When I saw Rich Nesin’s note about Allen Lanier this morning
I had to do a double take. Been keeping the RIP’s in check lately but this one
resonates. Blue Öyster Cult made a big impression on a 15 year old me and
opened the door to pretty much everything. They were punk rock at the time
before the term was corporate-ised. Often lumped with the metal albatross, the
band was closer to something like the MC5 but the songs were really something
else. The concept of “stun guitar” was an exciting prospect and it all made
some kind of sense when they claimed “we’re pain, we’re steel, a plot of
knives...”. It still does. Listen to any of these early records and they stand
up to the test of time far more than anything by The Clash. Actually the best
album those guys made were with BÖC’s producers. Go figure.
And of course those same producers were responsible for
something by the name of The Dictators Go Girl Crazy. Indeed HDM mentioned
today that Lanier played some keyboards on there, presumably he was Alan Glover?
Don’t think I was ever aware of that.
No comments:
Post a Comment