Two years before
Kiss roared out of Long Island with its self-titled debut,
Blue Öyster Cult, the latest incarnation of a band assembled by guitarist
Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser and drummer
Albert Bouchard in 1967, issued its dark, eponymously-titled heavy rock monolith. Managed and produced by the astronomically minded and conspiratorially haunted
Sandy Pearlman,
BÖC rode the hot, hellbound rails of blistering hard rock as pioneered by
Steppenwolf, fierce mutated biker blues, and a kind of dark psychedelia that could have only come out New York. The band's debut relied heavily on the lyrics of
Pearlman and rock critic Richard Meltzer, as well as
Pearlman's pioneering production that layered guitars in staggered sheets of sound over a muddy mix that kept
Eric Bloom's delivery in the middle of the mix and made it tough to decipher. This was on purpose -- to draw the listener into the songs cryptically and ambiguously. From the opener, "Transmaniacon MC," the listener knew something very different was afoot. This is dark, amphetamine-fueled occult music that relied on not one, but three guitars --
Bloom and keyboardist
Allen Lanier added their own parts to
Roeser's incessant riffing: a barely audible upright piano keeping the changes rooted in early rock and the blues, and a rhythm attack by
Bouchard and his brother
Joe on bass that was barely contained inside the tune's time signature. From the next track on "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep," elliptical lyrics talked about "the red and the black," while darkening themselves with stunning riffs and crescendos that were as theatrical as they were musical, and insured the
Cult notice among the other acts bursting out of the seams of post-'60's rock. Other standouts include the cosmic "Stairway to the Stars," the boogie rave-up "Before the Kiss, a Redcap," that sounded like a mutant
Savoy Brown meeting
Canned Heat at Altamont. But it is on "Cities on Flame With Rock & Roll," that the
Cult's sinister plan for world domination is best displayed. From its knotty, overdriven riff to its rhythm guitar vamp, Vox organ shimmer, its crash cymbal ride and plodding bass and drum slog through the changes -- not to mention its title -- it is the ultimate in early metal anthems. Add to this the swirling quizzicality of "Workshop of the Telescopes" that lent the band some of its image cred. [The 2001 remastered edition by Legacy gives punters four bonus tracks in the form of demos recorded by the band's first incarnation as Soft White Underbelly. These are not merely throwaways: it is readily apparent that by 1969,
BÖC was well on their way to creating something new and menacingly different. The only questionable item is the last track: a cover version of
Bobby Freeman's "Betty Lou's Got a New Pair of Shoes," that is utterly devoid of interest.] ~ Thom Jurek