Blue Oyster Cult: Secret Treaties

Blue Oyster Cult: Secret Treaties

1974

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Career of Evil  2. Subhuman  3. Dominance and Submission  4. ME 262  5. Cagey Cretins  6. Harvester of Eyes  7. Flaming Telepaths  8. Astronomy

CD Bonus Tracks: 9.Boorman the Chauffer  10. Mommy  11. Mes Dames Sara  12. Born to Be Wild  13. Career of Evil (Single Version)


Yes! This is it...Not only my favorite Blue Oyster Cult Records, but one of my all-time favorite albums...period. Well, I guess I can't quite say "all-time"...There are some moments in time that I haven't been to yet, and I guess it's theoretically possible that this might no longer be my favorite album at one point, but I hope that's not the case...I would then have to send my current-self into the future to stop this from ever happening, which could then cause a paradox that could jeopardize existence as we know it...So it's probably best for future generations if I just keep this as my favorite 
album...

Oh yea...I don't think I've explained how I began my life-long obsession with Blue Oyster Cult...I'm sure like everybody else I caught some of the hits ("Don't Fear The Reaper", "Godzilla", "Burnin' For You") on the radio, but in addition to those well-known hits, I was absolutely fascinated with "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" from the "Heavy Metal" Soundtrack (which I covered a week or two ago, back when I was discussing Black Sabbath's "Mob Rules")...

 And as a kid who loved anything to do with monsters or sci-fi, I greatly enjoyed these songs...But it wasn't until a few years later,  when I was old enough to get an allowance and buy records, that I picked up a cassette of "Career of Evil: The Metal Years" at the Oscoda Pawn Shop...



(oddly enough, it didn't have the song "Career of Evil" on it...)

I wish I could tell you how many millions of times I played this tape...Sure, it's widely regarded now as being a poor compilation (seeing that  it's largely made up of live versions)...Didn't matter...It was a gateway to the shadowy realm of the Blue Oyster Cult, and in the months that followed, I dedicated all my time (and allowance) to the pursuit of acquiring the rest of their discography....

Anyway, that "Career of Evil" tape is looong gone...I've never picked up another copy either, since It's pretty superfluous to me now, that I already own all the songs that were on it...Still, seeing that black cover with the flaming BOC  Kronos logo on it takes me back to my young jean-jacket days...

 But I didn't invite you here to reminisce about some old greatest hits cash-in...I brought you here to tell you that 1974's "Secret Treaties" kicks some serious ass... A perfect mix of the murky previous albums and the massive arena rock that followed...It's a drop-dead classic the moment you hit "play" and you're greeted with the mad-house organ and guitar riff on "Career of Evil" The lyrics are such a good time...Check these out and tell me you're not in love...

"I plot your rubric scarab,
I steal your satellite,
I want your wife to be my baby tonight....
I'd like your blue eyed horseshoe,
I'd like your emerald horny toad
I'd like to do it to your daughter on a dirt road  ..."

Oh yea, and did I mention that the lyrics were co-written by future punk/poet Patti Smith?



She wrote a lot of the lyrics on their albums... In my eyes, she earned her place in the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame before she even released her first album, for her lyrics on these old BOC albums alone...But we'll get to some Patti Smith albums in about 10 years when I finally make it to the "S" section...By then I'll probably be an even older man than I am now, though...By then, Patti Smith will be too dang loud for me and I'll be stuck reviewing Rod Stewart's "It Had to Be Boring: The Great American Easy Fake Book Volume 33"...



So who knows...We'll see how it goes...

Anyway, "Secret Treaties" has all my absolute favorite songs by Blue Oyster Cult..."Flaming Telepaths" is just a freaking triumph...After a brief music-box intro Allen Lanier's staccato piano chords pounds away, under Buck Dharma's sky-scraping riff...The Heavy Metal storm cloud parts momentarily to reveal Eric Bloom crooning:

"Well, I've opened up my veins one too many times..."

...and I swear to God,  I get goosebumps...And that's all before the towering chorus comes in...Holy shit, I love this song...

Somehow the next song is even better...Just as "Flaming Telepaths" reaches its crescendo, suddenly the whole thing implodes and a tiny, tinkly piano is all that's left., and here we have it...The album's final track and the pinnacle of Blue Oyster Cults' recorded output, "Astronomy." A haunting piano ballad that finds us deep into an underworld of occult intrigue...

"It's the nexus of the crisis
And the origin of storms
Just the place to hopelessly encounter time..."

Oh, don't be fooled by the pretty pianos...They eventually give way to a cosmic Rock N' Roll fury as Eric repeatedly howls "Astronomy...A star!" into the endless void of space and time...

Anyway, I can't think of any good reason that "Astronomy" isn't the national anthem...And the odd thing is, for the longest time I didn't really care about the song... I was more into the straight-forward rockers like "Dominance and Submission" (which don't get me wrong, is an awesome song) but really nothing comes close to "Astronomy."

So don't let yourself make the mistake of overlooking it...Check out "Astronomy" by Blue Oyster Cult"...