FIRST EDITION NOW DISCONTINUED because it's now... NEW AND IMPROVED!


See further up my book list for ordering info for the mammoth upgrade of this item. It's now 100 pages longer and includes 174 pictures 'n' photos... pretty much same pricing.


Anyway, here's the blurb on the original edition of the book. Most of this hype still applies!


Blue Oyster Cult – 35 years in the biz… six gold and platinum U.S. albums… classic trax like (Don’t Fear) The Reaper, Godzilla, Burnin’ For You, Astronomy and E.T.I. Indeed, Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser, Eric Bloom, Allen Lanier, Albert Bouchard and Joe Bouchard comprised one of the great stadium acts of the ‘70s and ‘80s. BOC were heavy metal enough to duke it out with Kiss, Rush, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent and Black Sabbath, yet smart, funny, ironic and jaded enough to please the tough New York critics, of which more than a couple mingled within their ranks.


Blue Oyster Cult: Secrets Revealed! – This 200-page book is not a biography as such, but a biography of the band’s albums, a canon of work Martin calls one of the finest in rock, and truly superlative on the lyrical front. Indeed, Martin, in radio, print and TV interviews, has consistently called the band’s lyrics the best in the business, tied with those of Captain Beefheart and Pye Dubois (Max Webster, Kim Mitchell).

 
The book examines the complicated early days of the band, graphically demonstrating the show biz sweat that goes into making an act an act. The majority of the book however is centred around the peerless intellectual quality of the songs, a quality made entertaining by the band’s psychotropic and ghoulish humor, and by its interest in all manner of conspiracy theories, cults, monsters, vampires, UFO tales, foul play, arcane spiritualism, alchemy, love lost and love buried, science fiction and science friction.


Along the way, Martin talks (in some cases numerous times) with Buck, Eric, Albert and Joe, along with new drummer Bobby Rondinelli, legendary producer of the band Murray Krugman and BOC expert Bolle Gregmar. For insight into the band’s fantastic lyrical world, Martin went right to the source, the penners of BOC classics. Some of the best insights into creativity Martin’s ever heard - through 900 interviews as metal’s most widely recognized journalist - came from Sandy Pearlman (also the band’s manager during the golden years), Richard Meltzer, Helen Wheels, David Roter and John Shirley, along with cover artists Greg Scott and Ioannis. Helen Wheels and David Roter are since deceased; Martin’s chats with them are among their last interviews.


The result is a “biography” pointedly about what matters the most – the recorded documents, the works, the masterwerks. Indeed, each chapter bears the title of a BOC record, because that’s what you get in the chapter - detailed, track by track analysis about the music and the lyrics (not to mention some of the personal stuff swirling around the sessions).


Blue Oyster Cult: Secrets Revealed! zestfully fulfills the mandate set out by Martin at the onset, a mandate that Martin has always felt to be the mark of a good rock bio – it sends you scampering back to your CDs and LPs for a second and third and fourth, very detailed, listen, one that results in new appreciation for the genius of the artist examined.


Blue Oyster Cult Discography

(excluding compilations and unofficial live albums)
Blue Oyster Cult (1972)
Tyranny And Mutation (1973)
Secret Treaties (1974)
On Your Feet Or On Your Knees (1975; live album)
Agents Of Fortune (1976)
Spectres (1977)
Some Enchanted Evening (1978, live album)
Mirrors (1979)
Cultosaurus Erectus (1980)
Fire Of Unknown Origin (1981)
Extraterrestrial Live (1982; live album)
The Revolution By Night (1983)
Club Ninja (1986)
Imaginos (1988)
Heaven Forbid (1998)
Curse Of The Hidden Mirror (2001)
A Long Day’s Night (2002; live album)