Monday, January 25, 2010

Blue Oyster Cult's First Album: Looking Back


Originally posted on August 4, 2008

The rock world in 1972 was in turmoil. Some of the classic late ‘60s bands had faded, victims of various misfortunes or stagnancy. Punk was in its incipient stages, Disco had not quite begun its pollution of the music scene, Fusion was beginning to enter a commercial phase that eventually ruined it for a time. Progressive rock was pretty strong, but the germination of the seeds of excess were planted.

What about plain old rock? New bands were appearing, some better than others. One of those better ones was Blue Oyster Cult. Their first, self-titled album (Columbia) appeared in January of 1972 and did not set the world on fire, but in retrospect deserves a listen. They had a hard rock edge and some solid material, even on that first offering. The CD sounds timeless; the style still lives on. The record is now going for cheap and it includes four bonus tracks—demos that landed them the record deal. Surprisingly decent.

No comments:

Post a Comment