Review:

on 2011-02-22 CharlesMartel Said:

This is one of those live albums which by some standards falls short of expectations. A lot of the earlier Blue Oyster Cult material was not really up to it in terms of quality ("Astronomy" excepted of course) and so it is questionable if this was the right time for them to release a live album. Blue Oyster Cult positioned themselves as an anti-commercial band and so successful were they at this that they managed to keep a pretty low profile during the phase of their career leading up to 1975 and the release of this album. So a live album of that earlier material could have fallen woefully short. And to be honest it did to a certain extent. There are three sides of really quite forgettable music here. However, the one other side is what definitely redeems the album from being a colossal mistake.

In terms of the recording, this belongs very much to the warts-and-all philosophy of live albums. There are no overdubs here of embarrassing note fluffs, out of tune or out of time moments. This album is presented to you as it was recorded. Commendable though this in terms of capturing the true live experience, there are occasions when you just wait for those moments when you know from previous listens the band are going to fuck it up. And there are some classic fuck ups as well. But at least it is authentic. Yet for all the potentially negative aspects of that, it really is quite endearing, as well as being a mark of confidence among band members that they could take the inevitable jibes when one of them did screw up.

So, if you disregard sides one, two and four you are left with the remaining side which is what makes this album worth listening to and I have listened to that side more than the others put together - by a factor of several times. Could it be that because two of the three tracks on it are covers, it stands out? Maybe, but there is no question that it is the best part of the album. "Maserati GT" sounds like a new track, but it is a rework of the classic "I Ain't Got You" done by the Yardbirds among others. The version is excellent, and you just wait for the two guitars to line up and leap into that hook line. The solo in the middle is a tad overlong perhaps, but still. If you want to have a jump around wildly to some utterly trivial piece of overblown, yet throwaway pop music then you seriously cannot do better than this

And then the side ends up with Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild". The chaos of the middle is one thing, and the music slides into anarchy here to re-emerge out the other side whole and reformed. It is hard to tell whether this hiatus is deliberate or whether it is one of those unintentional cock-ups. I tend to lean to the latter - listen closely and it sounds as if the band have to virtually stop except for some odd moments of twanging guitars while they all line up behind that steady drum beat to pull them out of the mess. Be that as it may, it is strangely endearing. Odd that this track should be presaged by what is clearly the band's stage intro, but that does not detract from the quality of the track and the fun you can have listening to it.

In essence, this is an album which is definitely worth looking into, but don't go overboard. Making a purchase of a double album for one side of fun may not represent the best value for money you will ever find, but on this occasion I believe it is worth it.
Rating: 7/10