The Blue Oyster Cult shares certain traits with that other New York cult band, the Dolls: an appropriate image for the outpouring of urban (and seemingly bottomless) frustration, an offbeat sense of humor and an ability to rock with grandeur. Although theyÆve been together as the Soft White Underbelly and then the Stalk Forrest group since the late Sixties, commercial
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success has come only with the adoption of a new name and a modified stance: from straight rock & roll to a heavy-metal band. The change in direction and subsequent success can be attributed in large part to non-member Sandy Pearlman, the groupÆs lyricist, stylistic consultant, co-producer and long-time manager.
The heavy-metal connotation comes mainly from PearlmanÆs funny-fantastic lyrics and the vocals, which borrow the shrillness and exaggerated vibrato of lesser people like Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep--seemingly merely for the sake of genre classification.
PearlmanÆs lyrics are alternately concerned with the phantasmagoric modern myths most clearly envisioned by Marvel Comix illustrators, and with macho-military regalia, often associated with the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe. But whatever inspiration PearlmanÆs approach provides, the band transcends eccentric detail when it launches into various instrumental sections. Don Roeser (aka Buck Dharma) plays a dextrous and muscular guitar; no matter how astounding his lead lines are, theyÆre never free-flight solos but rather the cutting edges of arrangements.
From the teamed virtuosity and forcefulness of such tracks as "Astronomy" (which sounds like Cossack-rock), "Career Of Evil" (with lyrics by poet Patti Smith) and "Flaming Telepaths" (driven by Don RoeserÆs overpowering guitar line), Blue Oyster Cult shows signs of achieving a rock & roll hybrid comprised not only of heavy-metal elements but also of the 5-D Byrds and the Brian Jones-dominated Stones. The blend is further modulated by recurring bits from Alice CooperÆs "Ballad of Dwight Fry," and the "Theme from Peter Gunn." And there are other quotes from the Sixties, including the Beatles and Motown.
If you play Secret Treaties at high volume (and you should if you play it at all), youÆll hear all these divergent pieces hurtling along together in tense but still very close formation. Proving that Blue Oyster Cult is at the very least a triumph of aero-dynamics. (RS 163)
ToddTodd RundgrenBearsville 2 BR 6952
Amid a growing Profusion of lightweight pop practitioners, one latter-day exponent of self-conscious pop stands out on the American scene: Todd Rundgren. A gifted studio technician and producer, he is also a resourceful composer and inventive plagiarist; in many ways, Rundgren is the SeventiesÆ journeyman pop stylist.
"I Saw the Light," "Hello, ItÆs Me" and, from the new LP, "A Dream Goes on Forever" all show his knack for churning out whimsical but effervescent formula tunes. And his lyrical preoccupat
