Blue Oyster Cult: Cultösaurus Erectus

Camels can down 30 gallons (113 liters) of water in just 13 minutes. The water is stored in the camel bloodstream, while the fatty hump  Rather than being stored in its fatty hump serves as a source of nourishment when food is scarce. - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/28170-25-fun-facts.html#sthash.X117I2wP.dpuf

Camels can down 30 gallons (113 liters) of water in just 13 minutes. The water is stored in the camel bloodstream, while the fatty hump  Rather than being stored in its fatty hump serves as a source of nourishment when food is scarce. - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/28170-25-fun-facts.html#sthash.X117I2wP.dpuf

Blue Oyster Cult: Cultösaurus Erectus

1980

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Black Blade  2. Monsters  3. Divine Wind  4. Deadline  5. The Marshall Plan  6. Hungry Boys  7. Fallen Angel  8. Lips in the Hills  9. Unknown Tongue



Now that's an album cover!! I love that big weird dinosaur...

 And check out the Cultosaurus' slug-like body and long neck on the back cover!  Back when I had the CD version I could never find the hidden logo, but when I finally got the Vinyl version, it was  easy to spot (It's written on the tiny spaceship flying by the monster's head)...The facts underneath the photos are really great by the way...A bunch of references to Blue Oyster Cult lore...For example, who knew the Cultosaurus Erectus was a distant relative of the Horn-Swooped Bungo Pony?  That's the kind of thing they just don't teach in schools anymore...

As for the music, this record finds the band stepping away from the pop-rock sound from their last few albums and getting heavy on us again, and  manage to summon the supernatural feel that they had largely lost since "Agents of Fortune." Maybe, it's due to the fact that Eric seems to have been restored as lead singer..He actually provides vocals for the majority of the tracks...

The only real throwback to the Agents of Fortune-Spectres era is "The Marshall Plan" which you kind of have to hear to believe..It's your standard "Johnny" song...Y'know, the kind Foreigner or Bad Company would write...It's about this kid named Johnny, who decides to aid post-war Europe...

Nahhhh..It's actually about a kid deciding to become a rock star or something...But they take it so much further...As far as I can tell, Johnny takes his girl, Susie, to the Rock Show and she ends up banging the band, so Johnny gets sick of it and decides to become a rock star to get her back...And he actually ends up a successful musician...The process of which takes us from the "Smoke on the Water" riff through a guest appearance by none other than Don Kirshner himself...

(giving one of his trademark electrifying performances....)

...But in the end he still doesn't get Susie...Well,  that 's how it goes at these Rock N' Roll shows...

I find the song so hilarious and entertaining for some reason... But really, it's not very representative of the rest of the album...Like I said before, it's mostly surreal hard rock...Like album-opener "Black Blade," which rocks so much..Another collaboration with Michael Moorcock, it tells the story of some living sword, and the band plays it up to the hilt..."BLACK BLADE...ADE...ADe...Ade...ade.."
 I especially love the outro, where the "Reading Rainbow" type keyboard sequence gives way to a pissy robot...

I'd always heard the rumor that the robot or living sword or whatever drops an F-bomb at the end, but I'd never noticed it...So I decided this time around I'd put on some decent headphones and crank up the fadeout good and loud, and lo and behold, I actually heard it!  Bigger than shit, it says, "You Poor Fucking Humanzzzzzz...." So there you go...No longer a myth... Again, they don't teach you this in school, therefore, I am officially re-branding The Friday Night Record Party blog as an educational website...Here...

Holy shit, is that official!

Here are some educational facts you probably didn't know:

1. In 200 BC, when the Greek city of Sparta was at the height of its power, it was incredibly hard to get a table at the Olive Garden...

2. Ev,er,y, syll,a,ble, in, the, En,glish, lang,uage, must, have, a, com,ma,

3. Only three English words in current use end in "-gry". They are "angry,"  "hungry," and "lonegry."

4. The shortest complete sentence in English is the following: "Sheeeyyyiiiit..."

5. Camels can drink 30 gallons of Monster Energy Drink in 30 seconds, which they can then store in their fatty lady humps in case of an emergency skydive...

6. Want to lose 175 pounds the easy way? Move to the Moon!

7. Ending a list on an odd number gives you an itchy feeling!

And look! Here's our old friend Mr. Bookworm! He's here to remind us to keep reading this summer!  And not just the spank magazines you hide under your mattress! But real books too! Books without staples! Like "50 Shades of Grey"....

Okay, that's enough learning for today...Let's  check out"Monsters" by Blue Oyster Cult...

When a woman gets pregnant, she's not only growing a baby — - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/28170-25-fun-facts.html#sthash.X117I2wP.dpuf

can down 30 gallons (113 liters) of water in just 13 minutes. The water is stored in the camel bloodstream, while the fatty hump  Rather than being stored in its fatty hump serves as a source of nourishment when food is scarce - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/28170-25-fun-facts.html#sthash.X117I2wP.dpuf

Camels can down 30 gallons (113 liters) of water in just 13 minutes. The water is stored in the camel bloodstream, while the fatty hump  Rather than being stored in its fatty hump serves as a source of nourishment when food is scarce. - See more at: http://www.livescience.com/28170-25-fun-facts.html#sthash.X117I2wP.dpuf

Blue Oyster Cult: Mirrors

Blue Oyster Cult: Mirrors

1979

Columbia Records

Format I own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Dr. Music  2. The Great Sun Jester  3. In Thee  4. Mirrors  5. Moon Crazy  6. The Vigil  7. I Am the Storm  8. You're Not the One (I Was Looking for)  9. Lonely Teardrops


People crying "sell out" at "Spectres" must have flipped their purist whigs when this one came out...They ditch longtime producer/songwriter/manager Sandy Pearlman, and brought in slickster producer Tom Werman for a whole album of radio-ready rock...Problem is, radio didn't play it and the fans turned their back on it...

I personally don't think it's a bad album at all...It's not "Secret Treaties" or anything, but a few songs on here on my short list for mt favorite BOC tracks...

I always felt that if they switched Side One and Side Two, this album would have been better received...Because as it stands, it takes about 4 tracks to hear a song that sounds like Blue Oyster Cult...The album starts with the sucky "Dr. Music" which is a cheap KISS knock-off that features incredibly irritating backing vocals from Night Court's Ellen Foley...

 Ugh...Maybe they should have gotten Bull Shannon to do the vocals instead...

That song makes me want to shut off the album as soon as it starts...The next song "The Great Sun Jester" isn't one of my favorites either, but it's definitely not a bad song at all...It's the band's first collabo with elfy, swordy fantasy author Michael Moorcock...



...The third track is where the album really hits its stride...I love "In Thee" so much...It's not hard rock at all, it's a beautifully harmonized folk-pop/soft rock song...I swear, if it wasn't by a band called Blue Oyster Cult, it probably would have been all over AM radio...I'm also a big fan of the infectious title track...A nice, solid pop-rocker that features the always great Buck Dharma's humorous take on vanity...One of their best, and most unjustly forgotten singles...

 But as soon as you flip the record over (after the catchy, Doors-ish "Moon Crazy) and hear that glorious wind-swept riff, you know "The Vigil" should have opened the album...The song is just pure Blue Oyster Cult and that part when they drop out all the other instruments and Buck plays those horror-film arpeggios is just the coolest shit ever...

I also love "You're Not the One (I Was Looking for)" so much that my band just recorded a cover of it recently...It still needs a bit of mixing, but as soon as we're done with it, I'll post it here...The song is just so awesome and sounds so uncharacteristic of the band, especially being sequenced after the heavy metal maelstrom of "I am the Storm." But you've got to check this song out if you haven't heard it..It's Blue Oyster Cult doing a spot-on imitation of...gasp...The Cars... And if that's not enough the album closes with "Lonely Teardrops" which comes off as cross between Stevie Wonder and Led Zeppelin...

So in the end, what we have is an incredibly diverse album that never found the wide-audience it deserved...They try out wildly different styles on every track and master just about all of them...It plays like some alternate realty FM radio playlist from 1979...It shows these guys at their most restless and it's a shame the album has been lost to time...Don't let that happen...Run down to your local record store and pick up a used vinyl copy of "Mirrors", but make sure you skip "Dr. Music"...Actually, do what I said earlier, and just toss on Side Two first...

In the meantime, let's check out "You're Not the One (I Was Looking for)" by Blue Oyster Cult...

Blue Oyster Cult: Some Enchanted Evening

Blue Oyster Cult: Some Enchanted Evening

1978

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. R.U. Ready 2 Rock  2. E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)  3. Astronomy  4.. Kick Out The Jams  5. Godzilla  6. (Don't Fear) The Reaper  7.We Gotta Get Out of This Place
This one's gonna be short cos' it's Friday and I got some drinkin' to do, so... 

The Blue Oyster Cult's second live album...Released a scant 3 years and 2 albums after their last one...But what a difference 3 years makes...They were no longer a cult-y critics-favorite band, but full-blown real deal superstars, thanks to the success of "Agents of Fortune" and "Spectres"...They even had their own damn lasers at this point...And lots of them!

This record is totally different than "On Your Feet or On Your Knees":...They sound bigger and more confident, and there's not the abundance of jamming that characterized that album...Just tight, energetic, crowd-pleasing performances...And they toss in a ripping covers of MC5's "Kick Out the Jams" and "We Gotta Get Out of This Place: by the Animals, so I'm happy...

This record is often accused of being a bit slight...But it really does leave you wanting more...I could have easily taken another disc of this stuff...But at the same time, it works for when I just want a quick fix of live BOC, and I greatly appreciate that it doesn't share any songs from the "On Your Feet or on Your Knees" set-list...Come to think of it, the only pre-"Agents of Fortune" original here is "Astronomy" (whose exclusion from "On Your Feet Or On Your Knees" was a huge oversight)...

Note: They later re-released this in 2007 with an expanded running length, finally stretching it out to its original, intended, double-album length...But I don't have that version...Just the lowly 36 minute vinyl version...


"So let's kick out the jams , brothers and sisters..." (KAAHHHHHHH!!!! (That's supposed to be the crowd noise))...

Blue Oyster Cult: Spectres

Blue Oyster Cult: Spectres

1977

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Godzilla  2. Golden Age of Leather  3. Death Valley Nights  4. Searchin’ for Celine  5. Fireworks  6. R.U. Ready 2 Rock  7. Celestial the Queen  8. Goin’ Through the Motions  9. I Love the Night  10. Nosferatu

CD Bonus Tracks: 11. Night Flyer  12. Dial M for Murder  13. Please Hold  14. Be My Baby

I kind of feel I might be doing the world a huge disservice by offering my opinions on records...Again, my opinion on this record is 100% the opposite from the rest of the world's for some reason...I think "Spectres" absolutely smokes "Agents of Fortune." It pulls off the whole slick pop-rock direction so much more effectively...But others seem to see it as a "sell out" or the moment BOC jumps the Shooting Shark...

Maybe I'm just more of a power pop fan than your average Blue Oyster Cult fan...I for one don't think the State Fair is going to explode just because Blue Oyster Cult doesn't play "(Don't Fear) The Reaper"...I'd much rather hear the insanely catchy "Fireworks"...

I suppose the big draw here though, would be FM radio standard "Godzilla"...As a kid obsessed with "Godzilla Week" on the local TV station, hearing BOC's "Godzilla" on the radio was a big treat...The monstrous riff was actually Godzilla-worthy...I've heard this song a million times, but I can't help but still enjoy it...

 (I must find this shirt at all cost...)

From the multi-part epic "Golden Age of Leather" to the creepy album-closer "Noseferatu," every second of the album is catchy and fun...And the production is great..They sound very comfortable in this big, arena setting, but still never lose sight of the weird, twisted roots....Stadium rock with a knowing, devilish gleam in its eye...

It's hard to believe I slept on this one so long...I could never find it for some reason...Although, I  wasn't looking too hard, since everybody kept telling me it was  "Agents of Fortune"'s inferior little brother...And I never got into "Agents of Fortune" too much, so I wasn't exactly dying to hear a lesser version of it...Finally I dug up a vinyl copy at FYE and have been head over heels in love with it ever since...

This is a pretty big statement, but I'm not afraid to say that this is my second favorite Blue Oyster Cult album...Yes, you heard me right...My second favorite! There...that was very brave of me...

Oh, yea,  a lot of people seem to be confused by the song title "R.U.Ready 2 Rock." I always hear it slagged as being a dumb title with a bizarre and meaningless abbreviation, but I'm pretty sure it's in reference to the classic play "R.U.R (Rossum's Universal Robots)" which was a popular play from the 20's that's significant for giving us the word "Robot."




And robots are awesome, therefore, the song is awesome...Let's take a moment to look at some robots...

  (Here are some robots with dinosaur heads...I bought one of these in a Florida flea-market circa 1986...)

 (Here's C-3PO sportin' a mean hard-0n...Looking to bang some fine, young trash compactor or something...)

(Here's a couple of robots fighting over whether or not "Agents of Fortune" is better than "Spectres.")

I highly recommend the vinyl version (cause you can actually see the hidden Kronos logo...) but you might want to pick up the CD version, too...This one has the best bonus tracks..."Please Hold" is one of their finest pop songs and they do a must-hear cover of "Be My Baby"...So now you can dirty dance w/ Patrick Swayze while listening to Blue Oyster Cult...

Unfortunately, you "Havana Nights' fans are out of luck...There's no Black Eyed Peas covers here...

Okay, enough with the Swayze...Let's check out "Fireworks" by Blue Oyster Cult...

Blue Oyster Cult: Agents of Fortune

Blue Oyster Cult: Agents of Fortune

1976

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. This Ain't the Summer of Love  2. True Confessions  3. (Don't Fear) The Reaper  4. E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)  5. The Revenge of Vera Gemini  6. Sinful Love  7. Tattoo Vampire  8. Morning Final  9. Tenderloin  10. Debbie Denise

CD Bonus Tracks: 11. Fire of Unknown Origin (original Version)  12. Sally  13. (Don't Fear) The Reaper (demo version)  14. Dance the Night Away



 

The Magician on the cover always reminds me of Freddy Mercury for some reason...

I think I might be in the minority again, but this is one of my least favorite Blue Oyster Cult albums...I mean, it's pretty cool and there's a handful of truly great songs on it, but overall it's spotty as hell and seems to be a noticeable drop in quality compared to the consistent butt-kicking of their first three records...

For starters, I don't think "This Ain't the Summer of Love" is on par with the Earth-shaking openers of BOC past...It's  a perfectly fine song and all but it's not a home run like "Career of Evil" or "Transmaniacon MC" was...It seems like it should sound meaner or nastier... Maybe the next track will give us the ol' menace and magic...

Uh...no..."True Confessions" sounds like Billy Joel or something,...And it has a Saturday Night Live-soundin' slutty sax solo...Maybe if it had a killer hook it might work, but it feels so slight...

Okay...Next is "(Don't Fear) The Reaper"...Now this rocks...Although, in a very Byrds-ian manner...You all know this one...Creepy suicide lyrics which Buck Dharma sings in an unnervingly angelic manner...And the part where all the music drops out and that guitar arpeggio comes in that sounds like the Grim Reaper flying around in your room...

You know the part...

Then it suddenly rocks so much that you can't stand it...This seems like one of those songs that I can't believe Classic Rock radio hasn't ruined for me yet (despite their best efforts). True, I rarely play the song voluntarily that much anymore, but I'm still always pleased to hear it...I think what makes it work so well, is that they never overplay their hand, vocally...Most bands that do heavy metal tend to overdo it with the vocals...But they never do an evil death voice, or a banshee wail...They sing about death in the same manner that other singer's would sing about a boat or their children or something...It makes the ubiquity of death sound that much more matter of fact and real...Death is not some roaring monster...It's just there everyday...

Although, I do think that the song casts too large a shadow on the rest of their discography...It's nowhere near their best song...



For instance I like "E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)" every bit as much as "Reaper"...But they never play it on the radio...That catchy chorus would sound so good pumping through a set of car radio speakers...

But outside of "ETI" and "Reaper" the only other five-star song on the record is the eerie, funk-rocker "Tenderloin,"...The rest I could kind of take or leave...

I guess "Debbie Denise" is alright...It's a big overblown power-ballad...The kind Foreigner would do...But this is Blue Oyster Cult we're talking about, and the lyrics defy a straight interpretation...It kind of gives me the impression that it's a parody of the old "Rockstar leaving his Girlfriend while he's on the road" bit...I guess what gives me that impression is that it seems overly misogynistic and cruel to the poor girl:

"I never realized, she was so undone, 
  I didn't suspect she had no life of her own, 
 She was so true but she was a she, 
  She was just there, 
 I would just come Stumbling in, 
 She'd show me she'd care, 
 I didn't care cause she was just there..."

But wait a second...Check out the lyric sheet...These lyrics were written by Patti Smith...

Surely, she can't be a misogynist...And then there's the odd shift in the final lines...

"When I come to her, 
she'd pin back my hair,
 And out past the fields, 
 out the window I'd stare, 
Where I was out rolling with my band..."

Is the narrator Debbie Denise? Why is he in her place now? Who knows...This is Blue Oyster Cult, we're talking about...

Anyway, "Agents of Fortune" is  a good record...Lots of good songs, but everyone acts like it's the be-all, end-all of the Blue Oyster Cult discography...When in reality, they have many worthy releases...Don't just pick this one up because it has "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" on it...Go exploring, my man...

 The CD version comes with four bonus tracks..The most startling of which is an early version of "Fire of Unknown Origin." Who knew they wrote that song back in 1976?!?!  And it's not the groovy 1981 disco-metal version I know and love, but a soulful piano-ballad...

Okay, I'm done talking about "Agents of Fortune" today...Let's check out "E.T.I." by Blue Oyster Cult...

Blue Oyster Cult: On Your Feet or on Your Knees

Blue Oyster Cult: On Your Feet or on Your Knees

1975

Columbia Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Subhuman  2. Harvester of Eyes  3. Hot Rails to Hell  4. The Red and the Black  5. 7 Screaming Diz-Busters  8. Buck's Boogie  9. (Then Came The) Last Days of May  10. Cities on Flame  11.ME 262  12. Before the Kiss (A Redcap)  13.Maserati GT (I Ain't Got You)  14. Born to Be Wild

The obligatory 70's double-live album...God, I love these things...Yea, yea, yea, they're usually just crass cash-ins...Whatever...They still feel like an event to me...

I love pulling the big, weighty album off the shelves, blowing the dust off it, and tossing on Side One (of Four) and gazing at the big-ass gatefold cover...

Oh yea, the inside gatefold to this one is one of the most memorable ever, check it out...

 ALL FIVE BAND MEMBERS (EVEN THE DRUMMER) PLAYING GUITAR!!! AND ONE OF THEM IS WEARING GOLD LAMÉ HOTPANTS!!! (If that doesn't warrant "Caps Lock" I don't know what does...)

(Take the time to drink in the awesome sight of Gold Lamé Hotpants...Is there anything that is more Roller Disco!??!  Does the image of a Man wearing Gold Lamé Hotpants burn a hole in your soul?!?! No! You mustn't answer these questions! An answer would only serve to cheapen the spectacle!)


Anyway, this is Blue Oyster Cult's first live record and it marks the end of the Black and White era...I mean, look at the cover...It's totally in color...The sell-outs...

One of the coolest things about the record is the label...It has the neat photo from the back cover of the leather-gloved hands holding a bible...It looks so damn cool...

The set list covers the first three records and tosses in a couple of cover songs for good measure...To be honest, this is kind of my least favorite of the three BOC live records I own.. It's perfectly raw and exciting, but a lot of the songs are reeeeaaalllly extended for jamming purposes...Which ends up highlighting just how tight their songwriting really was...

70's rock is often remembered as a period of excess, especially when it came to live shows...10 minute drum solos...Extended guitar showcases...But Blue Oyster Cult never did that....If one of their songs had a long running length, that usually meant that it was structurally ambitious...

But they really stretch out here...And that's not a bad thing by any means...They're all really talented players, and Buck Dharma cements his place in Guitar History here...Listen to his endless bag of tricks on "7 Screaming Diz-Busters"...It's a how-to manual for guitar dynamics...And the instrumental "Buck's Boogie" is a real jive boogie indeedy...

And all the jamming doesn't get to me until about side 4, where I usually find myself looking at my watch while a nine minute version "I Ain't Got You" plays in the background...

But it's cool, man...I can dig it...It's the only time they do this...But if you have a problem with lengthy 70's guitar jams, you might want to skip this one and go with "Some Enchanted Evening" or "Extraterrestrial Live" instead...But if guitar solos are your cup o' tea, then drink deep...

Let's sit back and enjoy the one and only Blue Oyster Cult cut loose on "Seven Screaming Diz-Busters"...

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"...