Blue Oyster Cult - Tales of the Psychic Wars (25 tracks) +Album Reviews

Notes

01/01/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"NMC Music, Ltd.: Pilot 128. Released 2001.
Also released as heavy vinyl 2-LP set with gatefold sleeve on Fruit Tree Records 381515.
Disc One: Live in New York, 1981 ,Fire of Unknown Origin Tour(Same source as "The Thing" , "Burnin' for You" and "Godzilla").
Source: Radio show - A Night On The Road show #ANOTR-681 3-LP set.
Recorded at Bonds International Casinos, New York City (6/16/1981). Instruments: Eric Bloom (guitars, vocals), Donald Roeser (guitars, vocals), Allen Lanier (keyboards, backing vocals), Albert Bouchard (drums), Joe Bouchard (bass, backing vocals). On Disk Two, Rick Downey fills in on drums.
This recording was broadcast on ABC Radio's "A Night on the Road" on 8/8/1981. According to Bolle Gregmar,BOC Fanclub President, some of the songs at the end of the show (The Reaper,Godzilla, Born To Be Wild, 5 Guitars) were actually recorded the previous year (9/8/1980 show at the Old Waldorf, San Francisco, CA).These were spliced in by Steve Schenck and George Geranios when the mixing budget ran out. The version of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" sounds as if Buck mistakenly sings the second verse twice, while the band recovers without missing a beat. Actually, the splicing of the two shows was done in the middle of the song, but was done in error. The version of "5 Guitars" is the "Mark III" (Golden Age of Leather) version.
Also, for some unknown reason, "5 Guitars" was mixed after "Born To Be Wild", when in actuality the band played them in the opposite order ("5 Guitars" segues into "Born To Be Wild"). This release sounds great and features a ten and a half minute "Godzilla " jam.
Disc Two: Live in Pasadena, CA 1983. (Same source as "Rock and Roll Reapers" and "Nail You Down")
Source: Radio show - Captured Live #CL-1083 3-LP set.
From the ABC recording, "Captured Live", recorded on 7/23/1983 at Perkins Palace, Pasadena, CA, and broadcast on 8/29/1983. The show also contained some songs from *Revolution By Night* (Take Me Away, Feel The Thunder, Veins), but they were not broadcast as the album had not yet been released. Includes a track from Buck Dharma's "Flat Out" and extended versions of
"Born to Be Wild" and "Roadhouse Blues"."

ETL it's better

12/20/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"GOOD CONCERTS, BUT ALL THE SONGS ARE FADED IN THE END AND SOME OF THEM IN THE BEGINNING, THIS IS VERY ANNOYING BECAUSE "IT'S LIVE". BOTH CD'S VERY EDITED."

Now this is REAL rock

Ronnie | lalala | 12/25/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a double cd release from a real rock band..the Blue Oyster Cult. The first cd was taking from a concert(or concerts?) held in New York city and could be good... All the songs fade out into no sound afterwards..so it's kind of hard to listen to straight through..but if you want to listen to just a random song it can be very pleasent. There are awesome versons of 'Don't Fear the Reaper', 'Roadhouse Blues', 'Godzilla', '5 Guitars', 'Fire of Unknowing Orgin', ect. I'd give disc one a 3/5 stars.The 2ed disc was taking from a concert in Pasadena around 2 years later, and is very pleasent to listen to straight through. Although this cd starts off kind of slow, and doesn't include a key BOC song 'Godzilla' the last half of this cd is simply amazing. Starting at song 8, 'Cities on Flame With Rock'n Roll'it goes through a small set list of some of the Blue Oyster Cult's top songs including 'Burnin' For You', 'Joan Crawford' and 'Don't Fear the Reaper' a cover of Stepinwolf's 'Born to be Wild' and an amazing cover of the Doors 'Roadhouse Blues'. Over all this disc deserves a 5/5 stars.Well if you do the math 3/5 and 5/5 = 4/5..and that's what I gave this double cd set. If your a BOC fan it's deffently worth the money, and if you like real rock'n'roll it's also probably worth the money to you, but hey, with live versons like this of songs like 'Don't Fear the Reaper', 'Godzilla', and 'Burnin' For You' how could you go wrong?"

Actually Soft White Underbelly Live!

doggiedogma | Mob Town USA | 02/11/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Tales Of Psychic Wars is two concerts from the early eighties. Both of these concerts were actually performed as Soft White Underbelly, NOT BOC! BOC occasionally likes to go incognito and perform as earlier incarnations and these shows were performed under the Soft White Underbelly moniker.

Disc one is from Bond's International Casino, New York, 6/16/81. This was released in LP format back in the '80s. It is easy to tell this was released on LP because the intros fade in and the outros fade out for each song. This also is not the complete concert. The following songs have been ommited: ETI (followed Dr.Music), Cities On Flame (followed Fire Of Unkown Origin), Flaming Telepaths (followed Joan Crawford) and Heavy Metal (followed ME 262). I would have LOVED to hear Heavy Metal live as this is RARELY performed. This is one of the last gigs with Albert Bouchard on drums as he was fired in England two months later while the band was touring Europe. Drum technician Rick Downey took over the druming until 1985.

The show itself is very good! Highlights being Fire Of Unknown Origin, Veterans Of The Psychic Wars, Hot Rails To Hell and Godzilla. Yes, even the usually boring drum solo during Godzilla rates high on this performance. I'm a sucker for cool synthesized sounds. I would rate this disc 3.5 stars out of 5 due to the editing of songs and concert.

Disc two is from Perkins Place, Pasadena, California 7/24/83. As I mentioned in the beginning of this review, this show was performed under the Soft White Underbelly tag, which is wierd because Albert Bouchard (founding group member) at this time is no longer with the band. Anyway, this show was held in between releases. "ETI Live" was the current album and "Revolution By Night" was just a couple of months away from being released. Eric even introduces "Burnin' For You" as being from the "ETI Live" album, which it is; but in reality originates on the "Fire Of Unknown Origin" album. One song, "Feel the Thunder" from the forth coming album, was performed after "Seven Screaming Dizbusters" but was omitted. They even do one of Buck's solo numbers, "Born To Rock", from his "Flat Out" album. The band's performance is good but the audience really helped put this show over! The crowd is very energetic and this helped BOC as they initially seem lethargic IMO. The encore is a 10 minute Doors medley of "Roadhouse Blues" and "Love Me Two Times". The crowd eats it up! Other highlights are Harvester Of Eyes, Born To Rock, Seven Screaming Dizbusters; shoot ALL of the songs are awesome! I rate this disc 4.5 stars out of 5 due to omitting one song.

Overall, this disc is a fabulous representation of the band in the early '80s. You will not be disapointed, especially you Soft White Underbelly disciples! Burn out the day, burn out the night!"

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