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

[uwe]

Das ist ein sehr schöner Sturmvogel, Denis.   

[TBird1958]

Here you are, you unbelievers! I built this many years ago so excuse the dustiness. Notice the skeleton in the cockpit.

Nice............ 

[uwe]

That said ...

[Highlander]

Nice work Denis...

[Denis]

Das ist ein sehr schöner Sturmvogel, Denis.   

Nice work Denis...

Thank you, kind gentlemen!

[Pekka]

I've got the box now before me, both compact and lovingly done, it features:

I bought the box too, the total cost was 58 euros from amazon.co.uk and I almost got it back when I sold the previous CD's I had (not of every album, it never crossed my mind to get "Club Ninja" on cd...).
My favourites are "Tyranny And Mutation", "Secret Treaties", "Agents Of Fortune", "Cultösaurus Erectus" and "Fire Of Unknown Origin" but every album have good moments, even "Club Ninja" with "Perfect Water". I love that everyone sang lead at some point, even Lanier with his Keef -like croak on "Mes Dames Sarat" and "True Confessions" and everyone wrote great songs. For example:

Black Blade (Eric Bloom)
I Love The Night (Donald Roeser)
Career Of Evil (Albert Bouchard)
Hot Rails To Hell (Joe Bouchard
In Thee (Allen Lanier)

[Denis]

I always loved that they could all play the guitar and switch off leads and such.

[nofi]

[Denis]

I saw that one the other day! There's a number of clips of songs from that performance.

Here's one I ran across. Joe Bouchard performing "Death Valley Nights", a fantastic song.

[Denis]

Here's a great live performance of "Astronomy" with Buck on a Les Paul. Stratocasters are fine and all, but really to me an SG or a Les Paul is the sound of rock and roll.

[uwe]

This acoustic stuff is great!

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. And Buck Dharma's demo for Reaper is great too (including the parts where he loses time with the drum machine!), the central ideas of the song are already all there, BÖC actually honed it down with a  "less is more"-approach.

[Denis]

Yes, I've really enjoyed the acoustic stuff too. There's a fair amount of filmed acoustic performances by Joe on YouTube and last night I found footage of an anniversary concert filmed in November, 2012 which features the current lineup, PLUS Al, Joe and Allen!

I may have to spring for that boxed set.

Speaking of central ides for their songs, some years ago I bought a Stalk-Forrest album from a guy in Japan. Although it's old, it was apparent even then where BÖC was headed.

[Denis]

By the way, find the "Tour Dates of Your" section of the band's website. Many even have setlists! I wish I knew the setlist for the Nov, 2001 show at Lincoln theater in Raleigh.


http://www.blueoystercult.com/Road-main.html

[uwe]

Listening to Agents of Fortune yesterday, it occurred to me that with their five songwriters and five lead vocalists (most of the time either Eric or Donald or Albert), BÖC were just too varied. On Agents of Fortune, Westcoast stuff, hard rock, the beginnings of NYC new wave and funk as well as even jazz influences,

just listen to this here, that is harmonically pretty daring (too daring?) for rock, especially hard rock:



all intermingle. And while it's gratifying and interesting to hear today, there are just as many songs where, say, a Kiss fan would have lifted the needle as there are songs where a CSN&Y fan would have done the same.

[Denis]

Pretty versatile as a band back then and they still dig out old songs pretty frequently for live shows. While there's a few songs they nearly always play, it's pretty impressive that they can and do go back to nearly all their old albums for material.

Here's a great live version of 'Veteran of the Psychic Wars" after Albert left. Buck's blistering on that Strat.