BOC: Nazi references...

[Craig Shipley]

>
> At 05:46 PM 12/5/96 +1000, you wrote:
>
> >There's a band history at
> >http://www.roughguides.com/RG_WWW/rock/final_rock_entries/BLUE_OYSTER_CULT.html
> >that puzzled me when I read the bit about BOC refuting "allegations of
> >neo-nazism" around the time of *Secret Treaties*. Have I missed something?
>
> I think that is mostly due to the album cover and the song M.E. 262 -
> "Hitler's on the phone from Berlin, says I'm gonna make you a star.." Some
> people pick up on any little bit and decide that because of it, the band
> must be nazis or satan worshipers or whatever... They probably never paid
> any heed to the rest of the lyrics.
>      _
>   | | \   *jbrooks at connectnet.com                   | "What ever you do,
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> |_| |_/   *WALSTIB / Keep our Internet free!        |  shoes" -- Phish
>
Ahhh, yes, the old "BOC Nazi" reference! I remember reading an interview in
one of the local DC rags that started off with the "Are you guys Nazis?". This
was about the time of _ST_ and was probably due to the _ST_ cover. I think that
the article then made the point that most of the band is Jewish. I also
remember a song title (tongue-in-cheek?) refered to as "Concentration Camp For
Dogs", which wouldn't do much to help dispel the Aryan Race references. The
ad campaign for _ST_ was much more in the Allied camp, with the band dressed
in WWII-era USAAF flight gear at a pre-mission briefing with the accompanying
verbage "Aggression Unchecked is Aggression Unleashed". Militiaristic, yes;
Nazis, NO (even ME-262's flew in Allied colors and the famous ME-109 flew for
the Israieli AF in their war of liberation, so the choice of aircraft for the
cover-art can't be blamed too much.


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