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signed to Columbia Records in late 1971, by which time Winters had been replaced
by Albert Bouchard's brother Joe.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
Blue Öyster Cult'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.)
Blue Öyster Cult 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.)
Blue Öyster Cult'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
Blue Öyster Cult's second million-seller, followed by the studio
album Mirrors in June 1979. A year later,
Blue Öyster Cult 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.
Blue Öyster Cult'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.
Blue Öyster Cult 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.
Blue Öyster Cult's 14th album, the
concept recording Imaginos, became their final new album on Columbia Records in
July 1988.
Blue Öyster Cult 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,
Blue Öyster Cult 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
Blue Öyster Cult
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
Blue Öyster Cult's first four
releases with a newly remastered sound and added bonus tracks. ~ William
Ruhlmann & Greg Prato, All Music Guide
Contact Grabow for more information or to book
Blue Öyster Cult for your next corporate or private event.
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