UAWIL #285: Blue Oyster Cult - Agents of Fortune

About this episode

This episode explores Blue Oyster Cult's album 'Agents of Fortune' and its impact on their career and music style.

Blue Oyster Cult translated their fan favorite live act into platinum with the 1975 live album On Your Feet Or On Your Knees. It not only gave the guys confidence going into recording Agents of Fortune but it gave each of them the funds to buy synthesizers that would allow all of them to write songs individually and bring more polished songs into the studio. The result was an eclectic mix of styles - hard rock riffs (This Ain't The Summer of Love), 50s piano laments (True Confessions), lilting confessionals (Debbie Denise) and an eternal hard rock anthem in (Don't Fear) The Reaper. Reaper would sell more than 6 million copies as a single and help propel Agents of Fortune to platinum. But it also gave them the financial leverage to upgrade their stage show as now they were headliners. Thanks to Reaper, their patented laser (which Buck admitted they should have leased and not bought) would make it's debut and receive warnings from the government about injuring fans eyes at concerts. It was a total gamechanger which allows them to continue to tour the world to this day. It was a song that made you wonder "If they can write that one, there must be more like it on the album, right?"…

People in this episode

Host: Mac B.

Topics covered

• Blue Oyster Cult
• Agents of Fortune
• music history
• album analysis
• hard rock

Keywords

• Blue Oyster Cult
• Agents of Fortune
• Don't Fear The Reaper
• music analysis
• 1975 album

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Blue Oyster Cult

Books & works: Agents of Fortune, On Your Feet Or On Your Knees, (Don't Fear) The Reaper

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