Paperback
Blue Öyster Cult: A Visual Biography
is the updated softcover edition of the original 2020 book, which is now discontinued. The chief mission is to showcase 420 live and memorabilia images over the course of 240 large-format full-colour pages on gloss paper. There’s also a fulsome, 15,000-word band timeline with quotes that takes in all manner of solo project.
The new and lighter Blue Öyster Cult: A Visual Biography has just arrived at the office and is ready for signing and shipping.
Pretty as hell, the book is printed in Turkey, published in the UK and shipping now from Toronto.
What do you get?
Well, what I didn’t want to do is have overlap with my BÖC book Agents of Fortune, so what this is is a 15,000-word timeline of the band’s career, along with decade introductions and intro quotes (the only lift from the old book I did).
But the main point, of course, is the “coffee table book” visual presentation. There are approximately 420 images spanning 240 large-format pages. More than half of those pictures are live shots from five decades of stun guitar, the rest being rare memorabilia, magazine ads, 45 sleeves from all over the world, promo items, buttons, ticket stubs, passes… you name it.
And who is Blue Öyster Cult? Just the coolest band of all time, and visual magic, as this book attests. Gold and platinum through much of the ‘70s and early ‘80s, this is the band that brought you Tyranny and Mutation, Secret Treaties, Spectres, Fire of Unknown Origin, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” “Godzilla,” “Burnin’ for You” and, well, more cowbell. And Buck and Eric are still killing it live—that’s the best part.
But you know all that. Anyway, books will be signed by me to you unless you wave your arms wildly and tell me otherwise within like half an hour of ordering.
