Queen wrecks Cheap Trick in a low turnout round.
And finally we reach our last pairing. For this round we’re looking at two bands that are somewhat difficult to pigeonhole and have both at least flirted with Metal. A late 70s Metal battle jacket would be incomplete without at least one of them. The first band name dropped Heavy Metal in their entry for the previous game and the second band had an undeniably heavy sound with an ethos that encouraged going against the grain, a familiar theme in the Metal world. Of course I am talking about Blue Oyster Cult and Rush.
In the previous game, we looked at Secret Treaties by Blue Oyster Cult. That was an album which saw the band slowly starting to make an impression on the rock world after a few albums that were mostly relegated to the underground. By 1977 with the release of Spectres, BOC had a platinum album under their belt and a big hit single with Agents of Fortune and Don’t Fear the Reaper respectively. The band had somehow found a way to package their eclectic and sometimes quirky signature sound into tight songs that were accessible to wide audiences. It seemed that BOC was on the way up; however, as it would turn out, Agents of Fortune was in some ways a peak. It wasn’t the band’s last taste of huge commercial success, but it was one of their biggest and wouldn’t be matched until 1981. Spectres was still a moderate success and was certified gold. It also most notably contains one of their biggest singles, Godzilla. Unlike The Reaper, Godzilla failed to chart as a single. However, it was picked up by FM radio and grew in popularity to become one of BOC’s most popular songs.
While perhaps not the commercial juggernaut the band’s label might’ve hoped for, Spectres was a huge hit among fans and is widely regarded as one of their best albums. It was another showcase for the band’s various styles and even hinted at a more commercial sound that would develop over the years. The band’s heaviness is still in tact and a few songs even seem to harken back to the roots of their “black and white” era, but with a more polished production.
Blue Oyster Cult is a band that is perhaps better defined by the environment it existed in rather than a certain musical style. Being from New York at a time where artistic creativity and experimentation was at a peak, BOC is a great example of a band that tried a lot of different musical styles and brushed against a lot of different genres in the process. Some of their New York contemporaries included Patti Smith, Brian Eno, and Talking Heads. These artists are probably galaxies away from Heavy Metal, but perhaps Blue Oyster Cult was a conduit between two styles that at least shared a similar ethos and represented some of the most cutting edge music of the time. BOC was certainly one of the heaviest bands to come out of New York that wasn’t part of the punk scene. At the end of the day, Blue Oyster Cult sounds like Blue Oyster Cult, but the best Metal bands tend to be the ones that are unlike any that have come before.
Meanwhile in Canada, we find another band that recently saw a huge commercial breakthrough the very same year as BOC with Agents of Fortune. If you’re a Hard Rock or Metal fan, I urge you to take a moment to appreciate a year where both Agents of Fortune and 2112 were released. If those two albums alone don’t show the vastness of rock music in the 70s, I don’t know what would. But for this game, we are looking at the albums that followed. In 1977, like BOC, Rush was riding a wave of popularity from an album that you wouldn’t expect to obviously become a hit. Of course the risk implied with that kind of success is that it may be a fluke and the band might not have any long term commercial potential. However, Rush had one thing that BOC did not: the emergence of one of the most dedicated fan bases in the business. Critics may have hated them, but it didn’t matter for Rush. The years of grueling bus tours and an unapologetic creative drive were finally starting to pay off. When being pressured by the label to take another commercial direction, Rush instead doubled down on the prog. Clearly the logical move would be to continue to follow their artistic gut. A Farewell To Kings continued the hard rock/prog sound of 2112, but this time with added instrumentation. Geddy Lee added the synthesizer as a normal part of his arsenal, Neil Peart expanded his set to include auxiliary percussion, and Alex Lifeson added some pedal synths of his own along with 12 string and classical guitars. The added instrumentation was an attempt to give the illusion of a small orchestra consisting of just three musicians. Indeed, Rush largely recorded their music live in single takes. Despite having songs that were long and pretty musically complicated, most of what you hear is the band performing live with very little in the way of overdubs. Perhaps the best example of this is actually in the opening minute of the album’s title track. It was recorded outside the studio and each of the three members have their own intricate part to play, not unlike a piece of chamber music. If you listen closely and with headphones, you can even hear the outside ambience and Alex’s guitar gradually moving across the left and right speakers. This isn’t artificial panning: it’s the sound of him walking back and forth between the two stereo microphones. Other examples of the band’s performing abilities can be heard throughout the album. While A Farewell To Kings did not contain a single song as long as 2112, it did feature two 10+ minute epics that combined to exceed the length of the previous epic. Cygnus X-1 Book 1 shows the band experimenting with ambience and tape loops before going into an extremely heavy and frantic track. Xanadu is the more well known of the two epics and also features some ambience in the intro but it’s much more organic and mostly achieved with Alex’s guitar, a synth drone, and Neil’s percussion. That song went on to become a live favorite. The album has a lot to offer in the way of shorter songs as well, in fact it has something that 2112 did not: a huge radio radio hit with Closer To the Heart. Despite the shorter length, these songs still have a lot in terms of musical content. Especially the title track.
Because of the smaller number of songs, we’re also going to be including a second Rush album: 1978’s followup Hemispheres. Hemispheres was recorded just a year later and was very much a continuation of what they were going for on AFTK. In fact, it’s really easy to see the two as companion albums, which is why they’re being represented together here. Hemispheres is Rush at peak prog, with even longer and more complicated songs than on the previous record. Remember how I mentioned the band recording much of their songs live? This was true on Hemispheres as well for the most part, but the band finally saw their limit with the song La Villa Strangiato. Not the longest song they ever recorded, not even close, but certainly the most complex. The band attempted to record the basic tracks live but eventually was forced to split it up. Despite that, the track still stands as a crowning artistic achievement and one of the all time great instrumental tracks. The other long track, if you can believe it, is slightly more straightforward musically despite being the length of an album side. The title track is a sequel to Cygnus X-1 Book 1 and takes our protagonist to the scene of ancient Greek mythology. It’s long but is more narrative driven and contains a lot of repeated musical motives. In other words, it’s much easier to follow than Strangiato. The two shorter songs on the album aren’t any less musically complex. Circumstances and The Trees both contain extended instrumental section that show off both the band member’s individual strengths as well as their musical chemistry as a collective.
A Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres proved that 2112 was not a fluke and Rush continued to grow in popularity thanks to a combination of the fans embracing the band’s musical direction and their grueling touring schedule. The two albums are not only the peak of the band’s prog style, but also the last two albums with any semblance of Metal, at least until the 90’s. Rush would go on to expand their use of synthesizers and went into the 80s with more of a new wave and synth pop influence, which turned off many of their fans in the hard rock and metal sphere. Despite that, the band’s 70s output remains
I expect this to be a massacre and I apologize for my limited knowledge of Blue Oyster Cult compared to Rush. That isn’t to say Spectre is weaker, there is just limited information out there. I invite BOC fans to make the case for them and fill in any gaps in my writing. I also urge you all to give the album a fair shake as it is, dare I say it, a hidden gem. All three are deserving of being among the Metal Essentials. All songs from both albums represented.
