Sometimes, I love you guys, in a non-gay way.

What were the assassinated german shepherds depicted sketched on the back of Secret treaties a reference to? According to Maury Terry's book The Ultimate Evil, this was a calling card of The Process Church of The Final Judgement, a cult that believed Jesus and Satan would lay down their arms and become united in Love.

In the interest of accuracy let me revise and restate some things please. The sketch (also a colorful painting on the inner sleeve) depicted lifeless inert Alsation Hounds (who had been) riddled with bullets, and this was, according to Maury Terry's (much disputed) book, also a calling card, not of the Process Church, if I may correct myself here, but rather, of The 4-P Group, a Process offshoot, on the back cover of the Secret Treaties LP. They certainly weren't doggie treaties, that's for sure.

As I mentioned in another thread, I recently bought cheap copies of a few BÖC CDs out of curiosity. I've been listening to these a lot: Blue Öyster Cult, Tyranny and Mutation, Secret Treaties, Agents of Fortune, and Fire of Unknown Origin.

Thing is, I'm not sure how much I like or dislike this band. I keep listening to these albums, and there are great songs and really embarrassing, almost-song-ruining moments on all of 'em. Some songs, like "True Confessions," I like even though they're really cheesy. "Dominance and Submission" has that goofy sounding pitched-down voice saying "radios appear." That's really stupid. They have fantasy/sci-fi overtones that I generally find intolerable and Patti Smith, who I think is crap, was involved with them.

I like Secret Treaties the best out of the albums I've heard, but there's a lot I like on all of them.

I know they went to crap around '83, but I'm wondering if Spectres ("Godzilla"--the only song I know from this one--is goofy, but I don't mind it. However, this record apparently also has a song called "R U Ready 2 Rock" on it. Ugh.), Mirrors (I love the Cars parody/ripoff "You're Not the One (I Was Looking For)," the only song I know on this one), and Cultosaurus Erectus ("Black Blade" is good, but is based on some lameass fantasy thing, as previously noted) are worth picking up if I find them used.

I can generally discern crap from not crap pretty easily, but here I'm not sure. I can't tell if my lame internal debate about this band means I'm tricking myself into liking them

I'm going with NOT CRAP with a WF of 5. I think BÖC's good outweighs their bad, based on the records I've heard.

placeholder wrote:"Dominance and Submission" has that goofy sounding pitched-down voice saying "radios appear."

This is one of my favorite BOC tracks. I actually like that part of the song a lot.

placeholder wrote:As I mentioned in another thread, I recently bought cheap copies of a few BÖC CDs out of curiosity. I've been listening to these a lot: Blue Öyster Cult, Tyranny and Mutation, Secret Treaties, Agents of Fortune, and Fire of Unknown Origin.

Thing is, I'm not sure how much I like or dislike this band. I keep listening to these albums, and there are great songs and really embarrassing, almost-song-ruining moments on all of 'em. Some songs, like "True Confessions," I like even though they're really cheesy. "Dominance and Submission" has that goofy sounding pitched-down voice saying "radios appear." That's really stupid. They have fantasy/sci-fi overtones that I generally find intolerable and Patti Smith, who I think is crap, was involved with them.

I like Secret Treaties the best out of the albums I've heard, but there's a lot I like on all of them.

I know they went to crap around '83, but I'm wondering if Spectres ("Godzilla"--the only song I know from this one--is goofy, but I don't mind it. However, this record apparently also has a song called "R U Ready 2 Rock" on it. Ugh.), Mirrors (I love the Cars parody/ripoff "You're Not the One (I Was Looking For)," the only song I know on this one), and Cultosaurus Erectus ("Black Blade" is good, but is based on some lameass fantasy thing, as previously noted) are worth picking up if I find them used.

I can generally discern crap from not crap pretty easily, but here I'm not sure. I can't tell if my lame internal debate about this band means I'm tricking myself into liking them

I'm going with NOT CRAP with a WF of 5. I think BÖC's good outweighs their bad, based on the records I've heard.

I hear ya. I've bought and sold the first two BOC records two or three times in my life. There are songs I love on both--particularly "Transmaniacon MC" and "The Red and the Black"--and I like their singles (even "Burnin' for You"), but I suspect that you could get all of the good stuff onto one CD, maybe even a single LP. Maybe it's been done already--I really haven't bothered looking.

I like the singles too, but never bothered to explore further.

Perhaps later tonight I will track down Secret Treaties and start from there.

The first record is all goodness, for my taste.

I cribbed this list from Julian Cope's website "Head Heritage"...

Transmaniacon MC (from BLUE OYSTER CULT)
Before the Kiss, a Redcap (from BLUE OYSTER CULT)
Screams (from BLUE OYSTER CULT)
Subhuman (from SECRET TREATIES)
Hot Rails to Hell (from TYRANNY & MUTATION)
M.E. 262 (from SECRET TREATIES)
OD'd on Life Itself (from BLUE OYSTER CULT)
The Red & The Black (from TYRANNY & MUTATION)
Workshop of the Telescopes (from BLUE OYSTER CULT)
Flaming Telepaths (from SECRET TREATIES)

Using this as a playlist, Blue Oyster Cult reveals itself as very very not-crappy.

burun wrote:I like the singles too, but never bothered to explore further.

Perhaps later tonight I will track down Secret Treaties and start from there.

For you, I would suggest the more dynamic and cartoonish Cultosaurus Erectus. I fucking love this lp. Classic geiger rock. This record should have been sampled a million times by now...