Come on. “Subhuman,” “Astronomy,” “Seven Screaming Diz-Busters”. . . were these songs anything other than very weird jokes?
Come to think of it, are there even any, er, BOC fans around here. . .?
I’ve been a big fan since I first heard *Don’t Fear the Reaper * on the radio in the seventies, and bought *Secret Treaties * on vinyl. And I have to agree with you - most of those lyrics make no sense. A few themes seem to cross over from one song to another (“Destinova”, “Luxor”, things like that), but for the most part they sound like drug-induced ramblings. Good music, though.
So I’m watching VH-! classics and they are playing this wierd video that seems to be for a song called Joan Crawford has Risen from the Grave. It was a BOC song.
Now that’s a great lyric.
I also started listening to BOC back in the vinyl days. I always figured the lyrics were meant to have sound more than meaning, in a kind of synesthetic soup. Good drugs also seasoned the experience quite often, I seem to recall. I kept really enjoying their stuff through the mid-80s but then got too involved with a different life path and needed different music. I’m going to get some CDs now.
Warmest of regards,
oldbat.
You’re boned
Like a saint
With the consciousness
of a snake
No more horses courses
We’re gonna swim like a fish
from what I remember of Vera Gemini
It’s a good time to get them again on CD, old bat. Everything up to Agents of Fortune, I think, is currently remastered with bonus tracks. The refurbished Secret Treaties is especially good.
Don’t know why they haven’t proceeded to Spectres, though. Ian Anderson’s re-issuing jag of Jethro Tull’s back catalogue has lasted well into their crappy- er, sorry, less than classic period.
Just got back from rereading some of the lyrics from the first four albums. Yup. They don’t make any sense.
Maybe it was fun. I saw them live once and they certainly looked happy.
oldbat
According to this BOC FAQ , most of the group’s early songs were part of a science fiction rock opera, meant to be released as a trilogy of albums, which ultimately materialized as the 1988 release “Imaginos”. It tells the story of a 19th century man who gains immortality and other powers from aliens who use him to trigger World War I, and drew heavily on HP Lovecraft and similar sources.
Oh yeah, one checking in here, big time - got (or had) everything they ever released. Seeing them live in Sf a few years ago was one of the highlights of my life.
I love the ambiguities and mythological references in those early Pearlman songs. The only rock band that got me looking up a dictionary (“Undine”).
BTW, LeRoi Lezard, it’s “Desdemona”.
Yehh, I’m familiar with the whole Imaginos trip. Which is actually a neat concept. . . but gibberish is gibberish.
It’s a good thing these guys were making great music from the beginning.
And, not really that early, but off Cultusaurus Erectus, Black Blade was based on the “Eric of Melnibone” series of fantasy books by Michael Moorcock (who actually was a quasi-member of Hawkwind if memory serves)… and if you listened to much Hawkwind, it probably affected your memory :>
sorry Duh, not Eric… Elric
Yeah, the Moorcock ones are great. “Great Sun Jester,” “Black Blade,” “Veteran of the Psychic Wars”. . . when Eric Bloom or Buck Dharma collaborate, they usually do it with a great writer. John Shirley, too, “The Golden Age of Leather.” Probably my favorite BOC lyric.
Yup, that’s a song called “Joan Crawford”, which also has a verse that goes:
Junkies down in Brooklyn are going crazy
They’re laughing just like hungry dogs in the street
Policemen are hiding behind the skirts of little girls
Their eyes have turned the color of frozen meat
I love BOC songs for their sharp and unusual imagery. You can play connect-the-dots and get all sorts of weird storylines. The ones that I tend to like best are the strangest ones, with glimpses of a fairly consistent mythology behind them and vivid twists of phrase.
Astronomy:
Clock strikes twelve and moondrops burst
Out at you from their hiding place
Like acid and oil on a madman’s face
His reason tends to fly away
I had a cat that was named Moondrop because he’d burst out at you from his hiding place. My girlfriend named him 
Actually, we’re both wrong - it’s “Desdinova”
I have very fond memories of BOC. I recall a specific day, over 20 years ago, of skiing while blasting “Agents of Fortune” on my Astraltune (before “Walkman” was even a concept). I can “relive” certain moments when things trigger the memory, whether it be the snow conditions, the location (I still ski the same place) or any BOC tune off that album.
I didn’t know what the hell they were getting at, but I enjoyed it anyway.
I’ve got a fever…
Cowbell anyone?
I steal your emerald hornet toe.
I’d like to do it to your daughter on a dirt road.
The above lyrics were by Patti Smith, but:
She’s as beautiful as a foot,
When I bit into her face
It tasted just like a fallen arch
WTF??? Just… blechh.
(BTW, Secret Treaties is, in my opinion, one of the best rock albums ever made.)
I can’t believe Bruce Dickinson digs our sound.