[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

(TV) Blue Oyster Cult (was 'Rock'sBack pages')



The mention of Allen Lanier in the article Leo forwarded has sent me off on
an Internet exploration that has taken up the better part of my morning thus
far.  I had always wondered how exactly Lanier fit in the New York scene of
the
mid 70s, given that to me, his band, stylistically at least, was about as far
removed from whatever it is we now refer to as "punk" as it is possible to be.
 I had read that Patti Smith had been romantically involved with Lanier, but
I had always wondered at the fact that she actually contributed lyrics to what
would become BOC songs.  To me this was like Leonard Cohen writing for KISS.
A trip to the AllMusic guide was in order:

>>The band that became Blue Oyster Cult was organized in 1967 at Stony Brook
College on Long Island by students (and later rock critics) Sandy Pearlman and
Richard Meltzer as Soft White Underbelly and consisted of Andy Winters
(bass), Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (guitar), John Wiesenthal b quickly
replaced by
Allen Lanier b (keyboards), and Albert Bouchard (drums), with Pearlman
managing and Pearlman and Meltzer writing songs.<<

Whoa!  How had this nugget of rock lore escaped me for all of these years?  I
knew about Pearlman, mainly as also being the producer of the Clash's "Give
'em Enough Rope," but Meltzer's involvement was a complete surprise to me.
And
then this:

>>He (Meltzer) has also penned lyrics for Blue Oyster Cult (including
'Burnin' for You' ) and lived with the group for a time.<<

Now, as I am a child of the late 70s and early 80s, my image of BOC is that
of the sort of band whose fans drove around the suburbs and smoked pot in a
purple customized van with a picture of a unicorn on it.  They were the enemy;
they were the walking embodiment of every musical self-indulgence that I
turned
away from, and they wore beards for god's sake.  They were among the reasons
that the Ramones were even necessary.  They may have indeed been "the thinking
man's heavy metal band," but to me that's like saying they knew better but
persisted with the dungeons and dragons crap anyway.  It is nothing short of
incredible to me that the band that recorded "Godzilla" numbered Richard
Meltzer
as one of their number, and traveled in the same circles as Patti Smith and
Tom
Verlaine.  What were they thinking?!

It's like the 900 lb gorilla in the room full of rock critics -- everyone's
aware of it, but no one says anything.  To me, Meltzer's credibility is shot
--
the second he writes anything remotely derogatory about anyone, he should be
shouted down with lyrics from "Cultosaurus Erectus."   Is it just me?  Should
I re-evaluate my opinion of BOC?  The memory of the "cow-bell" sketch on SNL
is not helping.

Shaken (never stirred) in Chicago
--------------
To post: Mail tv@obbard.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"