![]() Guitarist Buck Dharma explains the title as originating in an event witnessed by lyricist/manager Sandy Pearlman in which the titular drug was passed between partners during a kiss. Originally titled "Conry's Bar", "Before the Kiss, a Redcap" describes scenes from that real location. This song is frequently played live as a showcase for Buck Dharma's guitar soloing skills. I knew one of the guys casually from Stony Brook University when we were hanging out there. I wrote the story from basically the newspaper accounts of the Long Island newspaper, Newsday. It was three guys, and one managed to survive and get back to the highway. They took them out to the desert and shot them. They just wanted to rip 'em off and shoot 'em, which they did. They never intended to sell them any pot. I don't know how they got whatever contact they had, but it was two brothers – scions from one of the better-to-do families in Tucson. Three Stony Brook students went to Tucson, Arizona, to buy some bulk marijuana for resale. It was still in the Soft White Underbelly days when we were playing dances at Stony Brook University for our sustenance money. "Then Came the Last Days of May" is based on a reportedly-true story, when two friends of Dharma's were killed in a drug deal gone bad in the West: Some versions of the song make this influence more apparent than others. The main riff in this song was heavily inspired by "Frying Pan", a Captain Beefheart b-side from 1966. In 1971, the song was recorded again and finally released on the first Columbia album, and then recorded again at a much faster tempo and with much heavier guitars as "The Red and the Black" and included on the band's second Columbia album, Tyranny and Mutation. Both of these 1970 versions were eventually included on St. Another version from 1970 was intended to be included on the band's unreleased first album for Elektra Records (when the band was known as "Stalk-Forrest Group"). "I'm on the Lamb but I Ain't No Sheep" is about a fugitive pursued by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and was originally recorded in 1970 (when the band was known as Oaxaca). The "MC" in the title stands for " motorcycle club". "Transmaniacon MC" is about the Altamont Free Concert. I think we were all tremendously excited to be working on that record. It was cleaner, and it was like sitting in the control room, listening to the playback of the mixes. But then maybe about 15 years later, they put it out on CD, and then all of a sudden, it brought me back to the studio. ![]() When it came out, I was a little disappointed – I didn't like the vinyl pressing. And of course, Sandy Pearlman and Murray Krugman produced that record – so they kept us conceptually.instead of going way off track, they wanted to establish what was going to become Blue Öyster Cult. So, he was all into what was happening with the Beatles and that production. They'd be flipping the tape over backwards and he'd be making flanging using duplication of the part. But he would show us little magical ways of doubling things and doing live bounces. That's all you had – you had to do the whole album on eight tracks. And I was learning how records are made – this was at David Lucas' jingle studio in New York. ![]() Every day I'd get up and we'd be going to the studio, and I'd be like, 'I can't believe we're going to a studio to make an album…a real album, on Columbia Records!' So, I was excited every day. I couldn't believe how much fun I was having. ![]() Joe Bouchard reflected on the album's creation in 2022: Blue Öyster Cult toured with artists such as The Byrds, Alice Cooper and the Mahavishnu Orchestra to support the album. Despite positive reviews, the album failed to chart for some time before finally cracking the Billboard 200 chart on May 20, 1972, peaking at No. The album featured songs such as " Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars", and "Then Came the Last Days of May", all of which the band still plays regularly during its concerts. ![]() Blue Öyster Cult is the debut studio album by the American rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released in January 1972 by Columbia Records. ![]()
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