Four on the Floor – Blue Oyster Cult Live.

One of my all-time favourite bands, brought about primarily because of their first live album, over the years there have been a few so today I’m going to concentrate on the first two and the last two, so let it begin!

On Your Feet or on Your Knees – 1975.     9.5/10.

My brother borrowed this off somebody who he went to school with the intention if he liked it he was going to buy it, he didn’t but I did, he didn’t seem to have a great interest in it, but to me it had me hooked from the first chord, it was also my first double album (which I still have) and my first live CD I bought, the sound was typical of the early seventies, weedy in some parts awesome in others, I didn’t care, as soon as I heard Then came the last days of May and Bucks Boogie I was in love! there were a couple of tracks I didn’t get straight away, I was ten, I mean Harvester of eyes, Seven Screaming Dizbusters (which I loved and still do) it didn’t matter that I didn’t understand it, the songs appealed, the playing appealed, I didn’t care that Albert Bouchard was wearing silver shorts in the middle of the sleeve, the only downer for me simply because  it was a cover and I was already at the age of ten sick of it, Born to be wild, it’s a great cover, just it was always on the radio even then, a little like Kiss the band simply toured and toured and this was a stop gap album so they could try and write some new songs, which arrived literally six months after I bought this (Agents of Fortune) before for that arrived I had bought the first three albums and got really acquainted with the studio versions of the songs of this album, and I was upset that they put Born to be wild on the album instead of Astronomy!

Some Enchanted Evening – 1978     9.5/10.

My favourite  BOC live album, I had over the years some excellent bootlegs but this was the dogs bollocks, not least because I got to see the band on 1-6-1978 at Newcastle City Hall and two tracks are featured on this album, a friend of my brother took me simply because he was being mean to me about going to the gig , he had no intention of going, but he didn’t tell me that until the day of the gig and I was devastated that I wasn’t going to see them, an older friend who was going and had a friend drop out took me instead of my brother, ha did he have a sour look on his face, I was close to tears when they came on stage and have very little memory about the gig, I wasn't quite a teenager at this point (nearly but not quite) and I was a wee thing compared to the hulking brutes in the surrounding seats, Why the same rating as the first one , well again it was the sound, it had lost a bit of its balls as they had moved to radio systems for instruments and although its an excellent album the weedy sound does kind of annoy me, it’s a personal choice, again we had covers but I didn’t mind, a stunning cover and glorious inside sleeve, I played my original to death and had to wait to get it on CD as they weren’t a priority for Sony by the time CD’s started arriving, just as COVID hit I bought it again in a number of colours (Blue & Red ) allegedly there was a Picture Disc but I never got my hands on that. I did get a reissue on CD with bonus tracks with an alternative version of We gotta get out of this place and yet another version of Born to be bloody wild!

50^th Anniversary First Night – 2023     8/10.

In reality the band should now have been called Two Oyster Cult by this time, with the loss of the Bouchard Brothers and Allen Lanier dipping in and out due to ill health but they continued to release some good live albums and some terrible ones as well, I have seen them tour on every tour except the last tour since that first one back in 1978 and have never been disappointed by them live, the less said about Eric Blooms Silk Pyjamas  on the Club Ninja tour the better, this was an anniversary tour celebration of the early albums this first night was the debut album, I haven’t bought a physical copy (I’m assuming that it’s a double album to be honest I haven’t seen any physical copies so I can’t confirm) the first album is just that it’s the debut album, I would have preferred to see them split the songs between the second album, because the songs haven’t fared well over time, I still love them but you can see the limitations that they were operating under, especially when you compare them to the monsters on the second disc, why the lower score, firstly Mr Blooms vocals have lost some of the growl, he is a lot older, I get that but some of those songs do need the growl, and some of the first album songs simply don’t compare, the band are good but there’s little bits and pieces that wouldn’t have got through on the first two live albums.

50^th Anniversary Second Night – 2024. 8/10.

More of the same, with the second night being for the second album Tyranny and Mutation, these songs seems to fared a little better with again some tracks that the band haven’t played in what seems like forever, a good mix of songs (including The revenge of Vera Gemini) same faults as with the first one I would have preferred them missed it would have made for a more even mix and there’s a couple of guitar parts that simply don’t seem to gel, still a good introduction if you haven’t heard anything before by the boys, I would recommend you start with Some Enchanted Evening.

And there you have it I know this is really late no excuses I simply wasn’t feeling it, its been written a while I simply didn’t want to publish, anyway onwards enjoy and keep spreading the disease, until the next time stay safe and stay alive………Toodles!