“ And the madness they have driven out
They've left him cold and sane.”Mirrors (1979)
Band members
Eric Bloom - stun guitar, vocals
Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser - lead guitar, vocals
Allen Lanier - keyboards, guitar
Joe Bouchard - bass, vocals
Albert Bouchard - drums, vocals
Additional musicians
Mickey Raphael - harmonica on "Dr. Music"
Jai Winding - strings on "In Thee"
Ellen Foley, Genya Ravan, Wendy Webb - background vocals
Production
Tom Werman - producer
Gary Ladinsky - engineer, mixing
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Dr. Music 3:10
The Great Sun Jester 4:48
In Thee 3:48
Mirrors 3:44
Moon Crazy 4:06
The Vigil 6:25
I Am the Storm 3:42
You're Not the One (I Was Looking For) 3:14
Lonely Teardrops 3:37
Total length: 36:34
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The distance between the band and Pearlman had reached a new level at this point. If they felt resentment at being forced to put out a live album and chagrin that it actually worked is up for speculation. One thing for certain, based on interviews, they all felt they’d become a lower priority for Sandy since the success of The Clash and Pearlman’s subsequent focus on that project…among others. The goal this time around was to write and produce a pop record: one that would give them greater wealth and more freedom for the future. Pearlman has gone on record as being against the idea because their greatest success had always come when they weren’t really catering to the whims of fashion and only when they were just themselves.
So they hired Tom Werman, a producer who had lead Ted Nugent, Cheap Trick and Molly Hatchet to radio success and would later achieve even greater success with other bands. Werman insisted on precision, driving rhythms, layered keyboards and crystal clear recordings. He wasn’t fond of Eric’s voice and was completely enamored with Buck’s, thus, Buck wound up with four lead vocals to Eric’s three: A first for a BÖC record. Eric was also deemed a subpar musician so all of his guitar parts were performed by Buck as well. You can imagine how Eric felt about this project.
Albert Bouchard was against the whole idea behind this record but got voted out. Albert had been the primary music writer through the band’s history but wound up only contributing one song to this record and as you will see it was a petulant, passive-aggressive attempt to sabotage the record and poke fun at Werman.
They left the comfort of their New York home base and went out to the California to work at the Record Plant in Los Angeles.
WARNING: If you’ve never heard this album and are listening for the first time to follow this thread,
EARWORMS ARE CONTAINED WITHIN!------------------------
We start off with
Dr. Music a swaggering hard rocker--if a bit pedestrian--written by Joe to a Meltzer lyric sprinkled with deviant sexual innuendo. The female backup vocals give this song a (unintentional?) comical feel. Even though the song is obviously crafted for radio it doesn’t really feel out of place in the BÖC discography. It turned out to be a better than decent concert tune.
Next up is very interesting song written by Eric and John Trivers to a lyric by Michael Moorcock. Now if you’re a fan of fantasy/science fiction literature (or even Dungeons and Dragons) you probably know who Moorcock is. Eric had written a fan letter to Moorcock telling him how much his books had effected him over the years. Moorcock wrote back saying he was a big fan of BÖC and would be interested in meeting him for dinner the next time he was in New York. The two met and developed a friendship that resulted in Eric being provided the lyric for
The Great Sun Jester and additional lyrics for the next two albums. This song is a great addition to the BÖC canon! Even though it’s light on edginess the tune has a nice mini-epic, story-telling feel that really captures the outer space mysticism that is such an integral part of the band’s vibe.
The only single from the album,
In Thee is a light, sappy, radio-friendly lament with an obvious Beach Boys sound. Buck’s layered vocal harmonies croon this tune by Allen Lanier that is heartbreaking when you realize it was written about his breakup with Patti Smith. The only electric guitar is an unthreatening western Telecasterish whine. Mrs. Podaar absolutely hates the use of the word ‘thee’ in the lyrics and will roll her eyes every time I play it.
The title song
Mirrors is a social commentary on women’s image as provided them by popular media: A relevant subject still today. Much like the first song on the album the song tries to walk a tightrope between hard rock and melodic pop. It’s very hard to take it seriously and whatever may have been intended as such just comes off as snide. There is some great guitar work by Buck but the rest of the band’s contribution is unremarkable. The backup chorus is
very hard to get out of your head once you’ve heard it a few times.
Finishing off side one is a tune that I seriously hope Donald Fagen has never heard.
Moon Crazy is a Joe Bouchard song that is so derivative of Steely Dan that it’s practically a parity. It does have a nice instrumental bridge that features a solid Buck lead solo. It wraps up with a boogie guitar section that seems out of place with the rest of the tune.
The Vigil is more of a traditional BÖC composition. It comes off as a prayer to an alien race to come save earth from our own folly. The music was originally written to go with a Patti Smith poem that was deemed too harsh for the goals of a pop album. Buck’s wife Sandra ended up writing the lyrics that made it on the record. There are a couple of gorgeous bluesy moments when the song isn’t trotting, effectively I might add, through the verses. This is probably the most interesting performance on the record by the rhythm section. Albert and Joe do some great work and the production really allows you to hear the bass well.
The second track on side two is a heavy rocker
I Am The Storm provided by Joe to a lyric written by the band’s roadie Ronald Binder. I don’t imagine there are a lot of other bands that would give writing credits to a roadie! This is a excellent song with a lot of attitude that’s been missing from the album so far and following
The Vigil provides the best extended moment on the album.
Okay, if you’ve never heard the next song
You’re Not the One (I Was Looking For) I’d like you to pause the album and by any means available play
Just What I Needed by The Cars. When it’s finished, return to Mirrors and now hit play.
Albert had been listening to The Cars but none of the other band members or Werman had heard them. In a snide attempt to make fun of Tom Werman, he took their catchy tune, barely rearranged it, and had his wife (another stab at the current band dynamic) write some lyrics to say the exact opposite of The Cars song. Get it? You’re not the one I was looking for. After they rehearsed and recorded it, everyone liked it, much to Albert’s surprise. He figured they’d trash it and use a different song. So, he decided to tell them where he got the song from. Their only response was that since it wasn’t exactly like it they would keep it. That left him in the awful position of begging them not to use the song but it was left on anyway. When
Just What I Needed became a smash hit they were all a bit pissed with Albert.
There you go; a goofy and tawdry slice of BÖC history.
The album wraps up with a really cool Lanier tune titled
Lonely Teardrops. Allen’s past contributions had been typically kind of poppy anyway but this time the writing is frosty and sincere: Almost urgent. For once the female backup vocals are used to great effect giving a haunting contrast to Buck’s smooth vocals. To my mind, this is the best pop song on the record because it does it effortlessly.
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The album charted number 44 in 1979 on the Billboard 200. “In Thee” charted at 74 in 1979 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Mirrors didn’t chart for very long and if memory serves it barely reached 300,000 units sold. Not only did it
not bring them legions of adoring new fans, as they’d hoped, it pretty well alienated many of their longtime loyal fans.
I’m sure I heard this album not long after release. I had a friend who would buy anything BÖC regardless and I’m positive he played it for me. But, when it came to music, I was in a different headspace in 1979 and Blue Öyster Cult wasn’t doing it for me anymore. I craved heavy tunes and my precious music budget couldn’t be bothered to buy Mirrors.
Not long ago, KevShmev encouraged me to check out
Heaven Forbid which I did and promptly bought. Afterward, I decided to go back through the band’s recordings to see if there were any other gems I may be missing. That’s when I bought
Mirrors. I found my modern tastes were more in line with this record and I thought the sound of the recording was very headphone friendly. Just for
The Great Sun Jester,
The Vigil, and
I Am The Storm the price of the download is well worth it. Add in that I dig (about) every other song and you have what I consider a very enjoyable middle tier BÖC album.
I’m glad I discovered it.
Topic: Blue Öyster Cult Discography: Curse of the Hidden Mirror (Read 43806 times)
