BOC: fakes? SFG liner notes revelation

[John A. Swartz]

> Now I'm aware of the concept conscious Meltzer and the image conscious
> Pearlman's (or was it vice-versa?) hand in crafting BOC's early sound/stance,
> and I think BOC's best material has always been written and delivered with
> tongues in cheeks, but it's more than a little disheartening for this fan to
> read that, after being screwed by fate and Elektra Records one too many
> times, the band made a conscious decision to try to 'become' a (pseudo-)
> heavy metal band. And the 'metal they played at first' was a joke to
> them---what, like the debut lp? Tyranny and Mutation? To this admitted
> purist, it just kinda sounds like they couldn't make it as themselves, and
> decided to pretend to be something else they thought would go over better.As
> a musician and fan, that's just a little disappointing. If the time were
> different, would they have become a pseudo-disco band? Gaahhhhh!!!!!

Well, the band that would become the Blue Oyster Cult was looked upon by
Columbia as sort of an American Black Sabbath.  As is obvious from the
SFG recording, the band was going in a much different direction with
Elektra, and they indeed made a conscious effort to go "metal" (or
"pseudo-metal", whatever that is) because that is what Columbia wanted -
witness the creation of songs like "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll",
and the transformation of "I'm On The Lamb" to "The Red And The Black".
Albert can lend a good perspective on this (where is the guy these days,
anyway?), but he has said in the past that with their first 3 albums,
BOC was basically trying to "describe hell" musically.  The first album
still has some leanings from their earlier days (Sir Rastus Bear, I'm On
The Lamb, Last Days of May), but by Tyranny and Mutation, the band was
getting fully into their new sound/image.  But, of course they must have
been a bit not-completely-serious with it.  Eric Bloom's only 5 foot, 7
inches tall and quite skinny (I think his full head of hair/beard helped
mask his size a bit) prowling around the stage in leather - think about
it a bit!

As for the "purist" in you, I think you may be reading a bit more into
this than you should though - sure, they made a concious effort to write
"heavy" stuff - but so what?  Buck's always shown a distinct pop angle
to his music, and much of that has been worked into BOC.  Besides, what
they did create was still their creation, even if they conciously tried
to write to a particular style.  Disco?  Well, Albert wrote "Cities on
Flame with Disco" as a joke (I've not heard it), and he's explored other
musical areas as well, such as funk and jazz.   Personally, I just see
the "pseudo-metal" music of BOC as a natural progression of the band's
writing - they started out playing Beatles covers and surf music, moved
up to psychadelic and extended jams, and moved into hard rock and heavy
metal, sprinkled in with some pop music along the way.

John