Heavy Metal music is often mentioned with horror music, and Blue Oyster Cult was one of the reasons why. It’s almost funny to listen now and hear them for what they were, a hi energy hard rock group who are maybe more at home in a record collection next to Cheap Trick and The MC5, than most of The New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands of the late-70’s. They were smarter than most with an intellectual take on Sci Fi and Horror themes. The obvious horror reference point with BOC is Don’t Fear (the Reaper), but there are others like: Godzilla, Tattoo Vampire and Harvester of Eyes among others. Strangely it was the fact that Radio Birdman were fans that got me to pick up the first four BOC albums, which had just been remastered and reissued. In addition to the afore mentioned horror there were plenty of songs that fall into the more Psychotronic end of the spectrum. My personal fave and your song recommendation for today is Hot Rails to Hell. BOC don’t seem to get the respect that they deserve in the main stream, so if you are willing to open your ears and take a chance, check out their early stuff….
Tomorrow…. Whhhhaaaaa Black Sabbath ………..
My Trusted MOGs
I wouldn't rave about em, but I have the first and third BOC albums, and there's some quality and stylistic depth (breadth?) that you don't find in other bands of theoretically the same genre. City's On Flame With RocknRoll is another great straight up rocker, Then Came The Last Days of May a cool spooky desert ballad, and the album with Don't Fear The Reaper includes This Ain't The Summer of Love, a sentiment that coulda sucked if done over the top or without the hope that this coulda been the summer of love. Again, not one of my favorite bands, but they made some good records, they knew their psychedelic roots as well as their metal ones, they could play and they had a sense of humor, and their songwriting reflected both their quirkiness and their intelligence - who the hell else could've written a good song called She's As Beautiful As A Foot?
My Trusted MOGs
White Flag did an awesome cover of Hot Rails. Actually they did 2 versions. One with Tesco Vee of the Meatmen singing and the other all White Flag.
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BOC was my first concert - and it was awesome. Anyway would lump them next to Rush versus Cheap Trick. I think I have close to 6 BOC albums (Club Ninja was the last I could buy from them).
My Trusted MOGs
I love the Tesco Vee/ White Flag cover of Hot Rails to Hell, The Red and the Black was covered by the Minutemen, and Dominance Submission has been covered by Radio Birdman. When I said BOC is closer to Cheap Trick than say Judas Priest I was talking about the energy and the drive of the music, sorry if I didn't make that as clear as I could have...
My Trusted MOGs
It's all about "ASTRONOMY"...