SOME ENCHANTED EVENING
If my math is correct, 1978's S.E.E. is Blue Oyster Cult's 7th full length release, and 2nd live album within their first 6 years of recording. That's an average of 1 live album every 3 years! Apparently, S.E.E.'s decidedly short recording was hastily rushed out to satiate a rapidly growing audience while the band took a short break from their non-stop touring and recording.
The concept here, with regard to the artwork, is about as simple and basic as the Cult ever gets. Reaper on a black horse, scythe in hand, BOC logo in clear view. All the basics are here, as ubiquitously covered in previous blogs: symbolism that had probably become laughably cliche at that point. And it wasn't even 1980 yet!
This simple artwork aligns perfectly with the record label's purported vision for the album, which seemed to focus on "hits" [or live crowd-pleasers] and nothing else. From that view, the artwork can be seen as simply capitalizing upon the then recent success of "Don't Fear the Reaper." The inclusion of 2 covers out of 7 total tracks screams even louder that the delicate balance between art and commercialism was definately leaning towards the latter. So while I often make the case that there is some kind of social engineering agenda going on with BOC, I'm not denying there is a financial aspect at play as well.
Enchanted means being under a magic spell or feeling deeply charmed, delighted, and fascinated by something - Google A.I.
The title of this live album was apparently taken from the 1949 Rogers and Hammerstein musical called South Pacific, which was made into a film in 1958. The central theme seems to revolve around the idea of "love at first sight," and how one must take hold of that love or spend the rest of their life dreaming [or something like that]. I suppose this was a clever marketing strategy where the band wants you to view them as a lover that you can't let slip away - which of course goes both ways. They want to "take hold" of YOU, before YOU slip away. So while the word "enchanted" hints at a mesmerizing divine rock and roll experience, it's being conflated with ACTUAL spontaneous love. Pretty ingenius in a way, and definately operating on multiple levels.
The back cover reveals the desolate desert landscape our black rider hastily glides through under the full moon. The combination of what appears to be a dead bush within the desert context recalls biblical themes. Particularly, Moses speaking to God [or an angel] via the burning bush. We are also reminded of Christ's temptation by the devil in the desert, while death rides, laughing in mockery of it all.
Mirrors are a negative space...With a frame and a place for your face...They reveal what the rest of us see...They conceal what you're likely to be
The mirror, as a symbol, plays one of the more prominent roles in Sandy Pearlman's "Imaginos" mythology. Its' role here, however, is more generally metaphorical than it is specific to that mythos - while also throwing a bone to it. I am tempted to articulate the oh so symbolic meaning behind driving forward while observing what is behind, but I'm going to try and stick to the more occult level, thin as it may be.
This image upon the inner vinyl sleeve of "Mirrors" is taken directly from the famous "house of mirrors" climax of Orson Welles' 1947 film noir classic, The Lady from Shanghai. In the movie, the hall of mirrors scene serves as a visual metaphor where characters shoot at reflections, unable to distinguish what is real from what is merely an illusion.
"Even the greatest stars...Discover themselves in the looking glass" -Kraftwerk, "The Hall of Mirrors" 1977
[Back cover art for the album "Mirrors"]
The back cover of "Mirrors" seems to be a dry self-mockery of the band's "occult" image. Again, while ubiquitously referencing the oh-so-symbolic mirror, they seem to be poking fun at Sandy Pearlman's "dead serious" Imaginos mythology - by sort of ignoring it completely and emphesizing the generically poetic cliche of "the mirror" as a symbol.
The band member's dead serious stares [with the exception of one of em, who looks like he's about to bust up laughing] is locked upon the viewer, glowing hands brandished as if preparing to release their lazer powers upon you.
[Inner vinyl sleeve for the live album, "On Your Feet Or On Your Knees."]
The sky backdrop matches the cover, but also recalls a shot from the inner gatefold sleeve of their first live album "On Your Feet Or On Your Knees" [pictured above]. If you recall, the image from said live album plays along with the theme of a rock concert as a sort of sermon or church-going religious experience, or even a revelations-type divine event. This playfully portrays the band members themselves as "divine beings" or perhaps the "Agents of Fortune" working on behalf of the ancient aliens guiding humanity within the Imaginos world.
I don't know that peeling the layers back here any further is really necesarry. In my opinion, the key that "picks this lock" is that there is no treasure in the safe. The safe is open, the contents are all neatly stacked on the table, and you are invited to inspect it all. In short, we're just in it for the money at this point.
CULTOSAURUS ERECTUS
"Cultosaurus" is a fictional, pseudo-scientific word rather than a real Latin term, but its roots can be translated using a mix of Latin and Greek. It translates conceptually to "worship lizard" or "cult lizard" - Google A.I.
BOC's 7th studio album burst them into the dawn of the 1980s with the ominously titled "Cultosaurus Erectus." Obviously the title was made to sound like a dinosaur species, pretend-latin and all. But a closer look reveals that Mr Erectus is not of this earth, whether from a million or 10 million years ago! Is the thing supposed to even be alive? Is it fossilized? Has it been reanimated or is it frozen in time? Ah, nothing like an ancient alien dinosoar to get us in the proper mood to rock out with BOC!
The band is clearly drifting further away from Sandy Pearlman's "Imaginos" world in 1980, disappearing off into sci-fi fantasy with one of the great writers of the genre to assist with lyrics, Michael Moorcock - who also collaborated with the band Hawkwind for a period of time. This crossing over of sci-fi fantasy writer and heavy metal is an interesting juxtaposition, taking what bands like Rainbow and Wishbone Ashe flirted with in the 1970s and firmly planting both black leather boots into the wet concrete known as "the heavy metal genre."
[Note this specific wording: "the power and the glory," in the above promotional advertisement. This is a phrase which appears in the King James Bible version of the Lord's Prayer. British band Saxon also used this phrase as an album title in 1983]
Notably, C.E. [Christian Era?] features Martin Birch as producer, who recorded Deep Purple's 70s material and would go on to produce all of Iron Maiden's classic 1980s albums. This would seem to contribute to the idea that BOC was part of a grand and deliberate effort to develope this new heavy metal genre, but I do have a little bit of an overactive imagination...
BOC's manager Sandy Pearlman also started managing Black Sabbath at this time, which might have had something to do with the manifestation of the now legendary "Black and Blue" tour, occuring that same year C.E. came out. It seems both Britain and the United States were chosen to be launching pads from which this new sound and lifestyle would take off officially.
The above promotional poster for a film documenting this lean, but powerful bill, contains a very interesting name in the production credits: George Harrison. Yes, that's right. George Harrison of the Beatles! Could it be that an original member of the "British Invasion" was now joining in a new invasion of another sort?
It wasn't enough to pair these 2 giants from either side of the Atlantic together and have them tour. No, a film documenting the tour had to be made and it had to play in theatres so that those that missed the concert or missed the memo that "heavy metal is now a thing" could be informed that George Harrison and Michael Moorcock want you on this bandwagon. What are you waiting for???
The above promotional poster seems to be far more loaded than the C.E. album art, so let's unpack it for a moment. There are 2 motorcycle gangs here representing the bands, but more broadly representing their respective "tribes." The gang on the left flies the cross pattée upon their flag, which is found on the Queen of England's crown. This would seem to represent the Black Sabbath element, while the gang on the right flies the BOC hook/cross. They come together in the center of the image and combine into 1 symbol. Kinda like 2 chapters of an international motorcycle gang coming together!
Lasers seem to shoot out from the center, incinerating familiar landmarks, recalling BOC's controversial laser shows of the late 70s. It looks like Big Ben and the Empire State building are 2 of the more prominent structures getting incinerated 9/11 style.
A giant fist forming the now ubiquitous "sign of the horns," popularized by Ronnie James Dio and Gene Simmons in the 1970s, towers behind the central symbol. Down it goes, into the same wet concrete our leather boots stand firmly pressed into for eternity.
What exactly was going on at the dawn of the 1980s, where "heavy metal" was a phrase you just had to know the definition of? Clearly, we're dealing with a monstrous cultural engineering vehicle, who's stereotypes are being very deliberately, almost militantly established. THIS IS HEAVY METAL. YOU ARE A HEAVY METAL SOLDIER! MARCH OR DIE!
In all seriousness though, we're talking about the establishment of a new subculture. One which can take Americans, Britains, and probably just about anyone from anywhere out of their own culture, and place them into this newly contrived one. Have you ever thought about how much power and influence that puts into the hands of those who control these bands?
Look, I was a Metalhead in the 80s and still enjoy some of it to this day. But it never really occured to me, as a young metalhead, that what I thought was some real individual freedom seeking path in life was one I was actually lead into by those who intend to CONTROL me and those who think they are members of "the counterculture." I'm pissed off and I want my money back!
The inner sleeve artwork is hilarious, spoofing a National Geographic type documentary, chronicling the apparently fossilized Cultosaurus Erectus findings. Interestingly, Oyster Bay is mentioned, which was near the original location of Stoney Brook University, where the members of BOC met. Stalk Forrest [a fictional place] is also mentioned, and is one of the names BOC used before assuming their current one. This is interesting because Sandy Pearlman has claimed in interviews that he came up with the name Stalk Forrest Group while eating chinese food and observing that the mushrooms on his plate looked like "stalks." BOC is now using this title in reference to a PLACE. Not on a plate, but in this alternate world of Mr Erectus. Hmmm...
Unfortunately our menacing Cultosaurus is reduced to something resembling a giant long necked tadpole when its' entire body is shown. The irony here is thick and the humor is dry as a fossilized re-animated alien dinosaur bone.
The inner vinyl sleeve seems to have included a young child on either side, both depicted wearing red and sitting inside what I presume to be Mr Erectus' footprint. Only, Mr Erectus could not have made such a footprint because he slithered around like a giant land tadpole! Maybe those nutty guys in BOC or the nutty artist they hired just wants to throw in a generally nostalgic throwback photo to being a kid in a museum which displays dinosaur bones?
This is all very silly and almost Monty Python-esque in its' dry mockery of the audience beholding it, but what is the real point here when we look past all the sarcasm? Is there an occult message, or are we just making another BOC salad packed with all the cliches we can throw in?
FIRE OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN
I remember staring at the above promotional poster for the 1981 animated film Heavy Metal, as it sat gathering dust upon the wall of the comic book store I frequented. This place had a small alcove with 3 or 4 arcade games, which I rarely had the money to play. So when I wasn't trying to figure out how to most effectively spend my 3 or 4 quarters, I was falling in love with the chick on that poster - wondering what her world was like, and how I could transport myself into it. This was the world I would come to know as Heavy Metal, and it existed mostly in my head. But that wouldn't stop me and thousands of others from trying to convince the world otherwise! After all, THEY are just boring people who don't know how to rock and don't understand the majesty and mystery WE stand in league with! No, they didn't "get" Heavy Metal - but that's ok, WE didn't need THEIR approval anyway!
But ironically Columbia Pictures, the same corporation behind Blue Oyster Cult's releases, was funding both the band and the film. I'm glad this major corporation was around to fabricate MY imagined world/lifestyle and feed it to me so that I could have an "individual" identity for the next 40 years or so!
Unsurprisingly, both BOC and Black Sabbath were a couple bands that were featured on the film's soundtrack. But I must admit that both the film and the soundtrack didn't seem that "Heavy Metal" to me when I finally snapped out of my trance of lusting after the lady in the poster and checked out the actual content therein. But this goes back to my earlier observation about how the definition of Heavy Metal has changed throughout the years. And who was I anyway, to try and tell the Columbia Corporation how to contrive a genre they seemed to be spearheading in the early 1980s?
Several of the songs from BOC's "Fire of Unknown Origin" were intended for the soundtrack of the animated film, such as "Vengeance (The Pact)," the lyrics of which follow in detail the plot of the "Taarna" segment of the movie. However, only the song "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" (not originally written for the film), co-written by science-fiction author Michael Moorcock, ended up in the film's final version and soundtrack.
Aside from the Corporate sponsored agenda to refine heavy metal into an acceptable counterculture thing, the Cult seems to have returned to Sandy Pearlman's Imaginos world for F.U.O., at least with regard to the album cover. As the mystical hooded individual hints, while presenting a blue oyster to the viewer, this would seem to be THE mythical Blue Oyster Cult. These "fictional" individuals are clearly doing the bidding of those wacky unseen aliens working to steer humanity into various directions, in order to fullfill THEIR plan.
While it is all fun and entertaining to play along with the Cult and their fantastical heavy metal cosplay, there is a sinister feeling about it all. Perhaps even a desperately yearning feeling that what we are dealing with here is not necesarily fiction. That there there may be a certain reality to what is being depicted here. That our world IS, in fact, being "guided" by unseen forces. But maybe they aren't from another planet. Maybe they are just a few hundred miles from where we sit!
A fire of unknown origin took my baby away...
I'm living for givin' the devil his due...And I'm burnin', I'm burnin', I'm burnin' for you
Anytime we see triangles/pyramids, references to alchemy and the occult - the recurrence of FIRE references take on multiple levels of meaning. We've got a fire of unknown origin, which invites the querent to delve deeper and try to solve the riddle of this fire. Is it love? Is it a woman? Is it literal fire? Is it a magical invisible fire? All of the above, most likley.
Lucifer means "light bringer" or "morning star." The name Luke is a version of this, which is why Luke Skywalker weilds a LIGHT sword and is a SKYWALKER [sun metaphor]. In Lucifarian terms, light, flame, fire, lightning, burning, the sun, horus - can all be vague references to the same thing. So when we find that BOC's first real hit of the 80s "Burning for You" contains all of this loaded symbolism, it's probably a good bet that genuine occultists are at work here on some level. But the band members themselves might very well just be along for the ride upon a ship named Columbia.
To get a bit more Freemasonic about it, the fire as depicted in Albert Pike's "Morals and Dogma" is a metaphor for the human intellect. As-in how we refer to a smart person as being "bright." But it also exhalts the human intellect as being the highest aspect of our being, and here is where God doesn't really exist. It is our FAITH in God, our intellectual perception that is the highest power. At least, that is my understanding of the concept based upon my studies [see my series on Morals and Dogma, link at bottom of the page].
The back cover features an illustration of an astrolabe, an ancient astronomical instrument used for measuring the positions of the sun and stars. Following the general theme of magic cults, beings from another planet, and a fire/intellect.
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