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Rating: The first album by BÖC, self-titled and recorded in '71 and released in '72, consists of a novel mix of '50s rock'n'roll, garage blues, psychedelia, and hard rock.
The album opens with Transmaniacon MC, a rock piece dominated by Donald Roeser's guitar and Eric Bloom's vocals, with particularly agitated tones. The subsequent I’m a Lamb but I’m not the Sheep, a mid-tempo not particularly striking, is performed in a rather subdued manner and will be better revisited by BÖC themselves, with the title The Red & the Black, in the later Tyranny & Mutation. Noteworthy, however, is Albert Bouchard's drumming. The ballad (Then come) the last Days of May, composed and sung by Donald Roeser, stands out for the bluesy phrasing of the electric guitar and the psychedelic inflections of the arrangement. Stairway to the Stars, with sarcastic references to the show biz world, is a boogie highlighted by guitars and Bloom's vocals. (Before the Kiss) a Redcap is the most atypical track on the album, characterized by a bluesy introductory part and a distinctly jazz-like central break, well-supported by the bass and drums mix of brothers Joe and Albert Bouchard, ending as it began. The most significant and original tracks of the album are probably Screams and She’s Beautiful as a Foot: the former is a slow one characterized by Bloom's filtered voice and excellent keyboard counterpoints in a Doors-like style by Allen Lanier; the latter is a piece with a catatonic mood in both vocals and musical accompaniment, surprisingly foreshadowing the traits of Sonic Youth and much of the grunge or related scene (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins), expressly indebted to BÖC. Cities on Flame with Rock’n’Roll is the track most influenced by the hard rock of the era (Black Sabbath) at least in the monolithic riff that supports the entire song. It is one of BÖC's signature tracks, repeatedly performed live in the following years, perhaps yielding more appreciable results than those achieved in the studio. The album continues with Workshop of Telescopes, where Bloom's almost theatrical singing is evident, ending with Reedemed, a track supported by acoustic guitars and characterized by relaxed tones not found in any of the previous tracks.
The album is recommended to 70s rock enthusiasts and those who wish to delve into the musical background of many punk, rock, and no wave bands that emerged in the New York area starting in the late 70s. Its score is high for its seminal character, although BÖC managed to surpass themselves in later works, which are more incisive both compositionally and executively. The artwork is suggestive, particularly the album cover.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Transmaniacon MC (03:20)
With satan's hog no pig at all, and the weather getting dry
We'll head south from altamont in a cold blooded travelled trance
So clear the road my bully boys and let some thunder pass
We're pain, we're steel, a plot of knives,
We're transmaniacon MC
Behind the pantry, behind the tree, the ghouls adopt that child
Whose name resounds forever, whose name resounds on terror
And I'm no fool to call that hog, cause man I remember
Those who did resign their souls
To transmaniacon MC
And surely we did offer up behind that stage at dawn
Beers and barracuda, reds and monocaine
Pure nectar of antipathy behind that stage at dawn
To those who would resign their souls
To transmaniacon MC
Cry the cable, cry the word, unknown terror's here
And won't you try this tasty snack, behind the scenes or but the back
Which was the stage at altamont, my humble boys of listless power:
We're pain, we're steel, a plot of knives
We're transmaniacon MC
02 I'm on the Lamb but I Ain't No Sheep (03:10)
Canadian mounted baby, a police force that works
Red and black, that's their color scheme
get their man, in the end
It's all right, it's all right.
Frontenac chateau baby
I'll cross the frontier at ten
Got a whip in my hand baby
And a girl or a husky at leather's end
It's all right, it's all right
My lovely bel punice, you'd kill and you'd maim
Hornswoop me bungo pony, dogsled on ice
Make a dash for freedom baby, don't skate on polar ice
It's to thick to be sliced by the light
Of long and white polar nights
It's all right, it's all right
My lovely bel punice, you'd kill and you'd maim
04 Stairway to the Stars (03:42)
You can have my autograph
I think I'll sign it love to you
But should I sign it just for you
Stairway to the stars, I think I'll write good health to you
Stairway to the stars, we got better things to do
You can drive my motorcar
It's insured to thirty thou
Kill them all if you wish
Stairway to the stars, I think I'll write good health to you
Stairway to the stars, we got better things to do
You can have my autograph
I think I'll sign it good health to you
Upon the cast, your broken arm
Stairway to the stars, I think I'll write good health to you
Stairway to the stars, I hope you heal up real quick
Stairway to the stars...
Come on, let's get on outa here.
05 Before the Kiss, a Redcap (04:56)
So grab your rose and ringside seat
We're back home at Conry�s Bar
The blond girl with her tattoo
Reds and wine, cokes of course
Oh my Susie, my Susie
Why did we ever start
It's morning now, you'd never know
The gin, the gin
Glows in the dark
Glows in the dark
And underneath the black light
Underneath it all
Four and forty redheads meet
Come to doom, doom the dawn
With threats of gas and rose motif
Their lips apart like swollen rose
Their tongues extend and then retract
A redcap, a redcap
Before the kiss
Before the kiss
Doors like flint and window panes
And endless shadow bar
The owner�s boys have gone to work
We'll stop big deals behind that bar
While outside on the turnpike
They got this new hit tune
Thrills become as cheap as gas
And gas as cheap as thrills
One threat and mundane here at last
Expect to cross once more
Lecherous, invisible
Beware the limping cat
Whose black teeth grip between loose jaws
Still ripe and fully bloomed
A rose and not from anywhere
That you would know or I would care
And the owners act most cheerfully
Back home at Conry�s Bar
When their patron�s thoughts at last
Grow too big for their skulls
Awful things are happening
We've let this drama fold
And now the time has come at last
To crush the motif of the rose
So grab your rose and ringside seat
We're back home at Conry�s Bar
The blond girl with her tattoo
Reds and wine, cokes of course
Oh my Susie, my Susie
Why did we ever start
It's morning now, you'd never know
The gin, the gin
Glows in the dark
Glows in the dark
07 She's as Beautiful as a Foot (02:56)
She's as beautiful as a foot
She's as beautiful as a foot
She heard somebody say, the other day
Didn't believe it when he bit into her face
Didn't believe it when he bit into her face
It tasted just like a fallen arch
She's as beautiful as a foot
She's as beautiful as a foot
She heard somebody say, the other day
Don't put your tongue on the bloody tooth mark place
Don't put your tongue on the bloody tooth mark place
Her face changing now, a guernsey cow
She's as beautiful, oh so beautiful, beautiful as a foot
She heard someone say, the other day
09 Workshop of the Telescopes (04:00)
By Silverfish Imperetrix whose incorrupted eye
Sees through the charms of doctors and their wives
By Salamander Drake and the power that was undine
Rise to claim Saturn, ring and sky
By those who see with their eyes closed
You’ll know me by my black telescope
Your green tree mantle from which these things derive
A lens of quartz and refract scope
That crystal lens whose crystal rope once
Bound me to those doctors and wives
When my vision was oh, so cloudy
And I saw things through two eyes
I am a sailor on the raging depths
And I know a thing or two
Back to the corner, mates, and over the side
Yes, I know a thing or two
By Silverfish Imperetrix whose incorrupted eye
Sees through the charms of doctors and their wives
By Salamander Drake and the power that was undine
Rise to claim Saturn, ring and sky
By those who see with their eyes closed
You’ll know me by my black telescope
Before my great conversion when the ridge was closed
Before my visit to the workshop of telescope
By Silverfish Imperetrix whose incorrupted eye
Sees through the charms of doctors and their wives
By Salamander Drake and the power that was undine
Rise to claim Saturn, ring and sky
By those who see with their eyes closed
You’ll know me by my
Black telescope
10 Redeemed (03:50)
Don't you give up my young, young friends
Here's a story I think will please
How Sir Rastus Bear was in fact redeemed
Redeemed from the cell to which he'd been thrown
By men whose love was more
For the ice and cold
Goblins of surcease, villians of wise
They pranced his brain on through the long, long night
Sir Rastus Bear who'd ever believe
You'd be by a song
Redeemed
Up on the north forty
I'm sure it was Christmas day
When Sir Rastus Bear taught children how to play
Games of life and love
And songs, oh those songs
Oh those deep but true
Hill country songs
Goblins of surcease, villians of wise
They pranced his brain on through the long, long night
Sir Rastus Bear who'd ever believe
You'd be by a song
Redeemed
Redeemed good lord, from the ice and cold
Redeemed from the cell to which I've been thrown
Redeemed by virtue of a country song
And I believe good Lord, it won't be long
won't be long
It won't be
won't be long-long-long-long-long-long-long-long-
long-long-long-long-long-long-long-long-long-long
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By fateswarning
"The cover... gave a sense of unease and attraction difficult to describe."
"Bullets are not enough to kill music, good music, the one made with blood, spit, soul, heart, lived day by day, pain for pain, joy for joy, and perceived as a religious faith."
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The music was hard, the lyrics cryptic, and the attitude was that of intellectual bikers who, with songs never heard before, could literally drive you crazy.
At that time, it was the flag of the new American Heavy Metal.
