Blue Öyster Cult

Blue Öyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult live, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, California (July 2008)
General information
Genre (s)	Hard rock , heavy metal
founding	1967
Website	blueoystercult.com
Founding members
Singing , rhythm guitar , percussion , keyboard	Eric Bloom
Guitar , vocals, synthesizer , percussion	Buck Dharma
Keyboard , vocals, guitar, bass	Allen Lanier † (until 2007)
Bass , vocals	Joe Bouchard (until 1986)
Drums , vocals, guitar, percussion, harmonica	Albert Bouchard (until 1981, 1985)
Current occupation
Singing, rhythm guitar, percussion, keyboard	Eric Bloom
Guitar, vocals, synthesizer, percussion	Buck Dharma
Keyboard, vocals, guitar	Richie Castellano (since 2004)
bass	Kasim Sulton (since 2012)
Drums	Jules Radino (since 2004)
former members
singing	Les Braunstein (1967–1969)
Drums	Rick Downey (1981-1984)
Drums	Thommy Price (1985)
Keyboard	Tom Zvoncheck (1985-1987)
Drums	Jimmy Wilcox (1985-1987)
bass	Jon Rogers (1987-1995)
Drums	Ron Riddle (1987-1991)
Drums	Chuck Burgi (1991-1992, 1992-1995, 1996-1997)
Drums	John Miceli (1992, 1995)
bass	Greg Smith (1995)
Drums	John O'Reilly (1995-1996)
bass	Danny Miranda (1995-2004)
Drums	Bobby Rondinelli (1997-2004)
Keyboard	Kasim Sulton (1998)
guitar	Al Pitrelli (1999)
bass	Rudy Sarzo (2007-2012)

Blue Öyster Cult (abbreviation BÖC ) is an American hard rock - band . The best-known singles are (Don't Fear) The Reaper from the 1976 album Agents of Fortune and Godzilla from the successor Specters . BÖC was the first band to deliver a laser show in concerts. The band is considered to be the inventor of the heavy metal umlauts .

history

Blue Öyster Cult was first founded in the 1960s as Soft White Underbelly on Long Island , New York . In 1968 it became the Stalk-Forrest Group and in 1970 the name Blue Öyster Cult , which is still valid today, was introduced (initially without Trema ).

The underlay of hard rock sounds with texts by writers such as Sandy Pearlman, Richard Meltzer, Michael Moorcock and Patti Smith , who was in a relationship with keyboardist Allen Lanier in the 1970s, gave the musicians the reputation of being the heavy metal band of intellectuals to be.

While today the style of the band would be characterized as psychedelic - and prog-type hard rock, in its early years it was more inspired by formations like Velvet Underground , Doors and MC5 . The marketing idea of ​​the manager Sandy Pearlman and the record company was initially an American Black Sabbath . The reception of their albums is now largely limited to the independent scene. Influences from BÖC can be found in pioneering bands like Sonic Youth and Hüsker Dü , or also in Minutemen and Firehose , of which there are also BÖC cover versions.

The first three albums ( Blue Öyster Cult , Tyranny and Mutation and Secret Treaties ) established the band as a psychedelically inspired West Coast rock act. They contained songs that are now considered classics, such as B. Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll , The Red & the Black , 7 Screaming Diz-Busters , ME 262 , Harvester of Eyes and above all Astronomy . The guitar playing skills of Donald Buck Dharma Roeser and the texts influenced by contemporary writers such as Sandy Pearlman and Richard Meltzer were also outstanding .

In the years that followed, Blue Öyster Cult took it a little easier musically ( Agents of Fortune , Specters , Mirrors ) and integrated Kurt Weill influences , among others . The musical as well as the textual orientation changed towards science fiction and more complex hard rock. In keeping with this, BÖC was the first band to deliver a laser show in concerts. Her international reputation was now at its peak, mainly due to the hits (Do not Fear) The Reaper from Agents of Fortune , which is heard often in classic rock radio today.

This was followed by Cultösaurus erectus , which marked the musical transition into their 1980s phase. The following tour with Black Sabbath , Black & Blue , was seen by approximately 1.5 million viewers.

The next studio albums Fire of Unknown Origin (with their biggest US hit Burnin 'for You ), The Revölution by Night and Club Ninja are characterized by straighter hard rock songs with concise keyboards.

The concept album Imaginos , released in 1988, was supposed to be a solo album by longtime drummer Albert Bouchard. The record company preferred to publish it as a BÖC album, whereupon the other members of the original line-up were brought on board and, with their long-time manager and author of the “Imaginos saga” Samuel “Sandy” Pearlman, the production of the mostly finished album without Albert Bouchard End. The work was received very ambiguously by fans and critics after its release and is still one of the band's most polarizing albums.

After a few years of radio silence, BÖC returned in 1998 with a metal-dominated CD called Heaven Forbid , followed by Curse of the Hidden Mirror in 2001 and the live recording of A Long Day's Night in 2002 . The band still plays concerts regularly today, but these are mainly limited to the US west coast. The two founding members Joe and Albert Bouchard founded the band Blue Coupe in 2007 together with ex- Alice Cooper bassist Dennis Dunaway, which released the long player Tornado on the Tracks in 2011 .

In 2012 bassist Rudy Sarzo left the band, who had been with Blue Öyster Cult since 2007.

For the most part, the Black & White period of the first three albums is seen as the technical high point of the band. The 1976 album Agents of Fortune with the single (Don't Fear) The Reaper is the band's most commercially successful album.

Remarks

The lyrics to the songs Black Blade from the 1980 album Cultösaurus Erectus and Veteran of the Psychic Wars from the follow-up album Fire of Unknown Origin (1981) were written by fantasy author legend Michael Moorcock . In Black Blade is a song version of Moorcock's saga of eternal heroes ( Eternal Champion , in the lyrics Cosmic Champion ) in his incarnation as Elric of Melniboné .

The two pieces Heavy Metal - The Black and Silver and Vengeance - The Pact from the 1981 album Fire of Unknown Origin were intended for the film Heavy Metal (based on the comic magazine of the same name). However, Vengeance - The Pact was not used because it would have anticipated the story of the last episode from the film. In the end, it was a completely different song, Veteran of the Psychic Wars , from the same album that made it onto the soundtrack and into the film, while Vengeance - The Pact only included a text quote.

The 1994 Cult Classic album is not a best-of compilation. Rather, it contains complete new recordings of older songs and is therefore listed as an official album by the band itself. The background against which the album was created is the TV adaptation of the book The Stand by Stephen King . The book begins by quoting the third and last verse from (Don't Fear) The Reaper , which is why it was intended to put the song at the beginning of the film (curiously, only the first two verses are played in the end). Since the record company refused to use the original recording, the band re-recorded the song with their line-up at the time, which ultimately resulted in an entire album.

The song Don't Turn You Back was used in one of the slender games.

Discography

→ Main article : Blue Öyster Cult / Discography

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		DE	UK	US
1972	Blue Öyster Cult Columbia	-	-	US172 (8 weeks) US	First published: January 16, 1972
1973	Tyranny and Mutation Columbia	-	-	US122 (13 weeks) US	First published: February 1973
1974	Secret Treaties Columbia	-	-	US53 gold (14 weeks)US	First published: April 1974
1976	Agents of Fortune Columbia	-	UK26 (10 weeks) UK	US29 platinum (35 weeks)US	First published: May 21, 1976
1977	Specters Columbia	-	UK60 (1 week) UK	US43 gold (14 weeks)US	First published: November 1977
1979	Mirrors Columbia	-	UK46 (5 weeks) UK	US44 (17 weeks) US	First published: June 19, 1979
1980	Cultösaurus Erectus Columbia	-	UK12 (7 weeks) UK	US34 (16 weeks) US	First published: June 14, 1980
1981	Fire of Unknown Origin Columbia	-	UK29 (7 weeks) UK	US24 gold (31 weeks)US	First published: July 1981
1983	The Revolution by Night Columbia	-	UK95 (1 week) UK	US93 (16 weeks) US	First published: November 1983
1985	Club Ninja Columbia	-	-	US63 (14 weeks) US	First published: December 10, 1973
1988	Imaginos Columbia / Sony	-	-	US122 (8 weeks) US	First published: July 1988
1994	Cult Classic SPV	-	-	-	First published: June 1994
1998	Heaven Forbid CMC	-	-	-	First published: March 23, 1998
2001	Curse of the Hidden Mirror CMC / Sanctuary	-	-	-	First published: June 5, 2001

literature

• Irwin Stambler: The Encyclopedia Of Pop, Rock And Soul. 3rd revised edition. St. Martin's Press, New York City, New York 1989, ISBN 0-312-02573-4 , pp. 68-70.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Martin Popoff: Agents of Fortune: The Blue Öyster Cult Story, Bedford UK 2016
2. ↑ www.rockhard.de: Rudy Sarzo leaves Blue Öyster Cult
3. ↑ Chart sources:
   • Officialcharts.de (DE)
   • Hitparade.ch (CH)
   • Officialcharts.com (UK)
   • Billboard.com (US)

Web links

• Official website