I love Blue Öyster Cult... (Uwe's Edit: That makes two of us ...)

Highlander · March 19, 2013, 04:00:57 PM

I remember getting Agents as a US import, fresh off the van, and getting home and hearing Reaper for the first time, clear as a bell... a beautiful sunny day...

uwe · March 19, 2013, 08:10:46 PM

It was the second song I heard from BÖC after Cities on Flame several years earlier. But Spectres was actually the first album i heard in full and the overall quality of the songwriting immediately impressed me. I didn't see them live until Albert had left - they didn't tour Germany all that often. I've seen them five or six times over the years.

the mojo hobo · March 19, 2013, 08:30:16 PM

Well, I got to admit that though I'd not consider myself a BOC fan, I did buy Secret Treaties twice, vinyl and CD. I think my favorite is Astronomy. It is similar to the Last Days of May which I always liked too. But the whole album is great.

Pekka · March 20, 2013, 01:39:09 AM

Quote from: uwe on March 19, 2013, 06:19:58 AM

For any BÖC fan the extra tracks on the remasters are a treasure. Agents of Fortune features a 1976 version of Fire of Unknown Origin at a much slower and laid-back pace and not yet sung by Bloom, but by Albert Bouchard, the song has a strong Patti Smith vibe (she co-wrote it) in that version.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that demo written by Albert and the album version is by Joe (at least his name is first on the credits, then Patti and then the others).

Patti also did her own song with the same lyrics, it's a B-side of some "Wave" era single.

"Dial M For Murder", "Please Hold", Bloom's very punky "Mummy", Joe's "Boorman The Chauffer" ("Hot Rails" part 2), "Mes Dames Sarat"...great stuff.

Denis · March 20, 2013, 08:06:54 AM

Check this out!

uwe · March 20, 2013, 09:07:19 AM

Quote from: Pekka on March 20, 2013, 01:39:09 AM
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't that demo written by Albert and the album version is by Joe (at least his name is first on the credits, then Patti and then the others).

Patti also did her own song with the same lyrics, it's a B-side of some "Wave" era single.

"Dial M For Murder", "Please Hold", Bloom's very punky "Mummy", Joe's "Boorman The Chauffer" ("Hot Rails" part 2), "Mes Dames Sarat"...great stuff.

Both versions are essentially group compositions (Bloom, both Bouchards and Roeser) minus Lanier though he sent his then significant other Patti S. (figures that she would pick him with his lanky looks, he was her type) to deputize for him and co-write. The credits are the same on both versions, just the sequence of the names is different. It sounds more like something Albert Bouchard rather than Joe would write with the chorus chords and all. I would imagine that in the final version Bloom had a stronger hand in the way the verse is sung (chorus is relatively unchanged), that sounds rather Bloom'ish.

nofi · March 20, 2013, 11:48:06 AM

hardly a big fan. but i like the three live lps released on vinyl and that's about it.

TBird1958 · March 20, 2013, 11:59:06 AM

So appropriate.................."Don't fear the Reaper" just played on our muzak here at work

uwe · March 20, 2013, 04:39:17 PM

It's been played to death, but it has a haunting quality. When it came out, nothing sounded like it. At the time it was hailed as BÖC go Byrds and finally have that elusive hit with their fourth studio album (hardly spring chickens as a band back then), but I always found it way too dark for a Byrds song.

TBird1958 · March 20, 2013, 05:00:09 PM

I remember my 81 y.o. Mom trying to tell me about "Reaper", of course this was at least 20years after it had come out..........She likes it!

Truthfully when I really listen to it, that song can still give me goosebumps - haunting quality indeed.

Hörnisse · March 20, 2013, 06:44:51 PM

Denis · March 20, 2013, 06:46:52 PM

Yeah, the song has been played to death and everyone's heard it a million times but if you actually try and forget that and listen you realize what a masterpiece it really is.

Hörnisse · March 20, 2013, 06:50:09 PM

I bought this double CD set nearly 20 years ago. If you can find a copy it is a great way to get into all things BOC.

Nocturnal · March 20, 2013, 10:05:55 PM

If "Reaper" comes on the radio when I skimming thru the channels, I always listen to it. I still enjoy the song regardless of how many times I've heard it.

uwe · March 21, 2013, 05:45:43 AM

I like it too, very much your typical Roeser composition. Compositionally, I'm aways a fan of a an "endlessly-looped" type melody over a changing harmonic background. And the lyrics are great, always liked that goth Romeo & Juliet aspect of it. Plus it was the first popular song to use the picture of death as "the Reaper" - I always liked that picture, hell, I even liked this here! (Only found the Spanish version, sorry.) Love that exchange between William/fatally ill billionaire (Hopkins) and Joe/death/the reaper (Pitt) at 0:58

William: "Should I be afraid?"

Death: "Not a man like you."

and Hopkins' quick smile afterwards.

Does admitting you like a Brad Pitt tearjerker (and that the scene still gives you goose bumps of the good kind today) get you permanently ousted from this forum?

What happened to that actress? I thought she was purdy, little scar and all. The world would be a much better place if we had more billionaire daughters working pro bono as a medical doctor in some inner city hospital and flying in there every morning with dad's helicopter from the mansion home on an island. I love it when Hollywood takes a scathing look at the more realistic side of life.