertycaps on January 02, 2012, 07:31:37 PM
Start at the s/t & go chrono from there. Once you hit a meh stop.
BOC is like Scotch....an acquired taste.

That's pretty accurate. The first 3 are pretty great. Tyranny & Mutation is probably my favorite, especially side one. Ghost seems to be more inspired by Agents of Fortune, Spectres, Mirrors and Fire Of Unknown Origin.

libertycaps · January 02, 2012, 09:06:19 PM

If i had to pick one? Spectres.

GodShifter · January 02, 2012, 09:58:33 PM

Secret Treaties is the best, in my opinion but Fire of Unknown Origin is my favorite.

BOC isn't really a very "heavy" band. That have certain songs that are pretty heavy but the albums, overall, are hit and miss. Both live things are good, though. I'd recommend Extraterrestial Live as the better of the two (I'm sure there are many more than two - but "official" live releases, anyway).

Edit: Now that I think of it, Cultosaurus Erectus is a fairly "heavy" outing due to the fact that the album was a conscious shift to more heavy material after the more commercial/pop tunes on Mirrors. As far as Fire of Unknown Origin, a lot of that album comes from the Heavy Metal soundtrack, (though only "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" appears on the s/t). Tunes like "Vengeance (The Pact)" (or is it the other way around?), "Heavy Metal: Black & Silver", and, I believe, "Sole Survivor" were all written for the movie but didn't make the cut as the creative element behind HM decided to go with a more varied soundtrack as opposed to just one artist (BOC).

Lumpy · January 03, 2012, 01:26:00 AM

One of my first 'favorite' bands. Start with the first four studio albums:

Blue Öyster Cult
Tyranny and Mutation
Secret Treaties
Agents of Fortune

Stop there, IMO. (I've never heard the live album "On Your Feet or On Your Knees", I should probably fix that, but I'm way too far into other music.) They start relying heavily on keyboards after that, and sounding more commercial (dipping their toe in the water with Agents of Fortune) which makes later albums basically worthless IMO. I don't think I like any BOC after that, not even the 'hits'. Nothing.

Best album: Tyranny and Mutation, in my opinion.

(I should probably try Spectres again -- I forgot about "Godzilla" and "Goin' Through the Motions" but why...? Too many other things I'm more interested in now. First four studio albs. are where it's at).

Woody · January 03, 2012, 08:55:46 AM

Secret Treaties is an excellent tape. Probably is their most consistent.

vinyldinosaurus · January 03, 2012, 01:47:11 PM

I like all their major label albums up through Imaginos. My favorites are Mirrors, Cultosaurus Erectus and Fire Of Unknown Origin.

libertycaps · January 03, 2012, 01:59:53 PM

Yeah. The cheese is flowin' 'n gooey on most of Fire Of Unknown Origin, but isn't that part and parcel for the Heavy Metal genre? Esp. in the 80's? Not many old school 70's bands were spared from the cheesedemic that continued on into that cornball decade.

The Shocker · January 03, 2012, 02:44:54 PM

Quote from: libertycaps on January 02, 2012, 07:31:37 PM
Start at the s/t & go chrono from there. Once you hit a meh stop.
BOC is like Scotch....an acquired taste.

A taste I haven't quite developed. I keep trying though.

I'm talking about BOC - I quit trying with Scotch a while back. Bourbon and Rye for me.

Doommantia · January 03, 2012, 07:47:08 PM

I think Secret Treaties was their peak but there is a few other gems scattered throughout their catalog. They were not the most consistent band around. Funny enough they are my wife's favorite band and she owns every album, single, DVD, Video in existence. Every time they play near here, she drags me along to see them. I am not a huge fan of their albums apart from the first three but they are always great live.

RacerX · January 03, 2012, 08:09:18 PM

The live stuff is the best, and this is the best of the live stuff:

http://soundaboard.blogspot.com/2010/02/blue-oyster-cult-live-in-west-1975.html

As far as official releases are concerned, On your Feet or On Your Knees is the one, but all three live albums have their moments.

CanookieWookie · January 03, 2012, 08:24:42 PM

Thanks for the info folks .

MikeyT · January 05, 2012, 11:27:25 AM

I basically agree with 'conventional wisdom'.

Blue Öyster Cult
Tyranny and Mutation
Secret Treaties
On Your Feet Or On Your Knees

For the sake of comparison, they're way beneath Sabbath in terms of creativity, consistency and overally quality, imo; but they were pretty cool for awhile- significant enough to claim a place in the early 70's Hard Rock/ Metal pantheon- for TYRANNY & MUTATION, if nothing else.

Lumpy · January 06, 2012, 12:57:43 AM

For guitar solo flash, they are up there with almost anybody you can name... Richie Blackmore (is he still considered good? LOL) Michael Schenker, whoever. You pick 'em.

D.Roeser's solos > Tony Iommi's solos. (sorry dudes)

The whole mission of the band seemed to change around album 4 (play more upbeat, chart-worthy tunes) which was hard for me to accept, I guess. Tyranny & Mutation is probably my most-played album of all time (back in the day, you might only own a handful of albums, or a short stack... crazy, huh?)

GodShifter · January 06, 2012, 10:15:01 AM

Donald Roeser (er, Buck Dharma, -sorry Isabellcat!

), is a very talented guitarist. But I'm not sure I agree with you that he's as flashy or as talented as Schenker or, maybe, Uli Jon Roth. But for a seventies hard rock guitar hero, he's definitely up there.

BOC's trajectory is much like an early 70's mainstay hard rock band. Great, ground breaking stuff in the early albums, waning focus (shift to more commercial radio styled rock) in the mid to late 70's, and then the 80's, which brought confusion in terms of direction/sound.

vinyldinosaurus · January 06, 2012, 12:30:15 PM

Quote from: GodShifter on January 06, 2012, 10:15:01 AM
and then the 80's, which brought confusion in terms of direction/sound.

Sometimes that resulted in "happy accidents" such as Modern Medicine by Doc Holliday...

GodShifter · January 06, 2012, 01:11:11 PM

I'm a pretty big fan of 80's hard rock/AOR stuff, so I'm not complaining, for the most part, but I don't think anyone would argue that many great 70's hard rock/rock acts lost their way during the 80's. It was a tough time for a lot of bands in terms of direction/loss of fan base, and trying to stay "current" sounding.

MikeyT · January 07, 2012, 07:54:48 AM

"For guitar solo flash, they are up there with almost anybody you can name... Richie Blackmore (is he still considered good? LOL) Michael Schenker, whoever. You pick 'em."

Lump, Ritchie is the man.

Just as good as Jeff Beck or Duane Allman or Richard Betts, and right under Jimi Hendrix, imo.

"D.Roeser's solos > Tony Iommi's solos. (sorry dudes)"

Nope, but the comparison is not an insulting one- for either- they're more or less in the same ballpark, both great guitarplayers.
Roeser is perhaps more technically proficient, whereas Tony (and Geezer, for that matter) is brilliant.

EddieMullet · January 13, 2012, 07:24:22 PM

If you're looking for a good sample of 80's synth tainted rock The Revolution by Night is a guilty pleasure of mine other than "Take Me Away" not an ounce of heavy after that, for some reason it goes really well with Signals by Rush and Making Contact by UFO.

kirky · January 14, 2012, 12:00:23 AM

blue oyster cult is better in theory....pretty meh band imho....great album covers though!!!!

godzilla!

cat shepard · January 14, 2012, 12:15:29 PM

This has an awesome vibe, and a good beat for the freakout dance patterns of the late 60's.