Blue Öyster Cult - On Your Feet Or On Your Knees [24]

Title: Blue Öyster Cult - On Your Feet Or On Your Knees
Year/Genre/Sub-Genre/City: 1975, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Stony Brook, New York 10/26
Matrix #: PG 33371 (Columbia, US, 2LP gatefold, custom book label); runout not legible in photo
Condition: EX (LM) | Members: Eric B (44' - ), Donald R (47' - ), Allen L (46' - 13'), Joe B (48' - ), Albert B (47' - ) | Producer: Murray Krugman, Sandy Pearlman
Cultural Facts: [24]

1. The Roadie Became the Singer: Eric Bloom did not join as a frontman. The band had met him at the Sam Ash Music store in Hempstead, Long Island, and he was working as their road manager and sound man when they dropped original singer Les Braunstein and handed Bloom the microphone instead. The same years produced the name Buck Dharma, one of a batch of stage names manager Sandy Pearlman invented for the members, and the only one anybody kept.
2. A Swingers' Party Gig: Joe Bouchard was studying music at Ithaca College when his brother Albert called him to replace a fired bassist, and he found a band so broke he started booking gigs just to buy food. One of those jobs was a swingers' party at a summer camp closed for the season, where a guest named David Lucas liked them enough to offer his 8-track jingle studio for demos. Those demos got them an audition for Columbia president Clive Davis in a small conference room in the CBS building, and he signed them.
3. Gold Paid for the Reaper: Pearlman pushed Columbia to put out this double live set because critics and DJs kept raving about the shows more than the studio records. It reached No. 22 and went gold, and the money let the members buy home recording gear to demo songs for the next record. That next record was Agents of Fortune, home of (Don't Fear) The Reaper.