 Biography
Blue Öyster Cult was the
thinking man's heavy metal group. Put together on a college
campus by a couple of rock critics, it maintained a close
relationship with a series of literary figures (often in the
fields of science fiction and horror), including Eric Von
Lustbader, Patti Smith, Michael Moorcock, and Stephen King,
while turning out some of the more listenable metal music of the
early and mid-'70s. The band that became Blue Öyster Cult was
organized in 1967 at Stony Brook College on Long Island by
students (and later rock critics) Sandy Pearlman and Richard
Meltzer as Soft White Underbelly and consisted of Andy Winters
(bass), Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (guitar), John
Wiesenthal -- quickly replaced by Allen Lanier -- (keyboards),
and Albert Bouchard (drums), with Pearlman managing and Pearlman
and Meltzer writing songs. Initially without a lead singer, they
added Les Bronstein on vocals. This quintet signed to Elektra
Records and recorded an album that was never released. They then
dropped Bronstein and replaced him with their road manager, Eric
Bloom, as the band's name was changed to Oaxaca. A second
Elektra album also went unreleased, though a single was issued
under the name the Stalk-Forrest Group.
Cut loose by Elektra, they changed their name again, to Blue Öyster
Cult, and signed to Columbia Records in late 1971, by which time
Winters had been replaced by Albert Bouchard's brother
Joe. Blue Öyster Cult, their debut album, was released in
January 1972 and made the lower reaches of the charts. Columbia
sent a promotional EP, Live Bootleg, to radio stations in
October, and followed with BÖC's second album, Tyranny &
Mutation, in February 1973. Their third album, Secret Treaties,
was released in April 1974 and became their first to break into
the Top 100 bestsellers. (It eventually went gold.) BÖC
released a live double album, On Your Feet or on Your Knees, in
February 1975. In May 1976, came their fourth studio album,
Agents of Fortune, including the Top 40 (Top Ten on some charts)
hit single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (featured in the
classic John Carpenter horror film Halloween), which became
their first gold and then platinum album. (On Your Feet went
gold shortly after.) BÖC's sixth overall album, Spectres, was
released in October 1977 and went gold in January 1978. In
September 1978 came a second live album, Some Enchanted Evening,
which eventually would become BÖC's second million-seller,
followed by the studio album Mirrors in June 1979. A year later,
BÖC released its ninth album, Cultosaurus Erectus, with the
gold Fire of Unknown Origin, containing the Top 40 hit "Burnin'
for You," following in June 1981.
In the summer of 1981, drummer Albert Bouchard was replaced by
the band's tour manager and lighting designer, Rick Downey. BÖC's
third live album, Extraterrestrial Live, was released in April
1982, followed by the studio album The Revolution by Night in
October 1983. Downey left in 1984 and was replaced in 1985 by
Jimmy Wilcox. The same year, Lanier left and was replaced by
Tommy Zvonchek. BÖC released its 13th album, Club Ninja, in
January 1986. Bassist Joe Bouchard left in 1986 and was replaced
by Jon Rogers. In 1987, Lanier returned to the group, and Ron
Riddle replaced Wilcox on drums. BÖC's 14th album, the concept
recording Imaginos, became their final new album on Columbia
Records in July 1988. BÖC scored the movie Bad Channels in
1992, by which time Chuck Burgi had replaced Ron Riddle on
drums. In 1994, Blue Öyster Cult released Cult Classic, an
album of re-recorded favorites, in connection with the use of
their music in the TV miniseries of horror novelist Stephen
King's The Stand. Numerous lineup changes ensued throughout the
'90s (as the band kept on touring the world), and in 1995, were
the subject of a double disc anthology, Workshop of the
Telescopes. By the late '90s, BÖC had signed with the CMC
label, resulting in their first album of all-new studio material
in ten years, 1998's Heaven Forbid, and three years later The
Curse of the Hidden Mirror. The group's music reached a whole
new generation of hard rock fans when Metallica covered the BÖC
classic "Astronomy" for their best-selling Garage Inc.
album in 1998, as a few other best-of collections surfaced
around the same time -- Super Hits and Don't Fear the Reaper:
The Best Of. In 2001, Columbia/Legacy reissued BÖC's first four
releases with a newly remastered sound and added bonus tracks. ~
William Ruhlmann & Greg Prato, All Music Guide |
