“Your boned like a saint, with the consciousness of a snake.”Agents of Fortune (1976)
Band members
Eric Bloom – vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion
Albert Bouchard – drums, vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion, harmonica
Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser – guitar, vocals, synthesizer, percussion
Joe Bouchard – bass, vocals, piano
Allen Lanier – keyboards, vocals, guitar, bass
Additional musicians
Patti Smith – vocals on "The Revenge of Vera Gemini"
Randy Brecker – horns
Michael Brecker – horns
David Lucas – vocals, keyboards, percussion
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This Ain't the Summer of Love 2:21
True Confessions 2:57
(Don't Fear) The Reaper 5:08
E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) 3:43
The Revenge of Vera Gemini 3:52
Sinful Love 3:29
Tattoo Vampire 2:41
Morning Final 4:30
Tenderloin 3:40
Debbie Denise 4:13
Total length: 36:35
2001 CD reissue bonus tracks
Fire of Unknown Origin (original version) 3:30
Sally (demo version) 2:40
(Don't Fear) The Reaper (demo version) 6:20
Dance the Night Away (demo version) 2:37
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With more time on their hands and some cash in their pockets everyone in the band purchased four or eight track recorder that they could demo their song ideas on. Even though individual credits had been doled out on previous albums all the members agreed that songs were largely a group effort and credit was given only to the originators. Up until recently the band had mostly lived together in a ‘band house’. They rehearsed there, partied there, and wrote their songs together there. But now, with the influx of girl friends and wives they were starting to spread out. Still, the band attracted an ever increasing circle of friends, poets and assorted intellectuals. The collaborative spirit was still intact. For now.
Driving the recording of a new album was a desire to get a higher fidelity studio recording with all the (cow?) bells and whistles, plenty of overdubs and layers they previously hadn’t had access to or could afford. The CBS/Columbia studios were deemed unfit so they moved into The Record Plant armed with demos from each of the song writers.
Pearlman, and Krugman were still at the producer helm but the band was pushing back on their vision somewhat. They were more willing to advocate for their own songs, lyrics and ideas and the producers relented some. Since David Lucas was more receptive to the bands ideas they leaned on him the most for production and engineering, ushering in a new era for the band.
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Out of the gate is the curiously simple and short metal anthem
This Ain’t the Summer of Love. Obviously a statement piece announcing that flower power is dead and the hippie generation is over. The lyric was provided by a friend of Krugman’s one Don Waller but Murray didn’t like it in its original state and sliced it up. Albert put it to music and an uncharacteristically abrasive distortion was selected for the guitars. It’s a decent opening piece with a catchy chorus and nice harmonies. Not the greatest or most original of guitar solos by Buck though.
So the summer of love is gone, now we go back to the early ‘60’s for an R&B piano and drums piece? WTF?
True Confessions is a faithfully executed pop tune by Allen Lanier in the tradition of Chubby Checkers. About the only thing that recommends it an awesome sax solo by Randy Brecker.
There isn’t much reason for me to describe
(Don’t Fear) The Reaper but I would like to point out that Buck has vehemently denied the song is an endorsement of suicide pacts and would be horrified to think someone would ever use it as justification for such. I don’t doubt that is true but given BÖC’s historical ‘pleasure from fear’ modus operandi, and Buck’s intelligence, I do think it’s unlikely that he didn’t expect the song to be misconstrued. Just listen to the bridge section with its doom laden vibe that conjures images of menacing shadows and approaching death. That part wouldn’t be out of place on any of the earlier Opeth albums. A triumph of song writing and a true rock classic that probably still provides the band with monthly royalty checks as well as nightmares of trying to reach its level of success.
E.T.I. is classic Cult at it’s finest. Heavy, catchy, spooky and delivered with a menacing bravado that is tailor made for their live shows. This is the second Buck written tune in a row and the only one from this album using a Pearlman lyric. A tale of aliens, abductions and men in black (long before a movie was ever imagined) it’s predictably suitable for the whole Imaginos saga. For those who’ve seen the HBO series
True Detective you may understand the brand new chill I recently got from this song during, “The King in yellow, Queen in red” from the second verse. *shudder*
Speaking of chills, holy shit, the first time I heard the intro to
The Revenge of Vera Gemini I nearly pissed my britches. Not only are words disturbingly compelling but Patti Smith’s delivery and the way the recording is so…in your ear…it’s startling. Memorable. This is another fantastic pairing of Patti and Albert. His music and voice is very fitting for her poetry and adds a predatory layer I don’t believe she intended. I like the way the bass has this expansive effect that calls to mind a soundtrack from a spaghetti western or something. The atmospheric keyboards are layered nicely and paint a fine background canvas for Patti’s vocal duet with Albert. Not always, but at times this is my favorite song from the album.
Side two starts with
Sinful Love another Albert song but this time written to go along with a Helen Robbins lyric. Helen (a.k.a. Helen Wheels) had been hanging with the band for years, designing and sewing costumes and at some point in the early ‘70s was Albert’s girlfriend. She was something of a poet herself and actually wrote
Sinful Love about her unhealthy fascination with Patti Smith. The song is kind of a jumpy rocker that Albert says never turned out to be as heavy as he intended. Buck busts out a nice, plucky guitar solo in the middle. I find the backing vocals a little grating and out of place. It’s a catchy little tune but could have been much better.
Tattoo Vampire starts out with a palm-muted scratching that heralds the most metal song on the record. Another Helen/Albert collaboration but this time with a terrific vocal by Eric. I think this is a fun song but pretty pared-down and perhaps a little too comical. It is trademark BÖC humor but without enough pyrotechnics to make it truly interesting.
Joe’s contribution to the album is
Morning Final with his typical lyrics about the horrors of New York City and the subways (see also
Hot Rails to Hell). For good measure he sings about a murder victim that may or may not be a reference to a friend of the band who was shot dead a few years earlier. The music is a macabre sort of keyboard driven piece with a nice guitar intro that never really comes back around so the guitar solo in the bridge seems a bit misplaced.
Tenderloin is a really cool Allen Lanier tune sung terrifically by Eric. It’s a smooth jazzy number with some intriguing instrumentation both by keyboards and guitar. The bass plods along interestingly while the sparse drums give the rhythm section a disjointed feeling. There’s no heaviness here but it still feels like an appropriate addition to the spooky BÖC canon. To me the song can be seen as a caustic condemnation of the whole hippie scene of the sixties and the destructive realities of the drug culture and free love.
Lastly we have probably the weakest album closer in BÖC’s catalog
Debbie Denise. I don’t know what to say! The music and vocals are just…not very good to my ears. I get the feeling the Patti Smith lyrics deserved a much better treatment. She seems to be lamenting having ill-used a loved one. A very rare Albert train-wreck that may have actually been a deliberate swipe at pop ballads.(?) Listen to the very end as it fades out…are the background ‘la-la-la-la’s intentionally snide or are they just bad? If it is intentional, as a fan that spent good money I feel a bit cheated.
Okay, it’s a little funny.
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I heard
The Reaper on the radio just prior to getting out of school for the summer of ’76 and was blown away. I remember calling the DJ a couple of dozen times before I could get through to ask who it was. About 10 minutes later he came on the air and told people to stop calling: He would play the new song by Blue Öyster Cult again!
I was still obsessed with
2112 that I’d picked up just a month before and I wouldn’t start my summer job for a few weeks yet. So a combination of necessity (I was saving money for a car) and contentment kept me from buying AoF until later that summer when I picked up
Rocks,
Boston (I hadn’t heard Boston and only grabbed it on the recommendation of the record-store clerk) and
Rainbow Rising at the same time. Ah, what a time for music!
The album cover freaked the hell out of me and some of the songs confused my fledgling musical tastes so Agents of Fortune didn’t really sink in with me until I saw the band live that same winter. Holy shit, the laser show was the coolest thing ever and the music was liquid energy. I went back and picked up the ‘black and white’ era albums and really loved them even more. Agents isn’t a bad album and it certainly has some certifiable classics but it’s not my favorite for sure. I definitely rate the self-titled and Secret Treaties much higher. Some yet to come, even higher still.
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Agents of Fortune peaked on the Billboard album 200 at 29, was number 26 in the UK and 28 in Canada. The album was certified Gold in Canada in 1977 and Platinum in the U.S. in 1978. The single (Don't Fear) The Reaper was number 12 on the Billboard 100 and number 7 on the RPM 100 in Canada in 1976. Strangely the single didn't chart in the UK until 1978 where it reached number 16.
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Topic: Blue Öyster Cult Discography: Curse of the Hidden Mirror (Read 43805 times)
