Baltimore Civic Center November 17, 1974 Heavy Metal Sunday
The Civic Center was in a frenzy. Near-riot might be a more appropriate term. Blue Oyster Cult has just unleashed their 5-guitar attack on Baltimore & the natives were restlesss to say the least. BOC! BOC! BOC!, screamed umpteen thousand white punks on dope; to no avail. BOC never came back out & when the house lights came on, the frenzy hit a fever pitch. The rent-a-cops tried to gain control , but it quickly escalated beyond their flimsy grasp. BOC! BOC! BOC!, yelled a group of long-haired hooligans; as they ripped up a whole row of seats & threw them over the rail & down onto the rent-a-cops below. Fists were starting to fly. Just when all Hell was about to break loose, Steven Tyler walks onstage & tells everyone to calm down or they’re gonna pull the plug on the rest of the show. At that point, my 17 year old ass didn’t give a flying fuck if I ever saw Aerosmith (or the headlining Steppenwolf); they had better trot BOC back out there, or the Revolution starts right here & right now. Much to my amazement, though, the crowd clammed up like babies sucking on their momma’s tit. Luckily for Baltimore, Aerosmith & Steppenwolf were kick-ass enough to soothe us savage beasts. The Revolution would have to wait for another day.
Me & the boys had driven to Baltimore singin’ “Get yourself a cooler & lay yourself low” & “Come with me little girl, on a magic carpet ride;" but we rode home singin’ Cities on flame - with Rock & Roll."
And so began the 40 year love-love relationship I have had with Blue Oyster Cult. I’ve seen them 30+ times in a variety of venues since then, from arenas to clubs (big & small) & even in a converted Safeway. They have had 21 (or so) different lineups in the times I’ve seen them; but they always bring their A game (or at least their B+ game). If they are playing @ your county fair or even a local strip mall, I would check them out. You won’t be disappointed.
Blue Oyster Cult formed as Soft White Underbelly in 1968. They were headquartered near Stony Brook University on Long Island. Founding members Albert Bouchard & Donald Roeser had recruited Allen Lanier, John Weisenthal & Andy Winters into the band. Les Braunstein was 'discovered' by Mrs. Sandy Perlman and added to the band as singer and charismatic stage presence. Sandy Perlman was the band's manager of sorts & had managed to secure them a record deal with Elektra. Artistic differences led to Braunstein leaving the band & being replaced by the original sound man, Eric Bloom. Elektra wasn't happy with the switch from the San Francisco psychedelic sound, to the more Rock & Roll vibe that Bloom brought to the band & backed out of the deal. Perlman convinced the execs to give them a chance & after an audition with Bloom up front agreed to go ahead with the record.
Soft White Underbelly had a new sound & after a particularly disastrous gig decided to change their name. They became the Stalk-Forrest Group & went to California to record their debut album. Perlman gave them stage names & that's when Donald Roeser became Buck Dharma. Something fizzled & Elektra only ever released the single What Is Quicksand? (300 promo copies) before terminating their deal. The Stalk-Forrest group headed back East. Weisenthal & Winters left & Albert's brother Joe joined the band on bass.
Perlman managed to get an audition with Clive Davis @ Columbia Records & he was impressed enough to sign them up. Perlman also decided it was time for another name change & the band became Blue Oyster Cult. They weren't crazy about the name, but went along with it anyway.
Blue Oyster Cult's self-titled debut was released in January 1972. It received good reviews including one from the Village Voice's Robert Christgau that stated, "The tightest and most musical hard rock record since - dare I say it - "Who's Next." I had just graduated from scouring comic book racks to scouring record bins & the mystical cover & wacky name caught my eye. I took a flyer & was immediately impressed with some of it, but not quite able to grasp most of it. It stayed near the back of my rotation for a few years. When I finally bothered to listen more deeply I found that those tunes I had previously thought of as filler, had quite a bit of texture.
Saw them open with this many times including this one @ the Capital Center in '76:
Never quite grasped this one, but damn if ain't cool:
When gas was cheap as thrills:
BOCs homage to the events @ Altamonte:
And of course the celestial matters:
Then there was this one:
Blue Oyster Cult's debut album offered a dark glimpse into what we were in store for. It was the first record in the trilogy that is known as their Black & White period. It sold reasonably well, probably as much for the gimmicky name as anything else; as Cities On Flame was too brash for Top 40 radio & nobody was playing deep cuts at the time.
Tyranny & Mutation, Blue Oyster Cult's 2nd album came out in February of 1973 & totally slid under my radar. I was off on my Allman Brothers tangent & their debut hadn't caught my ear enough to warrant me plunking down my allowance & mopping the local bakery's floor money for another cool album cover. It was just another mistake I made along the way, as T & M is an outstanding record. All of the band members continued to share songwriting (and singing) duties. Sandy Perlman also helped write many of the songs & T & M is the album where Patti Smith makes the first of her many collaborations with the band. Critic Gordon Fletcher, of Rolling Stone, called it, 'An avalanche of sonic hysteria (that) summons your attention.' When I finally did get around to listening to it, it certainly got mine.
An updated version of their 'I'm On The Lamb ..' dedicated to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police:
Patti Smith helped write this one:
Subtle but to the point:
Pursued by an army of birds in the rain:
Just bustin a diz:
The heat from below can burn your eyes out:
Tyranny & Mutation was a very solid follow-up to their debut. Blue Oyster Cult was not a band that was easy to define. Not quite prog rock, not quite metal. Just when no one knew what to call them, they confused us even more with the release of their masterpiece 'Secret Treaties'.
End of part 1
