About Blue Oyster Cult
Blue Öyster Cult is an American rock band formed on Long Island, New York, in the hamlet of Stony Brook, in 1967. The band has sold 25 million records worldwide, including 7 million in the United States. The band's fusion of hard rock with psychedelia, and penchant for occult, fantastical and tongue-in-cheek lyrics, had a major influence on heavy metal music. They developed a cult following and, while achieving mainstream hits like " The Reaper" and "Burnin' for You" , their commercial success was limited. Both songs, and others such as "Godzilla" , remain classic rock radio staples. The band were early adopters of the music video format, and their videos received heavy rotation on MTV in its early period.
Blue Öyster Cult continued to make studio albums and tour throughout the 1980s, although their popularity had declined such that they were dropped from their longtime label CBS/Columbia Records, following the commercial failure of their eleventh studio album Imaginos . Other than contributing to the soundtrack of the 1992 film Bad Channels and an album of re-recorded material, Cult Classic, in 1994, the band continued as a live act until releasing their first studio album of original material in ten years, Heaven Forbid . The lackluster sales of Curse of the Hidden Mirror led to another hiatus from studio recording, but they continued performing live within the next decade-and-a-half. Two more studio albums were released in the 2020s, The Symbol Remains and Ghost Stories , the latter of which is said to be the band's last.
Blue Öyster Cult's longest-lasting and the most commercially successful lineup included Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser , Eric Bloom , Allen Lanier , Joe Bouchard , and Albert Bouchard . The band's current lineup still includes Bloom and Roeser, in addition to Danny Miranda , Richie Castellano , and Jules Radino . The duo of the band's manager Sandy Pearlman and rock critic Richard Meltzer, who also met at Stony Brook University, played a key role in writing many of the band's lyrics.
Blue Öyster Cult was formed in 1967 as Soft White Underbelly in a communal house at Stony Brook University on Long Island when rock critic Sandy Pearlman overheard a jam session consisting of fellow Stony Brook classmate Donald Roeser and his friends. Pearlman offered to become the band's manager and creative partner, to which the band agreed. The band's original lineup consisted of guitarist Roeser, drummer Albert Bouchard, keyboardist Allen Lanier, Les Braunstein and bassist Andrew Winters.
In October 1967, the band made their debut performance as Steve Noonan's backing band at the Stony Brook University Gymnasium, a gig booked by Pearlman. The band's name came from Winston Churchill's description of Italy as "the soft underbelly of the Axis."
Pearlman was important to the band – he was able to get them gigs and recording contracts with Elektra and Columbia, and he provided them with his poetry for use as lyrics for many of their songs, including "Astronomy." Writer Richard Meltzer, also a Stony Brook University student, provided the band with lyrics from their early days up through their most recent studio album. In 1968, the band moved in together at their first house in the Thomaston area of Great Neck, New York. The band recorded an album's worth of material for Elektra Records in 1968.
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