BOC : Club Ninja Liner Notes

[Robert W. Prince]

This is my first post, and in my opinion Club Ninja is the worst BOC album
(by far).  The absence of Allen Lanier as a keyboard player, let alone
songwriter, is very conspicuous. The album as a whole just comes across as
mediocre.  Maybe it's because I've been a fan since Spectres, even though
Ninja was BOC, it also wasn't quite BOC.

My first concert ever was on my 16th birthday (if you can believe that), Blue
Oyster Cult on the Mirrors tour (8/31/79), with the Ian Hunter Band w/ Mick
Ronson opening, at the Hollywood (FL) Sportatorium, front row seats (alot of
ETL was recorded at the Sportatorium).  Man did The Vigil and Great Sun
Jester rock! (the whole show was surreal, it was so good.)  I was also at the
Atlanta comic show where Eric and Moorcock gigged.  (1 wk ago before I joined
this list I had never heard of Hawkwind, Calvert, Nik (?) etc. are they in
the public eye even less than BOC, or was it just me?)

There is some similarity w/ Ninja to what happened in 1981.  Rick Downey was
on the crew and knew the set and was able to fill in for Albert, and in a
pinch that would be fine.  To play drum parts live that have already been
created by another person is one thing.  To replace that person in a band and
attempt to create new material is quite another.  BOC replaced Albert as a
drummer but never replaced his songwriting ability or his creativity in his
drum parts.  In my opinion that was a very significant loss that the band
played off as less so.  There was something unique going on when Albert was
there that was lost at Castle Donnington (to me he was the perfect drummer
for the band).

Club Ninja without Lanier exacerbated the situation and left a hole in the
fabric of BOC in another area (just listen to those synths!).

Robert Prince
RBrent1044 at aol.com