A Blast from the Past: Cults Aren’t Always Bad

The 1970s were an . . . . interesting time in music. In truth, some of it was crap – remember that abomination called disco? And towards the latter part, punk?

But some of the music of that era was good. The Stones did some wonderful stuff during the early 1970s. Ditto Deep Purple. The 1970s was Bowie’s heyday – along with that of Alan Parsons and Al Stewart.

And in particular, I got a chance to reconnect with one band from that era recently.

So be forewarned – yeah, I’m rambling off-res again. (smile)

. . .

New York City isn’t generally thought of as a musical Mecca. Yet in the 1970s, a fair number of influential bands hailed from there. KISS is a NYC band. Before KISS made it big, there was a thriving punk scene – of which some was even listenable! The New York Dolls, the Ramones, and Patti Smith all hailed from the Big Apple in the 1970s; ditto Blondie and the Talking Heads.  CBGBs was there, and was legendary. And for better or worse, Asbury Park isn’t that far away either.

Of that group out of NYC, KISS eventually became the best known and most successful. There was, however, another NYC rock band out of NYC that made it reasonably big in the 1970s as well. They were also pretty good.

Besides, ya gotta love a band that has the stones to write a song about freaking Godzilla (and use some clips from the Japanese movie as part of the video) – then actually make it work pretty damn well. And they may have had the absolutely neatest band logo of all time:

They called themselves Blue Öyster Cult. And while they weren’t as flashy as KISS – and didn’t end up being as big – their music is IMO worth a listen.

(And no, the logo is not an occult or Satanic symbol. It was created by the artist Bill Gawlick for the band’s first album, using the ancient symbol for Chronos/Saturn as a pattern and modifying from there.)

I won’t bore you with a longer write-up. Here’s a sampler of their work:

Cities on Flame With Rock and Roll

Career of Evil

Dominance and Submission

(Don’t Fear) The Reaper

E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)

Godzilla

Burnin’ for You

Maybe it’s not your “cup of tea”. Or maybe you just had to “be there” in the 1970s. But hell, I liked them. Still do.

Had the chance to see these guys once live in the late 1970s, before they’d released “Godzilla” and “Burnin’ for You”, unfortunately (IMO those are two of their best).   They really could play – and put on one helluva good show.

Oh, and for what it’s worth: they’re still touring (3 of the original 5 members – the band’s creative core). They’ll hit Laughlin, NV, Thanksgiving weekend; Mount Pleasant and Milwaukee, WI, in Dec and Jan; and Everett, WA, and Leesburg, VA next Jan. Plus a load of other places later in the year. They’re still “rockin’ on”.

Well, I think I’ll be heading back to the res . . . .

Category: Geezer Alert!, Pointless blather, Who knows