thursday, november3, 1977
page 6
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Blue Oyster Cult unleashes, all hell breaks loose
By Casey McCabe
Looming over the music world that
thrives on songs of tender love and devo
tion, Blue Oyster Cult chooses to unlease
a foreboding sound, a warning that all hell
has broken loose.
Currently touring to coincide, with its
latest release, Spectres, the band has an
unshakeable evil image that comes from
songs that deal with oil-slicked waterfowl,
O.D.-ing on life, death, and wonderfully
effective ways of going to hell.
"I think that it's ture, we have a sinister
appeal, but we try to temper it with a sense
of humor at all times," said drummer
singercomposer Albert Bouchard. "The
sinister part has very tame lyrics, whereas
the sinister lyrics go with all the major
chords, like a happy break into a chorus.
I'm not trying to underplay our impact, be
cause that's what we're trying to do, deal
an impact."
It was mid-winter 1970, and Bouchard,
Allen Lanier, and Donald Roeser were pass
ing their time at Long Island's State Uni
versity, watching Star Trek and ingesting
various herbs and spirits. For further
profile
amusement, the three pooled their creative
talents with Andrew Winter and Les Bron
stein to form the Soft White Underbelly,
which was to become a local cult attraction.
After the addition of lead singer Eric
Bloom, and replacement of Winter by Bou
chard's brother, Joe Bouchard, the, band
(now Stalk Forrest) struggled through long
n:ghts in various bars and dives, occasional
ly squeezing in some original material into
the otherwise top 40 sets. Despite this
noncreative atmosphere, the band cut its
heavy metal teeth in this environment that
stays with the group today.
Recording contract
But soon to follow was a recording con
tract and a name change to Blue Oyster
Cult. The name came on a last-minute de
cision when the frustrated group members
told manager Sandy Pearlman to leave the
room and come back with a name that
they promised to adopt. Pearlman chose
"Blue Oyster Cult," the name of a song he
had written and was trying to sell to the
band.
"As far as the sinister angle coes, Blue
Oyster Cult is where it started from,"
Bouchard said, "Once we got that name,
we decided 'well we're going to be put into
a Black Sabbath type category'."
"We tried to expand that category into
something else and that's what we're trying
to do, expand our sinister music into some
thing that's positive actually, without
saying love and peace and all that b.s."
After only modest success on their self
titled album, and the following Tyranny
and Mutation and Secret Treaties albums,
the band reached a commercial success
with last years Agents of Fortune. The LP
sold 900,000 copies, and its hit single
"Don't Fear the Reaper" was hailed as the
best song of the year by Rolling Stone. It
also hurled Blue Oyster Cult into the upper
echelons of the heavy metal rockers.
"Don't Fear The Reaper," for instance.
It deals with death, which is a real downer
subject I guess," Bouchard said. "But it's
something you have to face, and the moral
of the song is definitely not a down, it's
about the afterlife, really. That's not a
negative thing. Sinister, but not negative."
Heart condition
The song was written by Donald (Buck
Dharma) Roeser, at a time when he was up
tight about a' heart condition he had that
had kept him out of the draft. Since learn
ing of the condition, he possessed a fear of
death that he cured by writing "Don't Fear
the Reaper."
What it is, is sort of a romantic alter
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4 Photo by Mike Dahlheim
Lead Singer Eric Bloom's guitar bears the Blue Oyster Cult logo that resembles the
astrology symbol of Saturn and the alchemy symbol for lead,
Roeser
native to rottina in the grave,
said. "It's not a religious thing. The image
that I get about where this happens, comes
from the Yaqui way of knowledge, and the
teachings of Don Juan."
True to an image, the band likes to ex
plore the different venues of mysticism and
existentialism. Like some pagan ritual, the
crowd comes to take part in the devilry,
from carefully tattooed Blue Oyster Cult
symbols on girls' foreheads, to the inces
sant screaming of "dominance" to the song
"Dominance and Submission." Bouchard
said the BOC symbol never was meant to
have a meaning other than to be a logo, but
in fact resembles the symbol in astrology
of the planet Saturn, and the Middle Ages
alchemy symbol for lead.
"ESP definitely exists, especially with
the use of hallucinogens, or psychedelic
cop-outs so to speak," Bouchard said.
"Donald (Roeser) in particular has that
power of seeing things."
"The first time we smoked pot, he saw
something that was to happen to us one
week later to the hour," he said. "He told
me he had this very vivid image of us
sitting in a bus terminal 80 miles away. We
were in school at the time, and had no
reason to be there, but one week later we
had driven to the city and our car broke
down and couldn't be fixed. Suddenly
there we were, sitting in the Syracuse N.Y.
bus terminal 80 miles away. Now we are
firm believers in the psychic, phenomenon."
Mellower outlet
While Agents of Fortune provided a
slightly mellower outlet for the group,
Spectres proves to be a return to some
heady material of the earlier albums.
Agents took stock in more tangible images
than the bizarre wanderings of previous
releases.
"I think Agents of Fortune was a
mellower album, it wasn't intentional, it
just happens that we were frustrated in
that category of our musicianship." Bou
chard said, "I would say that Spectres is
turning away from the mellow back to a
heavier bearing."
"The direction we're going in is to try
not to do songs about just this and that,
but about emotions," he said. "We're try
ing' to be more inspirational to people, be
cause when we got to the point of making
Agents, we had built up to a certain degree
of notoriety and we realized we had this
power to influence people, Before we
didn't. We were just trying to make it."
"After Agents we said, 'Hey, we're
really being noticed, let's try to do some
thing good, something years later we an
look back and say, 'wow we really made an
accomplishment',"
The band requires little gimmickry on
stage, and counts on its hard driving music
to capture the audience. It does however,
have one of the finest laser light shows,
that it uses lavishly during performances.
But it is not essential for the audience, to
whose embattled ears and eyes, Blue
Oyster Cult can do no wrong.
"We just try to maintain that emotional
appeal that people can get down and
boogie to," Bouchard, said. "Tame or evil,
that's what we're all about."
out on the weekend
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery
Paintings by Charles Miller
Art Shop
Silver and Gold Jewelry by Jim Cotter and Pan
Telleen, Vail, Colo.
Sheldon Film Theatre
Trollstene by Gunvar Nelson, Thursday, 3 and 7:30
p.m,
Njangaan by Mahama Johnson Traore (UPC Foreign
Films) Sunday, 7 and 9 p.m. '
Union Program Council
Ag Career Day, Tuesday, East Union Great Plains
Room,
Take One, Singh' In the Rain with Gene Kelly. Thurs
day, Union Centennial Room, 7 and 0 p.m,
EUPC Sadie Hawkins Dance, Friday, East Union Great
Plains Room, 8 p.m.
Kimball Recital Hall
Composers Improvisation Ensemble, Thursday, 8 p.m.
Raymond Johnson Dance Co., Saturday, 8 p.m.
Brass EnsembleBrass Choir, Sunday, 4 p.m.
Lincoln Community Playhouse
Veronica's Room by Ira Levin, Friday through Sunday,
8 p.m.
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Dlut Oyster Cult captures thi audienc with littft gimmickry.
Photo by Mk Dihlhtim
