Tyranny and Mutation

Tyranny and Mutation
Studio album by Blue Öyster Cult
Released	11 February 1973
Recorded	CBS Studios, New York City, 1972
Genre	Hard rock, heavy metal
Length	38:11
Label	Columbia
Producer	Murray Krugman, Sandy Pearlman
Blue Öyster Cult chronology
Blue Öyster Cult (1972) Tyranny and Mutation (1973) Secret Treaties (1974)
Singles from Tyranny and Mutation
"7 Screaming Diz-Busters / Hot Rails to Hell" Released: 1973

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
Rolling Stone	(very favorable)[2]
Robert Christgau	(B+)[3]
Martin Popoff	[4]

Tyranny and Mutation (on the album cover: THE BLVE ÖYSTER CVLT: TYRANNY AND MVTATION) was the second album by the American hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released in 11 February 1973.

The album was recorded from tunes written while touring in support of their eponymous first album. BÖC continued to develop their style of "intelligent heavy metal" on this record. This was the first BÖC album to feature a contribution from punk poet Patti Smith, who would go on to co-write several songs for the band and at one time dated Allen Lanier as well.

The song "The Red and the Black" is a re-titled, re-recorded version of the band's "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" from their first studio album. The lyrics are a reference to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Track listing

Personnel

Band members

• Eric Bloom - stun guitar, synthesizers, lead vocals on tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, and 8
• Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser - guitar, lead vocals on track 7
• Allen Lanier - keyboards, rhythm guitar
• Joe Bouchard - bass guitar, keyboards, lead vocals on tracks 3 and 6
• Albert Bouchard - drums, vocals

Production

• Murray Krugman, Sandy Pearlman - producers
• Tim Geelan, Lou Schlossberg, Phil Giambalvo - engineers
• Jack Ashkinazy - mastering

• Bruce Dickinson - reissue producer
• Vic Anesini - re-mastering

Notes

This is the only album by Blue Öyster Cult which renders the band name as The Blue Öyster Cult.

On the original record, one side had the original black text-on-red background style for the label of side A (called "The Black") where side B ("The Red") had the opposite - a black background with red text. On the 2001 remasters of this album and of Blue Öyster Cult, this red-on-black style is used on the disc. (Secret Treaties and Agents of Fortune use the black-on-red style.)

Some erroneous lyrics to the song "Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl)" were printed in the remastered version of this album and have been propagated through the Internet. The corrected lyrics as supplied by Albert Bouchard are:

• "that Duke's joint" should be "that juke joint"
• "A harvester lifts his arms to the rain" should be "A harvest of limbs, of arms and of legs"

Old CDs

On at least one pressing of the album on CD prior to the 2001 Remaster, some of the segues between songs were mispositioned. This affects every track except for the last. Three of them ("O.D.'d on Life Itself" -> "Hot Rails to Hell", "Hot Rails" -> "7 Screaming Diz-Busters" -> "Baby Ice Dog") are minor, but all the other erroneous segues are fairly noticeable and a bit disruptive, especially if listened to in MP3 format or any other format where gaps exist before or after songs.

Charts

References