Speed King
Rockin to the East & West
Blue Oyster Cult
Cultosaurus Erectus
1980 Columbia Records (JC 36550)
Produced by Martin Birch
Cover By Richard Clifton-Dey
Released on June 14,1980 Cultosaurus Erectus was the seventh studio album from BOC. The one thing that immediately stands out about this album is the cover art. The album art is a cropped and mirrored version of the Richard Clifton-Dey painting called “Behemoth's World”. Richard Clifton-Dey was a British painter/illustrator most active in the 60's, 70's and 80's. The album cover is fascinating, the image of the alien dinosaur with it's teeth fused together seems to fit really well with the first couple of songs on the album. I'm guessing that the whole dinosaur theme of the album has something to do with the success of the song “Godzilla” from Specters. It's only a guess but seems like an obvious one. In any case, Cultosaurus is a departure from the 2 previous albums back to their harder rocking roots. The album is produced by Martin Birch (of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath fame) instead of the usual Pearlman and Krugman. At this time, Sandy Pearlman was managing both BOC and Black Sabbath which accounts for the Black & Blue tour in 1980.
Band Members:
Eric Bloom: Guitar, Keyboards, Lead Vocals on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9
Donald (Buck Dharma) Roeser: Lead Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Lead Vocals on track 4
Allen Lanier: Keyboards, Guitar
Joe Bouchard: Bass, Lead Vocals on track 7
Albert Bouchard: Drums, Lead Vocals on track 6
Don Kirchner: MC on “The Marshall Plan”
Mark Riviera: Saxophone on “Monsters”
Side One:
Black Blade (Eric Bloom, Micheal Moorcock, John Trivers) 6:34
Black Blade was a collaboration with Eric Bloom and British sci-fi writer Micheal Moorcock along with Bloom's former band mate bassist John Trivers (Lost and Found). The Black Blade itself can be found in several of Moorcock's writings, most notable would be “Elric of Melnibone”. The sword is completely black except for some blood red runes carved into the blade. The sword has a name, “Stormbringer” (not to be confused with the Deep Purple album and song of the same name). The story goes that Eric Bloom wrote Mr. Moorcock a fanboy letter. Writes Eric Bloom: "I went out of my way to send him a Fan Boy letter. He was living in England, and he came over to America, to meet with his publisher. He said, “Let's get together.” We got together, and bonded, and he started sending me lyrics. That is how "Black Blade," "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" and "Great Sun Jester" happened”. The song was written from Elrich's point of view, basically being enslaved by his sword, made to kill, slaughter, and “wade through gore”. The song is well written and well performed. I especially like the lyrics, having a professional Sci-Fi writer sending you lyrics makes all the difference in the world. The song really has two main parts, the first being Elrich plight, and the second part where the sword gets to sound off.
The voice of the sword was fed though a Vocoder (Voice Synthesizer) and since the sword's rant isn't all that clear, I'll write it out:
I am the Black Blade
Forged a million billion years ago
My cosmic sword goes on for eternity
Carving out destiny
Bringing in the lords of chaos
Bringing up the beast of Hades
Sucking out the souls of heroes
Laying waste to lord and ladies
My....Master....is....my....slave!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
(and just before the explosion we hear)
You poor f***ing humans!
Obviously the band put their heart and soul into this song and it really shows, on a thread elsewhere in this forum (on a top ten list of favorite BOC songs), I listed this song number 3, it is by far the best song on Cultosaurus, not that the others aren't really good as well, but this song just really stands out as something very different.
(Best use of a Vocoder ever, second best would be “Sheep” by Pink Floyd)
Monsters (Albert Bouchard, Caryn Bouchard) 5:10
So after “You poor f***ing humans!” and a huge explosion comes this song, “Monsters”. (I'm assuming this is the title track, or as close to a title track as Culto has) It's a song that's not sure whether it wants to be a thunderous hard rocker or a jazzy lounge number, and that's what I love about it. The way the song flows from Rock to Jazz and back to Rock is pretty amazing, although to get back to rock requires a catchy bass riff. The lyrics tell a story of ripping through space, and pretty fast too, “We went so fast that we grew younger, put this ship on cruise-control”. The premise of the story seems to be to re-colonize on a another earth planet, “Keep going getting higher, new worlds waiting in the sky, to escape the feasting and the hunger, not the monsters in our minds” and “Federal rules and regulations, no more laughter left on earth, outer space our one salvation, may god help us in our search” (same old story, trash one earth planet then move on to the next) Our crew consists of four males, and you would assume they were the boys in the band except for this, “The four of us and Pasha dear, she to steer and we to fight”,....four of us?, maybe they left Albert back on Earth?,......probably not since he co-wrote it. So as the story unfolds and we get toward the end of the song, so comes the romantic sub-plot (dammit, there's always a romantic sub-plot!), “We all did our best with Pasha, but not as good as good ol' Joe”….So Joe and Pasha had a thing going, until this happens.....“Love never should have entered, It was never in the plan. We were finally going to have her and let Joe be damned”...“Joe awoke from a stupor, it was clear something was wrong, he rushed in and found us with her, and in his rage he aimed his gun.
One shot and it was over
Pasha smiled and then was gone”...(who smiles after being mortally wounded?)
So kids, the moral of the story is that the crew were the real monsters, literally killing any chances to repopulate a new planet and dooming themselves to a life of celibacy. (we think?)
Cultosaurus Erectus
1980 Columbia Records (JC 36550)
Produced by Martin Birch
Cover By Richard Clifton-Dey
Released on June 14,1980 Cultosaurus Erectus was the seventh studio album from BOC. The one thing that immediately stands out about this album is the cover art. The album art is a cropped and mirrored version of the Richard Clifton-Dey painting called “Behemoth's World”. Richard Clifton-Dey was a British painter/illustrator most active in the 60's, 70's and 80's. The album cover is fascinating, the image of the alien dinosaur with it's teeth fused together seems to fit really well with the first couple of songs on the album. I'm guessing that the whole dinosaur theme of the album has something to do with the success of the song “Godzilla” from Specters. It's only a guess but seems like an obvious one. In any case, Cultosaurus is a departure from the 2 previous albums back to their harder rocking roots. The album is produced by Martin Birch (of Deep Purple and Black Sabbath fame) instead of the usual Pearlman and Krugman. At this time, Sandy Pearlman was managing both BOC and Black Sabbath which accounts for the Black & Blue tour in 1980.
Band Members:
Eric Bloom: Guitar, Keyboards, Lead Vocals on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9
Donald (Buck Dharma) Roeser: Lead Guitar, Bass, Keyboards, Lead Vocals on track 4
Allen Lanier: Keyboards, Guitar
Joe Bouchard: Bass, Lead Vocals on track 7
Albert Bouchard: Drums, Lead Vocals on track 6
Don Kirchner: MC on “The Marshall Plan”
Mark Riviera: Saxophone on “Monsters”
Side One:
Black Blade (Eric Bloom, Micheal Moorcock, John Trivers) 6:34
Black Blade was a collaboration with Eric Bloom and British sci-fi writer Micheal Moorcock along with Bloom's former band mate bassist John Trivers (Lost and Found). The Black Blade itself can be found in several of Moorcock's writings, most notable would be “Elric of Melnibone”. The sword is completely black except for some blood red runes carved into the blade. The sword has a name, “Stormbringer” (not to be confused with the Deep Purple album and song of the same name). The story goes that Eric Bloom wrote Mr. Moorcock a fanboy letter. Writes Eric Bloom: "I went out of my way to send him a Fan Boy letter. He was living in England, and he came over to America, to meet with his publisher. He said, “Let's get together.” We got together, and bonded, and he started sending me lyrics. That is how "Black Blade," "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" and "Great Sun Jester" happened”. The song was written from Elrich's point of view, basically being enslaved by his sword, made to kill, slaughter, and “wade through gore”. The song is well written and well performed. I especially like the lyrics, having a professional Sci-Fi writer sending you lyrics makes all the difference in the world. The song really has two main parts, the first being Elrich plight, and the second part where the sword gets to sound off.
The voice of the sword was fed though a Vocoder (Voice Synthesizer) and since the sword's rant isn't all that clear, I'll write it out:
I am the Black Blade
Forged a million billion years ago
My cosmic sword goes on for eternity
Carving out destiny
Bringing in the lords of chaos
Bringing up the beast of Hades
Sucking out the souls of heroes
Laying waste to lord and ladies
My....Master....is....my....slave!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
(and just before the explosion we hear)
You poor f***ing humans!
Obviously the band put their heart and soul into this song and it really shows, on a thread elsewhere in this forum (on a top ten list of favorite BOC songs), I listed this song number 3, it is by far the best song on Cultosaurus, not that the others aren't really good as well, but this song just really stands out as something very different.
(Best use of a Vocoder ever, second best would be “Sheep” by Pink Floyd)
Monsters (Albert Bouchard, Caryn Bouchard) 5:10
So after “You poor f***ing humans!” and a huge explosion comes this song, “Monsters”. (I'm assuming this is the title track, or as close to a title track as Culto has) It's a song that's not sure whether it wants to be a thunderous hard rocker or a jazzy lounge number, and that's what I love about it. The way the song flows from Rock to Jazz and back to Rock is pretty amazing, although to get back to rock requires a catchy bass riff. The lyrics tell a story of ripping through space, and pretty fast too, “We went so fast that we grew younger, put this ship on cruise-control”. The premise of the story seems to be to re-colonize on a another earth planet, “Keep going getting higher, new worlds waiting in the sky, to escape the feasting and the hunger, not the monsters in our minds” and “Federal rules and regulations, no more laughter left on earth, outer space our one salvation, may god help us in our search” (same old story, trash one earth planet then move on to the next) Our crew consists of four males, and you would assume they were the boys in the band except for this, “The four of us and Pasha dear, she to steer and we to fight”,....four of us?, maybe they left Albert back on Earth?,......probably not since he co-wrote it. So as the story unfolds and we get toward the end of the song, so comes the romantic sub-plot (dammit, there's always a romantic sub-plot!), “We all did our best with Pasha, but not as good as good ol' Joe”….So Joe and Pasha had a thing going, until this happens.....“Love never should have entered, It was never in the plan. We were finally going to have her and let Joe be damned”...“Joe awoke from a stupor, it was clear something was wrong, he rushed in and found us with her, and in his rage he aimed his gun.
One shot and it was over
Pasha smiled and then was gone”...(who smiles after being mortally wounded?)
So kids, the moral of the story is that the crew were the real monsters, literally killing any chances to repopulate a new planet and dooming themselves to a life of celibacy. (we think?)
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