BLUE ÖYSTER CULT
''FIRE OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN''
JUNE 1981
38:46
1 Fire of Unknown Origin
Eric Bloom / Albert Bouchard / Joe Bouchard / Donald Roeser / Patti Smith 4:11
2 Burnin' for You
Richard Meltzer / Donald Roeser 4:31
3 Veteran of the Psychic Wars
Eric Bloom / Michael Moorcock 4:49
4 Sole Survivor
Eric Bloom / Blue Öyster Cult / Louis Myers 4:06
5 Heavy Metal: The Black and Silver
Eric Bloom / Albert Bouchard / Sandy Pearlman 3:18
6 Vengeance (The Pact)
Albert Bouchard / Joe Bouchard 4:41
7 After Dark
Eric Bloom / Blue Öyster Cult / Louis Myers 4:26
8 Joan Crawford
Albert Bouchard / David Roter 4:55
9 Don't Turn Your Back
Albert Bouchard / Allen Lanier / Donald Roeser 4:08
Eric Bloom /Bass, Composer, Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
Albert Bouchard /Composer, Drums, Guitar, Harmonica, Synthesizer, Vocals
Joe Bouchard /Bass, Bass (Vocal), Composer, Guitar, Piano, Vocals
Tony Cedrone /Percussion
Bill Civitella /Percussion
Karla DeVito /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Buck Dharma /Percussion, Sound Effects
Ellen Foley /Vocals
Sandy Jean /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Allen Lanier /Bass, Composer, Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
Jesse Levy /Arranger, String Arrangements
Donald Roeser /Bass, Composer, Effects, Engineer, Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion, Sound Effects, Synthesizer, Vocals
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
Who would have thought that in 1981, after a pair of limp, unfocused studio offerings, and two mixed -- at best -- live outings, that the once mighty Blue Öyster Cult would come back with such a fierce, creative, and uncompromising effort as Fire of Unknown Origin. Here was their finest moment since Agents of Fortune five years earlier, and one of their finest ever. Bringing back into the fold the faithful team who helped articulate their earlier vision, producer Sandy Pearlman, Richard Meltzer, and Patti Smith all helped in the lyric department, as did science-fiction and dark-fantasy writer Michael Moorcock. The band's sound was augmented by a plethora of keyboards courtesy of Allen Lanier, but nonetheless retained a modicum of its heaviness, and the sheer songwriting craft that had helped separate the band form its peers early on was everywhere evident here -- especially the gloriously noir-ish Top 40 single "Burning for You," written by Meltzer and guitarist Buck Dharma. Other standouts on the set include the plodding, über-riff pyrotechnics of "Heavy Metal: The Black and the Silver," and the Mott the Hoople- and Queen-influenced glammed up roots rock of "Joan Crawford." The terrifying images of desecration and apocalyptic war in "Veteran of Psychic Wars," with words by Moorcock, feature huge synth lines, dual leads by Dharma and Eric Bloom -- as well as a tom-tom orgy from Albert Bouchard -- offered a new pathway through the eternal night of the Cult's best work. Fire of Unknown Origin has aged well, and deserves to be remastered in the 21st century.
------------------------------
"Fire of Unknown Origin" is potent hard rock informed by literate songwriting, assured ensemble playing and flawless production. "
-Parke Puterbaugh, Rolling Stone
"What they have done is to refine their own unique formulae carefully to produce the purest strain yet of the Cult's virulent virus."
- Sandy Robertson, Sounds
Billboard's Top 200 albums:
25 weeks on the chart.
Entered Jul 11, 1981, last appearance Dec 26, 1981
Peaked and held at #24 for two weeks: Sep 19 & 26, 1981.
7" single:
Burnin’ For You/
Vengeance (The Pact)
14 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 Chart. Peaked at #40 for three weeks: Oct 3, 10 & 17.
Video: Burnin' For You
------------------------------
From the Beginning…
by official site
Spanning three decades, Blue Öyster Cult has a long and storied history. The band got its start in the late ’60s on Long Island, New York, as the Soft White Underbelly, but each member had been involved in bands previously in high school and college, before ending up in the “right place at the right time” to create the beginnings of Blue Öyster Cult.
The threads that eventually wove together to create Blue Öyster Cult got their start in upstate New York.
Long Island native Donald Roeser and Albert Bouchard (of Watertown, New York) met at Clarkson College, in Potsdam, NY. The two were introduced by a mutual friend, Bruce Abbott (who later co-authored “Golden Age of Leather” with Donald). With Abbott and two other friends, they formed “The Disciples” and played college parties and local beer halls. The next year, the band reformed and played the same circuits as “Travesty” (named after the Blues Project album). Through all this, their studies fell by the wayside, and both Albert and Donald decided to quit college to concentrate on playing music full-time.
Eventually “Travesty” broke up, Donald and Albert took seperate paths for a while. Donald went back to Long Island, and Albert took a musical opportunity in Chicago. After moving there, though, the band fizzled, and Albert returned to NY and joined Donald. In the meantime, Donald had been jamming with local musicians, and had met a person that would become very influential in their future: Sandy Pearlman.
Sandy Pearlman became interested in rock music around the time of the British Invasion, and was a pioneering voice of rock criticism, opening a new field for creative writers like Lester Bangs. Both Pearlman and his friend Richard Meltzer were contributors for seminal magazine “Crawdaddy!,” the first magazine that dedicated itself to analysis of rock music and its culture.
Allen Lanier came into the fold by way of guitarist John Wiesenthal. Allen had accepted employment at a film company at which Wiesenthal was also an employee. After becoming acquainted, Wiesenthal invited Allen out to Long Island to meet and jam with the loose group of musicians he played with, and Allen began to regularly jam with them.
An old house near Stony Brook College became ground zero for the formative band, and casual jams with whomever happened to be hanging around began to turn into rehearsals with a core band, which included Wiesenthal, Donald, Albert, Allen and Andrew Winters, a school friend of Donald. It was 1967.
Pearlman (along with Meltzer and Wiesenthal) had been a student at Stony Brook, and was becoming increasingly involved in the music scene. When he heard the formative combo, he instantly recognized the talent at work. He had an idea for a band, and thought that this group of musicians had the chops to put that idea into play. The musicians saw that Pearlman’s contacts and stature in the local (and increasingly national) scene could help them spawn a career as well, and an alliance was formed.
OFFICIAL SITE
''FIRE OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN''
JUNE 1981
38:46
1 Fire of Unknown Origin
Eric Bloom / Albert Bouchard / Joe Bouchard / Donald Roeser / Patti Smith 4:11
2 Burnin' for You
Richard Meltzer / Donald Roeser 4:31
3 Veteran of the Psychic Wars
Eric Bloom / Michael Moorcock 4:49
4 Sole Survivor
Eric Bloom / Blue Öyster Cult / Louis Myers 4:06
5 Heavy Metal: The Black and Silver
Eric Bloom / Albert Bouchard / Sandy Pearlman 3:18
6 Vengeance (The Pact)
Albert Bouchard / Joe Bouchard 4:41
7 After Dark
Eric Bloom / Blue Öyster Cult / Louis Myers 4:26
8 Joan Crawford
Albert Bouchard / David Roter 4:55
9 Don't Turn Your Back
Albert Bouchard / Allen Lanier / Donald Roeser 4:08
Eric Bloom /Bass, Composer, Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
Albert Bouchard /Composer, Drums, Guitar, Harmonica, Synthesizer, Vocals
Joe Bouchard /Bass, Bass (Vocal), Composer, Guitar, Piano, Vocals
Tony Cedrone /Percussion
Bill Civitella /Percussion
Karla DeVito /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Buck Dharma /Percussion, Sound Effects
Ellen Foley /Vocals
Sandy Jean /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Allen Lanier /Bass, Composer, Guitar, Keyboards, Vocals
Jesse Levy /Arranger, String Arrangements
Donald Roeser /Bass, Composer, Effects, Engineer, Guitar, Keyboards, Percussion, Sound Effects, Synthesizer, Vocals
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
Who would have thought that in 1981, after a pair of limp, unfocused studio offerings, and two mixed -- at best -- live outings, that the once mighty Blue Öyster Cult would come back with such a fierce, creative, and uncompromising effort as Fire of Unknown Origin. Here was their finest moment since Agents of Fortune five years earlier, and one of their finest ever. Bringing back into the fold the faithful team who helped articulate their earlier vision, producer Sandy Pearlman, Richard Meltzer, and Patti Smith all helped in the lyric department, as did science-fiction and dark-fantasy writer Michael Moorcock. The band's sound was augmented by a plethora of keyboards courtesy of Allen Lanier, but nonetheless retained a modicum of its heaviness, and the sheer songwriting craft that had helped separate the band form its peers early on was everywhere evident here -- especially the gloriously noir-ish Top 40 single "Burning for You," written by Meltzer and guitarist Buck Dharma. Other standouts on the set include the plodding, über-riff pyrotechnics of "Heavy Metal: The Black and the Silver," and the Mott the Hoople- and Queen-influenced glammed up roots rock of "Joan Crawford." The terrifying images of desecration and apocalyptic war in "Veteran of Psychic Wars," with words by Moorcock, feature huge synth lines, dual leads by Dharma and Eric Bloom -- as well as a tom-tom orgy from Albert Bouchard -- offered a new pathway through the eternal night of the Cult's best work. Fire of Unknown Origin has aged well, and deserves to be remastered in the 21st century.
------------------------------
"Fire of Unknown Origin" is potent hard rock informed by literate songwriting, assured ensemble playing and flawless production. "
-Parke Puterbaugh, Rolling Stone
"What they have done is to refine their own unique formulae carefully to produce the purest strain yet of the Cult's virulent virus."
- Sandy Robertson, Sounds
Billboard's Top 200 albums:
25 weeks on the chart.
Entered Jul 11, 1981, last appearance Dec 26, 1981
Peaked and held at #24 for two weeks: Sep 19 & 26, 1981.
7" single:
Burnin’ For You/
Vengeance (The Pact)
14 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 Chart. Peaked at #40 for three weeks: Oct 3, 10 & 17.
Video: Burnin' For You
------------------------------
From the Beginning…
by official site
Spanning three decades, Blue Öyster Cult has a long and storied history. The band got its start in the late ’60s on Long Island, New York, as the Soft White Underbelly, but each member had been involved in bands previously in high school and college, before ending up in the “right place at the right time” to create the beginnings of Blue Öyster Cult.
The threads that eventually wove together to create Blue Öyster Cult got their start in upstate New York.
Long Island native Donald Roeser and Albert Bouchard (of Watertown, New York) met at Clarkson College, in Potsdam, NY. The two were introduced by a mutual friend, Bruce Abbott (who later co-authored “Golden Age of Leather” with Donald). With Abbott and two other friends, they formed “The Disciples” and played college parties and local beer halls. The next year, the band reformed and played the same circuits as “Travesty” (named after the Blues Project album). Through all this, their studies fell by the wayside, and both Albert and Donald decided to quit college to concentrate on playing music full-time.
Eventually “Travesty” broke up, Donald and Albert took seperate paths for a while. Donald went back to Long Island, and Albert took a musical opportunity in Chicago. After moving there, though, the band fizzled, and Albert returned to NY and joined Donald. In the meantime, Donald had been jamming with local musicians, and had met a person that would become very influential in their future: Sandy Pearlman.
Sandy Pearlman became interested in rock music around the time of the British Invasion, and was a pioneering voice of rock criticism, opening a new field for creative writers like Lester Bangs. Both Pearlman and his friend Richard Meltzer were contributors for seminal magazine “Crawdaddy!,” the first magazine that dedicated itself to analysis of rock music and its culture.
Allen Lanier came into the fold by way of guitarist John Wiesenthal. Allen had accepted employment at a film company at which Wiesenthal was also an employee. After becoming acquainted, Wiesenthal invited Allen out to Long Island to meet and jam with the loose group of musicians he played with, and Allen began to regularly jam with them.
An old house near Stony Brook College became ground zero for the formative band, and casual jams with whomever happened to be hanging around began to turn into rehearsals with a core band, which included Wiesenthal, Donald, Albert, Allen and Andrew Winters, a school friend of Donald. It was 1967.
Pearlman (along with Meltzer and Wiesenthal) had been a student at Stony Brook, and was becoming increasingly involved in the music scene. When he heard the formative combo, he instantly recognized the talent at work. He had an idea for a band, and thought that this group of musicians had the chops to put that idea into play. The musicians saw that Pearlman’s contacts and stature in the local (and increasingly national) scene could help them spawn a career as well, and an alliance was formed.
OFFICIAL SITE
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