Not.
More likely, life is like a Blue Oyster Cult (wha?) catalogue.
They've done stuff since the earliers seventies, some amazing gems...
...and lot of crab. Dung. Sh*t.
Some of the latter stuff could easily be edited into gems.
But is not.
A good part of their career, or "career", implies that for several years
here and there, during the inevitable course of time, they seem to have done
next to nothing at all.
One of their albums, "Imaginos", took some 15 years to complete,
as the work started in earlier seventies, was interrupted time and again,
and the LP got finally published in 1988,
but then again, the stuff that came into record shops even then
was a collection of compromises between demands of record companies,
the imagined demands of imagined listeners, and those of the band.
A dull compromise and nothing but a hit, after some fifteen years,
but two or three gems.
In all, they have had some surprising successes, as well as some unexpected failures.
And, in the end, two conclusions remain:
1) "What the hell is Blue Öyster Cult? Never heard."
2) "Astronomy" and "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" may be among the best songs,
in the whole world, ever.
...Although "Astronomy" is known today merely as a Metallica cover, if indeed even that,
and "The Reaper" is mostly famous due to a comedy piece "More Cowbell".
By the mainstream, that is.
...
I've bought many Blue Öyster Cult albums in my life.
And instead of hazel-nut surprises in boxes of chocolate...
I'm obviously not allergic to musical sh*t.
No, but instead, in search of such absolute gems like "Astronomy"
and, say, "Flaming Telepaths",
I will, well, keep on searching.
Yours truly, -R
- - -
6 kommenttia
Splenetic
12.3.2009 20:11
"'The Reaper' is mostly famous due to a comedy piece 'More Cowbell'." No idea what the movie is but another to blame the mainstream knowing 'The Reaper' is the HIM cover on their debut album. Quite good, actually.
Rokkihomo
13.3.2009 01:34
How fitting. Talkin bout artistic models; "would you die tonight for love..."
("More cowbell" is a skit. Described today, as I checked, even in wikipedia...)
millikan
13.3.2009 11:05
Yeah, "needs more cowbell" is a skit from, SNL, I think? And the expression has become a meme...
"Life is like BOC catalogue", nice phrase, I should start using that :)
They indeed have bunch of great songs, and what I have heard one good studio album (Secret Treaties), so the success rate is not particularly good...well, enough to make a killer set for a compilation or a live album.
Though I didn't know Metallica had covered "Astronomy".
millikan
13.3.2009 23:26
Oh, and I'd throw in another scifi-oriented gem from the catalogue: Veteran of the Psychic Wars.
Rokkihomo
14.3.2009 00:41
...From the LP "Fire of Unknown Origin" which, as all BÖC LP's, is mostly sh*t, except that song, and "Joan Crawford", about Joan's daughter based on story familiar from the movie Mommy Dearest... And Joan of course returns haunting...
"Veteran" is of course based on Michael Moorcock's writings (Like their "Black Blade" a copule of years earlier). Moorcock. Familiar with Hawkwind?
millikan
15.3.2009 21:25
I know Hawkwind but have heard only a couple of songs...but I know the Moorcock connection for them and BOC too.
Joan Crawford is a fun song too, though I haven't heard the studio version of that, only the live one on Extra-Terrestial Live (which I'd pick as second-best BOC album of the ones I have heard, close to unbeatable tracklist on that.)