The Rhino Handmade version of this with the extra tracks is sweet. When it came out, I was wondering about the extent to which it would become canonized as one of the great rock albums of the era. Perhaps this shows once again how really humor oriented music often remains marginalized? The Stalk-Forrest Group album can only be considered a classic on about the same marginal level as something like the Hampton Grease Band's Music to Eat?
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 23 July 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Saturday, 23 July 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)
No, but it has its good moments, mostly when you hear the riffs Buck Dharma would later recycle and upgrade into the heavier delivery of Blue Oyster Cult.
Lots of BOC stuff had humor to it. If it was marginalized, I missed that part. A good-time if sort of obscure humor movie, "The Stoned Age," used BOC as its central motif.
― George Smith, Saturday, 23 July 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)
― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Saturday, 23 July 2005 19:41 (twenty years ago)
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 23 July 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)
George, I wasn't saying BOC were marginal; just remarking on the lack of attention this fantastic album got when released (admittedly on a fairly small, mailorder only label!).
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 23 July 2005 19:49 (twenty years ago)
You can tell from the Rhino thing that they were determined to keep kicking the same can until it worked. Stalk Forrest/Soft White Underbelly, then BOC. Even BOC's success didn't come at once although they achieved a live rep that preceded sales upticks.
― George Smith, Saturday, 23 July 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)
― el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Saturday, 23 July 2005 19:59 (twenty years ago)
B-Ö-C itself chanaged from American proto-metal (Black Sabbath wannabes) to arena rock. Their first three ("B/W") albums are SOOO different from the later ones, and a lot more compelling. I've heard critics say that "Secret Treaties" was a retread of 1&2, but I agree with above: Secret Treaties was their "best". If not as original as 1+2, it was more polished, confident, & flat out fun.
The 3 B/W remasters include out-take re-recordings of the S-F-G songs, and its interesting to compare the early & retry versions.
― JTW, Saturday, 13 May 2006 15:39 (nineteen years ago)
have to say, I was always a bit disappointed that "Dominance & Submission" wasn't really about...well, you know...
― hank (hank s), Saturday, 13 May 2006 15:55 (nineteen years ago)
in some ways, *YES*, yes it was.
but you have to be a Grateful Dead fan :-)
btw, I plan to see three BOC shows in the Chicago area this year (I think it will mark my 11, t12, and 1thr3), can't wait for Vernon Hills!! Seeing and listening to ERic and Donald joke around is always a treat. At least, it has been my treat for the last 12 years or so. Don't give a rat's ass who plays the other three (althoug Allen *was* there a bit for the early nineties, and then he retired [probably a good move])
god, "Ragamuffin Dumpling" and "What is Quicksand?", as *recordings* and as *compositions* trump the stuff from the Colubia 1st lp
― Stormy Davis, Friday, 11 February 2011 08:32 (fifteen years ago)
I personally have always considered the Stalk-Forrest/Soft-White stuff as 'ALBUM #1'
so, like, when ppl are all like, 'i love the first three BOC albs' or whatever the hipster line is, get fucking STALK-FORREST BAND CD, mustache boy, hey -- get 'MIRRORS' and 'CULTOSAURUS ERECTUS' too, it will not bankrupt you, mustache boy!
just so amazing how fully-formed Don was on the early stuff. Man, they did dig the Dead hardcore .. sort of amazing how quickly that particular performance style got dropped as they moved into the BOC era. Their jam songs from this particular era ('Ragamuffin'. 'St. Cecilia'), show that they took notes.
love them to death.
listening to 'Gil Blanc County' right now ... how can it be denied? i need Tim Ellison to run shield for me ... is Tim online ??? lemme check..
― Stormy Davis, Friday, 11 February 2011 08:42 (fifteen years ago)