Majestic, mysterious, magical Blue Oyster Cult career once again down Hot Rails To Hell. Join the latest celebration of the most supernatural, sinful and iconic rock ’n’ roll outfit from the Lovecraftian woods, mists and shores of Long Island.
This much welcome release originates from the September 2022, three-gig run at New York’s Sony Hall – one night after another, the first three albums, with the eponymous debut disc, followed by Tyranny And Mutation, and, to come, Secret Treaties (all from Frontiers Music Srl).
Remember when rock albums were pure works of art, complete realms of imagination?
Releases around and about the time of 1973’s T&M, and beyond, were revered by fans, pored over by philosophers, regurgitated by flimflammers, as if they were a new, complex novel, or the latest controversial movie.
The enigmatic and enduring BOC, with stone-cold classics like Agents Of Fortune, Cultosaurus Erectus and Fire Of Unknown Origin still on their horizon, knew all about words, novels and movies. Their collaborators – it was always a collective, a community – included Michael Moorcock, Sandy Pearlman, John Shirley, Patti Smith, Richard Meltzer, with cinematic nods to elegant vampires, visiting extra-terrestrials, a stomping Godzilla, playing havoc with bus and train timetables, and a demonic Joan Crawford, triumphantly risen from the grave.
Each of this titanic triptych of full album run-throughs is followed by live sets of fresh fun, “hits”, and preciously deep cuts. The 21-track Second Night, in case you don’t know T&M, showcases staples of a timeless, seminal catalogue, The Red & The Black, O.D.’d On Life Itself, 7 Screaming Diz-Busters, along with (perhaps) less celebrated workouts such as the organ pumping Teen Archer, and the sublime Wings Wetted Down.
The rousing, expert second set boasts the likes of Perfect Water, The Revenge Of Vera Gemini, Unknown Tongue, Tattoo Vampire, and the ubiquitous but always transformative (Don’t Fear) The Reaper (Reaper features on First and Second Night, with other “doubles” being Box In My Head, Burnin’ For You, That Was Me and Godzilla. First Night includes T&M’s Hot Rails To Hell, with Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll, from the debut album, on Second. Otherwise, no duplicates).
For some, this ain’t the summer of love, and this ain’t BOC, really? But Eric Bloom and Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser are present and correct, with Albert Bouchard contributing all three nights (Albert is still guesting, ghosting and questing, carrying the torch of Imaginos).
With BOC, you must be willing to enter a world of codes, symbols and cyphers. It’s all about chasms and phantasms, holy and unholy harvests, Lucifer and Nosferatu, necromancy, and, it has to be said, a fair amount of (nicely knowing) nonsense and nincompoopery. Much of it is not suitable for genteel Diz-cussion.
Ultimately, we should be grateful that Buck and Eric are still boogying along, veteran psychic warriors, swinging scythes and carving black blades into the wilting ranks of naysayers.
Blue Oyster Cult – 50th Anniversary Live – Second Night (including Tyranny And Mutation), is out on Friday, August 9, from Frontiers Music Srl