Talk:Blue Öyster Cult

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Contents

[edit] Cowbell

its a fact that eric bloom did play the cowbell in Don't Fear the Reaper, its also a very good fact to list as part of the lineup, more information can be found here More Cowbell —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gnet47 (talk • contribs) 07:01, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Actually, both Eric Bloom and Al Bouchard have claimed to playing the cowbell on Reaper. Either way, there's no good reason to have that on the lineup, because it's an auxiliary piece of percussion. Sometimes Ian Gillan played the congos, but you wouldn't say he's the lead singer and conga player of Deep Purple. Robert Plant played tambourine for a shitload of Zeppelin songs, but you say he's the lead singer, the tambourine is pretty unimportant. Hell, Roger Daltrey plays rhythm guitar and harmonica sometimes, but he's The Who's lead singer, and will be listed as such. So, no, adding cowbell to Bloom's repertoire is not a relevant fact to add to the lineup information. --Vazor20X6 (talk) 07:43, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Trivia section

Satanic?

This article says:

"The song "You're Not The One (I Was Looking For)" from their Mirrors album features a hidden message recorded in the first guitar solo. The message was mixed into the song at high speed and can only be heard when the song is played slow. The end of the message states the following: "Our Father, who art in Heaven, Satan."

Here is a link to the supposed "evidence." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElEmpGMt3hg

I don't really think this silliness belongs in the band's trivia section...

210.10.207.109 10:27, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Name Blue Öyster Cult

The Name Blue Öyster Cult

This article says: "The umlaut on the "O" in their name started the trend for using the "heavy metal umlaut" in band names. It was suggested to Pearlman by rock critic Richard Meltzer. [1]"

But the BOC Official website (http://www.blueoystercult.com/History/history3.html) says: "It was at this time that the band was named, by Sandy Pearlman, “Blue Oyster Cult.” (The umlaut being added later by Allen Lanier). Initially, the band was not happy with the name, but settled for it, and went to work preparing to record their first release at David Lucas’ studio."

Which is right? WikiDon

I read Blue Oyster Cult is an anagram for Cully Stout Beer, which the band was drinking when trying to think of a name. Admittedly, it may not be true.(http://members.aol.com/bocfaqman/boc_faq.html)

I have read that as well. "I read Blue Oyster Cult is an anagram for Cully Stout Beer" Where I read it it was listed as a fact, not a myth. Let me find the book and I will place it here. Alantio 17:04, 20 November 2006 (UTC)

Süre it's nöt Blüe Öyster Cült? *GIGGLE* 84.115.129.76 10:40, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
The BOCFAQ (http://members.aol.com/bocfaqman/), an extensive collection of facts and speculations about many important and less important tidbits, says the following about "Cully Stout Beer":

There is an interesting story as to how Pearlman and Meltzer came up with the term "Blue Oyster Cult". It has been reported in several BOC articles in the past, but is believed to be untrue. The story goes that Pearlman went off with Meltzer, got stoned, and noticed a bottle of "Cully Stout Beer". Using this name, the two tried to come up with a number of anagrams using the name, one of which was "Blue Oyster Cult", and that this was how they came up with the name. What is more likely however, is that Pearlman and Meltzer tried to come up with anagrams for "Blue Oyster Cult" and came up with "Cully Stout Beer". As Bolle Gregmar notes, the term "stout beer" is not a likely label for a beer (editor's note: sort of like labeling Pepsi Cola as "Pepsi Cola Soda").

I think this is a very good answer to that question. --134.130.57.172 00:35, 8 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Photograph

The picture on the page is an outdated photo, showing two members (Bobby Rondinelli and Danny Miranda) who are no longer with the band. Should it still be on the page? --Zachary Cohen 1 July 2005 23:20 (UTC)

  • I pulled the photo from the tour, "media", section of their website. I have emailed them asking for something better, but like all the LAME organizations out there, I have received ZERO response. These people seem not to care that they may actually received some free publicity by helping us out. You would think that these groups would care about their fans. If you have something better, go for it. If you can get a better response, go for it. Otherwise maybe someone in the loop will see the photo and then decide to offer up a better one. WikiDon 2 July 2005 04:38 (UTC)

[edit] Grammar and use of words

From the article:

  • "Eric Bloom later said in an interview that Gene Frenkle was absolutely fictional and that during his whole career he had never met or worked with anyone named Gene Frenkle. Bloom also told that it was he who played the cowbell on that recording."

"Whole": A) He is NOT a loaf of bread. It should be entire, or better yet delete the word all together. B) He is not dead yet.

“Told”: he is NOT a three-year-old child “telling” on his brother.

How about this:

  • "Eric Bloom said in an interview that Gene Frenkle was, 'absolutely fictional; and that during his career, he had never met, or worked with anyone named Gene Frenkle.' Bloom also said that, 'he played the cowbell on the recording.'"

I can't believe that you're commenting on grammatical errors! You speak good English!--61.68.3.242 14:20, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Confused?

"They became a successful heavy metal band during the 1970s. At a time when the genre seemed tired and old-fashioned, Blue Öyster Cult released records that combined powerful music and intelligent and funny lyrics. They are still playing in the 21st century." I was under the impression that heavy metal was a considerably new genre in the 1970's... lynch 02:38, 26 September 2005 (UTC)

Absolutely. In fact the band may well have been the source of naming that particular genre, via their producer. --Mal 16:44, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Minor Edit

I thought that "At a time" should be "At times" and "records" (LP's?) should be "recordings". So I'll edit those words/phrases.

I also made a minor edit in that I removed a repeated reference to Godzilla being in the video game Guitar Hero.Bengaska 14:58, 19 April 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Band Members

I've removed a reference to 'Bevin' who was listed as an ex-drummer 2004-6. This is incorrect, as no drummer called Bevin has been associated with BÖC. Secondly, no drummer was employed between the departure of Bobby Rondinelli and the arrival of Jules Radino. DizietSma 07:51, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cross of Questioning?

I think I read somewhere that the cross logo isn't questioning Christ at all. In fact, it has nothing to do with Christianity, being a symbol for Kronos or some other old Greek god. I'll try to find a link to back this up, but I think that the "Supernatural" section should make some mention of it.

[edit] Supernatural section really necessary?

I love Supernatural as much as anybody, but does it really have a point on this page? -AC


While Cowbell deserves its own section perhaps the supernatural section could be expanded and renamed. Talk about all the pop-culture references to the band. I know they have been used in The Simpsons and That 70s show as well. Andrew Grigg 21:34, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Then maybe we can have a Blue Oyster Cult in Pop-Culture section. I agree, Cowbell definitely deserves it's own section. But, if we had an individual section for each time BOC was mentioned in ever movie or on ever tv show, there would be a lot of sections. --AC 20:58, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

The first thing that can be done is merge all the material in the references section pertaining to Don't Fear The Reaper to the article about the song itself. --InShaneee 17:03, 29 October 2006 (UTC)

I'd just like to say thank you to whoever cleaned up the page. --The Guitar Freak 01:46, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Discography

Shouldn't Heavy Metal be included in the Movie Soundtracks as Veteran of the Psychic Wars (not to mention the alternate title track) was written for the film? --Daddylight 01:07, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

I read that section as movies which BÖC had composed soundtracks for (i.e. just Bad Channels), not movies that they had contributed a song to.. but then, the Video Game Soundtracks section lists games that feature a single song, and not one written specifically for the game! So go for it, add Heavy Metal to the list. :-) --Stormie 02:08, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Why does the discography section not contain charting data? I added data to it earlier today and it has since been removed--Hammard 21:33, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Not sure what you mean by that, I see a series of edits by User:86.148.48.13 (presumably you) and then User:Hammard adding the data, and nobody removing it. Perhaps after making the edit you refreshed and for some reason got a cached copy of the old version of the page?
Thanks for adding that, but can you also let us know your source for those numbers? --Stormie 22:45, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

In the movie "The Stand" they played "Don't fear the Reaper" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.203.63.219 (talk) 16:07, 21 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Eric Bloom's Role

Does anyone know what "stun guitar" means? The first time I saw it I thought it was a joke, but he's credited that way pretty consistently. He seems to play guitar on more tracks than Lanier and almost as many as Buck Dharma.... Boris B 06:45, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Accoring to the BOC FAQ: "Eric Bloom is listed on the first 4 BOC albums as playing "stun guitar". There has been much discussion on BOC-L as to exactly what a stun guitar is. Some have heard that it refers to a guitar that was wired for a constant "fuzztone" sound. Other people have suggested that it may be an inside joke with the band, referring to either Eric wanting his guitar turned up loud (according to Albert Bouchard, there used to be some arguments among the band members about how loud Eric's guitar should be during BOC's concerts), or possibly that he did not play much guitar on the albums (again, according to Albert Bouchard, Eric did play some guitar on most of the albums, although Buck did most of the guitar work). Others have jokingly said it refers to Eric's guitar-playing skills (Editor's note: Eric may not be Buck Dharma when it comes to playing guitar, but Eric can play. However, he was originally brought into the band as a singer, not as a guitar player). According to Albert Bouchard, the true meaning of "stun guitar" is as follows: "He played fuzz parts on 'She's As Beautiful As A Foot' and other songs on the first BOC album. They were all pretty easy so we decided to make it more mysterious by calling it Stun instead of Fuzz." According to Bolle Gregmar, however, a more accurate description of the parts that Eric played would be that they were "muted" (i.e. placing one's hand over the guitar strings to eliminate sustain of the played notes), and cites underlying guitar parts on "Stairway To The Stars" and "O.D.'d On Life Itself" as some of the better examples of Eric's stun guitar work. Of course, it is only appropriate to hear Eric's logic in this matter. In an interview in 1975 with *Circus Raves* magazine, Eric states "Originally, I got 'stun guitar' from Star Trek, I was a very big Treky...if you recall the line 'set your phasers on stun', that's where I got 'stun guitar' from. I was really into the Star Trek technology." "
--Vazor20X6 18:05, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Imaginos and COntinued Touring

"In the Summer of 2005, Blue Öyster Cult performed at Retrofest in Chilliwack, British Columbia, with Rick Derringer, Edgar Winter, Jefferson Starship, and It's A Beautiful Day."

Is this line really necessary? BOC still plays dozens of shows all across North America and in Europe every year. Why does this particual performace receive a special mention?

[edit] Kronos

This may be minor but Kronos (shouldn't be in quotation marks) does not represent Saturn. Kronos was a Greek god/titan which was later appropriated by the Romans and called Saturn. I would correct the wording (and add a link to the article about Kronos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronus) but I just signed up and have yet to get acquainted with the etiquette here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by AiToyonsNostril (talk • contribs) 11:08, April 10, 2007

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. --Elonka 16:50, 10 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Cover list maybe?

(Sorry for my bad english, im a brazilian self-learner...) I was thinking, a cover list wouldn't be a good info to add? I remember that Iced Earth sings "I'm Burning for you"

Just a suggestion... --Rodfagundes 20:14, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

Adding makes Wikipedia better. If you want to add it, go ahead. 68.239.177.59 04:42, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

That sort of information is unencyclopedic as most of the covers that end up being added are from non-notable "red links" just trying to get some free publicity out of Wikipedia. Only musically impaired fanboy teens seem to keep adding it into other articles. It should be left out here and also rm'd out of any other articles. 142.167.66.239 11:25, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Plagiarism

specifically in the sections: Decline and fall, Imaginos and continued touring

If you read the last section, it looks plagiarized and as if the section titles were retrofit onto the stolen text.

Please read the section on Plagiarism. 68.239.147.30 04:17, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

On second thought, the whole ENTIRE HISTORY SECTION SEEMS TO BE DIRECTLY RIPPED FROM http://www.blueoystercult.com/History/history3.html This page should be deleted or the section removed due to a balant copyright violation. 68.239.147.30 04:26, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

I agree that there was copied information from the BOC website. I have rewritten the section to remove the copyvios. If I missed anything, please either let me know here, or feel free to remove it directly from the article. --Elonka 17:46, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

I thought that was for administrators to remove 68.239.177.59 02:41, 24 June 2007 (UTC)

Ah good point. I have restored the tag. Do you see anything that still needs fixing though? --Elonka 03:37, 24 June 2007 (UTC)
Good catch on the plagiarism, 68.239.147.30. But please stop adding that nonsense about Gene Frenkle being a member of the band. --Stormie 05:58, 25 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Current Lineup

I'm a little confused as to the current lineup of the band. I went to a BOC show (with Deep Purple and Edgar Winter) the other night and Allen Lanier was no where to be seen. I have been unable to find any information about him leaving the band, though. The BOC website offers this: "Starting today, June 16th, 2007, Rudy Sarzo joins BOC as bassist for the balance of 2007. Former bassist with Quiet Riot, Ozzy, Whitesnake and long time friend of the band, Rudy will play until Ronnie Dio returns from touring with Heaven and Hell. (Rudy is the current bassist in Dio)......Richie Castellano will continue handling the left side of the stage on keyboards, guitar and vocals." I thought that Richie was the bass player..though I can't blame anyone for replacing him with Rudy, who is fantastic. Richie and Eric Bloom played the keyboards at the show but BOC avoided any piano heavy songs (such as astronomy and joan crawford). WHAT HAPPENED TO ALLEN LANIER? Andrew Grigg 19:55, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Rare Jon Rogers Sighting at Killington Moguls Contest

Did not want to edit the main page with such a minor detail, but have proof that Jon Rogers joined BOC for the Killington Moguls Concert on March 31, 2007 in Killington VT. Thought he had rejoined the band and came online to see where he's been for the last 12 years (they mentioned he was "on the run" during on stage intros) but can find no information post 1995, when he left the band. That includes their own Blue Oyster Cult website. Seems in June BOC settled Rudy Sarzo for the remainder of 2007, so Jon must of just be up to have some fun and get some skiing in. Concert was excellent and he did a fabulous job. (They all did, given the cold outdoor air and setting sun made keeping things tuned tough). Richie Castillano worked the left side of the stage.

Here is proof of the positive siting. Up to the rest of the team if its important enough to add to main pages. Image:20070401_Blue_Oyster_Cult_Killington_Mogals_Jon_Rogers.jpg --Oneillds 21:50, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Chart positions

The chart positions in the article were basically all added in this edit by User:86.148.48.13, who has made no other edits and who provided no source for the numbers.

I'm dubious about the accuracy of some of them: I find it quite hard to believe that the single "Dancin' In The Ruins" was a top 10 hit in the US, achieving better chart results than "Don't Fear the Reaper".

Does anyone have any useful source for checking up chart positions of albums and singles dating back 20+ years? --Stormie 04:07, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

The US charts section came from the BOC on the charts section of BOC FAQ[1], I did not put a reference in as it was already in the sources section. The UK chart information came from Everyhit.com [2] and polyhex.com [3]. From the mid 80's onwards you can also check the US listings on [4]. I apologiser If I made any mistakes. --Hammard 18:17, 29 October 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that! Damn, I'm amazed that "Dancin' In The Ruins" could have been BOC's biggest hit, since it was well after what I thought was the peak of their career, and also since it's a pretty horrible song. :-) --Stormie 02:33, 30 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] More Cowbell

This article needs MORE COWBELL!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.164.73.234 (talk) 20:20, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Citations & References

See Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref(erences/)> tags Nhl4hamilton (talk) 08:50, 4 February 2008 (UTC)