We move on…and start our look back at the music of 50 years ago…circa 1972…another great year in popular music….
Early in 1972 we got the first LP from the band known as Blue Oyster Cult. The band had been kicking around Long Island under various names for a number of years without breaking through. Managed by Sandy Pearlman, who also wrote many of the band’s lyrics, got the band signed by Columbia who might have been looking for them to be an American answewr for Black Sabbath. This initial effort showed they aspired to be more than that. As one critic put it…”this is heavy metal for those who don’t like heavy metal”. I’m not sure if that was a compliment or not but the band certainly aspired to more than just head-banging.
The guys could cook…no doubt…led by the ringing lead guitar of Donald Roeser (aka Buck Dharma), the second guitar (called his “stun” attack) from Eric Bloom, Allen Lanier’s keyboards and the rhythm section of the Bouchard brothers, Joe on bass, Albert on drums.
Lyrically, they seemed to mix dark, doom like visions with more psychedlec themes. From the opening track “Tansmaniacon M.C.”, based on the Altamont Concert to the Dharma penned “Then Came The Last Days of May’, a tune about the killing of some of their college friends in a drug deal gone bad, the subject matter ain’t no stroll in the sunshine.
A couple of rockers stand out…”Cities on Flame With Rock & Roll” and ‘Stairway To The Stars” . And their is weirdness a’plenty in songs like “She’s As Beautiful As A Foot”.
And then there is “I’m On The Lamb, But I Aint No Sheep”, A song they had recorded a number of times before this first released version….it was re-worked at a faster tempo and heavier guitars and re-titled “The Red & The Black” for their next LP. Here are both for your comparison…
The production can be a bit muddy at times and the lyrics on some of the songs are hard to hear…but it’s a solid debut for a group that would rock out for quite awhile and have a number of classic songs over the years.
