By Jim Rowland
2020 has certainly been a bumper year for Blue Öyster Cult releases. In fact it’s quite remarkable how many have been released by Frontiers this year. Four live CD/DVD albums – ‘Hard Rock Live Cleveland 2014’, ‘iHeart Radio Theater N.Y.C. 2012’, ‘40th Anniversary – Agents Of Fortune – 2016’ and ‘45th Anniversary Live In London’, plus reissues of the ‘Heaven Forbid’ and ‘Curse Of The Hidden Mirror’ albums all preceded the small matter of a great brand new studio album ‘The Symbol Remains’, the first from BÖC since the ‘Hidden Mirror’ album in 2001. But they’re not finished there, as December sees two more live CD/DVD releases – a reissue of ‘A Long Day’s Night’, which originally dates back to 2002, plus the brand new ‘Live At Rock Of Ages Festival 2016’. When you add to that the recently released Albert Bouchard ‘Re-Imaginos’ album, although that wasn’t on Frontiers (and don’t forget the special Record Store Day vinyl release – Ed), you could say Blue Öyster Cult fans have never had it so good..
Originally released by Sanctuary in 2002 on CD and DVD, ‘A Long Day’s Night’ showcases a Chicago concert the band played during the summer solstice of that year, hence the title, when original member Allen Lanier was still in the band, alongside current bassist Danny Miranda and former Rainbow drummer Bobby Rondinelli. This re-issue comes out in CD/DVD, Blu-Ray and double vinyl with the audio restored and remastered. Whilst the CD contains 13 tracks, it’s worth concentrating on the DVD track listing here, which boasts a whopping 19 tracks over its two-hour running time.
Given the wealth of material BÖC amassed over the years, it’s probably easier to judge a live release by the set list, assuming the sound quality is good which it certainly is here, and this set is a particularly good one. Aside from the obvious ‘must have’s like ‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper’, ‘Godzilla’, ‘Last Days Of May’, ‘Burnin’ For You’, ‘Cities On Flame’ and ‘Buck’s Boogie’, this one picks some real gems from BÖC’s career up to that point, placing a slight emphasis on the earlier stuff from the first 3 albums. Impressive versions of ‘Stairway To The Stars’, ‘Harvester Of Eyes’, ‘Flaming Telepaths’, ‘ME262’, ‘Quicklime Girl’ and ‘OD’d On Life Itself’ all feature, with ‘Dominance and Submission’ and ‘The Red and the Black’ wrapping the set up. Add to those the then-recent ‘Dance On Stilts’, ‘Perfect ‘Water’ and ‘Harvest Moon’, plus mid-career gems like ‘E.T.I.’ and ‘Lips In The Hills’ and it’s a quality BÖC set indeed. Even better, if you plump for the Blu-ray release here you get bonus previously unreleased video footage of ‘Astronomy’ and ‘Joan Crawford’, probably my two favourite BÖC tracks, so that’s some bonus, although I’m not sure why they would have been cut from the original release. There’s also interview footage, behind the scenes coverage, fan interviews, bio and discography information. I remember seeing Blue Öyster Cult in London around this time, probably on the same tour, and they were in particularly fine form, as this set testifies.
Fast forward 14 years to 2016. Allen Lanier has sadly passed away and Richie Castellano is now firmly established in the band, with Kasim Sultan, formerly of Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, on bass. ‘Live At Rock Of Ages Festival 2016’ captures the band making a rare appearance on German soil, and as the name may suggest, it’s largely a festival for old bands playing to old people.
Being a festival set, it’s a shorter and more succinct one that aside from the usual big hitters ironically has a lot of the slightly more obscure choices that graced the 2002 set, such as ‘Lips In The Hills’, ‘Harvest Moon’ and ‘OD’d On Life Itself’. With this being the same year that the band played selected ‘Agents Of Fortune’ shows, ‘The Golden Age Of Leather’ and ‘This Ain’t The Summer Of Love’ also make the set, although the latter is missing from the DVD and Blu-ray (presumably a filming hiccup?) This one is also available in CD/DVD, Blu-ray, and 2xLP formats. I can only judge this on the audio as I haven’t seen the footage, but it’s top quality sound-wise and sees the band again in good form.
If you were to go for just one of these, I’d go for ‘A long Day’s Night’ if you don’t already have it from first time round, given that that one features Allen Lanier and is a lot longer, but both would sit very nicely in any BÖC collection.
- ‘A Long Day’s Night’ and ‘Live At Rock Of Ages Festival 2016’ are both released on Friday (4 December). You can get your copies HERE.
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