For my money, Frank Marino was the best rock guitar player that came from the 70s and made some classic and trippy rock and roll for 20th Century and later Columbia Records to which Frank considered that to be one of the darkest periods of his music career. I first heard Frank on California Jam 2, to which they showed him doing an edited version of Johnny B Goode but left off the electric reflections of war segment. Frank never cared for that either and what you didn't hear on the LP was his final song a version of the Mickey Mouse Club Theme. An outsider even in rock and roll.
The comparisons to Jimi Hendrix has been a touchy subject to Frank and even though he cites him as a influence, his other influence was Johnny Cipolina of Quicksilver Messenger Service. The first album Maxoom is Frank's tribute to Jimi Hendrix and it shows by his guitar playing and song delivery. The next album Child Of The Novelty, Frank begin to distanced himself from the Hendrix myth as he begin to sing about a New Rock And Roll. His band Mahogany Rush had wild man James Ayoub on drums and Paul Harwood on bass and they complimented his guitar player quite well. The next album Strange Universe got a bit more heavier Land Of 1000 Nights, Frank has said was written from the after effects of a bad acid trip. I love it as well as failed hit single Satisfy Your Soul. Although the record was underpromoted by 20th Century, Frank took his act over to Columbia for the classic years. And years of distain.
Mahogany Rush IV sometimes I think is their best studio album. There's more confidence in Frank's vocals but his guitar work was nothing short of awesome. Frank was migrating toward a jazzier and progressive rock sound on Dragonfly or The Answer but Little Sexy Annie is pure rock fun. The World Anthem continued more into Prog rock with Requiem For A Sinner and the title track but like Little Sexy Annie, Hey Little Lover is back to rock but a bit more complex on the beat.
As the ad proclaimed it takes other bands to make a 2 record set whereas it takes Frank to make one album, basically it was Columbia not springing for the full two record set so Live! was kept to a one LP set. But this was the live record that I played all the time in my Senior year and got my best friend hooked on Frank as well. Beginning with plenty of fireworks, Frank leads off with a killer start of The Answer and Dragonfly before bringing on the blues with a killer I'm A King Bee and showstoppers A New Rock And Roll and more stripped down Johnny B Goode from the Cal Jam 2 version. The medley of Talkin About A Feeling/Who Do You Love/War/New World Anthem is so over the top at the end one has to hear it to believe it. And then the usual Jimi Hendrix tribute with Purple Haze. This is the legend of Frank Marino from start to finish.
Tales Of The Unexpected (1979) continues the Hendrix love with Sister Change and All Along The Watchtower before going into Norwegian Wood and the jazz/prog rock of Tales Of The Unexpected. The inclusion of live versions of new songs Down Down Down, Door Of Illusion, Woman and Bottom Of The Barrel kinda deflated the momentum of the first side and pales to the Live album. Reviews were mixed but it's really not that bad. A subpar Frank Marino could outrock Ted Nugent on his best any night (with the exception of Ted's S/T Epic album) but for some reason the buying public that bought the Live album got off the bus on Tales
What's Next (1980) was a more return to form but again radio only played Roadhouse Blues, the Doors cover and Rock Me Baby to which Frank's version was more Robin Trower than BB King or Jimi. In fact, What's Next was Marino moving away from the sound of Hendrix to a more signature sound and it's very heavy sounding on You Got Livin and the 8 minute Loved By You. The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame/Mona medley is throwaway. The biggest selling album for Columbia has never seen CD release in the US (Black Rose issued a poorly mastered CD).
With that Frank retired the Mahogany Rush name and made perhaps his more heaviest albums with The Power Of Rock And Roll and Juggernaut. Both sold well but Columbia never promoted them very well. The former album's powerful title track should have made it to rock radio. Other fine rockers include Ain't Dead Yet and the jazz fusion that is Go Strange. Juggernaut, his final CBS platter contained his only hit single Strange Dreams to which I never heard on KRNA nor KKRQ but have on XM radio. Juggernaut had the searing title track, the crash and bash Free and Stories Of A Hero which actually harkens back to World Anthem. It sold enough but by then Frank, tired of dealing with a corporate label clueless how to market him walked away.
When he disappeared from the rock and roll world, I kind of forgotten him till I pulled out Live or Strange Universe and the CBS albums that he did. Full Circle, while rocking, was venturing toward new age, a honest effort but it didn't do much for me. In 1993 Frank retired from music only to be brought back by the fans who continued to support his back catalog and of course it may have something to do with Razor and Tie cherry picking some cuts into a best of Dragonfly, a big mess since it includes nothing from the 20th Century albums and ends up putting the wrong songs off Power Of Rock And Roll. Buyer Beware. Sony Music issued in the states Live and Tales only, the rest are import only. However, the 20th Century albums have been reissued a few times on CD and although Maxoom still remains Frank's I Love Jimi album, the rest does show a more conventional and blues hard rock sound that I still think they have all have their moments. However, Frank in a interview has mentioned that the original tapes of what he did at Tempo Studios in Canada got taped over by other bands which is a bummer, although I'm sure Sony Music still has the masters of the finished albums on CD somewhere. But still Frank remains his own man and not owned by the labels whatsoever, when he plays live, he says he plays it for fun and when it's not fun he doesn't go on tour. But when he does play, he still plays with the rude tenacity that blew Ted Nugent off the stage in 1978.
In a perfect world, The Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame would have Frank Marino in there. And still, to me, Frank remains the best unheard guitarist that classic rock radio has forgotten. Which is as bad as having Jann Wanner being head of the RnRHOF dictating who gets in. Up his ass if he can deal with real rock and roll.
The Frank Marino Anthology (Incomplete)
Maxoom 1972 (20th Century/Just A Minute) B-
Child Of The Novelty (20th Century/Just A Minute 1974) B+
Strange Universe (20th Century/Just A Minute 1975) A-
Mahogany Rush IV (Columbia/Pilot 1976) A-
World Anthem (Columbia 1977) B+
Live (Columbia/Silver Cloud 1978) A
Tales Of The Unexpected (Columbia 1979) B+
What's Next (Columbia 1980) B+
The Power Of Rock And Roll (Columbia 1981) B+
Juggernaut (Columbia 1982) A-
Dragonfly-The Best Of Frank Marino/Mahogany Rush (Razor And Tie 1996) B-
Monday, November 25, 2013
Sunday, November 24, 2013
The Velvet Underground
Perhaps the most influential alternative rock band that ever came out, The Velvet Underground couldn't sell 100 copies of their first album but Brian Eno said whoever bought them formed a band. If there was any other band that was like the Velvets that would have been The Fugs in terms of turning three chords into much more sinister. With John Cale in the band being polar opposites with Lou Reed their first two albums are an exercise in melody and mayhem and chaos. But with Andy Warhol playing a role with oddball movies, a light show and dancers to boot, there were the first true alternative band.
But after losing Andy Warhol and later John Cale, they turned to be more of a garage rock bar band and after the meltdown that was White Light/White Heat, Lou Reed booted Cale out of the band (at the urging of Steve Sesnick who singlehandedly killed the Velvets when he did the divide and conquer rule to Doug Yule after Loaded was finished) and opted for a more laid back but mellow but still a garage rock sound. Sad to say MGM didn't know what to do with them and after completing what would be released as VU a decade and half later, moved over to Atlantic for their most accessible album to date Loaded, a phase coined by Reed as an album Loaded with hits and he's right, all 10 songs would have sounded good on either AM or underground FM. Atlantic, demoted them to Cotillion for Loaded and used Bridgit Polk's cassette recording of the Max's Kansas City Show as a final offering.
Doug Yule ended up taking over for the import only and mostly unheard Squeeze, which isn't a bad album but it's not a true Velvet Underground either, none of the original members play on it and despite no notes and a basic album cover, the big story was that Ian Paice played drums on some of the songs. Hard to imagine the Deep Purple drummer being a part of Velvet Underground. But no US label would touch it and it came out on Polydor UK.
Back to the beginning, The Velvet Underground with Nico starts out somewhat mellow a calm before the storm with Sunday Morning but even then Lou Reed warns you to look out and then the next song becomes Waiting For The Man, made famous by John Cale's crazed barrel house piano playing. Nico does three songs, the mellow Femme Fitale, the failed single All Tomorrow Parties and I'll Be Your Mirror but she would be gone soon after although The Velvets did play on some of her Chelsea Girls album that came out later on. Buoyed by Maureen Tucker's primitive drumming, Run Run Run is another horror story done in by plenty of Reed's feedback and free form lead guitar. There She Goes Again could have been a good single had Verve put it out but it has been covered a few times over by the likes of REM and The Beat Farmers. But side 2 leads off with Heroin, which Reed tells it from a junkie's view and John Cale's viola and Tucker's drumming leads up to a big falling apart toward the end of the song. To end the album with Black Angel's Death Song to which Cale hisses after Reed spits out the verse and the strange European Son ends things on a chaotic note, not exactly a good thing but this record probably says more about how Reed and Cale would operate on their own solo recordings.
The noise fest that is White Light/White Heat is that, all noise, amps cranked up to ten and did I mention more noise. The title track becoming yet another failed hit single, the trainwreck ending to which Cale sounds like the bass is strangling him and side 2 is I Heard Her Call My Name and the 19 minute Sister Ray which will drive the old ladies out of the building if they heard it. I give it points for effort but I didn't like The Gift or Lady Godiva's Operation much, nor the 2 minute throwaway Here She Comes Now. http://bigread.mojo4music.com/2013/11/velvet-underground/
The third album is polar opposite, mostly nice and mellow and only the 8 minute throwaway Murder Mystery to which Lou And Sterling speaking gibberish first and then Maureen and Doug doing what I'm guessing is the chorus line doesn't get much playing time but it leaves you back to the first side to almost perfect pairing of Candy Says leading to What Goes On, then Some Kinda Love and Pale Blue Eyes and then Jesus. Take away Murder Mystery and this could have been their classic album.
But then that would be saved for Loaded and there's not a bad track anywhere. Another failed single Who Loves The Sun b/w the 7 minute Oh Sweet Nuthin' but this is where you get to hear the original Sweet Jane and a revisit of Rock And Roll (the original was on the 4th album). My other faves are Head Held High and Train Around The Bend. Even the lesser known songs (Lonesome Cowboy Bill and I found A Reason) have a bit of heart to them as well. But sad to say, Maureen Tucker doesn't play drums on it at all, she was pregnant at the time and bowed out so Doug Yule and brother Bill took over most of the drumming as well as Adrian Barber.
The original Live At Max's Kansas City was upgraded to a 2 CD set and is much better overview should you find it. Robert Quine recorded a bunch of live Velvets and some of the highlights came out on the 1969 Live on Mercury. With the 10 minute Ocean and the 9 minute What Goes On, you really get the feeling that you had to be there to see it and the recording is rougher than the Max's Kansas City but till the 1993 reunion live album that was all we had to go on.
The albums didn't sell and Polygram only had the Velvet Underground And Nico in print but in 1984, they reissued much of the 4th album that MGM rejected and it's a worthy listen and the songs were so good, Lou Reed would use them for his early solo albums. Leading off with I Can't Stand It and the other side with Foggy Notion, The Velvets never rocked harder. A couple of 1967 sessions with John Cale doesn't leave him out. VU, the album sold well enough that Another View was issued a year later, and basically a bottom barrel scraping adventure although we do get to hear the original We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together and a feisty Guess I'm Falling In Love, an instrumental that the original vocal on the tape were too damaged to use.
For years, there would not be a Velvet Underground reuinon of sorts till 1991 although John Cale and Lou Reed buried the hatchet to do a 1990 tribute to Andy Warhol, Songs From Drella. Three years later the Velvets did reunite to do a European tour and Sire issued both a one cd and two cd set of the shows and it's a mixed bag for either version although you're better off with the 2 CD set. But it wouldn't last and the band imploded, and Sterling Morrison passed away in 1995.
Mark Prindle thinks their overrated and he could have a point but if you take them at their music and not get caught up in the media praise, the Velvet Underground was still a very good bar band, and they were if you had to chance to see them in the late 60s after Doug Yule joined up, with John Cale they were more of a cabaret band with a chance to shock with the S & M imagery of Venus In Furs or documenting a sick party like Sister Ray. Andy Warhol may have "produced" the first album but the dirty work recording was from the late Tom Wilson (Bob Dylan, Animals), and everybody from Sterling on down to Maureen played a vital role in the music, Tucker being the inspiration to Meg White although Tucker was by far the better drummer. Even though Doug Yule was a big part of the VU, he was all but forgotten when the original band got back together in 1993 and when they became part of the rock and roll hall of fame in 1996.
There are plenty of best ofs out there And The Velvet Underground Gold pretty much gets rid of the filler of the albums that were released on Verve/MGM/Polydor but nothing from the Atlantic albums. A 1989 best of does feature two cuts from Loaded (Rock And Roll and Sweet Jane of course) but for me the Gold set was the better buy. Still the original albums speak for themselves and if you really want to know how Alternative Rock started, The Velvet Underground and Nico is that album. Last year, Universal put out a limited edition of the Scepter Sessions which was the basis of the first album and it's rougher and cruder but worth a listen. You'll never hear Squeeze anyway and you're better off for it but in the end, The Velvet Underground carved out a territory that no other band dared go to, celebrating drugs, drag queens and adultery but could pin a nice little love song, or a tribute to the radio and even a song about Jesus. But still uncompromising but still rock and roll rebellion, no band ever sounded like that before them. But they sure had a lot of imitators after that as well. The perfect compliment.
Albums:
The Velvet Underground Scepter Sessions Acetate (1966 reissued 2012 Polydor) B+
The Velvet Underground And Nico (Verve 1966) A
White Light/White Heat (Verve 1968) B+
The Velvet Underground (MGM 1969) A
Loaded (Cotillion 1970) A
Live At Max's Kansas City (Cotillion 1971) B
Squeeze (Polydor UK 1973) B-
1969 Velvet Underground Live (Mercury 1974) B+
VU (Verve 1985) A
Another View (Verve 1986) B
Best Of (Words And Music By Lou Reed) (Verve 1989) A-
Velvet Underground Gold (Polydor) A-
Live 1993 (Sire 1993) B
Final VU (Captain Trip 2001) B
But after losing Andy Warhol and later John Cale, they turned to be more of a garage rock bar band and after the meltdown that was White Light/White Heat, Lou Reed booted Cale out of the band (at the urging of Steve Sesnick who singlehandedly killed the Velvets when he did the divide and conquer rule to Doug Yule after Loaded was finished) and opted for a more laid back but mellow but still a garage rock sound. Sad to say MGM didn't know what to do with them and after completing what would be released as VU a decade and half later, moved over to Atlantic for their most accessible album to date Loaded, a phase coined by Reed as an album Loaded with hits and he's right, all 10 songs would have sounded good on either AM or underground FM. Atlantic, demoted them to Cotillion for Loaded and used Bridgit Polk's cassette recording of the Max's Kansas City Show as a final offering.
Doug Yule ended up taking over for the import only and mostly unheard Squeeze, which isn't a bad album but it's not a true Velvet Underground either, none of the original members play on it and despite no notes and a basic album cover, the big story was that Ian Paice played drums on some of the songs. Hard to imagine the Deep Purple drummer being a part of Velvet Underground. But no US label would touch it and it came out on Polydor UK.
Back to the beginning, The Velvet Underground with Nico starts out somewhat mellow a calm before the storm with Sunday Morning but even then Lou Reed warns you to look out and then the next song becomes Waiting For The Man, made famous by John Cale's crazed barrel house piano playing. Nico does three songs, the mellow Femme Fitale, the failed single All Tomorrow Parties and I'll Be Your Mirror but she would be gone soon after although The Velvets did play on some of her Chelsea Girls album that came out later on. Buoyed by Maureen Tucker's primitive drumming, Run Run Run is another horror story done in by plenty of Reed's feedback and free form lead guitar. There She Goes Again could have been a good single had Verve put it out but it has been covered a few times over by the likes of REM and The Beat Farmers. But side 2 leads off with Heroin, which Reed tells it from a junkie's view and John Cale's viola and Tucker's drumming leads up to a big falling apart toward the end of the song. To end the album with Black Angel's Death Song to which Cale hisses after Reed spits out the verse and the strange European Son ends things on a chaotic note, not exactly a good thing but this record probably says more about how Reed and Cale would operate on their own solo recordings.
The noise fest that is White Light/White Heat is that, all noise, amps cranked up to ten and did I mention more noise. The title track becoming yet another failed hit single, the trainwreck ending to which Cale sounds like the bass is strangling him and side 2 is I Heard Her Call My Name and the 19 minute Sister Ray which will drive the old ladies out of the building if they heard it. I give it points for effort but I didn't like The Gift or Lady Godiva's Operation much, nor the 2 minute throwaway Here She Comes Now. http://bigread.mojo4music.com/2013/11/velvet-underground/
The third album is polar opposite, mostly nice and mellow and only the 8 minute throwaway Murder Mystery to which Lou And Sterling speaking gibberish first and then Maureen and Doug doing what I'm guessing is the chorus line doesn't get much playing time but it leaves you back to the first side to almost perfect pairing of Candy Says leading to What Goes On, then Some Kinda Love and Pale Blue Eyes and then Jesus. Take away Murder Mystery and this could have been their classic album.
But then that would be saved for Loaded and there's not a bad track anywhere. Another failed single Who Loves The Sun b/w the 7 minute Oh Sweet Nuthin' but this is where you get to hear the original Sweet Jane and a revisit of Rock And Roll (the original was on the 4th album). My other faves are Head Held High and Train Around The Bend. Even the lesser known songs (Lonesome Cowboy Bill and I found A Reason) have a bit of heart to them as well. But sad to say, Maureen Tucker doesn't play drums on it at all, she was pregnant at the time and bowed out so Doug Yule and brother Bill took over most of the drumming as well as Adrian Barber.
The original Live At Max's Kansas City was upgraded to a 2 CD set and is much better overview should you find it. Robert Quine recorded a bunch of live Velvets and some of the highlights came out on the 1969 Live on Mercury. With the 10 minute Ocean and the 9 minute What Goes On, you really get the feeling that you had to be there to see it and the recording is rougher than the Max's Kansas City but till the 1993 reunion live album that was all we had to go on.
The albums didn't sell and Polygram only had the Velvet Underground And Nico in print but in 1984, they reissued much of the 4th album that MGM rejected and it's a worthy listen and the songs were so good, Lou Reed would use them for his early solo albums. Leading off with I Can't Stand It and the other side with Foggy Notion, The Velvets never rocked harder. A couple of 1967 sessions with John Cale doesn't leave him out. VU, the album sold well enough that Another View was issued a year later, and basically a bottom barrel scraping adventure although we do get to hear the original We're Gonna Have A Real Good Time Together and a feisty Guess I'm Falling In Love, an instrumental that the original vocal on the tape were too damaged to use.
For years, there would not be a Velvet Underground reuinon of sorts till 1991 although John Cale and Lou Reed buried the hatchet to do a 1990 tribute to Andy Warhol, Songs From Drella. Three years later the Velvets did reunite to do a European tour and Sire issued both a one cd and two cd set of the shows and it's a mixed bag for either version although you're better off with the 2 CD set. But it wouldn't last and the band imploded, and Sterling Morrison passed away in 1995.
Mark Prindle thinks their overrated and he could have a point but if you take them at their music and not get caught up in the media praise, the Velvet Underground was still a very good bar band, and they were if you had to chance to see them in the late 60s after Doug Yule joined up, with John Cale they were more of a cabaret band with a chance to shock with the S & M imagery of Venus In Furs or documenting a sick party like Sister Ray. Andy Warhol may have "produced" the first album but the dirty work recording was from the late Tom Wilson (Bob Dylan, Animals), and everybody from Sterling on down to Maureen played a vital role in the music, Tucker being the inspiration to Meg White although Tucker was by far the better drummer. Even though Doug Yule was a big part of the VU, he was all but forgotten when the original band got back together in 1993 and when they became part of the rock and roll hall of fame in 1996.
There are plenty of best ofs out there And The Velvet Underground Gold pretty much gets rid of the filler of the albums that were released on Verve/MGM/Polydor but nothing from the Atlantic albums. A 1989 best of does feature two cuts from Loaded (Rock And Roll and Sweet Jane of course) but for me the Gold set was the better buy. Still the original albums speak for themselves and if you really want to know how Alternative Rock started, The Velvet Underground and Nico is that album. Last year, Universal put out a limited edition of the Scepter Sessions which was the basis of the first album and it's rougher and cruder but worth a listen. You'll never hear Squeeze anyway and you're better off for it but in the end, The Velvet Underground carved out a territory that no other band dared go to, celebrating drugs, drag queens and adultery but could pin a nice little love song, or a tribute to the radio and even a song about Jesus. But still uncompromising but still rock and roll rebellion, no band ever sounded like that before them. But they sure had a lot of imitators after that as well. The perfect compliment.
Albums:
The Velvet Underground Scepter Sessions Acetate (1966 reissued 2012 Polydor) B+
The Velvet Underground And Nico (Verve 1966) A
White Light/White Heat (Verve 1968) B+
The Velvet Underground (MGM 1969) A
Loaded (Cotillion 1970) A
Live At Max's Kansas City (Cotillion 1971) B
Squeeze (Polydor UK 1973) B-
1969 Velvet Underground Live (Mercury 1974) B+
VU (Verve 1985) A
Another View (Verve 1986) B
Best Of (Words And Music By Lou Reed) (Verve 1989) A-
Velvet Underground Gold (Polydor) A-
Live 1993 (Sire 1993) B
Final VU (Captain Trip 2001) B
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Spooky Tooth-That Was Only Yesterday
Let's face it, the 60s and the 70s was my era, even though I continue to review things in the 80s onward and thought that the 90s has their share of great bands as well. But as time progresses on, some of the bands that I used to listen to on the FM side of the dial have not dated properly. Some have not stand the test of time.
I used to be a Cactus fan back in the 70s, they had the guys from Vanilla Fudge and Jim McCartney from The Detroit Wheels and the screaming Rusty Day of Amboy Dukes. But upon buying the reissues from Wounded Bird, I came to find that the first Cactus album isn't that great and the Rhino Best of, I donated it back to charity after hearing it. The Fudge, loved their singles and their best of but their actual albums didn't do much for me anymore. And the 1983 comeback album Mystery, bad beyond belief. At least with Bloodrock I do enjoy their first two albums including the morbid D.O.A. I've been searching for years for the Capitol best of Bloodrock And Roll, which came out as a reissue in the early 90s but then again I come to find I could live without that. But I do keep my eyes open.
And then there's Spooky Tooth, a band that may have been A&M's answer to Vanilla Fudge. Led by Mike Harrison and Gary Wright, later of Dreamweaver fame, they made a few albums for A&M and Island (although Island issued their albums in the UK). In Arizona on vacation I found their so called classic Spooky Two in the cutouts fairly cheap and decided to buy it on a cross state tour of Arizona only to get to stuck in a runaway lane miles from nowhere and somehow somebody helped me out of that situation and the song I got stuck in the lane was Better By You, Better Than Me. I came to find the album a farce and ended up on the trip back, donating it back to Goodwill and maybe thinking I may have misjudged them.
So in Quincy, FYE had a used copy of their best of, That Was Only Yesterday, which is Spooky Two with the best song left off the thing (I Got Enough Heartaches, a excellent song covered by Three Dog Night) and cherry picks three off their first Tobacco Road, Four from The Last Puff and an except from the Ceremony and one off the Mick Jones version of band with perhaps one of the best titles in rock history with You Broke My Jaw So I Busted Your Jaw to which Island in the US issued that album.
Rarely has a greatest hits package has disappointed me in a way that whoever compiled this best of had their head up their ass. How could you leave off I Got Enough Heartache but in the process added the rest of Spooky Two? That's deducts a half grade right off the bat. The three sections from Tobacco Road, including title track and a oddball cover of Janis Ian's Society's Child are so damn pompous and over the top it sounds like they're going for a Vanilla Fudge sound, with bombast to boot. Sunshine Help Me is passable.
Perhaps the best song or nadir is Evil Woman, the 9 minute FM favorite from Spooky Two. It's interesting to hear both Harrison and Wright trade off vocals, and whoever decided to sing the higher notes must have been wearing very tight jeans in the process. It's one of the songs that when the younger generation hears, wonders what the big fuss was all about. Better By You was later covered by Judas Priest. When they tone down the rhetoric, they actually sounded like Humble Pie around the As Safe As Yesterday to which Greg Ridley would later join. In all fairness, Spooky Two is basically all you need if you want to know the hoopla of this band.
The scattershot song selection kills this best of. Their second best known is a slowed down and druggy I Am The Walrus but also covers a Joe Cocker song (Something To Say) and up and coming Elton John (Son Of Your Father) that perhaps The Last Puff album might be worth a listen to, since Cocker himself provides some backing vocals and three members of the Grease band play on this. Luther Grovsenor would leave and change his name to Ariel Bender as he replaced Mick Ralphs in Mott The Hoople. Gary Wright would replace Mike Harrison for the 1973 Busted Your Jaw, to which only featured one song and the followup LP Witness, with Mick Kellie returning on drums no songs. And then the band would break up, with Wright going on a solo career, Mick Jones played in Leslie West Band before starting up Foreigner, Kellie, the drummer would play on later albums by Johnny Thunders and become part of The Only Ones with Peter Parrett.
For a overview, That Was Only Yesterday isn't worth your time or effort since it borrows too much from the second album. Buy Spooky Two instead. And shortchanges the rest of the catalog of this band. And leaves you scratching your head of what the fuss was all about.
Grade C
I used to be a Cactus fan back in the 70s, they had the guys from Vanilla Fudge and Jim McCartney from The Detroit Wheels and the screaming Rusty Day of Amboy Dukes. But upon buying the reissues from Wounded Bird, I came to find that the first Cactus album isn't that great and the Rhino Best of, I donated it back to charity after hearing it. The Fudge, loved their singles and their best of but their actual albums didn't do much for me anymore. And the 1983 comeback album Mystery, bad beyond belief. At least with Bloodrock I do enjoy their first two albums including the morbid D.O.A. I've been searching for years for the Capitol best of Bloodrock And Roll, which came out as a reissue in the early 90s but then again I come to find I could live without that. But I do keep my eyes open.
And then there's Spooky Tooth, a band that may have been A&M's answer to Vanilla Fudge. Led by Mike Harrison and Gary Wright, later of Dreamweaver fame, they made a few albums for A&M and Island (although Island issued their albums in the UK). In Arizona on vacation I found their so called classic Spooky Two in the cutouts fairly cheap and decided to buy it on a cross state tour of Arizona only to get to stuck in a runaway lane miles from nowhere and somehow somebody helped me out of that situation and the song I got stuck in the lane was Better By You, Better Than Me. I came to find the album a farce and ended up on the trip back, donating it back to Goodwill and maybe thinking I may have misjudged them.
So in Quincy, FYE had a used copy of their best of, That Was Only Yesterday, which is Spooky Two with the best song left off the thing (I Got Enough Heartaches, a excellent song covered by Three Dog Night) and cherry picks three off their first Tobacco Road, Four from The Last Puff and an except from the Ceremony and one off the Mick Jones version of band with perhaps one of the best titles in rock history with You Broke My Jaw So I Busted Your Jaw to which Island in the US issued that album.
Rarely has a greatest hits package has disappointed me in a way that whoever compiled this best of had their head up their ass. How could you leave off I Got Enough Heartache but in the process added the rest of Spooky Two? That's deducts a half grade right off the bat. The three sections from Tobacco Road, including title track and a oddball cover of Janis Ian's Society's Child are so damn pompous and over the top it sounds like they're going for a Vanilla Fudge sound, with bombast to boot. Sunshine Help Me is passable.
Perhaps the best song or nadir is Evil Woman, the 9 minute FM favorite from Spooky Two. It's interesting to hear both Harrison and Wright trade off vocals, and whoever decided to sing the higher notes must have been wearing very tight jeans in the process. It's one of the songs that when the younger generation hears, wonders what the big fuss was all about. Better By You was later covered by Judas Priest. When they tone down the rhetoric, they actually sounded like Humble Pie around the As Safe As Yesterday to which Greg Ridley would later join. In all fairness, Spooky Two is basically all you need if you want to know the hoopla of this band.
The scattershot song selection kills this best of. Their second best known is a slowed down and druggy I Am The Walrus but also covers a Joe Cocker song (Something To Say) and up and coming Elton John (Son Of Your Father) that perhaps The Last Puff album might be worth a listen to, since Cocker himself provides some backing vocals and three members of the Grease band play on this. Luther Grovsenor would leave and change his name to Ariel Bender as he replaced Mick Ralphs in Mott The Hoople. Gary Wright would replace Mike Harrison for the 1973 Busted Your Jaw, to which only featured one song and the followup LP Witness, with Mick Kellie returning on drums no songs. And then the band would break up, with Wright going on a solo career, Mick Jones played in Leslie West Band before starting up Foreigner, Kellie, the drummer would play on later albums by Johnny Thunders and become part of The Only Ones with Peter Parrett.
For a overview, That Was Only Yesterday isn't worth your time or effort since it borrows too much from the second album. Buy Spooky Two instead. And shortchanges the rest of the catalog of this band. And leaves you scratching your head of what the fuss was all about.
Grade C
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Forgotten Classics Of The 90s-Handsome
The 1990s had their share of great albums that nobody heard. One of the great mysteries of this is the failure of Handsome's first and only album to generate any airplay or sales while crap nu metal bands like Limp Bizkit and Korn topped the charts.
On paper this album should have been a seller. Peter Mengede was part of the classic Helmet lineup, Tom Capone played in Quicksand and Pete Hines played in Cro Mags. Boasting a loud production from Terry Date (Soundgarden), Handsome runs through 12 loud songs that recall Helmet. In fact this album was better than the After Taste that Helmet did put out. Needles did get some minor airplay but sadly the rest didn't.
With the album failing to do much, the band broke up. However, there's still enough love of the band that the folks at ShopRadioCast is reissuing the album in vinyl next month with a bonus 7 inch single of two unreleased tracks. Basically it's easy to say that Handsome didn't extort none of the dubious crap features of a Limp Bizkit or a Mudvayne, they rocked a bit harder without the rap overtones or screamo of Korn, or the cheese factor of Fred Durst. In fact Durst would kill for a hook like Left Of Heaven or Going To Panic. Fans of Helmet would enjoy this album.
http://www.shopradiocast.com/products/Handsome-%252d-Handsome-LP-%252b-7%22.html
On paper this album should have been a seller. Peter Mengede was part of the classic Helmet lineup, Tom Capone played in Quicksand and Pete Hines played in Cro Mags. Boasting a loud production from Terry Date (Soundgarden), Handsome runs through 12 loud songs that recall Helmet. In fact this album was better than the After Taste that Helmet did put out. Needles did get some minor airplay but sadly the rest didn't.
With the album failing to do much, the band broke up. However, there's still enough love of the band that the folks at ShopRadioCast is reissuing the album in vinyl next month with a bonus 7 inch single of two unreleased tracks. Basically it's easy to say that Handsome didn't extort none of the dubious crap features of a Limp Bizkit or a Mudvayne, they rocked a bit harder without the rap overtones or screamo of Korn, or the cheese factor of Fred Durst. In fact Durst would kill for a hook like Left Of Heaven or Going To Panic. Fans of Helmet would enjoy this album.
http://www.shopradiocast.com/products/Handsome-%252d-Handsome-LP-%252b-7%22.html
Monday, October 28, 2013
Lou Reed Memorial
Like it or not, Lou Reed followed his own path and made albums that were difficult and hard to get into or get. But in his 40 years as a solo artists it has been one great ride. Not everything worked mind you but regardless, it was unique. He let the music do the talking more or less.
Albums: (incomplete)
Lou Reed (RCA-1972) B+
Transformer (RCA 1973) B-
Rock And Roll Animal (RCA 1973) A-
Berlin (RCA 1973) B+
Lou Reed Live (RCA 1974) B
Sally Can't Dance (RCA 1974) B+
Metal Machine Music (RCA 1975) C
Coney Island Baby (RCA 1976) B+
Rock And Roll Heart (Arista 1977) C+
Walk On The Wild Side-Best Of Lou Reed (RCA 1977) B+
Street Hassle (Arista 1978) B+
Take No Prisoners (Arista 1978) C+
The Bells (Arista 1979) C+
Growing Up In Public (Arista 1980) B+
The Blue Mask (RCA 1982) A-
Legendary Hearts (RCA 1983) B+
New Sensations (RCA 1984) A
Mistrial (RCA 1986) B
New York (Sire 1989) A-
Songs For Drella (Sire 1990) A-
Magic And Loss (Sire 1992) B-
Set The Twilight Reeling (Warner Bros 1996) A-
Perfect Day (Reprise 1998) B+
Ecstasy (Reprise 2000) B+
The Raven (Sire/Warner Bros 2002) B
Animal Serenade (Sire 2004) B
Metal Machine Music Live At Berlin (Avant Garde 2007) C
Hudson River Wind Meditations (2007) B
Berlin Live At St Ann's Warehouse (Matador 2008) B
Lulu (Vertigo/Warner Brothers 2011) B-
Albums: (incomplete)
Lou Reed (RCA-1972) B+
Transformer (RCA 1973) B-
Rock And Roll Animal (RCA 1973) A-
Berlin (RCA 1973) B+
Lou Reed Live (RCA 1974) B
Sally Can't Dance (RCA 1974) B+
Metal Machine Music (RCA 1975) C
Coney Island Baby (RCA 1976) B+
Rock And Roll Heart (Arista 1977) C+
Walk On The Wild Side-Best Of Lou Reed (RCA 1977) B+
Street Hassle (Arista 1978) B+
Take No Prisoners (Arista 1978) C+
The Bells (Arista 1979) C+
Growing Up In Public (Arista 1980) B+
The Blue Mask (RCA 1982) A-
Legendary Hearts (RCA 1983) B+
New Sensations (RCA 1984) A
Mistrial (RCA 1986) B
New York (Sire 1989) A-
Songs For Drella (Sire 1990) A-
Magic And Loss (Sire 1992) B-
Set The Twilight Reeling (Warner Bros 1996) A-
Perfect Day (Reprise 1998) B+
Ecstasy (Reprise 2000) B+
The Raven (Sire/Warner Bros 2002) B
Animal Serenade (Sire 2004) B
Metal Machine Music Live At Berlin (Avant Garde 2007) C
Hudson River Wind Meditations (2007) B
Berlin Live At St Ann's Warehouse (Matador 2008) B
Lulu (Vertigo/Warner Brothers 2011) B-
Monday, October 21, 2013
Eddie And The Hot Rods
I got to know this band from Teenage Depression, the song off the Ramones Rock And Roll High School soundtrack and next to Rockpile, my favorite band of the 70s nobody knows about. Not a punk band, they had more roots in Pub Rock but they played ultra fast versions of Get Out Of Denver, The Kids Are Alright and Gloria. Chris Blackwell signed them up to his Island Records label but the UK and US version of Teenage Depression are two different albums, the UK has a so so cover of Show Me and Shake, that showed more of their R&B than punk. The US album has their live Live At The Marqee EP and a different song list but leaves off Show Me and Shake. For the most Vic Maile records them in the raw, similar in tone to Dr Feelgood. When it came to pub rock Vic Maile was the best producer. Leading off with the three chords and the truth Get Across To You, Teenage Depression is classic pub or bar rock. Kids may not know the big deal but you had to be there to see them live and it has been known that Eddie And The Hot Rods could blow away Feelgood or Ducks Deluxe and give The Pirates a good run for their money as well.
Life On The Line has Graeme Douglas on lead guitar and has a more punk rock sound to it thanks be to Steve Lillywhite helping out and they had their best known single Do Anything You Wanna Do but in my case the title track, Quit This Town, the fast paced Ignore Them (Still Life) and the 8 minute epic Beginning Of The End. Teenage Depression while great, I played Life On The Line a bit more. I found the album as a cut out (I'm thinking I got it at Big Apple Records in the Town And Country Shopping Center in town) and I think I drove a high school date out of the house by playing Beginning Of The End, since she was a disco fan. Didn't make a good impression I gather. I still don't consider The Hot Rods punk at all. They simply rocked too hard on their 2nd album.
Thriller, (not the Michael Jackson album) only was available as a import and I was overjoyed to see Record Realm had it and I had to have it. But sad to say this is where they were losing their creative edge. Some of it was still fun but most of it was a bitter rant and rave, Does It With Mirrors is famous for the continual groove at the end of the record but that and Echoes was blah. Power And The Glory and Take It Or Leave it (featuring Linda McCartney on backing vocals, sure sounds like the late Lady Mac). But it was out of style and Warner Brothers, which at the time was distributing Island Records passed on its release.
A major overhaul of the band was coming up for the next album, Tony Craney replaced Paul Gray on bass, Douglas left the band and they were on the ill fated EMI America for the lackluster Fish And Chips, produced by Al Kooper. The title track may be the worst thing they ever recorded, the cover versions of You Better Run and Time Won't Let Me was phoned in and although I command them for a cover of Crack The Sky's We Want Mine, it was a ill suited fit for Eddie And The Hot Rods. Al Kooper produced and added some keyboards and effects but outside of Wide Eyed Kids, Fish And Chips is a strikeout.
With that Eddie And The Hot Rods faded into the sunset but some outtakes which came before Fish And Chips and still featured G. Douglas and P Gray, The Curse Of The Hot Rods is a better record than both Thriller and Fish And Chips although they are demos. Graeme Douglas provides comic relief as he describes the songs. Douglas also shares his thoughts on the Island best of End Of The Beginning, which pretty much cherry picks the best of the Island albums, and leaves Fish And Chips in the dust.
In the 1990s, Windsong issued BBC Radio One Live In Concert which captures two 1977, 1978 shows. Worth a listen if you can find it. Dojo in the same year put out Ties That Bind, a oddball collection of six tracks from Curse Of The Hot Rods, three songs from a 1985 lineup of Berrie Masters, Steve Nicol plus Warren Kennedy on guitar but is better known for five demos featuring long departed Lew Lewis on harmonica (yep he was the weakest link) and includes a raw version of Get Across To You as well as Gloria and Wooly Bully and Get Out Of Denver but it's for audiophiles who want everything only. Captain Oi! reissued the Island albums and loaded the CDs with plenty of bonus tracks. You can still live without Thriller but Teenage Depression and Life On The Line should be in your collection.
Barrie Masters continues the Hot Rods and they continue to play in and around England.
Albums:
Teenage Depression (Island 1977) B+
Life On The Line (Island 1978) A-
Thriller (Island 1979) B
Fish And Chips (EMI 1980) C
Curse Of The Hot Rods (Link 1985) B
End Of The Beginning (Island 1993) A-
BBC Radio One Live (Windsong 1994) B+
Ties That Bind (Dojo 1995) C+
Life On The Line has Graeme Douglas on lead guitar and has a more punk rock sound to it thanks be to Steve Lillywhite helping out and they had their best known single Do Anything You Wanna Do but in my case the title track, Quit This Town, the fast paced Ignore Them (Still Life) and the 8 minute epic Beginning Of The End. Teenage Depression while great, I played Life On The Line a bit more. I found the album as a cut out (I'm thinking I got it at Big Apple Records in the Town And Country Shopping Center in town) and I think I drove a high school date out of the house by playing Beginning Of The End, since she was a disco fan. Didn't make a good impression I gather. I still don't consider The Hot Rods punk at all. They simply rocked too hard on their 2nd album.
Thriller, (not the Michael Jackson album) only was available as a import and I was overjoyed to see Record Realm had it and I had to have it. But sad to say this is where they were losing their creative edge. Some of it was still fun but most of it was a bitter rant and rave, Does It With Mirrors is famous for the continual groove at the end of the record but that and Echoes was blah. Power And The Glory and Take It Or Leave it (featuring Linda McCartney on backing vocals, sure sounds like the late Lady Mac). But it was out of style and Warner Brothers, which at the time was distributing Island Records passed on its release.
A major overhaul of the band was coming up for the next album, Tony Craney replaced Paul Gray on bass, Douglas left the band and they were on the ill fated EMI America for the lackluster Fish And Chips, produced by Al Kooper. The title track may be the worst thing they ever recorded, the cover versions of You Better Run and Time Won't Let Me was phoned in and although I command them for a cover of Crack The Sky's We Want Mine, it was a ill suited fit for Eddie And The Hot Rods. Al Kooper produced and added some keyboards and effects but outside of Wide Eyed Kids, Fish And Chips is a strikeout.
With that Eddie And The Hot Rods faded into the sunset but some outtakes which came before Fish And Chips and still featured G. Douglas and P Gray, The Curse Of The Hot Rods is a better record than both Thriller and Fish And Chips although they are demos. Graeme Douglas provides comic relief as he describes the songs. Douglas also shares his thoughts on the Island best of End Of The Beginning, which pretty much cherry picks the best of the Island albums, and leaves Fish And Chips in the dust.
In the 1990s, Windsong issued BBC Radio One Live In Concert which captures two 1977, 1978 shows. Worth a listen if you can find it. Dojo in the same year put out Ties That Bind, a oddball collection of six tracks from Curse Of The Hot Rods, three songs from a 1985 lineup of Berrie Masters, Steve Nicol plus Warren Kennedy on guitar but is better known for five demos featuring long departed Lew Lewis on harmonica (yep he was the weakest link) and includes a raw version of Get Across To You as well as Gloria and Wooly Bully and Get Out Of Denver but it's for audiophiles who want everything only. Captain Oi! reissued the Island albums and loaded the CDs with plenty of bonus tracks. You can still live without Thriller but Teenage Depression and Life On The Line should be in your collection.
Barrie Masters continues the Hot Rods and they continue to play in and around England.
Albums:
Teenage Depression (Island 1977) B+
Life On The Line (Island 1978) A-
Thriller (Island 1979) B
Fish And Chips (EMI 1980) C
Curse Of The Hot Rods (Link 1985) B
End Of The Beginning (Island 1993) A-
BBC Radio One Live (Windsong 1994) B+
Ties That Bind (Dojo 1995) C+
Friday, September 27, 2013
Blue Oyster Cult
In my early youth, I was into buying 45s because we were dirt poor and couldn't afford albums but once I got a job peddling those free newspapers The Penny Saver, I managed to earn a few dollars to buy an album or two per year. Penny Saver paid something like a penny delivered to house and these fuckers were heavy. The good old days, now they just mail them off every Wednesday.
I think it was 1974 when Mom took me down to Woolworth's in downtown Cedar Rapids and they had Blue Oyster Cult's first album for something like 5 dollars thereabouts, BOC was played on the FM stations before The Reaper came out a couple years later but KLWW FM played Cities On Flame and Red And The Black from time to time. First time I ever played the first BOC album on the stereo it sounded much different than anything beforehand. The guitars sounded sinister, the vocalist evil and the sound recording opened up a new door of hearing music as it sounded back then. My ears weren't subjected to all the big cymbal crashes of my band and I could hear it all. The first record from BOC was original hard rock in the hushed vocals of Eric Bloom or countered sadder sounding Buck Dharma on Then Came The Last Days Of May or Albert Bouchard doing the original Cities On Flame or the 4th vocalist in Joe Bouchard on Screams, this was a thinking man's rock band and everybody helped out and still remains one of the best debuts in rock history rivaling only that of Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin (IMO). But BOC goes back further, going under the name of the Soft White Underbelly or Stalk Forrest Group which made a one off single for Elektra and an album that didn't get released till about 30 years down the road but odes more to The Grateful Dead in sound rather than the radical change that was Blue Oyster Cult, the first album.
The next two albums BOC took a page from the Tony Clarke/Moody Blues albums and Tyranny And Mutation and Secret Treaties the song segmented into the next one. Took me years to really warm to Tyranny (especially on 7 Screaming Diz Busters) and although they maintained the odd William Gralik cover art, the recording wasn't as mysterious as the first one. Side 1 remains a keeper with the scathing Red And Black, OD on Life Itself and Hot Rails To Hell with the epic 7 Screaming Diz Busters riding the band and the listener into hell itself. Side 2, there are moments like Mistress Of The Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl) and Teen Archer but the record feels a bit rushed, like the record label ordering them back into the studio. Secret Treaties is better where concert faves like Harvester Of Eyes and ME 262 can be found. And of course Astronomy. On Your Feet Or On Your Knees is a 1975 live document and the first of many many live albums out there, to which when I saw them play in Cedar Rapids in 1979, they were still using many of the songs that they don't now (I Ain't Got You) and the five guitars segment of ME 262 which is better seen live than heard. The original BOC of Eric Bloom, Don Roeser, Alan Lanier (RIP) and Joe & Al Bouchard were the best lineup and once the Bouchard boys would leave, the albums would become less and less satisfying.
The best albums remain Agents Of Fortune and Spectres, two album that defined my high school years since I played both of them a lot but liked the latter album better despite the familiar Don't Fear The Reaper is on the former. Returning to that forbidden sound of the first album Agents is perhaps the most democratic of all BOC albums, even Alan Lanier signs on True Confessions (the first and only time Alan ever sung in the band). Faves remain the big hit, This Ain't The Summer Of Love (Which bombed as a single), E.T.I and Albert Bouchard engages in a duet to the death with Patti Smith on Revenge Of Vera Gemini. And to further prove another point Albert leads off side two with I'll love you like sin but won't be your pigeon line to Sinful Love. Debbie Denise, originally thought to be the worst BOC ever, isn't that; it's somewhat tongue in cheek. I can probably listen to that one better than say, 7 Screaming Diz Busters or anything of Revolution By Night. Spectres on the other hand, to me was better leading with FM hit Godzilla, The Golden Age Of Leather which could be a followup to Then Came The Last Days Of May. Other faves are R U Ready 2 Rock but more often it's Albert again on Death Valley Nights and Don Roeser's I Love The Night, another vampire song so to speak. Their second live album in three years Some Enchanted Evening came out and although I have yet to hear the expanded version, I can say that the single album version was slightly better soundwise than On Your Feet.., but at that time it was product for the label to ship out. Perhaps someday I'll spring the big bucks to get the expended edition but as they say so little time so much music to hear. Moving on.
BOC said goodbye to Sandy Pearlman and ushered in a new era with pop master producer Tom Werman to produce Mirrors and in the result became their most pop sounding album ever. The Great Sun Jester would have benefited more from Pearlman's production but in this setting something seems missing, still a good song but one that could have been better with a harder production. Dr. Music, Mirrors and the beautiful goodbye to Patti Smith from Alan Lanier called In Thee are the standouts. Alas, side 2 has not held up very well over time. Al Bouchard's You're Not The One I Was Looking For, borrows a lot of the melody from The Cars Just What I Need and the James Gang Tend My Garden and turns BOC into power pop. The Vigil sounds uninspired.
The next two albums are considered the last good BOC efforts, this time hooking up with Martin Birch (Deep Purple, Iron Maiden) to make the prog rock sounding Cultosaurus Erectus, the last great album. Working with Mike Moorcock (Hawkwind) they came up with Black Blade, another guitar rock Lips In The Hills has great guitar work from Don Roeser but the lyrics are ultra silly. They even go jazz on Monsters! My other faves would be Hungry Boys and Fallen Angel. Fire Of Unknown Origin brings their second and final hit in the overplayed Burnin For You but also the sinister Joan Crawford and Veteran Of The Physic Wars, which would be used in the Heavy Metal movie as well. But this would be the end of the original BOC. Albert Bouchard would leave soon after and CBS issued yet another live album ETI Live which has Albert playing on only two tracks (the best ones Black Blade and Dominance And Submission to which he usually sang didn't by this time) and the rest by Rick Downey (later managing Anthrax).
And then the lost years. Revolution By Night (1983) which the late Bruce Fairbairn produced showed a band that lost its identity and although I have it on record I didn't like it enough to buy on CD. Take Me Away (co written with Aldo Nova) was the failed hit and best song, Shooting Shark the other decent song. The rest was forgettible. Club Ninja (1986) is a even bigger mess to which Joe Bourchard left after the Revolution By Night fiasco and although Sandy Pearlman is back in the producer's chair, the outside song doctors didn't help much, nor did the borrowed rhythm section. Dancing In The Ruins was the failed hit and best song. The strange Imaginos (1988) has Albert Bouchard coming back to write the lyrics and music and although Joe Bouchard is credited as a player here it sounds a bit too much like Club Ninja. This is one record that I can like one minute and hate the next. The namesake song Blue Oyster Cult is very bizarre sounding, while the backing vocals say We understand, I don't. Not in this context. And they do a disco version of Astronomy as well too. Imaginos the album has been reissued four times in its history and as a curio should be heard as least one time.
With that in mind, Columbia/CBS bid adios to the cult with the half assed Career Of Evil, which is a contractual obligation upon itself with inferior live versions of their hits. Since then, Sony Music has reissued many a best of Blue Oyster Cult album and the most practical one and cheapest was On Flame With Rock And Roll. Workshop Of The Telescopes is a 2 CD effort that takes sections off all the CBS albums and adds a few obscure ones as well. Later on Sony Music reissued the first five BOC albums with bonus tracks and if you're a fan like me you have them all now (the ones being the first album up to Spectres). The Essential Blue Oyster Cult is Workshop Of The Telescopes renamed.
BOC was not done yet; in the 1998, they signed up with CMC to release their best album in years in Heaven Forbid and had some airplay with Harvest Moon. Heaven Forbid is their most metal sounding record with See You In Black and Power Underneath Despair. Curse Of The Hidden Mirror (2001) was a decent followup. A Long's Day Night was a credible live album. BOC hasn't recorded much since then if they ever did but still remain one of the hardest working bands touring to this day.
In 2003, Sony Music finally reissued the first five studio albums with bonus tracks and finally the lyrics (except Spectres), for the first time people can actually read the lyrics but turns out the lyrics may have been the least worthy, and why hardly anybody ventures out of covering The Reaper or Godzilla, they're much harder to sing to. The notes to Spectres are half assed and the lyrics not even printed on this one. Club Ninja and Imaginos have been deleted by Sony, with Koch Records reissuing them for a time and then American Beat taking over and doing a bared bones reissue (at least the Columbia version had the printed lyrics and story line). Real Gone Music is now the third reissue label for that. Lemon Records in the UK still has Club Ninja in print.
Blue Oyster Cult continues to tour with Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser still the band. On occasion Joe and Albert Bouchard will pop up on stage for a special guest appearance. Many years of smoking Allen Lanier paid the price, dying from COPD in 2013.
Most recently, BOC has signed with Frontier Records and have reissued a few things including Cult Classic and a Agents Of Fortune 40 Year Anniversary live album. I can live without both albums. There's a promise of a new BOC album before the year is out. It would be wonderful to see Joe and Albert Bouchard back on board but that won't happen.
Grades
Blue Oyster Cult (Columbia 1971) A
Tyranny And Mutation (Columbia 1973) B+
Secret Treaties (Columbia 1974) A
On Your Feet Or On Your Knees (Columbia 1975) B
Live 1976 (Griffin 1976) B-
Agents Of Fortune (Columbia 1976) A-
Spectres (Columbia 1977) A
Some Enchanted Evening (Columbia 1978) C+ (Grade for the single LP only)
Mirrors (Columbia 1979) C+
Cultosaurus Erectus (Columbia 1980) A-
Fire Of Unknown Origin (Columbia 1981) B+
Extraterrestrial Live (Columbia 1982) B+
The Revolution By Night (Columbia 1983) C
Club Ninja (Columbia 1986) C
Imaginos (Columbia 1988) B-
Career Of Evil (Columbia 1989) C
On Flame With Rock N Roll (CBS Special Products 1990) A-
Cult Classic (Frontiers 1992) C+
Bad Channels S/T (Frontiers 1994) C
Workshop Of The Telescopes (Columbia 1995) B+
Heaven Forbid (Frontiers 1998) B+
Best Of Blue Oyster Cult-Don't Fear The Reaper (Legacy 1999) B+
Curse Of The Hidden Mirror (Frontiers 2001) B
A Long Day's Night (Sanctuary 2002) B+
Setlist: Live Hits (Legacy 2010) NR
Playlist (Sony/Legacy 2015) B
Update: There are now three compilations of BOC best known songs. I've included On Flame With Rock And Roll among the reissues simply of the fact, that the hits are there. Career Of Evil remains a half assed effort and Sony Music has deleted it out of the catalog in favor of Don't Fear The Reaper or Playlist. Workshop Of The Telescopes was renamed The Essential Blue Oyster Cult, same songs, different title. Don't Fear The Reaper is the better of the single best ofs, but Essential BOC is a good anthology, which packs a few b sides and rarities. Sony Music did remastered the original albums up to Spectres with bonus tracks, some do enhance the albums for sure, especially the first album and of course Agents Of Fortune While critics maintain Spectres was the weakest followup to Agents, I thought Spectres was better, at least we were spared of Debbie Denise, perhaps the worst song BOC wrote up to Revolution By Night or Club Ninja. Once Albert Bouchard left the band, BOC was never quite the same and became a parody of themselves. Not even Joe could rescue the band and then he finally left the band. Imaginos had everybody returning to the studios to help out and the music was more heavy metal than Club Ninja, but it's all over the place with guest guitar players and lack of focus.
As mentioned Frontiers reissued the Herald and CMC International albums and without the Bouchard brothers around, it's the Eric and Buck Dharma show. Heaven Forbid showed BOC going further into thrash metal but a lot of people didn't care for that album. Curse Of The Hidden Mirror is more streamlined, it's better than the mid 80s albums but to these ears I didn't care much for it. Since then, Frontiers has issued a few live BOC albums of the 2000s and 2010's but at this point, they are a nostalgic band. I went as far as picking Long Day's Night as a cutout and while it's not On Your Feet or On Your Needs or ET live, it shows BOC on a pretty good night. Setlist is interesting for the inclusion of The Vigil and a 1977 live Godzilla which was the B side to (ahem) Godzilla and Flaming Telepaths a live UK B side. For completeists only.
In the end, I'll pass on the BOC concerts in favor of the new BOC album when it comes out. If and when that happens. I'll cherish the days of seeing BOC tear up the Five Seasons center in 1979 and the 1981 return engagement with Foghat, to which by then Rick Downey replaced Albert on drums. If n when Buck and Eric return to a casino near me, I'll go watch.
I think it was 1974 when Mom took me down to Woolworth's in downtown Cedar Rapids and they had Blue Oyster Cult's first album for something like 5 dollars thereabouts, BOC was played on the FM stations before The Reaper came out a couple years later but KLWW FM played Cities On Flame and Red And The Black from time to time. First time I ever played the first BOC album on the stereo it sounded much different than anything beforehand. The guitars sounded sinister, the vocalist evil and the sound recording opened up a new door of hearing music as it sounded back then. My ears weren't subjected to all the big cymbal crashes of my band and I could hear it all. The first record from BOC was original hard rock in the hushed vocals of Eric Bloom or countered sadder sounding Buck Dharma on Then Came The Last Days Of May or Albert Bouchard doing the original Cities On Flame or the 4th vocalist in Joe Bouchard on Screams, this was a thinking man's rock band and everybody helped out and still remains one of the best debuts in rock history rivaling only that of Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin (IMO). But BOC goes back further, going under the name of the Soft White Underbelly or Stalk Forrest Group which made a one off single for Elektra and an album that didn't get released till about 30 years down the road but odes more to The Grateful Dead in sound rather than the radical change that was Blue Oyster Cult, the first album.
The next two albums BOC took a page from the Tony Clarke/Moody Blues albums and Tyranny And Mutation and Secret Treaties the song segmented into the next one. Took me years to really warm to Tyranny (especially on 7 Screaming Diz Busters) and although they maintained the odd William Gralik cover art, the recording wasn't as mysterious as the first one. Side 1 remains a keeper with the scathing Red And Black, OD on Life Itself and Hot Rails To Hell with the epic 7 Screaming Diz Busters riding the band and the listener into hell itself. Side 2, there are moments like Mistress Of The Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl) and Teen Archer but the record feels a bit rushed, like the record label ordering them back into the studio. Secret Treaties is better where concert faves like Harvester Of Eyes and ME 262 can be found. And of course Astronomy. On Your Feet Or On Your Knees is a 1975 live document and the first of many many live albums out there, to which when I saw them play in Cedar Rapids in 1979, they were still using many of the songs that they don't now (I Ain't Got You) and the five guitars segment of ME 262 which is better seen live than heard. The original BOC of Eric Bloom, Don Roeser, Alan Lanier (RIP) and Joe & Al Bouchard were the best lineup and once the Bouchard boys would leave, the albums would become less and less satisfying.
The best albums remain Agents Of Fortune and Spectres, two album that defined my high school years since I played both of them a lot but liked the latter album better despite the familiar Don't Fear The Reaper is on the former. Returning to that forbidden sound of the first album Agents is perhaps the most democratic of all BOC albums, even Alan Lanier signs on True Confessions (the first and only time Alan ever sung in the band). Faves remain the big hit, This Ain't The Summer Of Love (Which bombed as a single), E.T.I and Albert Bouchard engages in a duet to the death with Patti Smith on Revenge Of Vera Gemini. And to further prove another point Albert leads off side two with I'll love you like sin but won't be your pigeon line to Sinful Love. Debbie Denise, originally thought to be the worst BOC ever, isn't that; it's somewhat tongue in cheek. I can probably listen to that one better than say, 7 Screaming Diz Busters or anything of Revolution By Night. Spectres on the other hand, to me was better leading with FM hit Godzilla, The Golden Age Of Leather which could be a followup to Then Came The Last Days Of May. Other faves are R U Ready 2 Rock but more often it's Albert again on Death Valley Nights and Don Roeser's I Love The Night, another vampire song so to speak. Their second live album in three years Some Enchanted Evening came out and although I have yet to hear the expanded version, I can say that the single album version was slightly better soundwise than On Your Feet.., but at that time it was product for the label to ship out. Perhaps someday I'll spring the big bucks to get the expended edition but as they say so little time so much music to hear. Moving on.
BOC said goodbye to Sandy Pearlman and ushered in a new era with pop master producer Tom Werman to produce Mirrors and in the result became their most pop sounding album ever. The Great Sun Jester would have benefited more from Pearlman's production but in this setting something seems missing, still a good song but one that could have been better with a harder production. Dr. Music, Mirrors and the beautiful goodbye to Patti Smith from Alan Lanier called In Thee are the standouts. Alas, side 2 has not held up very well over time. Al Bouchard's You're Not The One I Was Looking For, borrows a lot of the melody from The Cars Just What I Need and the James Gang Tend My Garden and turns BOC into power pop. The Vigil sounds uninspired.
The next two albums are considered the last good BOC efforts, this time hooking up with Martin Birch (Deep Purple, Iron Maiden) to make the prog rock sounding Cultosaurus Erectus, the last great album. Working with Mike Moorcock (Hawkwind) they came up with Black Blade, another guitar rock Lips In The Hills has great guitar work from Don Roeser but the lyrics are ultra silly. They even go jazz on Monsters! My other faves would be Hungry Boys and Fallen Angel. Fire Of Unknown Origin brings their second and final hit in the overplayed Burnin For You but also the sinister Joan Crawford and Veteran Of The Physic Wars, which would be used in the Heavy Metal movie as well. But this would be the end of the original BOC. Albert Bouchard would leave soon after and CBS issued yet another live album ETI Live which has Albert playing on only two tracks (the best ones Black Blade and Dominance And Submission to which he usually sang didn't by this time) and the rest by Rick Downey (later managing Anthrax).
And then the lost years. Revolution By Night (1983) which the late Bruce Fairbairn produced showed a band that lost its identity and although I have it on record I didn't like it enough to buy on CD. Take Me Away (co written with Aldo Nova) was the failed hit and best song, Shooting Shark the other decent song. The rest was forgettible. Club Ninja (1986) is a even bigger mess to which Joe Bourchard left after the Revolution By Night fiasco and although Sandy Pearlman is back in the producer's chair, the outside song doctors didn't help much, nor did the borrowed rhythm section. Dancing In The Ruins was the failed hit and best song. The strange Imaginos (1988) has Albert Bouchard coming back to write the lyrics and music and although Joe Bouchard is credited as a player here it sounds a bit too much like Club Ninja. This is one record that I can like one minute and hate the next. The namesake song Blue Oyster Cult is very bizarre sounding, while the backing vocals say We understand, I don't. Not in this context. And they do a disco version of Astronomy as well too. Imaginos the album has been reissued four times in its history and as a curio should be heard as least one time.
With that in mind, Columbia/CBS bid adios to the cult with the half assed Career Of Evil, which is a contractual obligation upon itself with inferior live versions of their hits. Since then, Sony Music has reissued many a best of Blue Oyster Cult album and the most practical one and cheapest was On Flame With Rock And Roll. Workshop Of The Telescopes is a 2 CD effort that takes sections off all the CBS albums and adds a few obscure ones as well. Later on Sony Music reissued the first five BOC albums with bonus tracks and if you're a fan like me you have them all now (the ones being the first album up to Spectres). The Essential Blue Oyster Cult is Workshop Of The Telescopes renamed.
BOC was not done yet; in the 1998, they signed up with CMC to release their best album in years in Heaven Forbid and had some airplay with Harvest Moon. Heaven Forbid is their most metal sounding record with See You In Black and Power Underneath Despair. Curse Of The Hidden Mirror (2001) was a decent followup. A Long's Day Night was a credible live album. BOC hasn't recorded much since then if they ever did but still remain one of the hardest working bands touring to this day.
In 2003, Sony Music finally reissued the first five studio albums with bonus tracks and finally the lyrics (except Spectres), for the first time people can actually read the lyrics but turns out the lyrics may have been the least worthy, and why hardly anybody ventures out of covering The Reaper or Godzilla, they're much harder to sing to. The notes to Spectres are half assed and the lyrics not even printed on this one. Club Ninja and Imaginos have been deleted by Sony, with Koch Records reissuing them for a time and then American Beat taking over and doing a bared bones reissue (at least the Columbia version had the printed lyrics and story line). Real Gone Music is now the third reissue label for that. Lemon Records in the UK still has Club Ninja in print.
Blue Oyster Cult continues to tour with Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser still the band. On occasion Joe and Albert Bouchard will pop up on stage for a special guest appearance. Many years of smoking Allen Lanier paid the price, dying from COPD in 2013.
Most recently, BOC has signed with Frontier Records and have reissued a few things including Cult Classic and a Agents Of Fortune 40 Year Anniversary live album. I can live without both albums. There's a promise of a new BOC album before the year is out. It would be wonderful to see Joe and Albert Bouchard back on board but that won't happen.
Grades
Blue Oyster Cult (Columbia 1971) A
Tyranny And Mutation (Columbia 1973) B+
Secret Treaties (Columbia 1974) A
On Your Feet Or On Your Knees (Columbia 1975) B
Live 1976 (Griffin 1976) B-
Agents Of Fortune (Columbia 1976) A-
Spectres (Columbia 1977) A
Some Enchanted Evening (Columbia 1978) C+ (Grade for the single LP only)
Mirrors (Columbia 1979) C+
Cultosaurus Erectus (Columbia 1980) A-
Fire Of Unknown Origin (Columbia 1981) B+
Extraterrestrial Live (Columbia 1982) B+
The Revolution By Night (Columbia 1983) C
Club Ninja (Columbia 1986) C
Imaginos (Columbia 1988) B-
Career Of Evil (Columbia 1989) C
On Flame With Rock N Roll (CBS Special Products 1990) A-
Cult Classic (Frontiers 1992) C+
Bad Channels S/T (Frontiers 1994) C
Workshop Of The Telescopes (Columbia 1995) B+
Heaven Forbid (Frontiers 1998) B+
Best Of Blue Oyster Cult-Don't Fear The Reaper (Legacy 1999) B+
Curse Of The Hidden Mirror (Frontiers 2001) B
A Long Day's Night (Sanctuary 2002) B+
Setlist: Live Hits (Legacy 2010) NR
Playlist (Sony/Legacy 2015) B
Update: There are now three compilations of BOC best known songs. I've included On Flame With Rock And Roll among the reissues simply of the fact, that the hits are there. Career Of Evil remains a half assed effort and Sony Music has deleted it out of the catalog in favor of Don't Fear The Reaper or Playlist. Workshop Of The Telescopes was renamed The Essential Blue Oyster Cult, same songs, different title. Don't Fear The Reaper is the better of the single best ofs, but Essential BOC is a good anthology, which packs a few b sides and rarities. Sony Music did remastered the original albums up to Spectres with bonus tracks, some do enhance the albums for sure, especially the first album and of course Agents Of Fortune While critics maintain Spectres was the weakest followup to Agents, I thought Spectres was better, at least we were spared of Debbie Denise, perhaps the worst song BOC wrote up to Revolution By Night or Club Ninja. Once Albert Bouchard left the band, BOC was never quite the same and became a parody of themselves. Not even Joe could rescue the band and then he finally left the band. Imaginos had everybody returning to the studios to help out and the music was more heavy metal than Club Ninja, but it's all over the place with guest guitar players and lack of focus.
As mentioned Frontiers reissued the Herald and CMC International albums and without the Bouchard brothers around, it's the Eric and Buck Dharma show. Heaven Forbid showed BOC going further into thrash metal but a lot of people didn't care for that album. Curse Of The Hidden Mirror is more streamlined, it's better than the mid 80s albums but to these ears I didn't care much for it. Since then, Frontiers has issued a few live BOC albums of the 2000s and 2010's but at this point, they are a nostalgic band. I went as far as picking Long Day's Night as a cutout and while it's not On Your Feet or On Your Needs or ET live, it shows BOC on a pretty good night. Setlist is interesting for the inclusion of The Vigil and a 1977 live Godzilla which was the B side to (ahem) Godzilla and Flaming Telepaths a live UK B side. For completeists only.
In the end, I'll pass on the BOC concerts in favor of the new BOC album when it comes out. If and when that happens. I'll cherish the days of seeing BOC tear up the Five Seasons center in 1979 and the 1981 return engagement with Foghat, to which by then Rick Downey replaced Albert on drums. If n when Buck and Eric return to a casino near me, I'll go watch.
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