CD Odyssey Disc 1883: Blue Oyster Cult

With my car in the shop, this week will feature much longer music listening opportunities courtesy of…the bus! Here’s the first offering courtesy of my triumphant (?) return to public transit.

Disc 1883 is… Ghost Stories

Artist: Blue Oyster Cult

Year of Release: 2024 (original recordings from 1978 – 1983)

What’s up with the Cover? A ritualistic BOC logo inscribed on the floor, framed by four candles, has summoned three ghosts. I like to think they are the ghosts of Allen Lanier, Joe Bouchard and Albert Bouchard for reasons that I will reveal later.

Whoever they are, it is a good thing ghosts don’t get tired of standing, because there’s just the one chair.

How I Came To Know It: Blue Oyster Cult is my favourite band, and I’ve known them all my life. Of course I was going to check out their latest record.

How It Stacks Up: I have 12 of Blue Oyster Cult’s studio albums. Of the twelve, Ghost Stories comes in at…#11. Since this is my first BOC review in four years, and is also the final studio album awaiting review, here’s a full accounting:

1. Secret Treaties: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 866)
2. Fire of Unknown Origin: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 751)
3. Spectres.: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 514)
4. Self-Titled: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1505)
5. Agents of Fortune: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 463)
6. Cultosaurus Erectus: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 206)
7. Tyranny and Mutation: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1273)
8. Mirrors: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 685)
9. Imaginos: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 838)
10. The Revolution by Night: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 1159)
11. Ghost Stories: 3 stars (reviewed right here)
12. Club Ninja: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 780)

If you want to read more Blue Oyster Cult reviews (who wouldn’t) all the records above and also four live albums can be found here.

Ratings: 3 stars

I’ve loved Blue Oyster Cult since I was a star-eyed child searching for their hidden symbol in every album cover.

It is this abiding love that has made most of their recent studio albums such a letdown. From 1998 to 2020, BOC released only three albums and I liked exactly none of them. Having never experienced this before (just check out the fanboy ratings of the records above) my reaction went from an initial no-this-cannot-be! horror that morphed over the years into a despondent resignation as the final notes ended on 2020’s disappointing “The Symbol Remains”.

Was there never to be another worthy studio album from my childhood heroes? Well, cancel the pity party, because “Ghost Stories” announces the boys (all five of them) as back. After twenty plus years of waiting, we’ve got a keeper.

The record has an unfair advantage, in that it is actually a collection of studio recordings made from 1978 to 1983, remixed in 2024 and dubbed “the final studio album” upon its release.

This era of BOC music features two critically lauded classic records (1980’s “Cultasaurus Erectus” and “1981’s Fire of Unknown Origin”) which are bookended by two records of lesser acclaim (“Mirrors” (1979) and “The Revolution by Night” (1983). I happen to love them all.

Stylistically, “Ghost Stories” feels like it spans these records yet belongs to none of them. Every tune is a facet of Blue Oyster Cult, making the whole feel more like a collection of singles and B-sides. Despite this, there is a weird cohesion on multiple listens, akin to an ‘island of lost toys’ kind of vibe.

Blue Oyster Cult has always been blessed with the ability to try on a lot of different aspects of rock and roll. They prog out, they do stadium, they do doo wop and barroom blues. It’s all here on “Ghost Stories”.

The band was always blessed by multiple songwriters and singers, all contributing to something greater. What’s missing on those later studio records I couldn’t tolerate is the absence of key contributors like Joe and Albert Bouchard and (as of 2020) Allen Lanier. On “Ghost Stories” they are reunited with lifelong members Eric Bloom and Buck Dharma and the alchemy of the five of them sharing space and ideas returns from beyond the grave.

The opening track is “Late Night Street Fight”. It’s a Bloom/Joe Bouchard collaboration that ends up sounding like something off a late seventies Alice Cooper record. It’s not my favourite, but I love the way the band embraces that lascivious acid inspired sound all the same.

This is followed by Buck Dharma sixties crooner inspired “Cherry” which is pop schmaltz, with just the right amount of strange added. It’s a song about a girl, but somehow the band explores the dawn of creation at the same time. BOC is here to challenge you, even when wearing the skinsuits of sixties teen idols.

The third song is “So Supernatural” an atmospheric number from Joe Bouchard that sways its way into a room like a curtain blown by an unseen wind.

Rounding out the songwriter round, we have “Soul Jive” cowritten by Albert Bouchard and Patti Smith (a collaborator with the band at this time, as well as lover of Allen Lanier). This one has a mix of barroom guitar groove and a sublime bit of guitar work from Buck Dharma. Lanier adds some tasty touches of organ. All these sounds shouldn’t work together, but they do, and that’s the fearless magic of Blue Oyster Cult.

“Ghost Stories” also features the studio versions of “Kick Out the Jams” (MC5 cover) and “We Gotta Get Outta This Place” (Animals cover), both of which appear live on 1978’s “Some Enchanted Evening.” I prefer those live versions, but the studio versions are no joke.

Despite my fawning, the record is not perfect. There are moments where it felt like the band was trying too hard to play empty stadium rock anthems, and while they are OK, you can see why they didn’t make the cut on the albums at the time. The production feels a bit too clean in places as well, which I blame on the band’s decision to use AI to help master the original tapes.

That’s the only blame in me, though, and most of all I am thankful the band dusted off these old gems, polished them up, and reminded us one more time what this band was capable of when firing on all cylinders.

Best tracks: Cherry, So Supernatural, We Gotta Get Outta This Place, The Only Thing, Kick Out the Jams

CD Odyssey Disc 1601: Blue Oyster Cult

Greetings and welcome to this rarest of events – a mid-week review! I guess I’m needing some escapism, and I know of nothing better than delving into some music.

This next one is a live record. I’m not one for live albums generally, but I have five by this next band.

Disc 1601 is…Live ’83 (also known as Nail You Down)

Artist: Blue Oyster Cult

Year of Release: 1992 but originally recorded in…wait for it…1983

What’s up with the Cover?  The boys of BOC, cleaned up and looking sharp. None sharper than Buck Dharma (centre). How I longed for Buck’s hair when I was a kid, but alas, it was my brother who was thus blessed.

I ended up with Eric Bloom’s hair (left) which I hated then but would learn to love as I got older and discovered the alternating joy of both a fully teased out afro, and the invention of styling gel. 

How I Came To Know It: My buddy Ross bought this for me. This is the second time he’s bought me an album of BOC’s live music out of the blue (the previous one was “Setlist: The Very Best of Blue Oyster Cult” reviewed back at Disc 1333). Thanks again for the gift of music, Ross!

How It Stacks Up: I don’t stack compilation albums up, but I have been known to do so for live albums if they’re all from the same show or tour. While “Setlist” doesn’t make that cut, “Live ‘83” does, and I’ll put it 4th. And here’s the full list of them for you to revel in, or vehemently disagree with (I am good either way).

1. Some Enchanted Evening: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 391)
2. Extraterrestrial Live: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 930)
3. On Your Feet or On Your Knees: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 716)
4. Live ’83: 4 stars (reviewed right here)

Ratings: 4 stars

You know when you’re at a show and some doofus is standing in front of you holding up his phone and recording it all, so he can release a shakey-cam, tinny rendition of the show on Youtube later to prove he was there? Well, that’s the image I get when I think “bootleg.” So knowing that this Blue Oyster Cult performance, was a bootleg of a show held in 1983 at the Pasadena Perkins Palace in California, I was a bit concerned going in.

Turns out I didn’t need to be. The recording sounds a bit metallic around the edges but that provides a welcome new way to give these songs a fresh voice. It is as though their 1974 incarnation had somehow stepped through a time portal, learned their newer material from their future selves, and then let loose with the youthful off-campus flophouse jam where they spent their formative years. Of all their live records, this one feels the most visceral, even punk adjacent, if it weren’t for the fact that punk never thrashed its way through songs this structurally complicated. On “Live ‘83” the boys seem willing to just thrash away, trusting their talents and the bones of the songs to carry along the more complex aspects of their art.

Every Blue Oyster Cult live album I have is a treasure, and not just because these guys play so brilliantly together, or that they are one of the most innovative rock bands in history. It is because beneath that crazy brilliant mix of melodic rock, crunch and prog the boys are, in their hearts, a great jam band. Blue Oyster Cult know the value of a few carefully placed licks and solos that make a song twice as fun without you noticing it is also twice as long.

I have been known to gripe that in recent years Blue Oyster Cult’s setlists haven’t been sufficiently varied. This is partly that I’ve seen them a lot, and I’m always looking for new tunes in the setlist. They could literally play anything new and I’d be happy.

“Live ‘83” comes out just a year after their more famous commercial release “Extra Terrestrial Live” and so there is some natural crossover, but there are also a whole lot of unexpected and very welcome nuggets. Most notably, they play two of my favourite songs from their first album, “Stairway to the Stars” and “Workshop of the Telescopes”.

“Workshop of the Telescopes” was particularly delicious. Coming in thirty seconds shorter than the studio version, they sacrifice a bit of mystery for a whole lot more energy. The original is the hidden mystery of cultists gathered around a telescope located on some dark hill. The “Live ‘83” version is the same scene, but the cultists are moshing.

The band also gives some love to Buck Dharma’s 1982 solo album, “Flat Out” performing that record’s most BOC-ish tune, “Born to Rock”. Buck’s vocals and guitar work are both brimming with energy, knowing the band’s got his back, and that while he was away to make that record, he was never really away. (Of note, Buck is one of only two original members remaining in the band today).

I only have two gripes with this record. The first is the three-song encore. The band does three of their usual “welcome back to the stage” mainstays: “Born to Be Wild”, “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and “Roadhouse Blues”. No complaints there, but somewhere between the main set and their return they either lost the original audio feed or something happened at the sound board, because things get a bit muddy.

My second gripe is that even at 4 stars, it is hard for this record to compete with all my other amazing live records by Blue Oyster Cult. OK, that’s not a gripe – more of a humble brag.

Best tracks: Love them all, but I gotta go with the new live stuff, so Stairway to the Stars, Workshop of the Telescopes and Born to Rock. This version of Burnin’ For You is also great.

CD Odyssey Disc 1505: Blue Oyster Cult

This next entry is the last unreviewed record of my favourite band, but the first album they ever released. And so, on your feet or on your knees. Here they are, the amazing Blue…Oyster…Cult!

Disc 1505 is….  Self-Titled

Artist: Blue Oyster Cult

Year of Release: 1972

What’s up with the Cover? This cover is trippy as fuck. As a kid I would stare at it and let my mind drift on thoughts of the cosmos. Like, is this one massive expanse of one bedroom studio apartments, or is this just the same one-bedroom apartment, if you could see it connected to all of its fellow iterations across the multiverse?

Did I really contemplate the multiverse as an eight year old? I can’t remember, but it seems likely. I was a weird kid.

How I Came To Know It: I grew up with Blue Oyster Cult and they have been a fixture in my life almost as long as music itself. My older brother Virgil owned the record, and I listened to it with him. As an adult I bought it on various formats over the years, and currently own it on CD and vinyl.

How It Stacks Up: As you might expect, my Blue Oyster Cult collection goes to 11. Competition is fierce, but their self-titled effort still manages to land in 4^th place overall. Since this is my last BOC album to review, here’s the full recap:

1. Secret Treaties: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 866)
2. Fire of Unknown Origin: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 751)
3. Spectres.: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 514)
4. Self-Titled: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
5. Agents of Fortune: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 463)
6. Cultosaurus Erectus: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 206)
7. Tyranny and Mutation: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 1273)
8. Mirrors: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 685)
9. Imaginos: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 838)
10. The Revolution by Night: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 1159)
11. Club Ninja: 3 stars (reviewed at Disc 780)

Ratings: 4 stars but almost 5

I’ve listened to Blue Oyster Cult’s 1972 debut many times, but every time I put it on, I am struck anew with just how weird it is. Weird and wonderful.

While BOC would go on to make many a stadium anthem through their career, in the early years their music was a mix of acid trip rock, prog and bar blues. Unsurprisingly, Wikipedia notes that this record peaked on the charts at #172, with no singles. It is a travesty that people didn’t understand how amazing these guys were until much later, and even then, few would become devotees willing to drill backward to see what they missed.

What they missed was some innovative music, played with precision and passion. A key element of Blue Oyster Cult is that they are first and foremost a band – a cohesive unit, where everyone brought value. Every member also contributed meaningfully to the writing, and four different members take on lead vocals at various points on the record.

In fact the most “radio friendly” (although apparently not played) song, “Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll” isn’t even sung by Eric Bloom, but by drummer Albert Bouchard. Bouchard has that less-than-perfect grimy voice that is perfect for this riff driven tune. Almost fifty years later, it also has one of the most recognizable guitar riffs in rock and roll. It is so awesome, the lyrics even come with a warning:

“Three thousand guitars they seem to cry
My ears will melt, and then my eyes.”

So, you know, listen responsibly.

The song features guitarist Buck Dharma rocking out, but his finest ever moments are captured on the bluesy and dreamlike “Then Came the Last Days of May”. The song is about a drug deal in the desert gone wrong, but the rather straightforward tale is lifted to new heights by Dharma’s incredible playing. If you ever want to know what musicians are talking about when the reverently talk about “great tone” then look no farther than this song, which is easily one of my top 5 favourite songs by BOC of all time. Probably top 3.

These are two of the more accessible tunes, but the record is full of other treasures once your ear adjusts to the weird mixture of sounds I noted earlier. “Transmaniacon MC” has the weirdest mix of groove and prog you’ll hear to start a tune, and while at its core it is bar blues, it is so dressed up with crazy flourishes and musical shifts you’ll start to suspect the bar they’re playing in is not of this world.

They double down on “I’m on the Lamb, But I Ain’t No Sheep” a song I always liked as a kid because it mentions the RCMP (“Canadian mounted, baby!”) but gets progressively weirder from there, and by the third stanza we have lines like:

“Hornswoop me bungo pony on dogsled of ice
Make a dash for freedom baby”

I have never been sure what this song is about. I think it is sex. Also drugs. So sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

Subject wise the record has all kinds of range. Science fiction references on “Stairway to the Stars”, more sex and drugs (“Before the Kiss, a Redcap”), and something between kink and cannibalism (“She’s As Beautiful as a Foot”).

The crazy topics and brilliant musicianship come together on one of the record’s best tracks, “Workshop of the Telescopes.” Dharma’s guitar lays down a complicated mix of blues solos and sixties psychedelia in one of the best sneaky-good guitar bits you’ll hear from a guy who has made a career of being sneaky-good. This one is sung by “main” vocalist Eric Bloom, who’s excessive rock style knows just how to infuse lyrics like:

“By Silverfish imperatrix whose incorrupted eye
Sees through the charms of doctors and their wives
By Salamander Drake and the power that was undone
Rise to claim Saturn, ring and sky.
By those who see with their eyes closed
You’ll know me by my black telescope.”

With import and meaning.

The record ends with the relatively straightforward jangle tune “Redeemed.” The words are fanciful in ways that would take too long to explain, but after all the psychedelic prog, the band finds one last way to surprise you, playing something with a very traditional sixties hippy sound that they twist into something delightfully grotesque.

When I am trying to get someone into Blue Oyster Cult, I do not start them with this album. It is wild and wonderful, but your first reaction may well be, “what the hell?” I implore you to keep listening, because this is some of the most innovative, thought-provoking and – yes – enjoyable music made in the past half-century. It is the redcap after the kiss – take it and see just how deep the rabbit-hole of this amazing band can go.

Best tracks: Transmaniacon MC, I’m on the Lamb But I Ain’t no Sheep, Then Came the Last Days of May, Stairway to the Stars, Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll, Workshop of the Telescopes, Redeemed

CD Odyssey Disc 1333: Blue Oyster Cult

It’s snowing right now, and I had to shovel the snow from in front of my building earlier tonight. I’m a bit out of shape, but it felt great just to get outside and do something physical. If I have to do it all week the novelty will fade quickly, but for one night it felt pretty good.

On with the music!

Disc 1333 is… Setlist: The Very Best of Blue Oyster Cult Live

Artist: Blue Oyster Cult

Year of Release: 2010 but featuring performances from 1974 - 1981

What’s up with the Cover? The glory days of Blue Oyster Cult when all five members were still in the band and Buck Dharma still had hair.

Using my incredibly keen eye for detail, I will surmise this is the band performing the instrumental “5 Guitars”.

How I Came to Know It: My friend Ross bought me this album as a gift. Thanks, Ross!

How It Stacks Up:  This is a compilation of live performances over eight years, so while it is cool, I won’t stack it up against other Blue Oyster Cult records.

Ratings: As long-time readers will know, “best of” records and compilations don’t get ratings here on the CD Odyssey.

Legacy Records decision to include Blue Oyster Cult in their live compilation series, Setlist, couldn’t have to come to me at a better time. I’ve soured a little on Blue Oyster Cult in concert in recent years, and this Setlist compilation was a timely reminder that these guys were once the kings of the live rock show.

This record is primarily a compilation from three of their iconic touring periods, each of which is represented by a live album that came out at the time: 1975’s “On Your Feet Or On Your Knees” (reviewed back at Disc 716); 1978’s “Some Enchanted Evening” (reviewed at Disc 391); and 1982’s “Extraterrestrial Live” (reviewed back at Disc 930).

If you saw Blue Oyster Cult on even one of these three tours, you have witnessed greatness. I didn’t get to see any of them. My brother saw the 1981/82 tour, but I was too young to accompany him to the big city at the time. It ate me up inside to hear his tales of a massive fire-breathing Godzilla and the revving of a motorcycle’s sword-pipe exhaust directly into the microphone until, like on “Cities on Flame” your ears melted. How I longed to have my ears melted back then but alas, it was not to be.

I did get to see them more recently, once in the early nineties and twice since. It was fun every time, but my only relic of their heyday is a second-hand “Black and Blue” tour shirt from a tour where they co-headlined with Black Sabbath. I know there’s some shame in having a tour shirt from a tour you didn’t attend, but damn it I’m keeping that one.

1975, 1978 and 1982 were great years for the band, and Setlist does an admirable job of pulling solid tracks from each tour. A lot of these are direct from my other live albums. It was nostalgic fun to hear them again, mixed together by someone who clearly had an ear for a true Blue Oyster Cult fan, and had somehow not had their ears melted off by a City on Flame or an on-stage Harley Davidson.

Three of the twelve tracks were new versions for me. There is a 1977 version of Godzilla from their “Some Enchanted Evening” tour. I’ve always thought the original live album version of this is the best BOC ever did, but the Setlist choice is a solid second choice and a welcome addition to my collection.

 However, the real treasures are two songs I had never heard live, “The Vigil” and “Flaming Telepaths”. “Flaming Telepaths” is one of my all-time favourite Blue Oyster Cult songs and this version (from 1981) is excellent. It loses a bit of the weirdness I love from the studio version, but it makes up for it with some rock crunch.

The real prize, however, is “The Vigil.” “The Vigil” is off of BOC’s 1979 album “Mirrors.” That record gets short shrift from fans because of its lighter production, but I’ve always loved it and felt it was underrated. It gets ignored on most setlists, with BOC pretty much sticking exclusively to “Dr. Music,” so I’ve longed to hear some of the other songs played live. Setlist made that dream come true, at least for “The Vigil”.

I was not disappointed, the live track has all the complicated glory of the original track, but with an extra minute of absolutely essential noodling. One extra minute of noodling on a track already six and a half minutes long is exactly the right amount of noodle I want in my live show.

My recent beef with Blue Oyster Cult has nothing to do with their performances. Yes, they are down to only two original members (Lanier has died, and the Bouchard brothers have moved on) but they bring in solid musicians who appreciate the music, and Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom both still own the stage. My issue is that they hardly ever change their setlist. I’m always getting pretty much the same 75 minutes of music, with small variations. For a serious fan, that gets annoying.

This Setlist record gave me every serious fan’s concert desire: a couple of deep cuts. Let the rubes have their reapers and Godzilla, but let them damn-well stand their in quiet confusion while we long-haired veterans keep our vigils and sing of flaming telepaths. We’ve earned a few minutes, and the band will be back to melting your ears in a more familiar way before you realize they were gone.

Best tracks: I like all of them, but the Vigil is particularly special as noted above

CD Odyssey Disc 1327: Soundtrack

The weekend is here, and Christmas is just around the corner! Let’s celebrate with a music review, shall we?

Disc 1327 is… The Heavy Metal Soundtrack

Artist: Various artists

Year of Release: 1981

What’s up with the Cover? That, my friends, is a Tarakian. No, not the giant lizard with wings, the woman. What is a Tarakian you ask? Basically, she’s part of an ancient race of warrior women who guard the universe from evil green balls of hate. Kind of a cross between Wonder Woman and Red Sonja.

How I Came to Know It: The movie “Heavy Metal” came out in 1981. It was rated R and I was only 10 or 11. More importantly back then the theatres actually enforced R ratings and you needed an adult with you to get in.

Fortunately, my brother was 18 and therefore passed for an adult. In a classic awesome big brother moment he got me in, and I watched my first R rated movie in the theatre. It was awesome.

My brother also owned the soundtrack to the movie, which I remember was a double album that folded out majestically and where the Tarakian was many times the size of the puny cover photo you see above. A Tarakian that size leaves an impression on a young boy, I can tell you.

Knowing the album as a kid, I still managed to resist it for many years as an adult. Then I finally broke down about two years ago and bought a used copy on the cheap.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 34 soundtracks, which I admit is a lot, but who doesn’t like a soundtrack? It’s a “best of” record thematically constructed around a movie plot. I expect the percentage of soundtracks in my collection is far lower than the average.

Anyway, I’ve got 34 of them and “Heavy Metal” is not one of the better ones. I’ll rank it…24^th. I’d give you an updated list, but I’ve still got one more to review.

Ratings: 2 stars

Warm and fuzzy childhood memories aside let’s get real; “Heavy Metal” is an average record at best. It is a mix of songs I already owned but am always glad to hear again, songs I simply had to have, and songs that range from boring to atrocious. It is a grab bag of cheap jewelry at a vintage fair, worth buying for the one or two pieces you really want, and as for the rest – that’s what the ‘skip’ function is for.

On the CD Odyssey there is no skip function – a full listen, monkey! With this in mind I have divided the album into the three categories alluded to above. Note that I will not be commenting on all songs, so consider the partial lists below a sort of musical synecdoche.

Category 1: Good Songs I Already Had

Blue Oyster Cult’s “Veteran of the Psychic Wars”: One of my favourite songs growing up as a kid, and a favourite still. VotPW is off the classic 1981 album “Fire Of Unknown Origin” (reviewed back at Disc 751). Of course, it is the WRONG song to anthologize from an album that had a song titled “Heavy Metal: Black and Silver” and another – “Vengeance (The Pact)” – which literally tells the story of the Tarakian in the film (which admittedly would have made it only suitable for the end credits, but still). “Veteran of the Psychic Wars” is co-written by fantasy author Michael Moorcock and is about an entirely different fictional character, Elric of Melnibone. But whatever, it is a killer song.

Black Sabbath’s “The Mob Rules”: Off of the album of the same name (reviewed back at Disc 157), this song is a killer metal track from the underrated second Sabbath record with Ronnie James Dio on lead vocals.

Honourable mention: Journey’s “Open Arms” (original album reviewed at Disc 212). The circumstances of this song’s appearance in the film is one of the reasons it was rated R. I think it was a sex scene between a cabbie and a damsel in distress, but I can’t be sure because Youtube wants me to log in to confirm my age to check, and I won’t do it. I feel like my brother already vouched for me back in 1981.

Category 2: Songs I Had to Have

Sammy Hagar’s “Heavy Metal”: Balls-out rock and roll, without necessitating a full album full of music by Sammy Hagar. Hagar has drenched this song in a laundry list of whatever he thought was cool back in 1981. The list includes “head bangers in leather”, “sparks fly in the middle of the night”, and “tight pants and lipstick”. It sounds ridiculous but take my word for it; it all comes together. Don Felder also has a song on the album called “Heavy Metal” which is pretty cool, but there is nothing that competes with the phallic fury of the Hagar offering.

Riggs’ “Radar Rider”: A killer track with a surging energy built for driving a car fast down a lonely highway. Or in the case of the film, for an astronaut to drive his 1960 corvette convertible in space. The song would be brilliant all on its own, but I won’t lie – the intergalactic corvette helped.

Grand Funk Railroad’s “Queen Bee”: The song is a classic early eighties anthem, full of majesty and vaguely creepy attempts at romance (“I’m gonna steal you from your hive/steal you away from every man alive…”. The song has a slow building bombast that seems so natural you forgive it all its excess. The film version has neither bees nor (thankfully) abductions but it does feature a naked Tarakian going for a swim that was no doubt a second reason I needed adult accompaniment to see the movie.

Honourable mention to Devo’s brilliant cover of Lee Dorsey’s “Working in a Coal Mine”. Like their cover of the Stones’ “Satisfaction” Devo takes a great song and makes it better.

Category 3 Dear God, No…:

Donald Fagan’s “True Companion”: Here Fagan is without his erstwhile companion Walter Becker (they were on a break) but just like a united Steely Dan, this song gargles balls, combining the worst that prog noodling and Holiday Inn jazz lounges has to offer. Dicken’s Fagin merely corrupts the morals of young children; Steely Dan’s Fagan makes them listen to his music. I remain scarred.

Riggs’ “Heartbeat”: That’s right, dear reader, not all Riggs’ offerings on the “Heavy Metal” soundtrack are revelations in driving ecstasy. This one is all plodding guitars and over-production with no substance. It feels like a Soulless Record Exec’s attempt to manufacture “the sounds the kids are really into these days.” Not even a joy-riding spaceman could have saved this one.

For good and for ill, this album represents the most bombastic ridiculousness that hard rock had to offer in 1981. I always put Heavy Metal on thinking it will be better than I remember it, but it never is. However, it is still fun enough in places to earn a place on the hallowed shelves of my collection.

Best tracks: Heavy Metal – Sammy Hagar, Devo – Working in a Coal Mine, Blue Oyster Cult – Veteran of the Psychic Wars, Don Felder – Heavy Metal (Takin’ A Ride), Riggs – Radar Rider, Grand Funk Railroad – Queen Bee, Black Sabbath – the Mob Rules

CD Odyssey Disc 1273: Blue Oyster Cult

Whenever I’m feeling a little down (which I am) this next band always seems to come along like an old friend to give me comfort. Ladies and gentlemen, the Odyssey’s house band returns.

Disc 1273 is… Tyranny and Mutation

Artist: Blue Oyster Cult

Year of Release: 1973

What’s up with the Cover? Bow down before the Ziggurat of Tyranny and Mutation! This is one of rock and roll’s great album covers. Stark, trippy and cosmic. I don’t know what dimension the guys who built this thing are from, but I bet they have good music there.

How I Came to Know It: I grew up with Blue Oyster Cult. My brother had all their records and I played them whenever I got the chance (or he allowed).

How It Stacks Up:  I have 11 of Blue Oyster Cult’s albums. I love them all, and with competition as fierce as it is, “Tyranny and Mutation” could only manage #7.

Ratings: 4 stars

“Tyranny and Mutation” may be the weakest of Blue Oyster Cult’s classic three first records, but that doesn’t make it any less a classic.

In their early career, BOC was heavily experimental, moving across genres with the carefree inspiration of a band that clearly didn’t care what people might think. They were out to make art and push the boundaries of what rock and roll should be. The record is loaded with urgent rock riffs, guitar and bass solos and general Lovecraftian weirdness. It has no business working, but it does, as the band navigates into the land of the strange without losing the churning edge that makes rock and roll what it is.

Because of this, this isn’t the first record I put people on to when I am trying to get them excited about BOC, but I know that given time its impressive musicianship and gargoyle-like beauty will win them over. In pop music, the anticipation of an expected hook or rhythm is what makes multiple listens increasingly enjoyable. With “Tyranny and Mutation” it is the anticipation of the strange turn of musical phrasing that draws you in.

As befits a record like this, there were no hits and nor do fans care about their absence. The single was “Hot Rails to Hell” which is a feverish energy-laden garage rock song, before garage rock was a thing. It is great fun, and the band still plays it in concert to this day, but it isn’t even close to my favourite track.

That would be “Wings Wetted Down,” a song I first remember hearing around the age of 6 or 7 when my brother put it on, partly to freak out his younger brother, but mostly because he wanted to share the magic of a brilliant deep cut he had discovered.

The song begins with a discordant guitar riff bouncing around in a minor key, a drum flourish and then the vocals of bassist Joe Bouchard. Blue Oyster Cult is one of the few bands that legitimately has multiple vocalists, and while Eric Bloom sings the majority of the songs, both Joe Bouchard and guitarist Buck Dharma frequently take a turn.

Bouchard and his brother (drummer Albert) also do plenty of writing, and they are often the strangest songs in Blue Oyster Cult’s catalogue. “Wings Wetted Down” is no exception, starting with the aforementioned disturbia of rock and roll repurposed, an ominous like a beast slouching toward Bethlehem as Joe’s vocals cut in with:

“Flights of black horsemen

Soar o’er churches

Pursued by an army of birds in the rain”

As a kid I wasn’t sure what was going on, but the song’s rhythms and ominous tune told me it was portentous. Years later, I still love it like its my first time hearing it.

There are also bluesy bar riffs, such as on the laid back “O.D.’ed on Life Itself” which has a bar-band swing and a clever arrangement reminding you that producer Sandy Pearlman (who cowrote this and three other tracks) may not have played an instrument but was very much a part of the band.

“7 Screaming Diz-Busters” brings in all the elements. Jazz progressions, funky bass lines and proggy shifts of tempo and (I think) time signatures. The song is seven minutes of excess but all it does is leave you wanting more.

All this and I haven’t even mentioned one of rock and roll’s great guitar players, Buck Dharma. Dharma is solid as ever, and once again selflessly letting his brilliance sit evenly in the mix with his band mates. This record has his style sounding rougher around the edges as the band explores a more organic approach to the music, but he still manages to drop some ridiculous solo work, subtly woven into the broader architecture of each song.

I don’t have anything bad to say about “Tyranny and Mutation.” It is very weird, so brace yourself for that, but if you open yourself up to that weirdness, you are in for a fantastic journey through the beautiful, misshapen heart of rock and roll.

Best tracks: The Red & the Black, O.D.’ed on Life Itself, 7 Screaming Diz-Busters, Wings Wetted Down

CD Odyssey Disc 1159: Blue Oyster Cult

I’m back a bit late from a delightful night playing board games, but determined to get in another music review before I hit the hay. Here it is!

Disc 1159 is… The Revolution by Night

Artist: Blue Oyster Cult

Year of Release: 1983

What’s up with the Cover? A lonely stretch of highway is lit by futuristic lampposts…and by frickin’ lightning bolts! As ever the game with a Blue Oyster Cult album cover is to find their symbol hidden somewhere in the art.

How I Came To Know It: I knew this album since my brother bought it back in 1983.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 11 of Blue Oyster Cult’s studio albums. In a very strong field, “The Revolution by Night” comes in at #10.

Ratings: 3 stars but almost 4

The year before “The Revolution by Night” came out Blue Oyster Cult’s lead guitarist Buck Dharma had taken a short hiatus and recorded a solo project. That record (reviewed back at Disc 1123) had a lot of eighties influences and Buck took those back to the band upon his return.

While “The Revolution by Night” still showcases some solid songwriting, this eighties production takes some of the punch out of the songs. Heavy synth sound and fuzz drown down Dharma’s guitar solos and everything feels a little distant. Distant is not what you want in progressive hard rock but even turning the volume up 20% higher I still found  it hard to draw much thump out of these songs.

Fortunately, there are songs so glorious that no amount of fuzz can hold them back, including the opening track. “Take Me Away” features a killer guitar riff, and a chugging powerful rhythm. Also, it features a plea to be abducted by aliens so, you know, standard Blue Oyster Cult fare.

“Shadow of California” has a majestic dread, including some solid drumming from newcomer Rick Downey (the song was co-written by ex-Alice Cooper drummer Neal Smith so drumming is it is no surprise drumming is a big part of the song). Downey plays well but the record is definitely missing a bit of magic without Albert Bouchard on the kit. BOC’s original lineup had a special alchemy, and any missing member affects the whole.

Still, with its hell-choir backing vocals and haunted-abbey organ playing, “Shadow of California” is the personification of foreboding.  You just know something frightening is coming. It isn’t clear what – just some buried evil at the cloverleaf junction. I suspect vampires. With a BOC song, vampires are always a good bet. But I digress…

“Feel the Thunder” is another haunted motorcycle song akin to “Golden Age of Leather” (off 1977’s “Spectres”) but it isn’t as good and again, the production cuts into the heaviness of the song.

Every now and then the eighties production is put to good use. “Shooting Shark” has an eighties drum sound, mixed well with organ and Buck Dharma’s high and airy vocals. It is all a bit light, but it works up there in the wispy cirrus. This song is co-written by Dharma and Patti Smith, and their talents mesh well. Dharma is the hopeless romantic, and Smith lends an element of carnival excess, but both believe in magic and it shows. Amid its seven-plus minutes of excess and atmosphere even the saxophone solo is passable, although I think I would have preferred Dharma’s guitar at that moment.

This record also sees BOC following on their (relative) commercial success of “Fire of Unknown Origin.” All that stadium rock may have gone a little to their heads on “Let Go”. As a kid, I thought “Let Go” was the most awesome anthem ever, as I pumped my fist to:

“B…O…C

You can be whatever you wanna be

You got the power, we got the key

Yeah, B…O…C”

OK, it’s silly but back in the day those lyrics seemed infused with sorcerous power, like I could summon the band into the living room just by singing along. Now the whole thing seems rather silly. I won’t say it is a good song, but it is a good memory and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that under all that silliness a kernel of that old magic remains every time I hear it. For 3:25 I felt like I was part of the band.

The album ends with a Joe Bouchard vocal on “Light Years of Love.” Bouchard is the weakest singer, but he does a good job here. In fact, until I looked it up I just assumed it was Buck Dharma. The song has some crazy flamenco guitar playing inexplicably mixed in with Bowie-like space opera effects and lyrics full of astronomical imagery. It is wild and wacky and more than a little cheesy, but it’s done well if you give it a chance.

Even though “The Revolution By Night” is the beginning of BOC’s fracturing as a band, it is fascinating to hear their sound still evolving. The production notes are mostly off, but the songs are still vibrant and ambitious. There were plenty of ghosts, vampires and space aliens to keep the 13-year old me happy when I first heard it, and years later I still find magic in this record.

Best tracks: Take Me Away, Shooting Shark, Shadow of California, Light Years of Love

CD Odyssey Disc 1123: Buck Dharma

After a couple of sleepless nights and a lot of fretting I decided to not buy the car I test drove. It was a beautiful piece of European engineering and style, but my heart still lies with American muscle. In the end Rock and Roll Logan won out over Businessman Logan.

And so the search continues, as does the CD Odyssey.

Disc 1123 is… Flat Out

Artist: Buck Dharma

Year of Release: 1982

What’s up with the Cover? Buck leans back majestically on a 1955 or ’56 Oldsmobile Starfire. Too bad Buck’s car has a flat because when the Starfire is up and running it’s the standout car on every highway, with the smoothest get-up-and-go you’ve ever known! Don’t believe me? – see for yourself.

How I Came To Know It: Buck Dharma is the lead guitar for Blue Oyster Cult. I learned this record existed years ago but it was impossible to find. Finally in 2003 they re-released it on CD. I’m still searching for it on vinyl. I don’t buy a lot of vinyl but for Buck Dharma I would make an exception.

How It Stacks Up:  Buck only did one solo album so it can’t really stack up.

Ratings: 4 stars

Blue Oyster Cult is a band where every member contributes to their sound. Because of this any one of them having solo success is a tough proposition. “Flat Out” makes a few missteps, but overall Buck Dharma proves that he has the songwriting and guitar playing talent to pull it off.

“Flat Out” was released in between two solid and successful Blue Oyster Cult records, “Fire of Unknown Origin” (1981) and “The Revolution by Night” (1983). In style, it resembles the latter more, with a much more pronounced early eighties fuzz in the production. I don’t love this sound, but Buck’s solo style and his high crooner vocal style matches it well.

The album begins with “Born to Rock” a blues-rock number and Buck’s tip of the hat to BOC fans expecting some hard rock. It is an energetic launch to the record and features some of Buck’s signature work on the guitar, but the bridge has some oooh-la-la-la” action that warns fans this will not just be another BOC record.

Buck then spreads his musical wings, experimenting with pop, doo-wop and prog-rock storytelling that is more in line with Pink Floyd than Blue Oyster Cult. If you just wanted another BOC album this might annoy you, but I loved it. Buck Dharma compositions are consistently some of my favourite BOC songs, and it is fun to hear let him untethered to any of his band mate’s influences.

Like with a BOC album, the guitar work is incredible, but in the back of the mix. Even solo, Buck knows well enough to let his guitar serve the song and not the other way around. As a result the record never descends into the noodle-fest it could, and the songs remain compact and thoughtfully structured.

The one exception to this is “Anwar’s Theme” an instrumental dedicated to recently assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. It is cool that Dharma wrote Sadat a song, but is a bit too heavy handed, a bit too jazzy and a has whole lot of noodling. I believe at a couple points it features a synthesized jazz flute. For instrumentals, I prefer the much earlier BOC number “Buck’s Boogie.”

Also heavy handed is “Your Loving Heart” which tells the tragic tale of a man dying of heart failure, saved by a transplant that only becomes available (spoiler alert) when his true love dies in a car crash and is revealed as a matching donor. The song starts out romantic and beautiful, but the middle section has just a whole lot going on – including a heart machine, a ringing phone, a ticking clock and hackneyed lyrics like:

“We have a donor! We have a donor!

Car accident – accident victim

Head injury! A good tissue match!”

I’m not sure if all those exclamation points are in the liner notes, but Buck sure sings it with a lot of positive yeehaw. This song reminded me of solo Roger Watters – still brilliant but now lacking someone to tell him less is more.

My favourite track is “Cold Wind” a song about a married man considering infidelity. Even though the worst crimes in the song are some romantic thoughts in a dream, Buck’s soaring vocals make it feel like the height of passion and angst. Also, there is some kick-ass guitar work (again).

On “Wind Weather Storm” the main instruments are a single drum sounding like a handclap, a stand up jazz base and (near the end) flourishes of saxophone. This should not work, but it builds so easily and the song is so damned catchy it all comes together.

The record ends with a cover of the Fleetwood’s “Come Softly to Me.” The song starts with some strange backward-playing tape but once Buck launches into the song he really shows his vocal chops. He doesn’t have a powerhouse voice, but it is sweet and he sings it like he means it.

My appreciation of “Flat Out” was helped a lot by the fact that Buck Dharma is the favourite member of my favourite band, so this record won’t be for everyone. It mixes up a lot of styles and not all of those experiments work. If you’re open to many musical styles and you like Blue Oyster Cult, give “Flat Out” a try. If you’re neither or only one of these things then approach with caution.

Best tracks: Born to Rock, That Summer Night, Cold Wind, Wind Weather and Storm, Come Softly to Me

CD Odyssey Disc 930: Blue Oyster Cult

Happy Hallowe’en!

My brother recently gave me this next album on vinyl, completing my Blue Oyster Cult collection on that format. Thanks, Virgil!

It turns out rolling this album was prophetic at this time, since my hallowe’en costume today was…a cultist! Not a Blue Oyster Cultist mind you, but rather a Cultist for Cthulhu: photos available at my wife’s fabulous fashion blog “Sheila Ephemera.”

Disc 930 is….Extraterrestrial Live

Artist: Blue Oyster Cult

Year of Release: 1982

What’s up with the Cover? A Blue Oyster Cultist descends the stairwell back stage, presumably primed to intone the sacred words of commencement – “Hello, Cleveland!”

Also, two dogs, statant dexter on a backstage azure. Although that last part could just be a filter.

How I Came To Know It: I have known Blue Oyster Cult since I was a kid (my brother owned all their stuff) and I’ve been listening to this album since it came out. It was the last BOC album I added to my CD collection, but I’ve still had it for many years.

How It Stacks Up:  I have eleven studio albums by Blue Oyster Cult and three live albums, including this one. Of the live albums, my favourite is “Some Enchanted Evening” but between “ETL” and “On Your Feet or On Your Knees” it is virtually a dead heat. I’ll put ETL second for now because I just listened to it, but really it is equal, but different. More on that later but for now since we’ve reached the end of the live albums, let’s recap:

1. Some Enchanted Evening: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 391)
2. Extraterrestrial Live: 4 stars (reviewed right here)
3. On Your Feet or On Your Knees: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 716)

Ratings: 4 stars

The Odyssey can mess with my expectations. I had fully prepared to rank this album third best of my three live albums, give it three stars and create a nice symmetry in the rankings. Instead Blue Oyster Cult did what they haven’t done to me in a long time – they surprised me.

It was a pleasant surprise and a reminder that there was a time when Blue Oyster Cult was constantly updating their set list. Of the 13 songs on “ETL” seven are songs that don’t appear on their previous two concert albums.

Part of this is they have a lot of new content, having released three studio albums since their last live album (1978’s “Some Enchanted Evening”). The new tracks include the rocking “Dr. Music” and “Burning For You” (still a staple of their live shows) and the fantastical proto-metal of “Joan Crawford,” “Black Blade”, and “Veteran of the Psychic Wars” (sadly none of which appear in their live shows of late).

For all the new content, they start things off with the very early deep cut “Dominance and Submission,” which had never appeared on a previous live record. It is awesome, and I wish they would introduce old and unlikely tracks like this nowadays.

The set-list definitely has more of a rock edge as new material slowly edges out a lot of the more progressive acid rock of the band’s first three albums. This doesn’t make it better or worse, just different.

Regardless of song choice, they tend to be heavier sounding than their studio equivalents. The bass and drums pound out with the dread and fell majesty of an elder god breaking into our universe. “Godzilla” in particular thuds along with a blunt power which is a lot of fun, and it even has Eric Bloom doing a little of his patented front-man banter to start it off. It is a little impacted by some strange sounds that probably went with a kick-ass laser light show that don’t translate well to audio, but you still manage to get the idea.

“Black Blade” and “Veteran of the Psychic Wars” are two songs co-written by fantasy author Michael Moorcock about his fantasy hero, Elric of Melnibone. The songs appear on two separate studio albums, and it is great to hear them together live.

The band always throws a cover song into the mix, and “ETLs” contribution is the Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues.” I’m not much of a Doors fan, but growing up in a small town I’ve heard a lot of bar bands wake up in the morning and get themselves a beer. Blue Oyster Cult’s rendition is a lengthy nine minutes but the beer gets delivered and the joy of the audience is evident on the recording. It probably would have helped to be there, but you get the idea.

The album’s production is a bit dull and I would like to hear the record remastered to a crisper, more separated sound. However, the echoing quality of the sound captures what it would be like to see BOC in 1982. They were on top of their game and you would have had to go to a big arena for the whole spectacle of it all. “ETL” makes you feel like you are there.

The “show” ends with the classic “ETI (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)” which is played in an almost proto-metal style that rocks pretty hard, although I missed the crispness of the studio version. Then things wrap up with “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” which the boys lay down with a vigour and enthusiasm that makes it feel like it is their first time ever playing the tune. Buck Dharma is particularly resplendent but by this time you just expect him to be one of the world’s greatest guitar players. He doesn’t disappoint.

While the sound quality is the weakest of the three live albums, the set-list is equal to anything that has come before. New songs blend nicely with old favourites, and the band is clearly having fun being kings of the world.

Best tracks: Dominance and Submission, Black Blade, Godzilla, Veteran of the Psychic Wars, (Don’t Fear) the Reaper