Morning Final No. 10

On New York’s Long Island, home of the Blue Boys, resides one of the all-time most famous rock clubs: My Father’s Place in the town of Roslyn. Justabout everybody worthwhile played in this small club at least once in theirlifetime, and homeboys The Cult almost became the very last band ever toperform there, booked for the last night of the grand closing week, January9, 1983.

On the afternoon of the show, Buck and Rick Downey along with the pro-prietor of My Father’s Place, “Eppy” Epstein, went to local radio stationWBAB-FM to promote the night’s show. They talked a bit about what theband was doing at the time, then ended the interview by talking about theshow and Buck promised a lot of dusty old tunes in the set.

He was not lying. Billed as Soft White Underbelly, the band performed two2-hour sets that evening and both shows had enough hot stuff to keep yousatisfied for years to come. The place sold out in no time even though it wasa show for only the very hardiest of fans who braved one of the meanestcold and snowy days of the winter to get there.

When the lights went down that night, the band entered the stage withneither the intro music or the traditional introduction spiel. The band just sim-ply thrust into “Transmaniacon MC.” They seemed to be in a perfect moodthis evening, and I think I dare say this would have to bethe best I ever heard the band play like a solid unit. Thetune goes down a storm and Rick Downey’s drumsemphasize his novelty playing this unusual set opener.

The heavily surprised crowd gets even more so whenthe ever popular surgeon of Rock, “Dr. Music” follows.Another resurrected tune, the band does a fresher ver-sion here than when it was presented in 1979 on theMirrors tour. Perhaps because of the novel feel, or thesize of the venue itself, but nevertheless this is the firsttime I have experienced total communion betweenRick Downey and each of the rest of the band atany given point. This exhibits simply flawless rhythmboosts from a guy I first had a tough time acceptingafter Albert’s demise with The Cult.

“E.T.I.” is no surprise as the ever familiar thirdtune of the set, and its presence

Press the Eject

’n’ Give me the tape

Be sure to check out the Öysters on their spring rounds! Theyhave introduced an impressive number of obscure oldies intothe set! A wish list of past BÖC catalog cuts.

Eric’s been at the bitter end lately...The Bitter End nightclub,that is! In December he played with a R & B band that included

John Miceli on the drums, Steve Boslow on Bass and KeyboardistGeorge Cintron.

New album in summer? It’s looking likely!

The final addition to the BÖC CD collection will finally be coming out—Buck Dharma’s solo LP Flat Out! There’s no set date yet, but rest assured

that it will soon be available to complete your collection!

Some additions to our list of other bands’ versions of Blue Öystertunes to note: the band Rattlebone has released their “Cities on

Flame,” and another alternative group, The Tommyknockersrecorded “Career of Evil,” and a group called Current 93 hascovered “This Ain’t The Summer of Love.” Rapper Ice-T hasrecorded “Godzilla” which was to be on his latest album, but

he has since split from his record company. Look for the LP tocome out on perhaps on another label or an independent.

Old Mates: Soft White Underbelly vocalist Les Braunstein came outto one of the recent Öyster shows in New York to say “Hi.” Their very

first vocalist/sax player, Jeff Richards, is another who always comes tovisit at the shows whenever they’re playing nearby.

Albert has kept himself busy writing music for a New York area school-associated theatre group, which puts on topical programs in con-

junction with events like Black History Month (“The Roots of Rap”),Women’s History Month (a story about Helen Keller) and

Christopher Columbus’ 200th anniversary. He is aIso helping toproduce an album for Village Voice music journalist GregTate’s band, Women In Love. The most exciting thing Albert

has up his sleeve is bringing to fruition his own music. With thehelp of some new digital recording equipment, he is finally

putting to tape his own compositions written with his wifeDeborah Frost. The first demos he made were great, so as he

reworks and improves the songs they can’t help but get better. Andwhere might all this lead to? How about an Albert CD?!? Yeah!

by Bolle

brings in serious questions about the path the evening might take. But restassured, this evening ain’t over yet. “We’re only just starting,” says an excitedE. Bloom, who continues to explain that this event is very special as witnessedby the opening of “T-MC,” and here’s another one, “Workshop Of TheTelescopes!” Had I been there, I would have most likely fallen over backwardin plain awe of the capacity of this band. A true favorite of mine, I wish theywould play it more often, along with other missing necessities from the Bookof Cult. “Before The Kiss (A Redcap)” followed in a great spunky version withextra hot licks from Buck, who must have re-listened to the original album ashis licks have that very same feel of that particular time… Incredible!!

The band has just handed out three songs not often dealt with atall...what’s up next?? Well, in all fairness, Tyranny & Mutation comes next, butno amazing surprises. The most-wanted-to-hear tunes still wishful thinking forus listeners, as they pump into “Hot Rails To Hell,” just like a normal skeletonpart of a Cult show and no different approach to the song either. That leavesus with a breath of air before the band opens up “7 Screaming Diz-Busters”including a great spiel by E. Bloom on Eppy’s bar and how the past had nowcaught up with him, and that guy (the one with the little goatee, who makesyou sign contracts in blood, y’know) is coming to take Eppy away... A greatversion with absolute control from Buck and Rick providing that total energyto keep the tune in good strength.

What’s next here? “Baby Ice Dog?” No… not tonight, or any other nightfor that matter… well, maybe it’s a countdown on the early albums, withthree tunes off the first, two off the second and maybe the next one wouldbe perhaps “The Subhuman” or “Cagey Cretins”? As it turns out, this set list isthe only one since 1974 to not include anything off Secret Treaties!

To this night belongs an even bigger surprise as the microphone is turnedover to Buck, and he has a go at his just released solo album, Flat Out. Forthe first time ever, he displays “Born To Rock,” and follows quickly with “AllTied Up,” a song I believe was never to be played again after these shows.But boy, did these tunes sound good! The band played Buck’s solo materialas an integral Cult thing and there were many blown away expressions onpeoples’ faces in that audience.

Already the crowd is stunned by the band’s total fulfillment of a pure SWUshow, and they are taken even further by surprise with Joe singing a secondsong of the night. Not only that, but he sings a song never before played inconcert: “Fallen Angel” from Cultösaurus Erectus! What a great surprise it wasfor the band, too. It went down so well, they actually played this song sever-al more times during this year.

Buck continues to whip out another chestnut, the long over due live pre-miere of never-before-aired material off Spectres. “I Love The Night” is per-formed in its entirety, complete with the added chorus and third verse thatwere left off the album version. “I Love the night/ Out in the air/ Cool andclear/ lt’s so free/ lt’s the only way to be/ l love the night/ Once hidden won-ders now all there to see/ They were pointed out to me” and “Now I neverrise until the sun falls/ And my vision knows no walls/ I’m looking for ladieswalkin’ alone/ They forget the day/ When they hear me say/ l love thenight.” Hearing the full lyric makes a lot more sense than the album cutwhich just left an open end. In its resurrection, this Vampire Anthem is pure

perfection. Also, once again, the energy level of this cut in a club show wasso much more intense than what the record displayed, it makes me wonderwhy it wasn’t featured a bit more often in shows. I’m sure there would be afew fans in every audience dying to hear something like this every now andthen.

Staying with the Spectres album, the band also re-introduces “GoldenAge Of Leather” with an unnecessary (Pre-Milli Vanilli) taped intro of the BeerAnthem (which they sing along to anyway). Heavy cheers roar the club andtrue bikers show their fists proudly in enjoyment over their second recognitionin the one night. To satisfy some more ignorant concert goers on this event,the band plays a few set standards, “Cities On Flame” and “The Reaper,”then “Godzilla” and “Born To Be Wild,” which ends their set. With three bikertunes in the same show, it was quite the event.

But it ain’t over yet! As the band returns to stage, Eric looks at his watchand says, It’s almost midnight so before the hour strikes we wish to singHappy Birthday to our soundman George Geranios,” and the band pumpsinto a slow blues shuffle version of the “Happy Birthday Song” for a verse –and it swings, short ’n’ sweet! “Joan Crawford” is the first encore tune, noth-ing fancy, just another skeleton piece, but lo and behold, there is a final sur-prise. “Goin’ Through the Motions” is heard live for the first time since NewYear’s Eve of 1977, and to cap off the evening, the latest hit from the yearbefore, “Burnin’ For You.” That ends the first show’s set, and a bunch ofhappy hard core fans went home to remember that night when BÖC cameout as the Underbelly and sang songs of the past, present and the future.

Their second set was equal to the first, with a final added attraction: BillyJoel’s sax player, Richie Cannata, joined the group in a spe-

cial extended version of the appropriately chosen grandfinale of The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues.” What better wayto end a great day in the history of Blue Öyster Cult/SoftWhite Underbelly and to end an era by closing down MyFather’s Place.

This audience-recorded tape that exists is sadlyenough missing the actual encore of “Goin’ ThroughThe Motions” and “Burnin’ For You” and since it is ofthe first show, and no tape has surfaced of the sec-ond show, there is no “Roadhouse Blues” either.Nevertheless, the tape holds a perfectly mixedshow with great sounding balance. It was neverdubbed off in a perfect way, which keeps the

recording levels a bit down, as well as most likelyhaving been dolby-ized so it sounds hissy and somewhatdull in the playback. I still rate it at an 85% Audiencequality, and since it doesn’t have the full two hour showon it, what’s there fills up a Metal C110 cassette perfectly.In my opinion, this is the most collectable tape out of alltapes in the traders’ market and blows the album away.If you don’t have a copy of this show you should try tofind one, as it will give you great listening pleasure foryears to come.

COVERT CULTÖSAURUS

After the disappointing Tom Werman-produced Mirrors album, The Cult were looking for something to getthemselves back on track again. As it happened, Sandy Pearlman had recently signed British rockers BlackSabbath to a management deal, and they were at that time recording their classic Heaven & Hell albumwith Martin Birch producing. Impressed with the work Birch did for the Sabs, BÖC decided to have a go withthe old Deep Purple master. Thinking that Birch would be able to give them that heavier edge to their music,The Cult set out to write as heavy a set of tunes as they could. In usual order everybody made their homedemos and brought them in for the band meeting, to decide which songs they would be working on. Theband then went in to See Factor Studios to begin rehearsal.

About a dozen of these tunes were demoed by George Geranios on an 8-track machine over the courseof two weeks in March of 1980. These tapes were then given to Martin Birch for his input before they all met inthe studio. The results of this pairing would turn out to be one of the finest records the band had put togetherto date. Not only was the songwriting flawless, but the production and performances were more creative,innovative and more daring than anything since the “good old days” of their first three albums. Here’s a lookinto what became Blue Öyster Cult’s seventh studio album, Cultösaurus Erectus.

Albert, prolific as always and intense in his search for the perfect Cult tune, submitted an entire album’sworth of material for consideration, despite having just demoed another dozen tunes for the Imaginos con-cept. Musically these tunes all had a very heavy approach seldom heard since Secret Treaties or Agents ofFortune’s “Tattoo Vampire.” Albert’s presentation included “Unknown Tongue,” a song composed around alyric by David Roter, an old band mate and friend of Sandy Pearlman from the early Soft White Underbelly/House on The Hill days. Albert had renewed his friendship with Roter, who had since become a professionalcomedian and had written a bunch of lyrics. Albert was inspired to write music to accommodate his unusuallyrics, and this song was their first collaboration.

Secondly was a song that Albert had tried twice before, both times with different lyrics. Originally it was“Soul Jive” from the Agents demos, with a Patti Smith lyric, and the second time around it was “Jungle Fever,”that time with lyric penned by Albert. This tune’s third and final outing was coupled with a lyric by HelenWheels. As “White Hot Star” it sounded more together than the previous attempts but still not strong enoughto make the final cut. “Lover’s Loan” was another written with Helen Wheels but in a very unusual fashion: onlong distance telephone calls while the band was on tour. Both the words and music were composed duringtheir conversations.

“Operation Stardust,” “Undying Flame” and “AIpha and Omega” were tunes written with lyrics by RonaldBinder, who now is a corporate law student, but was once named “Punk Of The Month” in John Holmstrom’sclassic PUNK magazine. Binder came to the band’s attention by being a Helen Wheels fanatic, who endedup working for Sandy Pearlman as his gofer. During this time he wrote a bunch of lyrics for the Cult to use. Joeand Albert were keen on his stuff but others were not so enthralled, so the only Binder song that ever got ontoa Cult record was “I Am The Storm” from the Mirrors album.

Next up are three songs with lyrics by Albert and his wife (at the time) Caryn. “Lucy (Love’s Lost Legend)” isa song in the best Vampire style of Helen Wheels, but actually set to a shuffle beat. The tune sounded cool,but lacked that eerie touch their previous nocturnal themes had. Albert’s original demo of “Monsters” soundsvery true to the final version with only a few minor details changed for the continuity of the record. “HungryBoys In Brooklyn,” (later shortened to “Hungry Boys”) was the last of the three Bouchard household contribu-tions.

by Bolle

Two Richard Meltzer collaborations made appearances on Albert’sdemos, “I Need A Flat Top” and “Adopt Me.” Both sounded great butwere not right for this project.

“Hell Bustin’ Loose,” (subtitled “She Fell In Love With RitchieBlackmore’s Dildo”) set to a reversed “Man On The Silver Mountain”Blackmore guitar lick was an Albert original. It was based on an incidentat a Rainbow show in which a roadie tossed a giant black dildo on stageand Rainbow’s drummer, Cozy Powell picked it up and started playingdrums with it. Thinking this was hysterically funny, Albert conjured up astory of how a girl in the audience fell in love with it and that becamethe lyric. Funny, but definitely not suited for a Cult album, (AlthoughAlbert probably just included it on the tape to see the look on every-body’s faces when they listened to it). Four of these twelve songs wereaccepted by the band as good candidates for the album project, theother eight remaining tunes stay shelved to this date, except “Adopt Me”which appeared on David Roter Method’s 1986 Bambo LP. Says Albert ofthis period, “I wrote most of those songs with Eric in mind as the perfectvocalist.” Not being wrong about that, three out of the four tunes theyworked on were sung by Eric. Of the four, only “Lucy (Love’s LostLegend)” didn’t make the album.

Joe brought in a song he’d written with a Helen Wheels lyric called“Falling Angel” which in its demo and pre-production versions had a dif-ferent lyric. Not completely happy with what the lyrics sounded like, Joerevised them and altered the title to “Fallen Angel” rather than have thesong left off the album. He also brought in a reworked leftover from thelast album session, “Gun.” This was a song the band had worked on andhad even played live a couple times, but never could be made to fit inwith the rest of the album’s material, so it was hung up to dry for anotheryear. “Hot Desert Sand” was the third song he submitted, but it was notto be for this album project. In fact, it remained untouched until he re-didit in 1989 for his Cult Bros. project, where it was retitled “Run To The Sun.”Joe’s fourth home demo was “Anyway You Want It,” but that was consid-ered too Stonesy and too similar to “Gun.” Lastly was “Infinity Machine,”a cool almost techno-sounding tune with a massive Velvet Underground“Waiting For My Man” feel to it.

Buck brought in three superbly strong tunes for these sessions, and hadEric sing the impeccable hymn to Middle Eastern upsetter The AyatollahKhomeini. Here’s a song that would have also fit perfectly for the recentrun-ins with Iraq and Saddam Hussein. The difference between the demoand album tracks is night and day. On Buck’s original demo he sang thetune himself with a laid back and indifferent attitude. But the album’sstunning performance by Eric took this song to heights of the meanestsounding B.Ö’Cult tune ever.

“Deadline” was another tune Buck brought in, just like on the first

album, a song about a person who did some stupid things and paid for itwith his life. This powerful song was never played live, to the disappoint-ment of many B. Dharma fans.

Buck’s third submission was called “Hold Me Tight,” a great riff, butcertainly not a very Cult sounding lyric. During the rehearsals, this wasmainly referred to as “Track X” as they tried a few alternate lyrics, beforesettling for the Richard Meltzer penned “Lips In The Hills.” Another greatexample of Eric’s incredible vocals.

Eric, who’d enjoyed writing music to Michael Moorcock’s contributionson the last album, had received “The Black Blade” from Moorcock whenthey met in England during the band’s November 1979 tour. So, with thehelp of old mate John Trivers, he wrote the music to this Sci-fi story of thesword that rules its master and eventually the universe. Eric’s originalhome demo was just about half the song only, a kind of budget versionof what was to become the anthem opening for Cultösaurus Erectus.Without a doubt this is one of the most majestic songs ever by this band.

Eric also brought in this weird semi-reggae/ska tune called “Showtime”which they all liked, but it didn’t belong on a BÖC album. Nevertheless,they liked it so much they tried an uptempo version in Ska beat with arocking outro, and later a more Cowboy-esque acoustic version!

Allen didn’t get any songs on this album, a sad loss to that full bandcontribution feeling. There are also no traces of any home demos fromhim, which doesn’t mean he never wrote anything, but rather that hismaterial might not have been of Cult status.

But, while practicing on the material the whole band worked on “TheMarshall Plan (Here’s Johnny).” This went through a few alterations anddrastic feel changes before settling on something which was perfectedby Martin Birch in the studio. Lyrically it was very close from the start, withminor rephrasings in the vocal. While recording the song Eric had somegreat spoofs on the break where the young Johnny speaks to himself inthe mirror. Instead of dreaming of stardom and getting his girl back, hesees this tough record executive telling him to get real guitars, real amps,and like “Hey kid...Come back when you have a real band...Don’t callme, I’ll call you!” Very humorous, and obviously not intended for thesong.

In the U.S. Cultösaurus Erectus peaked at #34 on the Billboard chart,spending only two weeks there. However, Cultösaurus Erectus was thefirst BÖC album to enter the British charts in the Top 20. It entered at the#14 spot, straight out of nowhere, and it could have become their largestseller there ever, had the record company promoted it more than justthat half page advert in Melody Maker or NME. But, even with almost nosupport, it still stayed within top 40 for a full 6 weeks, and in the UK wherethey support their own first and foremost, that’s not bad for an Americanband!

After a messy tour of California and the re-breakup of the original lineup in February/Marchin 1985, The Cult found themselves again with adefinite need to find a new drummer and due toAllen’s leaving, a new keyboard player. While intheir search for a new drummer, Donnie Kisselbach,bass player with Derringer, informed band mateJimmy Wilcox of the opening, and so good old friendRick Derringer called up the BÖC offices to tell aboutthis great drummer he had been playing with, JimmyWilcox, who is the younger brother of Utopia’s John“Willie” Wilcox.

Well, Derringer recommended him so highly thatthere was never even a try-out or audition. Jimmy wassuddenly in the band, and that was that. He entered Öys-terville in April of 1985 and rehearsed four times with theband, and then they were off on tour. Knowing only the hits,it was quite a tough task to get into all these unfamiliar tunesand supply a strong backbone for our 3ÖC lineup. Jimmy’sfirst gig was in Detroit at Harpo’s in May of 1985. With an openmind from everybody in the band, Jimmy had a nice positionwhere he could play what he wished, and copy whatever oldtricks he wanted. A smooth position indeed for a new drummerin a veteran band.

The basic tracks for Club Ninja had already been laid downby Billy Idol’s drummer Thommy Price, so Jimmy’s appearance onthe record was only as back up vocalist and some percussionoverdubs.

Born in North Town, New Jersey on April 13th makes him an Ariesand that gives him drive and ambition to achieve. He picked updrums from watching his brother play, so he used to sit in his roomand bash it out until one day he found himself playing in a band.

Jimmy’s first gig was as a replacement for Thommy Price in theNew York-based pop group Scandal, which featured Patty Smyth (notPatti Smith—big difference!), and from there he got into the Derringerband and recorded a couple of albums with them before he enteredthe Blue world of Öysters.

During his year and a half long stay with the band he went throughsome ups and downs: Joe’s leaving and Jon’s entering, watching theband go from opening up for Ozzy or Rush in large auditoriums toplaying small clubs all over the country, until the end of the tour whenBÖC actually broke up in September 1986, burnt out after too much

TOMMY ZVONCHECK

JIMMY WILCOX

touring. The split would not end up as permanent as they’d expected. Before ayear passed, the Cult would reform in June of 1987 expressly to play a week’sworth of shows in Greece. BÖC approached Jimmy about doing the week inGreece, but he had to decline when his newly reestablished career with a newband prohibited him from taking that week off. Since there were no plans for afuture with The Cult after these shows, he felt he needed to be more on the safeside and so on that day his career with Blue Öyster Cult ended.

Jimmy is a very aggressive but happy “Basher” and loves playing the toughersongs. His Cult faves were “Cities On Flame” and also “Wings Of Mercury,”because he was more of a creative part of that song. That was the only tune hecould be himself 100 percent, and seeing how up tempo it is, it’s no surprise tohear a drummer call that tune a favorite to play. These days, Jimmy resides inNew York with his wife, and plays gigs and sessions around the East Coast.

Tommy Zvoncheck joined BÖC about a month before Jimmy. Throughout hiscareer he worked with many of the same people as Blue Öyster Cult. So many infact, he seemed fated to be a part of it eventually, and he was.

Born in Baldwin, Long Island, New York on September 1st, Tommy Zvoncheck

Tommy Zvoncheck and Jimmy Wilcox join the Öysters for a photo on the Brooklynwaterfront. L–R are Eric Bloom, Tommy Zvoncheck, Buck Dharma, Jimmy Wilcox andJoe Bouchard.

N

I

N

J

A

W

A

R

R

I

O

R

S

began his career in music at the age of nine. He wanted to play the guitar, buthis mom had a piano, and so piano it was. On taking lessons to learn to playthe instrument properly, Tommy quickly realized where his future path of lifewas to lie. Interestingly, he played drums in his first band experience at the ageof 11, playing Young Rascals and Doors-like cover tunes. He lived in Baldwinthrough 7th grade, and then moved to Arlington Heights outside of Chicago,Illinois, and studied at the Chicago and American Conservative of MusicUndergraduate Program for two years. Listening to Deep Purple, ELP andthe likes of Leon Russell and Elton John, his style shaped up into a neat bal-ance of the classics and modern blues based rock & roll. Through harderstudies he ventured into the fusion rock acts like Mahavishnu Orchestraand Return To Forever, and Chick Corea became a new favorite,strengthening his goal to enhance his playing and creativity into astrong, real musician. Black funk music was a big part of the Seventiesand gave new inspirations to this style-seeking young musician.

The results of all his work became most evident to Tom “Mad Dog”Morrongiello, who discovered Tommy playing in bars with a varietyof different bands. Morrongiello, Ian Hunter’s guitarist in the early’80s and main Imaginos guitar player, introduced Tommy to AlbertBouchard and Sandy Pearlman, who felt immediately that thiswas the right guy for the Imaginos project. They were both sotaken with Tommy’s playing that they let him play anything hewanted until they all felt that the result was happening. So theImaginos project was the first experience he had in the studiosand was a wonderful start for his new career, and is somethinghe likes to look back on with great pride.

After the sessions for Imaginos were dealt with, Tommyteamed up with Utopia’s Kasim Sulton to tour with his band,which was promoting his album Kasim in 1982. (That albumhad a bunch of similarities with some of BÖC’s albums.Buck played lead guitar on three songs on Kasim’s album,which was produced by Bruce Fairbairn (Revölution ByNight), and also had Foreigner/Session Saxophonist MarkRivera (Cultösaurus’ “Monsters”) on a couple of tunes,as well as Imaginos co-worker Tom Morrongiello, gui-taring and singing back ups on a couple of tunes).

Tommy became the hot new keyboard need formany people and his next gig was with BruceSpringsteen’s sax man Clarence Clemmons and hisRed Bank Rockers. From there, Tommy went almostPunk for a job, as he joined up with none otherthan King of Punk, Johnny (Rotten) Lydon and hispost-Sex Pistols band Public Image Limited.Tommy toured as well as recorded PiL’s albumLive in Tokyo. After returning to the US with PiL,Tommy experienced his scariest on-stagemoment ever. At the famous (and just recent-ly closed down) Hollywood Palladium, theaudience got into some heavy stage diving

and slam dancing, and too many people managed to get by security and getup on stage. Not being used to such behaviour, with all these crazys jumping upand off the stage like maniacs, Tommy was ready to leave the stage in fear forhis life.

After that experience, Tommy felt he needed a change and so next up heworked a bit with Flo & Eddie of Turtles and Mothers fame and enjoyed the oldiesact a lot, with their silly and humourous slant on pop and rock & roll. His next ses-sion came from yet another Cult connection, Aldo Nova. Tommy recordedAldo’s second album Subject which featured the hit single “Monkey On YourBack,” and he toured a while with Aldo. Continuing under Sandy Pearlman’swings, Tommy teamed up with the Pearlman-produced band Dream Syndicate,to record an album for them as well as touring in support of that release. (DreamSyndicate in their earlier years were known to cover “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” intheir live shows).

Upon finishing the tour, Sandy Pearlman informed Tommy of the need for aquick replacement of Allen Lanier, who had just taken a leave of absence fromThe Cult. He joined the band to record Club Ninja and as a replacement forAllen. He joined in March/April of 1985 and stayed with the band until its end inSeptember of 1986. The band had also recruited guitarist Phil Grande to doAllen’s guitar parts, but Phil did a strange disappearing act: after walking in on arehearsal with Tommy, Phil recognized Tommy, said “Hmm...l know you!” (He hadknown Tommy from Aldo Nova). And he turned and walked out and was notheard from since, eliminating the creation of a six member Blue Öyster Cult.

During his stay with the band, Tommy did a full scale club tour as The SoftWhite Underbelly in the summer of ’85, and then two European Tours in late ’85and early ’86. During the second tour he recalls playing a special favorite gig inDüsseldorf, Deutschland, where Joe Bouchard had unfortunately taken ill andhad to leave the stage for a short moment, and so Tommy was encouraged toplay an extra long intro to Joan Crawford which in his memory stands out as hisgrand pièce de résistance as he played through a variety of Cult classics inter-spersed with some classical licks, making it an extraordinary piece to listen to.Tommy says of this night, that “This was my best night and even if I had thechance I could not muster up an equally happening solo performance.”Everything just came to him as his fingers embraced the keys of his piano. Uponthe ’death of the Cult’ in September in 1986, Tommy went back to doing somebar band gigs and also played a while for The Spencer Davis Group, after theBouchards had quit that gig. He also played a while for Scarlett Rivera, the vio-linist girl from Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue band, before he contracted asevere case of tendonitis which harshly sidelined him for almost 8 months. But, onrecovering from this he got back into action and is currently working with a friendnamed Mary Conaselli who is his new songwriting partner and hear this, they areactually both born on the very same day! Together they are currently working ontunes for a demo which they will then shop around for a possible signing with arecord company. Their music is Jazz-Pop, kind of Anita Baker meets TheRippingtons, and very Keyboard heavy with a lot of fancy chords. Tommy alsorecently recorded a track on Fernando Saunders’ (Lou Reed’s bass player)upcoming album due out April 6th. Meanwhile Tommy enjoys life back in NewJersey with his wife and child and looks forward to a full and rich continuingcareer in the life of a Musician.

ALB

ERT’S

IMM

AG

INO

S—

TH

EB

AN

D,

TH

EA

LBU

M,

TH

ESO

NG… Dateline June 7, 1982: Within 10 months of being axed as drummer for Blue Öys-

ter Cult, Albert Bouchard had regrouped his muse to begin the long oddessy that wouldeventually become Blue Öyster Cult’s Imaginos album in 1988. This project’s genesiswas drawn up with the creation of “The Soft Doctrines of Imaginos” song cycle bySandy Pearlman in the late ’60s. We fans have collected bits and pieces of the sagaover the years in the guise of various songs on the Cult’s albums. Albert had beenworking on the idea for many years, and finally with his departure from the Cult, hedecided to bring the concept to life. It was to be his solo album, and in this interview,conducted by Joe Casapulla and journalist Gene Sobczak, Albert gives us a littleinsight into the Imaginos (née Immaginos) that he originally intended.

This interview was originally slated for publication in Rock Scene magazine, butwas eventually shelved for (most likely) a Bon Jovi or Ratt article. I think this never-before-published interview really sheds some light on the origins of the project, andgives insight into the mind of the maker of Imaginos. Mr. Sobczak has written previous-ly in Rock Scene and other publications about Blue Öyster Cult, and is currently enjoy-ing a year in Australia.

Albert Bouchard: Well, as I was coming up here (PrimroseDiner) I was thinking that this was a really fancy place.

Joe Casapulla: You should’ve seen the first place that wewere going to go to.

AB: The White Castle. (Laughs) Gene Sobczak: Let’s begin by getting down the basic infor-

mation. What’s the name of your band and any special waywhich you spell it?

AB: O.K. Immaginos. GS: Immaginos. AB: Yeah. (Holding up a bottle of Molsen’s Beer) This is from

my home area here. GS: Long Island? AB: Nooo. GS: You’re from Canada? AB: Yeah. GS: Are you French-Canadian? AB: Yeah. Well I’m not from Canada actually. My grandfather

is from Canada. GS: Who came up with the name Immaginos? AB: The same guy who thought up the name Blue Öyster Cult

and Soft White Underbelly. A mad genius. Sandy Pearlman. GS: Alright. Now who are the members of the Immaginos?

Well there’s Albert. And you’re just going to be singing and play-ing guitar?

AB: Yeah. Well I think that I’ll maybe play a little drums. Thedrummer is Thommy Price.

GS: And what’s his previous offense?AB: Well, he played with D.L. Byron for one thing, and then he

played with Mink DeVille. GS: Who do you have on bass? AB: Kenny Aaronson. I met him when he was playing with

Leslie West and Mick Jones of Foreigner. They had a group called PostMountain. There was Kenny, Leslie West, Mick Jones, and Carmine(Appice) on drums. I wonder if anyone remembers that group. It was akiller group.

GS: Didn’t Leslie West get together with—not the bassist, who was thedrummer with Mountain?

AB: Yeah. Corky. GS: Corky Stasiak. AB: Nooo! Corky Lang. (laughs) GS: I forget. Who is Corky Stasiak again? AB: He’s an engineer and producer, and he’s engineering my record. GS: Right. Now who do you have on keyboards? Oh, Tommy

(Mandel). AB: I have two keyboard players. I also have another Tommy. Mandel

plays mainly synths and stuff and organ. And I’ve got Tommy Zvoncheck.His previous experience was with Sam the Band.

GS: The Jersey band. AB: the Jersey band. And now he’s playing with Kasim Sulton. GS: And he’s going to be playing piano? AB: He plays piano and organ and not so much synthesizer, though he

does play some Moog. They both switch around. You know, they’re verycomplimentary to each other.

GS: Do you have any more guitarists? AB: I have two other guitar players. One is Tommy Moringiello. A lot of

Tommys in this band. I met him when he was playing with lan Hunter, buthe was also in Sam the Band. Now he’s playing with Kasim. He just did agig with Ellen Foley.

GS: Is Kasim still with Utopia? AB: No. He’s got his own thing now. Yeah, he got a solo record out last

year and they’re playing out. As a matter of fact, Zvoncheck andMoringiello are on tour with him right now. I think they’re rehearsingtonight and they played last weekend.

GS: And your other guitarist is from (David) Johansen? AB: And the guitarist from Johansen. His name is Jack Rigg and I met

him when he was playing with Helen Wheels. GS: You were at that show (at the Ritz) with Jim Carroll and Helen

Wheels? AB: Yes, I was there, yes. GS: Did Allen Lanier play with them? AB: Yeah, It was a great band, definitely a great band. Lenny Kaye

was playing guitar. GS: Lenny Kaye was playing guitar!?!? AB: Yeeaahh! It was cool. Anyway, Jack was playing with Helen that

night. GS: Are you still writing with Helen? AB: I wrote a song about a year ago with her, but I think it’s great and

Now heres a rarity for you: The Les Vegas single— SoftWhite Underbelly vocalist Les Braunstein’s only appear-ance on vinyl. This single was independently released in1979, on the Mega Toons label, most likely in a quantityof no more than 500.

In 1979 Les decided to have another go at rock androll, and put together a band to do some club datesaround New York. With the boom of DIY records in thepost-punk scene. he decided to do a single. The historyof the tune on the A side, however dates back to theearly ’70s.

In 1973 Les had written a trio of songs that he thought had potential, and calledup his old band mates to help him record the tunes. Donald, Albert, and John Trivers(Bassist in Eric’s college band, and with whom he later cowrote several BÖC songs)answered the call and the four of them went into the studio. They recorded threesongs, “Whippoorwill,” “Ticket to Ngombe,” and “Dead House” with Albert produc-ing. Nothing happened with the demo tape, so the tape languished.

Years later, when it came time to do the single, Les remembered how much heliked “Dead House,” and he unearthed that demo tape. Using the original basictracks from 1973, he recorded a new vocal take, and added a violinist, finally reti-tling the song “Dark Angel.” With its Joy Division-y feel, the song fit right in with thepost-punk gloom and doom tunes that were popular at that time. The B side,“Water World,” was recorded with that band he’d put together in ’79. That songsounds like a punk version of the Stones—a lot different than the flip of this 7" record.

This single must be the rarest of obscure BÖC collectibles, packaged in a blackand white sleeve with cut and paste artwork. Special thanks go to fan club memberAndy Challis, the only person on the planet with one of these singles, and providingus with a copy of the cover and record, and a tape of the tunes.

celebration. He’s giving her this mirror which he got at the Chamber ofJade. Then of course the mirror causes all kinds of havoc...it’s very...butthat’s actually the next album .

GS: so this is then a concept album, right? AB: Yeah, it’s actually the first in a series of three. GS: So this is going to be a trilogy, then. AB: Yeah. GS: Don’t you feel that it is a little too ambitious coming out with your

first solo album with a concept? AB: Well, maybe, maybe, but it’s something, you know that this group

is dedicated to, and I don’t have to feel like, every song is about...lmean, of course, in...in doing it, in acting out the story, I find things in allparts of it that relate to my life, because it’s very universal. But, I didn’twrite the lyrics. Sandy Pearlman wrote the lyrics and it’s basically hisbrainchild. We’ve been planning to do this for a long time.

she hasn’t done it. Although I wrote a song with her road manager thatshe’s doing. The song is called “Eternal Flame.”

GS: What is the name of the song that you wrote with her? AB: That was called “Lover’s Loan,” but nobody’s wanting to do it yet.

I keep getting involved with people and I say, “Hey! “Lover’s Loan” It’s asong for a chick to do, definitely. It’s a really, really good song for a girl tosing.

GS: You had told me that you’ll soon be going into the studio. Did youfind a studio where you want to work yet?

AB: Yeah. We’re going to do the overdubs. We did the basic tracksalready.

GS; Where was that at? AB: That was at the Boogie Hotel. GS: That’s on the Island? AB: Yeah, in Port Jefferson. GS: Do you have a name for the album yet? AB: Immaginos. Everything is Immaginos. The band. The album. The

song. The guy. The hero of the story. Do you want a quick synopsis of thestory behind Immaginos?

GS: Sure. AB: Basically, what it is that this guy comes down from a spaceship,

and he lands in New Hampshire. I don’t know if he has a son or not, butthere’s a young Immaginos that is hatched from the spaceship in NewHampshire. He drifts down towards Texas. When he’s in Texas he discoversthat he has all sorts of powers that regular people don’t have. I guessthat he’s probably not completely aware that at all times he’s an extra-terrestrial. Anyway, he finds out that he can alter his shape. He canbecome things that he sees, like a bird or a fish. So at first he experimentswith that. Later on he merely becomes people, younger or older. Hetakes up astrology, astronomy rather, and astrology. He then goes toNew Orleans...actually I’m getting ahead of my story. First he goes toNew Orleans and then he becomes a singer, and entertainer. He haddabbled with that while in Texas, you know, he had his guitar and he wassinging his songs. Then he gets a gig in New Orleans and he sort of lives itup pretty heavy. After a while he splits to go to Africa to search for hid-den treasures, anthropological finds and things like that.

GS: How much time are we covering here? AB: We’re covering basically a hundred years. Then he goes from

Africa and he goes to England. He has a family in England, and hassome sons and daughters and things like that. Then he goes to Germanyand he alters his shape to that of Frankenstein. There are a few experi-ments. Then he goes back to Africa to get a certain thing that will givehim power and he finds it, Mysterio. He brings it back to England andgives it to his daughter who plants it in the ground at the lake. I’m notsure, though. You know, the whole story, basically revolves around this.That’s the ending of the story. He gives it...it ends his daughter’s birthday

SINGLES BAR more or les!

Blue Öyster Cult’s lastappearance on a SyndicatedRadio Show was DIRBroadcasting’s King BiscuitFlower Hour #636, broadcaston July 13, 1986. The show, part of the Club Ninja tour, was recorded atthe Santa Monica Civic Center in Santa Monica, California on March 27,1986. L.A. station 95.5 KMET-FM sponsored the show and helped fill theaudience with some 200+ give-away ticket holders that night.

Joe Bouchard’s hasty departure from BÖC after their FebruaryEuropean tour had left the band high and dry without a bassist for thisupcoming California tour. Tommy Zvoncheck, The Cult’s new keyboardistlet his pal Jon Rogers know of the position, and he joined the band. Withonly two weeks to prepare for the tour, Jon had a lot of songs to learn,and to add to the pressure, this show was being recorded for King Biscuit,and also videotaped for a satellite broadcast. And it was only Jon’s sixthperformance with the group! So with three new and relatively new mem-bers, Two Öyster Cult hit the stage at the Santa Monica Civic.

The radio broadcast picks nine songs from the show. Opener “R. U.Ready 2 Rock” was brought back into their live sets just before RickDowney quit the band in 1984, and was kept in their sets as the openingtune until the “death of Cult” in September of 1986. In this song is the onlyplace in this radio show that the listeners get a real chance to hearTommy Zvoncheck’s keyboards, during the “Rock Bottom” ending part ofthe tune. The rest of the set seems to lack Tommy in the mix. This is mostlikely due to the people in the Westwood One mobile truck who mixedthis recording, and is the saddest part of this disc as Tommy’s keys were areal strong part of the Ninja line up.

The next tune, “White Flags,” was their single from Club Ninja inEngland, so fresh off that Euro tour they played this song, which theyrarely played on other shows in the U.S. Excellently performed and defi-nitely my pick for a favorite off the album, it was strange that the bandneglected this tune in their live set list.

Next up is Revölution standard, “Take Me Away,” holding an amusingkeyboard moment from Tommy who throws in the Close Encounters ofThe Third Kind musical note sequence underneath Eric’s intro addressabout the unearthly music from above. The song itself sounds very rigid inthe chorus, almost march like, and lacks the very neat feel that Joe andRick provided on the recorded version, and what made it a neat live

by Bolle

KINGDOMS

OF THE

inclusion in the song’s earlier days.Another Ninja favorite follows, “Dancin’ in the Ruins.” Although by out-

side writers, this song really sounds like a great Cult classic here, verysmooth vocals and guitar work from Buck persuades us into feeling thatawful futuristic vision of the Mad Max post nuclear disaster age. Nextsong is introduced by Eric as The Story of The Ninja. “The Shadow Warrior”is in a sense the latent title track to their album. This song was originallywritten by Eric for possible inclusion on the movie soundtrack Teachers.That original version was called “I’m A Rebel” and was much more funand a kind of silly adolescent song, and the music was more attractive inthat version too. When they decided to complement the album with asong about The Ninja, Eric contacted Eric Van Lustbader, author ofnumerous Ninja novels (coincidentally his most recent is titled “BIackBlade”). The novelist was more than happy to oblige and write a lyric onhis specialty for the band. On this record, though, the song sounds agedand heavy, trudging along like some thing from the past of a more greennature. Although an enjoyable inclusion in the set, it never quite got any-body off their seats… unlike the next song…

“Burnin’ For You,” I’m sure had all the Radio listeners goin’ wild at the time.Listening to it on vinyl it comes out as very chunky here, hobbling along like athree legged dog. The rhythm section here is not meshing at all.

This was the beginning of the section known within the band as the“Big 3” and in your writers’ book known as the “Big P” break

…“Godzilla”…After the appearance of the big green guy comes “Wings of

Mercury.” Otherwise an unreleased track, this is the only song worked upand put together by this actual line-up. It was a tune worked up forNinja, but somehow it was never chosen to be a part of the album, per-haps because it was such a strong live tune. Inserted into the radio discsin the wrong order, “Wings” was originally performed as part of theencore, but here it was cut in before the end so that the big hit “Don’tFear the Reaper” would round out the show, for a very fitting end of yourtypical radio broadcast.

This show was videotaped with eight cameras for a satellite broadcastthat never ended up happening, so those tapes sit unedited in the BÖCvaults, most likely never to be seen in an edited full performance version,(unless some millionaire shows up with a lot of love and money to finishthe production of this last major event for BÖC).

This radio show comes on two 12" vinyl discs, but is really a three sidedalbum (one side is unplayable). By now it is a rather rare record. Runningtime for the music (sans commercials) is almost exactly 50 minutes. Theinclusion of “Wings of Mercury” makes this set extra collectable, since thisis the only place you can get that song on vinyl. Many of the King Biscuitrecordings have been re-released on CD, unfortunately this one is as ofyet not among them.

Buck:“The first record was a lot of fun. We had a good time. We did it on a

huge eight track Scully machine. One of these big behemothrecorders. One of the first ones. A relatively tiny console, and a smallcontrol room. It was done in David Lucas’ first studio, a jingle studio,but it was a good room, it had a lot of soul. One of the funny storiesabout the first record is that this studio was located next to a church,and the pastor used to call up and complain. Especially during theguitar overdubs.

“It was in Manhattan, on 46th St, on the fourth or fifth floor. When theyused the studio during the day, when they recorded jingles there,they didn’t play very loud, but when we got in there at night wewere just roaring Marshalls, so we had a lot of complaints from thechurch next door – especially doing the kind of devil-tinged musicthat we were doing! So we did things like doing the backgroundvocals and claps in the stairwells and used a lot of acoustic reverbs.That was actually a lot of fun. We were still doing club shows at thetime we were recording it.

“Murray Krugman had a head for songs and sounds, he also was theonly person in the organization I think we’ve ever had that had anykind promotional head at all. He was like the P. T. Barnum. It was hisidea to put the stickers on the first album and everything. He got ittogether. He also put those stickers all over cabs in New York City likethere was really a buzz about us in the town. These stickers were allover the cabs and subways and everything.

“The next one (record) we made (Tyranny & Mutation) without David(Lucas) with just Sandy and us and Columbia engineers, because inthose days CBS had a rule that you had to record in their studios, aunion rule. Now for the first record it was done like a master pur-chase, so even though we had the deal, it was done business-wiselike a master purchase so we did it outside of CBS studios. But thenext two records we had to do in CBS studios—That’s why we didthem there. Eventually that was rescinded, because that’s the way itwas in the seventies, it was like the dismantling of the record compa-nies controlling everything. Now it’s the other way again — now therecord companies want to control everything from top to bottomonce again.

Joe:“It was my first album so every second I was in the

studio I was just unbelievably excited. Just thefact that I was in the studio, even though it wasonly eight track, actually putting somethingdown on a record that was going to be on arecord label, I couldn’t describe it, it was just soexciting.

“When Albert was doing the vocal on Cities OnFlame and he was reaching for some high notesthat he couldn’t get...And all I can remember isA

FU

NN

YT

HIN

GH

AP

PEN

EDo

n t

he w

ay

to

suc

cess

It was twenty years ago that Blue Öyster Cult went into the studio and put onto vinylthat set of classic tunes that “hooked” us all on the Boys of Kronos. We asked Donald,Eric, Albert and Joe to shed some light on the making of the first albums and other funstories of that era.

Eric: “This is one of the best stories in the whole historyof the band. It was 1971, and we didn’t have arecord deal at the time, and Richie Dostel, whowas a local booking agent on Long Island andlived near us, came over to our house in GreatNeck one day and said, How would you guys liketo play for a group of swingers in upstate NewYork at this closed summer camp?” (’Cause thiswas the late fall of 1970). I can’t remember howmuch we got paid. Maybe $125 or something likethat… and it was an hour and a half drive north

and play this Camp Swan Lake in upstate New York. It was a privateparty, Like couples from New York City that were paying to go upthere for the weekend. They rented the whole camp—I’d say 30, 40,50 couples tops—and they wanted us to be the band, and we playFriday night and Saturday night as the entertainment, and we couldstay overnight there and they’d give us food and everything, so l saidalright and so we went. I took my motorcycle, and the other guyscame up in the van and it turned out to be couples in their late 20s tomid 40s who took off their clothes when the weather was niceenough and just were hanging out nude. And a bunch of guys fromNew Pulse came up, New Pulse was the college campus, and had aplastic bubble which we played inside, which was inflated by a largefan. We played at one end of the bubble, and all the people camein, dressed, because this was evening by this time, and we playedinside the bubble.

“So we played, and David Lucas was among the people in the audi-ence. He came up to us after we played, and said, “you guys arereally good and what’s the story” so we told him about the Elektraexperience and how nothing ever happened with that, and he said“Well, I own a recording studio in New York City. It’s a jingle house, butI’d really would like to work with you guys” After that weekend, wegot in touch with David, and he had us come into the studio whichwas eight track, which was about all there was in those days, and wemade some demos there.

“So we did the session with Dave, and that got some interest from thatsession. Then a long time went by, and then Murray Krugman gotinvolved with Sandy, and then we went back to Dave’s to do moredemos, and that’s when we changed the name to Blue Öyster Cult.So it was because of that party that Dave saw us and the whole con-nection started, and of course it was Dave who, I personally believehad a gigantic impact on the Agents of Fortune record, because heco-produced and is singing and all kinds of things Dave’s just great.”

sitting out in the (control room) in hystericsbecause his voice sounded so bad… it was theworst sounding thing! It was like a cross between afrog and some kind of groaning animal! But, ofcourse, the rest is history. Working with David Lucaswas a lot of fun, and his studio you go up in theelevator and it would smell of spices becausethere was a spice warehouse underneath, and ithad this really surreal feeling to it. Strange andexotic. And all the people that hung out atDavid’s were all the New York musicians at thetime and far beyond my comprehension of being

a kid from a small town in upstate New York.“The ending of Redeemed, we were listening to the playback, and

maybe Donald was finishing the last guitar part, and there was awhole mess of people in the studio. We were probably all stoned,and they hit the end of the song where it goes to that long slowecho thing, and some girls started screaming—cause it was sointense. That was really good!

“And so I said, hey, this is great, this is going to be really exciting, and afew months later when the album came out, I was really disappoint-ed, that peak was not on the album...it was just cut off. So to takeyou up to 1989,1 bought the CD, I put it on, and the peak is there!The peak is on the CD! I really think they did a nice job on the CD. Inever liked the pressing. And I start flashbacks on the feeling I had inthe studio, so it’s very enjoyable for me to listen to the first album.

“The excitement of the second album was working on the material.Not so much the recording process, but the actual writing thesongs, “Hot Rails to Hell.” The first album sort of sapped everybodyelse. I was just getting my wind...so for the second album, it justseemed to come out pretty well-especially “7 Screaming Diz-busters” was a lot of fun. Basically what I did I had laid out, eventhough everybody had contributed their various riffs and parts tothe song, I had ripped apart Sandy’s original lyric to make it a bitmore musical and Iyrical. I just got up one morning, and went downto the Hammond Organ, we had a big Hammond organ in the liv-ing room, and started playing, “they held their heads with laughs ofpain,” and most of it came out pretty good. I guess I was sort ofinfluenced by the Allman Brothers on the opening riff but other thanthat it was sort of like this gothic thing, and we had this good pieceof a song that was going to happen.

“I missed David Lucas. David was this elfish type of guy who would runaround and inject these little musical things that would sometimeswork and sometimes were totally off base. But he had that sort of“magic elf running around and sprinkling fairy dust on everything.”In retrospect a lot of people like that album. I haven’t heard it onCD, so I can’t say...maybe I’d like it on CD better than the album. Ihaven’t heard the album in a long time.

Albert:“I remember recording “Before the Kiss, A Redcap”

and then as soon as we finished the song, wewent to Youngstown Ohio to play at TheBedroom (a club), and we played on a bed. Astage in the shape of a bed. The trip toYoungstown Ohio is about 8 or 9 hours and wedidn’t stay overnight. so we must have finishedthe session at four in the morning and then leftand got to the gig at like four in the afternoonand slept in the van, and set up on the bed.Now I’m not sure but that could have been thesame place that the marquee had “Tonight Blue Öyster Cult” andthen they switched the letters around. Even if it’s not true, I mean it’strue at one point, it was somewhere over there in Ohio, and it wasright in the early years, it was like the first album year, it might havebeen The Bedroom. When we got there it said “Tonight Blue ÖysterCult,” when we left the gig at the end of the night the sign said, “Tolight, Blue Öyster Cunt!”

“We did Tyranny and Mutation on a sixteen track at Columbia studioson 52nd St. The first album we did eight track, and we had workedon a few eight track machines before, but this is the first time we didsixteen track and we did stuff like mic everything in stereo, I think thatwas the Quadrophonic album, so everything was in stereo and wewere doing the basic tracks, we filled up almost all the tracks. Therewas 8 tracks for drums and then some other tracks.

We did a few takes of “Hot Rails to Hell.” After the take that ended upbeing on the record was done, Murray said “Well, I like the guitarparts, I like the whole track, but some of those drum tracks I don’tlike, so why don’t you overdub the drums?” I said, “Oh... well can I lis-ten to my old drum part and put a new part in?” and he said “No,we took 8 tracks, we can’t do that, you’ll have to just listen to theguitar.” No reference! They said, “Listen, if this doesn’t work, thetrack’s no good. You’ll have to do it over again anyway. Why don’tyou try it?” So I did. One take. That’s the first time I tried it and theysaid, “Fine...That’s good, that’s what we want.” I said “You’re kid-ding!” They said “No! It’s good! listen!” I mean, if you listen to it youcan hear it that it’s overdubbed. It’s not exactly tight all the time, butit’s kind of funny. That’s the first and the only time on a Blue ÖysterCult album that I’ve overdubbed drums. With Tom Werman, he hadme punching in drums sometimes. As far as replacing the entiredrum track, that’s the only time that I can remember doing that. Itstill blows my mind when I hear it, like wow I can’t believe I actuallydid that! That was pretty weird. Although on the other hand it’s just atestament to how steady Donald can play. That he really had aneven keel rhythmically, and that I really did play to Donald’s rhythmguitar part.

“On every album from the beginning, on the California record, the sec-ond California record, we found we got a better sound if Donaldt

hr

ou

gh

th

e pa

st l

igh

tly

wit

h b

lue Ö

yst

er c

ult

played all the guitar parts, and Eric didn’t play and Allen didn’t play. And reallyAllen didn’t play that many guitar parts on record until Spectres, and then Allenstarted really stepping out on guitar. Well, also by that point he had reallyimproved on guitar to where he really could pull it off and he developed into apretty interesting guitar player. And also he was hanging out with Jim Carrolland Tom Verlaine, and Tom Verlaine was really very serious about his guitarplaying and I think this was a good influence on Allen.

“The ending of “Hot Rails” was one of Sandy’s most brilliant moments engineering-wise, because that was totally his idea where it gets tinnier and tinnier and tin-nier ’til it sounded like buzzing insects and I thought that was a really cool idea.The in-between the songs was really Murray’s thing. He really did all the inbetween stuff and Sandy was the idea — the mixes. Sandy dealt with the mixesand Murray dealt with the in between the songs and they both came up withideas for the arrangements. For some reason in later years I find that Sandy… ldon’t know just kind of lost it. As far as Imaginos he didn’t seem to have anyideas. He had a few arrangement ideas but they never worked out.

“I used to have this Gibson acoustic guitar. It was really nice. Something like a B-25or something it was small and inexpensive, but it really sounded good. I hadlent it to my brother when he went away to college, to Ithaca college, and itwas stolen the summer before he went to college from our house inWatertown...in Clayton actually, where we grew up, and I wasn’t around andJoe got it back like a month later, the police found it and traced it and got theguitar back. And when he joined the band I got the guitar back and I used touse it to write songs with it, I probably wrote “Workshop of the Telescopes” andI’m sure I wrote “Redeemed,” “Redeemed” was originally written by HarryFarcas and I rearranged it. Sandy was the Iyricist and Harry Farcas had a folkgroup and he had given the song to Harry Farcas. And I thought Gee this is agood song if we just put a few more minor chords and stuff. All the minorchords are my idea, but the melody, that was Harry’s. We brought the acousticguitar in to “Redeemed” and Joe also brought his trumpet. He was going toplay trumpet on “Redeemed” or some song, anyway the guitar part workedout but the trumpet didn’t, but on the way home I think Joe wanted to callsomebody, and he stopped at the phone booth. We got the van, and weswung around with the van and we picked him up at the phone booth but forsome reason he left his trumpet and the guitar on the sidewalk. And we didn’trealize it until we’d gotten halfway home and we turned around and cameback and of course the guitar and trumpet were not there. This is about 46th

Street and 8th Avenue. So, that’s the end of that! “If you ever heard any of our club gigs, you’ll hearthat trumpet on “Rock and Roll Star.” Actually thefirst album Joe was playing trumpet although itnever made it to the final cut. And Joe alwaysplayed trumpet in the band in early years.“I would say this about the first two records...if Iknew then what I know now, I would have never,ever smoked pot, and that’s the truth. I wasstoned all the time. Not that it prevented me frommaking good music, but some of the other thingsthat happened...’

Many people have wondered about Blue Öyster Cult’s introduction music—themusic played over the PA as the lights go down for the band’s entrance. Well, Idelved into this subject a bit and discovered since 1976, a wide range of selectionsused over the years, and they changed almost annually.

The first classical intro tape was put into use in 1976 when the band resumed theirtouring schedule after completing the European Tour of October/November 1975.Now that they had a brand new show to present with the new visual concept oflasers, they chose to have the opening taped music on the more grandiose arena-like scale. The first ever piece chosen came from the soundtrack & theme music ofthe TV series Victory At Sea with music composed by Richard Rogers. The soundtrackis still available today on CD, and is highly recommended listening in its own right.(You’ll find it in the classical section).

With Spectres finished and time for the second European tour, a new intro tapewas brought in. This time the masterful piece by Moussorgsky entitled “Night On ABare Mountain,” or the more popular title “Night On A Bald Mountain” was chosenfrom the Disney movie Fantasia. The tape they used was the one straight off thesoundtrack, and was conducted by Leopold Stokowski.

In 1979 when the band went to Japan, they were given a Godzilla soundtrackalbum by the “owners” of Godzilla, and started using this for their openings.

The now infamous roars we hear before they play the song “Godzilla,” were alsopart of this record, and they used this as their intro up until the Cultösaurus Tour, (bet-ter known as The Black & Blue tour).

The choice for both this tour and the Fire of Unknown origin tour was the very pop-ular classic by Franz Liszt, “Les Preludes.” This music was the last of the grandiose-sounding intro tapes and it was used through the end of 1982.

For 1983, they changed from the classical mode to a more modern slant using theopening track from Keyboard wizard Larry Fast’s second Synergy album, a fully elec-tronic piece entitled “S-Scape.” This sat with the band until 1985 when during theAutumn of that year they changed in favour of Steve Schenck’s ultimate choice, thefantastic “End Titles” from the Bladerunner movie soundtrack by Vangelis. This piecereally exemplifies BÖC and is their most fitting opening music ever, and its longevity ofuse attests to that. It is still the music we hear when going to a Cult show these days.

On rare occasions there have been other weird or wacky tunes that replaced thenormal tape for one or two shows. Some of these have been a silly synthesizer tuneperformed by Buck Dharma called “Boogie Woogie Bagel Bun,” and another wasThe David Letterman Theme. Another talk show theme provided the most memora-ble odd-intro one night in Cincinnati (1990 at a club called Bogart’s). When theycouldn’t find the bag of intro tapes, they had to find something with which to replacethe lost intro. While browsing through the club’s record collection, Steve Schenckfound a copy of The Johnny Carson & Tonight Show Theme. And all in good fun, theband was introduced that night with Johnny Carson’s theme, and a voiceover fromformer roadie Dave Thorpe announcing the credits: “With special guest host EricBloom! Eric’s special guests tonight include Jon Rogers! Allen Lanier!! Ron Riddle!!!Buck Dharma and the BÖC orchestra!!!!…and now heeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrre’sManny!!!

Symphony in BÖCBolle conducts a look at Blue Öyster Cult's intro music