The Vinyl of the Day is ‘On Your Feet Or On Your Knees’ by Blue Oyster Cult, 1975. The first live album by BOC, each of the band’s first three studio albums is represented by three songs each, two other songs are covers (“I Ain’t Got You”, albeit with modified lyrics, and “Born to Be Wild”), and one (“Buck’s Boogie”) is an original instrumental that remains a staple of the band’s live shows to this day. The songs really illustrate BOC’s early days of harder rock, before their shift to a more ‘radio-friendly’ style. They had slowly been building a devoted concert following in the early ’70s, but had far less success with their studio efforts. Both 1972’s ‘Blue Oyster Cult’ and 1973’s ‘Tyranny and Mutation’ had struggled to even break into the Billboard Top 200, peaking at No. 172 and 122, respectively. ‘On Your Feet or on Your Knees’ finally did the trick by playing up the band’s road skills - in fact, the success of this concert recording led to a wholesale re-evaluation of those first three studio projects, which are now deemed classics. Blue Oyster Cult’s idiosyncratic brand of hard rock, distinguished by its cryptic lyrics and provocative imagery to match, had begun to make sense, and ‘On Your Feet’ hit No. 22 on the Billboard 200, making it the band’s highest charting album in the U.S.
Prior to their more commercial success these live recordings display the raw animal, rough hewn, bare bones assault attack of a band unleashing itself upon the world and laying claim to being one of the greatest live acts of their time. From the opening strains of "The Subhuman", to "ME 262", "A Redcap(Before the Kiss)", and the complex psychedelia of "Seven Screaming Diz-Busters”, all illustrate the bands fervor, musical dexterity, and a solid metal punch. Also included are the serpentine riffs of "Cities On Flames with Rock and Roll", "The Red and The Black", and "Harvester of Eyes", staples for years to come. This is music for parts of a teenagers body that were aching in new ways difficult to describe, but understood by all. This is music to torture your parents. The message of The Blue Oyster Cult was screaming from your stereo speakers: "Submit & Worship!" and it was a FUN message.
And even if their music isn’t quite your ‘thing’, you should listen to hear the playing of Donald "Buck Dharma” Roeser, one of the great overlooked guitarists of the 70s, especially on the show-stopping instrumental “Buck’s Boogie”. Feather your hair, put on your puka shells, hop in your Firebird, and play it loud!
Blue Öyster Cult, 'On Your Feet or On Your Knees' (1975) — Rolling Stone Review
This is one of the ultimate live albums. A significant amount of these songs are from Blue Öyster Cult's album Secret Treaties. It has some of their earlier hits like "Cities on Flame" and some of the deeper cuts like "The Red and the Black" and a ballad that was part of the blueprint of great hard-rock ballads in the Seventies called "Last Days of May." There's a density to this record and a consistency.
All the dudes in the band sang; I think the drummer sang "Cities on Flame." And they had a song where all five members played guitars, "ME 262." There's a picture of all five of them playing guitar next to each other. It was like the ultimate guitar solo [laughs]. I guess there were two guitar players, then the drummer came out and played.
Blue Öyster Cult also had that New York connection: downtown intellectual, part of the New York, CBGBs scene. Patti Smith had a relationship with the keyboard played, Allen [Lanier]. They were sort of part of that New York intellectual scene that Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground came from. This is a little more thought out and little bit smarter compared to the sort of neanderthal approach that some other rock bands had at the time. It has a finesse to it.