BOC: Lots More o' Stuff

[John A. Swartz]

> Listening to the AOF remaster...
>
> Can Al B. sue Night Ranger for plagiarism?  Sister Christian =
> Debbie Denise!

I assume you're joking - they may have a similar vibe, but musically
sound quite different to my ears.



> while John sighed...
>
> >Sigh - anytime Mirrors, Revolution By Night, or (esp.) Club Ninja gets
> >degraded in any way (even if IN JEST!!!), someone always rushes to its
> >defense.  There IS good stuff on the album - even the tracks you
> >mentioned not liking (Dr. Music, Moon Crazy, Lonely Teardrops) are
> >enjoyable to me - but as a whole the album has its problems.  Bolle has
> >said that Mirrors nearly singlehandedly destroyed the fanclub in the 70s
> >- not his words, but he did say that the "membership" dropped WAY off
> >after Mirrors came out.
>
> I certainly understand your opinion, and I would guess its probably shared
> by the majority, but I'll expand a little on my feelings here so you know
> where I'm coming from -

NO!!!!!    ;-)

You have just proven my point about people rushing to defend a
particular BOC album.  Hey - some people LIKE Mirrors; and some people
LIKE Club Ninja.  It's O.K. - REALLY it is.  In fact, I enjoy both those
albums too (in moderation).  But I always find it humorous that if
someone makes a disparaging remark about them, somone feels the need to
defend it, and explain their feelings.  Feel free if it makes you feel
better, but it is not necessary.  The album is what it is - some fans
really dislike it, some fans think it's great, and most probably will
all agree that it has a few good tracks but is overall not on the same
level as Secret Treaties (then again, what is?).


> in the early 80's by a friend who had all their previous material, and
> though I did get my first listens to them more or less in order, the effect
> on me would definitely be different from that on someone who had been
> waiting each year for the newest release as they came out.

Yes, and this is the rub with Mirrors (which Andy also points out) - if
you had been a fan in the early 1970's and followed the band up through
Some Enchanted Evening (when they were a powerhouse on the road), then
Mirrors appears as a dissappointment for many.  If you got into the band
(as I did) in the early 80's, then looking backward Mirrors may not look
so bad (but maybe Club Ninja still does?).

To give some "perspective", I'm going to lift a few direct quotes from
"Morning Final" - not the song, but the BOC Fanclub newsletter:

"There was a lot of interest in the band because of that and I
had about 200 fans in the club as a result. ... I eventually had as
many as 350 fans but it went downhill from there, and in 1979
when Mirrors came out I had only 15 fans left who wanted to stay
on for another year." MF 01

"I think the biggest surprise may come in the Favorite Album Department—not
the number one slot, but the runners up: By far the pick albums are #1: Secret
Treaties, #2: Imaginos, and #3: Cultösaurus Erectus! This is not at all
what I would
have expected, but it shows you all have very good taste, by choosing
their finest
albums!! Also ranking high were #4: Spectres and #5: Fire Of Unknown Origin.
Right behind these were, respectively, Agents, Blue Öyster Cult, Tyranny
and Mutation
and On Your Feet or On Your Knees. All albums received at least a couple
votes as a Favorite album with the exception of ETL which received no votes.
Least favorite albums were Club Ninja with the most votes, followed by
Mirrors"  MF 04

"To date, these rehearsals and recordings were the bands most thorough
work for any album before or after, with almost 3 months on pre-production
alone. And for all that work came the album that most fans put
at the bottom of their ‘fave album’ list; which Eric, in England’s New
Musical Express paper, alluded might make good frisbees;
and to this day is sometimes referred to as “Errors.”"  MF 08

"After the disappointing Tom Werman-produced Mirrors album, The Cult
were looking for something to get themselves back on track again."  MF 10

The next quote actually pertains to the recording of Spectres, but I
think the perspective translates nicely to Mirrors as well...

"In March of 1977, as the Agents Of Fortune 250 date tour
ended and the guys got some time off from the road, it was
time to start preparing new material for the next album. Lots
of decisions had to be made: which direction to follow and
what kind of concept to go with on this follow-up to Agents.
They had to adjust to a new way of life in the shadow of chart
success, and the demand to become hit makers. There were,
for the first time, commercial pressures to at least match the
success of Agents, and since the hit of “The Reaper,” they all
saw the possibilities of having radio hits. Although in those
days they were almost guaranteed a big seller, they had
moved up the ladder of commercial success, and almost
subconsciously they had a different directional approach to
their playing, and the necessity to become more easily
accessible is heard in their playing.
The clash between Punk and Disco distorted guidelines of
Rock & Roll that year ..."  MF 11


By the way, all this great info from Morning Final can be YOURS by going
to www.bocfanclub.com - Melne has put all the issues of MF in PDF format
for download.





> I listened to the 1st 3 releases I pretty much felt  them to be a unit - not
> only did I consider each one to be an album but all 3 worked together as a
> sort of meta-album.

Most fans, and even the band, would agree with that assessment.


> Then with Agents, Spectres, and Mirrors, it seemed to me
> that lots of different ideas from different people were being tossed in as
> discrete songs with different approaches and no real attempt made to create
> a unified whole. (The liner notes for the re-release of AoF just out
> actually seem to agree with me here and indicate this was due to the advent
> of home-recording equipment allowing everyone to more fully form their ideas
> in a solo setting before presenting it to the band - a pretty interesting
> read, and also a nice explanation for what I was hearing).

Exactly.  The band was no longer writing as much as a unit, but working
on demos at home so there is much more individual efforts, which yielded
more diversity.  Also, after "Reaper", the band was more conscious of
trying to write a radio "hit".


> I would offer as a possible
> explanation that it was not because Mirrors was suddenly a whole lot worse
> than the previous releases, but that people who had been holding on and
> hoping for a return to the 'good old days' suddenly decided that 'nope, they
> werent coming back, this proves it, lets get out' - the overall count for
> the last 2 or 3 releases had begun to tip too much negative.


Probably partly true.  But "Some Enchanted Evening" broke up the space
between "Spectres" and "Mirrors", so I think that contributed to the
more sudden drop-off a the time of "Mirrors".

Then again, if you were in high school in 1972-1974, by the time
"Mirrors" was coming out, you may have been getting out of college and
persuing other interests, so that may have been a factor too...


Still, looking BACK in time, I can find enjoyment from the album - but
can see how a fan "growing up" on BOC would have had issues with Mirrors.


John