![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() “The writing in the notebook, notation from the stars.”Īs a university student in the late 1960s, Pearlman devised an epic fable entitled The Soft Doctrines Of Immaginos. Their reluctance to fully relinquish the innovations of 60s acid rock resulted in music which didn’t sound, as Sabbath’s did, like a wholesale rejection of sophistication rather, its oscillation between force and filigree echoed the post-Altamont confusion of a generation rudely cast from Eden into a grave new world of paranoia, mistrust and murder. Something else that distinguished BÖC from their contemporaries was the fact that each member of the band could, and would, sing. Brothers Albert and Joe Bouchard (on drums and bass respectively) comprised one of rock’s most underrated rhythm sections, supple yet forceful. Allen Lanier’s keyboards added a sickly, gothic tinge. “Stun” guitarist and frontman Eric Bloom - he of the permanent aviators - intoned tales of interstellar intrigue and earthbound debauchery in a velvety, laconic croon. Guitarist Donald ‘Buck Dharma’ Roeser alternated between post-Nuggets garage fuzz, blues-based repetition and Garcia-like prettiness. BÖC were laser-sharp and fleet-footed where their contemporaries were blunt and monolithic. While the band could certainly grind out the heavy riffs when required - as the debut’s ‘Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll’ demonstrates - their music just as often betrayed the unmistakable influence of West Coast psychedelic ensembles The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Quicksilver Messenger Service. It’s often said that Crawdaddy contributor Pearlman had intended his charges to be the US equivalent of Black Sabbath. “To the rhyme of the, of the, of the star clock.” For the third, Secret Treaties (1974), pulp paperback artist Ron Lesser continued the B&W theme, casting the band members as comic book supervillains gathered before a modified Messerschmitt piloted by Death himself. In addition, Bill Gawlick’s monochrome sleeve art ensured that BÖC’s first two albums Blue Öyster Cult (1972) and Tyranny And Mutation (1973) looked like nothing else in the racks. Steered by manager, producer and lyricist Sandy Pearlman, the band’s career between 19 took in songwriting collaborations with writers Michael Moorcock, Eric Van Lustbader and Richard Meltzer, not to mention Jim Carroll, Patti Smith and Mott The Hoople’s Ian Hunter, while titles like ‘I’m On The Lamb But I Ain’t No Sheep’, ‘Transmaniacon MC’ and ‘Mistress Of The Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl)’ hinted at an oblique wit equalled by few of their peers. Though Alice Cooper, Kiss and Rush did their best to maintain rock’s big bucks, high-visibility lunatic contingent, BÖC’s insanity was a great deal more insidious and intricate. ![]() New York’s Blue Öyster Cult are perhaps the weirdest rock group of 70s vintage ever to scan an arena crowd with potentially dangerous laser technology. To learn more about how and for what purposes Amazon uses personal information (such as Amazon Store order history), please visit our Privacy Notice.“A bedtime story for the children of the damned.” You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie Preferences, as described in the Cookie Notice. Click ‘Customise Cookies’ to decline these cookies, make more detailed choices, or learn more. Third parties use cookies for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalised ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. This includes using first- and third-party cookies, which store or access standard device information such as a unique identifier. If you agree, we’ll also use cookies to complement your shopping experience across the Amazon stores as described in our Cookie Notice. We also use these cookies to understand how customers use our services (for example, by measuring site visits) so we can make improvements. We use cookies and similar tools that are necessary to enable you to make purchases, to enhance your shopping experiences and to provide our services, as detailed in our Cookie Notice. ![]()
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