This mix provides a prequel to Blue Oyster Cult’s 1975 live album, “On Your Feet, or On Your Knees,” which capped the band’s classic, initial studio run: “Blue Oyster Cult,” “Tyranny and Mutation,” and “Secret Treaties” (1972-1974).
In 1976, everything changed, with the release of the completely different “Agents of Fortune,” containing the hit, “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”
Pulling from four bootlegs recorded April 1972 through December 1973, this mix compiles as many different songs as possible, mostly in the earliest live recording available. (The NYC Academy of Music show predates the recording of “Secret Treaties.”)
I’ve only repeated two songs, one because it changed a lot, and the other because it was the big jam number. The fidelity of the sources varies, but all should be pleasurably inhabitable by fans. Volume has been equalized.
130-minute mp3 mixtape zipped up here
Rochester, NY: 4/3/72
- The Red and the Black
- Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll
- Workshop of Telescopes
- Stairway to the Stars
- Transmaniacon MC
- The Last Days of May
- Before the Kiss, a Redcap
Detroit, MI: 4/2/73
- OD’d on Life Itself
- Wings Wetted Down
- 7 Screaming Dizbusters
- Buck’s Boogie
- It’s Not Easy
Cleveland: 10/8/73
- Screams
- Quicklime Girl
- Workshop of Telescopes
- It’s Not Easy
New York City: 12/31/73
- Dominance and Submission
- Astronomy, a Star
- ME262
If you’d like to hear an 18-minute jam by BOC’s earlier incarnation, Stalk-Forrest Group, you’ll find that here.
