Blue Öyster Cult “Andrew Winters” redirects here. It is not to be confused band recorded an album’s worth of material for Elektra with Andrew Winter. Records in 1968. When Braunstein departed in early 1969, Elektra shelved the album. Blue Öyster Cult (often abbreviated BÖC) is an Amer- Eric Bloom (formerly the band’s acoustic engineer) re- ican rock band from Long Island, New York, whose placed Braunstein, and the band continued to perform as most successful work includes the hard rock and heavy Soft White Underbelly. However, a bad review of a 1969 metal songs "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Godzilla" and Fillmore East show caused Pearlman to change the name "Burnin' for You". Since the release of their eponymous of the band – first to Oaxaca, then to the Stalk-Forrest debut album in 1972, the band has sold over 24 million al- Group. The band recorded yet another album’s worth of bums worldwide, including 7 million in the United States material for Elektra, but only one single (“What Is Quick- alone. The band’s music videos, especially “Burnin' for sand?" b/w “Arthur Comics”) was released (and only in a You”, received heavy rotation on MTV when the mu- promo edition of 300 copies) on Elektra Records. (This sic television network premiered in 1981, cementing the album was eventually released, with additional outtakes, band’s contribution to the development and success of the by Rhino Handmade Records as St. Cecilia: The Elektra music video in modern pop culture. Recordings in 2001). After a few more temporary band Blue Öyster Cult’s longest lasting and most commer- names, including the Santos Sisters, the band settled on cially successful lineup included Donald “Buck Dharma” Blue Öyster Cult in 1971. (see “band name” section be- Roeser (lead guitar, vocals), Eric Bloom (lead vocals, low for its origin). “stun guitar”), Allen Lanier (keyboards, rhythm guitar, New York City producer/composer and jingle writer backing vocals), Joe Bouchard (bass, backing vocals) David Lucas saw the band perform and took them into his and Albert Bouchard (drums, percussion, backing vo- Warehouse Recording Studio and produced four demos, cals). The band’s current lineup includes Roeser and with which Pearlman was able to get the renamed band Bloom, as well as Jules Radino (drums, percussion), another audition with Columbia Records. Clive Davis Richie Castellano (keyboard, rhythm guitar, backing vo- liked what he heard, and signed the band to the label. cals), and Kasim Sulton (bass, backing vocals).[1] The first album was subsequently produced and recorded by Lucas on eight track at Lucas’ studio.[4] Winters would leave the band and be replaced by Bouchard’s brother, Joe Bouchard. 1 History Lyricists for Blue Öyster Cult include band members Donald Roeser, Albert Bouchard, producer Sandy Pearl- 1.1 Early years as Soft White Underbelly man, and writers Richard Meltzer, Patti Smith, Michael (1967–1971) Moorcock, Eric Van Lustbader, Jim Carroll, Broadway Blotto and John Shirley. The band originated as a group called Soft White Un- derbelly (a name the band would later occasionally use in the 1970s and 1980s to play small club gigs around 1.2 Black and white years (1971–1975) the U.S.) in 1967 in the vicinity of Stony Brook Uni- versity on Long Island, New York, at the prompting of Their debut album Blue Öyster Cult was released in Jan- critic and manager Sandy Pearlman consisting of guitarist uary 1972, with a black and white cover designed by artist Buck Dharma, drummer Albert Bouchard, keyboardist Bill Gawlik. The album featured the songs "Cities on Allen Lanier, singer Les Braunstein and bassist Andrew Flame with Rock and Roll", “Stairway to the Stars”, and Winters.[2] Pearlman wanted the group to be the Ameri- “Then Came the Last Days of May”. The album sold [3] well, and Blue Öyster Cult toured with artists such as The can answer to Black Sabbath. Pearlman was important [5] to the band – he was able to get them gigs and record- Byrds, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Alice Cooper. ing contracts with Elektra and Columbia, and he pro- Their next album Tyranny and Mutation, released in vided them with his poetry for use as lyrics for many 1973, was written while the band was on tour for their of their songs, including “Astronomy”. Writer Richard first LP. It contained songs such as “The Red and The Meltzer also provided the band with lyrics from their early Black” (an ode to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police days up through their most recent studio album. The and basically a sped-up rewrite of “I'm On The Lamb”, 1 2 1 HISTORY from the debut album), “Hot Rails To Hell”, and “Baby to use it on his 1982 solo album, Flat Out, but he was Ice Dog”, the first of the band’s many collaborations with convinced to use it on the Blue Öyster Cult album in- Patti Smith. stead. The album went platinum, and contained other fan The band’s third album, Secret Treaties (1974) received favorites such as “Joan Crawford” (inspired by the book positive reviews, featuring songs such as “Career of Evil” and film Mommie Dearest) and "Veteran of the Psychic (also co-written by Patti Smith), “Dominance and Sub- Wars", another song co-written by Moorcock. Several of mission” and "Astronomy". As a result of constant tour- the songs had been written for the animated film Heavy ing, the band was now capable of headlining arenas. Metal, but only “Veteran of the Psychic Wars” (which, ironically, was not written for Heavy Metal) was actually used in the movie. After this album, Albert Bouchard had 1.3 Commercial success (1975–1981) a falling out with the others and left the band, and Rick Downey (formerly the band’s lighting designer) replaced him on drums. The band’s first live album On Your Feet or on Your Knees (1975) achieved greater success and went gold, and was At the height of their popularity, the band’s success followed up by their first platinum album, Agents of For- spurred a host of cult-like activities, such as a Marshfield, tune (1976). Again produced by Lucas. It contained the Mass. Blue Öyster Cult-themed summer camp which fea- hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", which reached num- tured competitive air guitar and lip synching contests. ber 12 on the Billboard charts and has become a classic of the genre. Other major songs on the album were "(This Ain't) The Summer of Love”, “E.T.I. (Extra-Terrestrial 1.4 Decline and fall (1981–1987) Intelligence)", and “The Revenge of Vera Gemini”. For the tour, the band added lasers to their light show, for After leaving the band, Albert Bouchard spent five years which they became known.[6] working on a solo album based on Sandy Pearlman’s poem “Imaginos”. Blue Öyster Cult released a live album Their next album, Spectres (1977), had the FM radio hit Extraterrestrial Live, then went to the studio for the next "Godzilla", but its sales were not as strong as those for the album, with Bruce Fairbairn as producer, the 1983 re- previous album. lease The Revölution by Night. Its highest-charting single The band then released another live album, Some En- was “Shooting Shark”, co-written by Patti Smith, which chanted Evening (1978). Though it was intended as an- reached number 83 on the charts. “Shooting Shark” also other double-live album in the vein of On Your Feet Or On featured Randy Jackson on bass. After Revölution, Rick Your Knees, Columbia insisted that it be edited down to Downey left, leaving Blue Öyster Cult without a drum- single-album length. It became Blue Öyster Cult’s most mer. popular album, eventually selling over 2 million copies. The band re-united with Albert Bouchard for a Califor- It was followed by the studio album Mirrors (1979). nia tour in February 1985, infamously known as the “Al- For Mirrors, instead of working with previous producers bert Returns” Tour. This arrangement was only tempo- Sandy Pearlman (who instead went on to manage Black rary, and caused more tensions between the band and Sabbath) and Murray Krugman, Blue Öyster Cult chose Bouchard, as he had thought he would be staying on Tom Werman, who had worked with acts such as Cheap permanently, which was not the case. The band had Trick and Ted Nugent. However, the resulting album only intended to use him as a last-minute fill-in until an- sales were disappointing. other drummer could come on board, which resulted in Bouchard’s leaving after the tour. Allen Lanier also quit Pearlman’s association with Black Sabbath was tapped for the next Blue Öyster Cult album, which resulted in the band shortly thereafter, leaving the band without a keyboardist. Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell producer Martin Birch being hired for the next Blue Öyster Cult record. The result was Blue Öyster Cult hired drummer Jimmy Wilcox and key- positive, with Cultösaurus Erectus (1980) receiving good boardist Tommy Zvoncheck to finish the Club Ninja al- reviews. The album went to number 12 in the UK, but bum, which was poorly received, with only “Dancing In did not do as well in the U.S. One of the notable songs The Ruins”—one of several songs on the record writ- on the album was “Black Blade”, which was written by ten entirely by outside songwriters—enjoying minimal Bloom with lyrics by sci-fi and fantasy author Michael success on radio and MTV. The highlight of the album Moorcock. The song is a kind of retelling of Moorcock’s was “Perfect Water” written by Dharma and Jim Carroll epic Elric of Melniboné-Saga.