Artist: Blue Oyster Cult
Title: Secret Treaties
Type: Album
Label: CBS / Columbia 1974
So the second in my short Way Back Wednesdays of music I always listen to over the Yule period. This I admit is a weird one to fit into this period, but it has become part of it. You can hear Blue Oyster Cult in the sounds of bands who declare their influence (The Devil’s Blood for example) and those who don’t (ahem… well no names but they are out there) and you will if you look find that they have far more fans than you could believe. I’ve been a fan for…well twice as long as probably a lot of you have been alive. Fifty years. They may look like ageing accountants (and behave like them as far as band business goes, hence being able to make a living at this since the 70s) but they can still rock like bastards. Their last album only a handful of years back proved that.
So…
Blue Oyster Cult. Yes everyone has heard of them but, frankly, if all you know is ‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper’ then I should mention that not only is that not their best song, it’s not even the best song on the album its from ‘Agents Of Fortune’. That is reserved for the Patti Smith (yes, the legend that is Patti Smith punk poet) penned ‘The Revenge Of Vera Gemini’. The keyboard player of BOC at the time, Alan Lanier (RIP) and Patti were an item for a time in the seventies and this album, Secret treaties, opens with one of her most memorable set of lyrics.
For the festive season of goodwill, I give you ‘Career Of Evil’. Straight off the weird, eerie wandering guitar melody and deep seventies psyche keyboard sound is not what you may be expecting from one of the first bands ever to be described as ‘heavy metal’. It’s a strange jazzy sound that pushes into heavy rock and a lovely guitar break from probably the most criminally underrated guitarist of his generation; Don ‘Buck Dharma’ Roeser. The way it shifts though the tempo changes is serpentine and the lyrics match. ‘Capture you inject you, leave you kneeling in the rain, kneeling in the rain. I choose to steal what you choose to show and you know..I will not apologise, you’re mine for the taking. I’m making a Career Of Evil…’ Its a bitter, nasty, cynical start to the album and from here on things get…
Weird.
‘Subhuman’ is a relic from the time this album was supposed to be the Lovecraftian based ‘Soft Doctrines Of The Imaginos’ which eventually appeared some two decades later as the spectacular and bombastic ‘Imaginos’ album (seriously, go get it.) Here we s;lide into a slow undulating bass line and the smooth tones of (I believe) Buck Dharma singing. Interspersed with almost spoken word vocals from Eric Bloom, one of the most original vocalists about, we delve into a strange underwater world. The lyrics are dense but heard through the Lovecraft filter we are deep in Innsmouth with nary a mention. This is how Blue Oyster Cult work; hints and cyphers, dreamlike melodies threaded by the guitar through the complex arrangements. Listen to the musicianship on this from drums to guitars and you will never look at this band the same again. This is haunting, beautiful and transportative occult music.
Perhaps closer to ‘normal is ‘Dominance And Submission’. Still a live favourite with the crowd shouting “Dominance!” and the band meekly replying “Submission…” A little hint of boogie, lyrics that take you for a ride with bad vibes and worse drugs and the advent of New Year and…. things breaking through.
Then it’s screaming rock time as ‘ME262’ takes flight. I guess its the title track, or at least the cover track. A tongue lodged deep in cheek as often is the case with BOC, revolving around occult pacts and the Third Reich. A classic riff, some quite wonderfully ridiculous lyrics around the plane itself on a bombing run (remember the plane should have been a fighter but a certain lunatic demanded they put bombs on it…). Its just a fine rock out ending to side one to be honest.
‘Cagey Cretins’ is an odd one. Wary, spiky verse that just charges out into the refrain; crying vocals, full on 70s rock release. What’s it about? Lord knows. Bored students waiting to go to college? Being chased around, by the neighbour’s cat. Well it’s so lonely in the state of Maine…. Odd. But a cracking song.
And the full on madness. A menacing creeping tune, a bass line bouncing and Eric Bloom’s voice twisted and snarling. ‘Harvester Of Eyes’ The song reeks menace as our titular serial killer adds to his collection and a bloody gorgeous solo from Buck that just rips even now. But it’s that bass line that steals this song; prowling, malevolence that a lot of black metal bands could still take lessons from and a nasty, dark slow section. Apparently it even made it to a comic in the past…
And then the music box plays and things just go…worng. ‘Flaming Telepaths’. Eric Bloom’s voice has so much pain and anger in it as he snarls I’m after rebellion, I’ll settle for lies. It also has the line ‘experiments which failed to many times and transformations too hard to find’ which were part of a long passage on the original liner for their second album, prior to this, ‘Tyranny And Mutation’. Lovecraft meets seventies psycho drug sci-fi and unforgettable, hook riddled refrain and the end repetition of ‘and the jokes on you….’ as the guitar virtuosity breaks free neoclassical style once more.
Utterly peerless. A sudden stop. Then.
A deeply haunting piano, a gothic Lovecraftian shadow settles over us and for me Yule is here. The lyrics are dense, some will say ‘sound good but mean little’. Something proved so wrong when two decades later this slotted into ‘Imaginos’ and the insane wanderings of the character Desdinova finally wove his tale of myth and oceans and other voids. ‘Like acid and oil on a madman’s face, his reason tends to fly away..’ It is an incredible passage of beautiful, graceful music and hair tingling arrangements as we glide from the piano to the uptempo guitar strumming. And once more Bloom’s voice seems to talk directly to you; it is difficult to describe but this is the voice of a storyteller not a grand rock vocalist. Rich, emotional and so expressive it makes me shiver. The feeling of quiet in this song as, just outside the dark house, utter chaos is welcomed into the world on the tails of the insane wanderer. The guitar solo is just fantastic, never breaking the mood as it dances though the notes and slows into the final rousing end.
This is the sound of my Yule eve, as the clouds gather and the light goes and a swirl of wine or whisky breaks the walls between what is and what should never be. It’s time….
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 