The Blue Öyster Cult: Tyranny and Mutation (1973)

Blues rock and black musings strike a supernatural balance on BOC’s second.

Kronomyth 2.0: Grim fairy tales for aging children.

Anyway, anyhow, any werewolf knows that the shapes in the dark are at best supposed and the mind, in the moments before an attack, is unable to pick out the red from the black. What is this darkness then but a tyranny of the mind, as we scratch in the void with our scratched-out eyes? Tyranny and Mutation is a supernaturally dark work filled with shadows. Canadian mounties who are half-savior and half-sadist. Lives that lead to death, only to be ignominiously erased with quicklime. Road songs for the ride to Hell. Flying black horsemen ushering in a new apocalypse. These are the shapes half-glimpsed on Blue Öyster Cult’s second album. I wished that the first album were darker, and this is my wish fulfilled. Blues rock and black magic are swirled together in ambitious arrangements that sound alternately like Hawkwind (Hot Rails to Hell), The Stooges (OD’d on Life Itself), Frank Zappa (7 Screaming Diz-Busters) and Deep Purple (Mistress of the Salmon Salt). What I don’t hear is heavy metal. Black Sabbath had those heavy riffs that chained your spirit. You’ll hear some of that on a tune like Wings Wetted Down, but BOC’s heaviness lie in their lyrics more than their music. Tyranny and Mutation hits differently than, say, Paranoid. Sabbath transported you into the middle of the sulfuric haze. With BOC, you’re watching horrible things happen from a safe distance. It turns out that’s the perfect place from which to admire BOC’s forays into dark fantasy.

Original elpee version

A1. The Red & The Black (Albert Bouchard/Eric Bloom/Sandy Pearlman) (4:20)
A2. OD’d on Life Itself (Eric Bloom/Albert Bouchard/Joe Bouchard/Sandy Pearlman) (4:50)
A3. Hot Rails to Hell (Joe Bouchard) (5:12)
A4. 7 Screaming Diz-Busters (Albert Bouchard/Joe Bouchard/Donald Roeser/Sandy Pearlman) (7:00)
B1. Baby Ice Dog (Albert Bouchard/Eric Bloom/Patti Smith) (3:28)
B2. Wings Wetted Down (Albert Bouchard/Joe Bouchard) (4:12)
B3. Teen Archer (Donald Roeser/Eric Bloom/Richard Meltzer) (3:57)
B4. Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl) (Albert Bouchard/Sandy Pearlman) (5:07)

Expanded CD reissue bonus tracks
9. Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll (live)
10. Buck’s Boogie (studio version)
11. 7 Screaming Diz-Busters (live)
12. OD’d on Life Itself (live)

Original 8-track version
A1. The Red & The Black
A2. O.D.’d on Life Itself
B1. 7 Screaming Diz-Busters
B2. Teen Archer (Part I)
C1. Teen Archer (conclusion)
C2. Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl)
C3. Hot Rails to Hell (Part I)
D1. Hot Rails to Hell (conclusion)
D2. Baby Ice Dog
D3. Wings Wetted Down

The Players

Eric Bloom (vocals, stun guitar and all synthesizers), Albert Bouchard (drums, vocals), Joe Bouchard (bass, vocals and keyboard), Allen Lanier (keyboards and rhythm guitar), Donald (Buck Dharma) Roeser (guitar and vocals). Produced by Murray Krugman & Sandy Pearlman; engineered by Tim Geelan; recorded by Lou Schlossberg and Phil Giambalvo.

The Pictures

Cover by Gawlik.

The Plastic

Released on elpee and 8-track in February 1973 in the US (Columbia, KC/CA 32017), the UK (CBS, 32056) and Japan (CBS, SOPL-182) with picture innersleeve. Reached #122 on the US charts.

1. Re-issued on quadraphonic elpee in 1973 in the US (Columbia, CQ 32017).
2. Re-released on cassette in the Netherlands (CBS, 40-32056).
3. Re-released on elpee and cassette in the US (Columbia, PC/PCT 32017) and the UK (CBS, S 65331).
4. Re-issued on compact disc in the US (Columbia, CK 32017).
5. Re-packaged with Blue Öyster Cult and Secret Treaties on 3CD in 1997in the US (Columbia, C3K-64806) and Brazil (Sony, 2 064806).
6. Re-issued on expanded compact disc on July 3, 2001 in the US (Columbia/Legacy, 85481) with 4 bonus tracks.
7. Re-packaged with Blue Öyster Cult on remastered 2-for-1 compact disc in the US (Mobile Fidelity, UDCD-738).
8. Re-issued on 180g vinyl elpee in 2016 in Germany (Speakers Corner).