1982 featured two magnificent live albums from bands I've never seen live and with both, the results are the same: After listening to those albums, I regret not having seen them live even more. I've already visited the first album, Blackfoot's "Highway Song" and the second one is Blue Oyster Cult's "Extra- Terrestrial Live." All but two songs were recorded during the "Fire of Unknown Origin" tour, the band's previous album, so you know that this live album is going to be great straight away. The three songs that appear from that album sound even better live! The piano intro on "Joan Crawford" sounds even more eerie and they don't leave out the sound effects like the screeching brakes, which some bands tend to do live. Even "Burning for You" has a more upbeat feel that makes you think you're in the arena pumping your first along to the song. However, both of those songs pale to the live version of "Veteran of 1000 Psychic Wars." The song is extended to include some great guitar soloing from Buck Dharma. That takes nothing from the rest of the song where the keyboards sound just as fresh as when done in the studio. Fantastic!
Being a live album, Blue Oyster Cult don't disappoint with some of their classics from the 70s. No gold stars given for stating the obvious, "Don't Fear The Reaper" being the closer. After all it's their best known song. At the other end, "Dominance and Submission" is certainly a good song to open the show with and "Cities on Flame" and "Dr Music" are both great songs to follow on from that. Furthermore, Blue Oyster Cult show their versatility by playing an excellent cover of The Doors classic, "Roadhouse Blues," although I'm not too sure about Eric Bloom's tale about buying a six pack from the Seven-Eleven. It doesn't ruin the song though but that's hard to do. Like with all the songs mentioned, I was also very impressed with the live version of "Black Blade." They make that song come alive for real.
Saving the best for last, my all time personal BOC favourite, "Godzilla." It begins with one of the best live introductions to a song ever. Marrying past with then present, Eric Bloom explains to the crowd how the Cold War and nuclear testing caused a monster frozen in ice to come back to life. It is a fine intro before it rips into the great song I know it for. It is here where they fully launch into their famous three guitar attack and the pausing to hear bombs dropping is just superb and makes the song that much better. While any song following "Godzilla" would work here, it just so happens that with "Extra- Terrestrial Live," that song is "Veteran of 1000 Psychic Wars." Sheer brilliance if you ask me.
Track Listing:
1. Dominance and Submission
2. Cities on Flame
3. Dr Music
4. The Red and The Black
5. Joan Crawford
6. Burning For You
7. Roadhouse Blues
8. Black Blade
9. Hot Rails to Hell
10. Godzilla
11. Veteran of 1000 Psychic Wars
12. ETI (Extraterrestrial Intelligence)
13. (Don't Fear) The Reaper
[caption id="attachment_1443" align="aligncenter" width="248"]
Blue Oyster Cult[/caption]
Eric Bloom- lead vocals, guitar, keyboards
Donald "Buck Dharma" Roesser- lead guitar, vocals
Alan Lanier- keyboards, guitar
Joe Bouchard- bass, vocals
Albert Bouchard- drums on tracks 1 and 8
Rick Downey- drums on all other tracks
*Albert Bouchard was fired during the "Fire of Unknown Origin" tour and was replaced by roadie, Rick Downey
Wow, another great live album from a band I have never seen live. It's no wonder I regret not having done so.
Next post: Aerosmith- Rock in a Hard Place
To buy Rock And Roll Children, email me at tobychainsaw@hotmail.com
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