Blue Öyster Cult

Blue Öyster Cult was one of my very first “favorite” bands. I was on the high-school swim team with my brother, and he had Spectres on 8-track. We used to crank “Godzilla” in the locker room and on the bus to away meets—it was like a battle cry, and one of the only things you could play in a car or bus back then. By the time I finally got to see them live, I was beyond stoked.

Fire of Unknown Origin Tour — The Spectrum, 1981

The September 10, 1981 Spectrum show—featuring Blue Öyster Cult, Foghat, and Whitford-St. Holmes—was a legendary hard-rock night. It was famous for its laser-filled BÖC set and even an impromptu jam on “Ain’t Got You” with Foghat. For me, it turned out to be one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen.

It started with scoring incredible 12th-row seats. In the weeks before the show, my girlfriend painted a huge banner with the Fire of Unknown Origin album cover, so we were fired up. That night there was another major event at JFK, which made getting to the Spectrum almost impossible. Instead of arriving early to hang out in the parking lot, we got there just after Whitford-St. Holmes had taken the stage—but the adrenaline was already flowing.

We went with some friends and my older brother, a die-hard Foghat fan who owned Foghat Live (1977) on 8-track. We knew that tape note for note. He was ahead of his time when it came to car stereos, building one of the first in-car 8-track systems with oversized speakers. We’d replay “Slow Ride” over and over, cranking it loud while we practiced driving fast.

So it was surreal to hear another 18,000 people singing right along with us.

Foghat Setlist
Stone Blue
My Babe (The Righteous Brothers cover)
Eight Days on the Road (Howard Tate cover)
Wide Boy
Fool for the City
Honey Hush (Big Joe Turner cover)
Third Time Lucky (First Time I Was a Fool)
Live Now Pay Later
Slow Ride
I Just Want to Make Love to You (Willie Dixon cover)

By then, the crowd was completely amped for BÖC. The entire floor section was standing on their seats, chanting for them to come out. We were holding our banner so high we couldn’t see a thing. When the spotlights hit us, my brother instinctively bit a hole in the sheet—never letting go of his edge—so my girlfriend could stick her head through. The whole Spectrum went wild.

That show changed my life. It was one of the first full-scale arena productions I’d ever experienced. Buck Dharma became one of my favorite guitarists and has remained so to this day. Dressed in a gold, spacesuit-like outfit, he could just stand there smiling at the audience while shredding in a way I’d never seen—or heard—before. Eric Bloom told spooky stories between songs—at one point joking about signing a deal with the devil, pulling out a knife, and pretending to slice his hand as blood “sprayed” everywhere. Another tale led into “Godzilla,” about walking home alone after getting “too high” and hearing heavy footsteps closing in. As the drums thundered, the stage filled with smoke and a forty-foot mechanical Godzilla loomed behind the band, its eyes blazing. Albert Bouchard wore a Godzilla mask during his drum solos. It was wild. Everything felt larger than life.

Before the encore of “Born to Be Wild,” you could hear what sounded like a Harley revving its engine. Sure enough a Harley drives on stage with a girl on the back brandishing large topless breasts. She gets off the bike, runs to the front of the stage with her breasts flopping about, and then runs off. The crowd went insane. It was every teenager’s rock-and-roll fantasy come to life.

Cameras weren’t allowed, but I managed to sneak in a little pocket Kodak and rig it so I could hold the shutter open longer, since I couldn’t use a flash. There is also a scan of the back of my ticket with my original hand written notes.

Photo Gallery

Setlist

Dr. Music
E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)
Hot Rails to Hell
Cities on Flame With Rock and Roll
Joan Crawford
Burnin' for You
7 Screaming Diz-Busters
Veteran of the Psychic Wars
ME 262
Godzilla

Born to Be Wild (Steppenwolf / Mars Bonfire cover)
(Don't Fear) The Reaper
Roadhouse Blues (The Doors cover)

BÖC and the Music Business

Over the years, I would come into contact with BÖC a few more times. One of the more notable occasions took place at what was then the 23 East Cabaret in Ardmore, PA, where I saw the Cult Brothers perform on November 12, 1988. I stayed after the show and hung out with them to talk about the music business. The Bouchard brothers are not only another fascinating example of a “brother band” like The Kinks, but also a textbook case of how the music business can go wrong.

The Bouchard brothers—Albert (drums) and Joe (bass)—were founding members of Blue Öyster Cult (BÖC) and primary songwriters during the band’s peak years. Their relationship with the band changed dramatically after they left in 1981 and 1986, respectively, due to disputes over creative direction and financial structures.

Ownership of the Band Name
The Bouchard brothers do not own the Blue Öyster Cult name.

• Origin: The name was created by the band’s manager and producer, Sandy Pearlman, based on his Imaginos poetry.
• Legal standing: After their departures, the rights to the name remained with the band’s ongoing entity, primarily controlled by long-time members Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser and Eric Bloom.
• Conflicts: After leaving, Joe and Albert performed as the Bouchard Brothers and later as the Cult Brothers, which reportedly led to legal pressure and threats of lawsuits from the main band to protect the BÖC trademark.

Ownership of Songs and Royalties
Although they are credited as songwriters on many of the band’s classics, their financial stake was shaped by early business decisions.

• Songwriting credits: Albert and Joe wrote or co-wrote staples such as “Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll,” “Astronomy,” and “Hot Rails to Hell.”
• Rejected sharing plan: Albert once proposed that the band share all songwriting credits equally so everyone would receive a more even income. The other members rejected the idea, leaving royalties tied only to individual contributions.
• Sale of rights: The band later sold its publishing and master rights to Columbia Records (now part of Sony Music), meaning the members receive relatively little income from the back catalog and mainly earn money through touring and new projects.
• The Imaginos dispute: Albert’s solo concept album Imaginos was taken over by the label and released in 1988 under the Blue Öyster Cult name without his creative control. His lead vocals were removed, and he has since re-recorded the material independently as the Re-Imaginos trilogy.

Today, the brothers perform together as The Bouchard Brothers and in the trio Blue Coupe (with Dennis Dunaway of Alice Cooper). Albert also recently joined a reunited version of The Dictators, which released a new album in late 2024.

Cult Brothers’ Setlists — 23 East Cabaret, Ardmore, PA (November 12, 1988)

BÖC and the Music Business — Part II

The next major music-business lesson for me came about a decade later. Ever since BÖC sold their publishing, Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser and Eric Bloom have toured almost nonstop, since it is now their primary source of income. Eric Bloom is in his 80s. Buck Dharma is in his late 70s. In both 2024 and 2025, they performed more than 70 shows per year.

In the mid-to-late 1990s, I got a call from a partner at a record company. He had just spoken with BÖC’s manager and learned that the band was playing an unannounced show at a small club in Delaware County. I said, “Sure, let’s go.” By that point in both my management and performance career, I had become very aware of the physical toll that constant practice and touring takes. I knew drummers who could no longer play because of repetitive-motion injuries, and guitarists dealing with the same problems, along with chronic back pain from wearing heavy instruments. As a multi-instrumentalist who played for hours every day, I was already thinking about long-term career sustainability. Heavy guitars were a real concern for me.

That night, several things about Buck immediately stood out. First, despite decades of nonstop touring, he still looked great. He’s also a small guy physically, which made me wonder how his frame had held up under all those years of touring. Then I saw the guitar he was playing, and my jaw dropped. It looked like Swiss cheese—and it didn’t even have tuning pegs.

Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser’s famous Swiss-cheese guitar is a custom Steinberger GM7 that he affectionately calls the “Cheeseberger.” It has several unique characteristics:

• Headless design: Like all Steinberger guitars, it has no headstock. The tuning knobs are located at the bridge rather than at the end of the neck.
• Swiss-cheese body: The body features multiple circular cutouts, giving it the look of Swiss cheese. Roeser originally requested this as a joke when Steinberger production moved to Nashville in the late 1980s, but it became one of his main live instruments.
• Custom build: It is a one-of-a-kind guitar with a white finish, holes drilled through the body, and a TransTrem transposing vibrato system that allows the guitar to shift keys while staying in tune.

Roeser has used the “Cheeseberger” extensively for more than 30 years and continues to play it live.

That night along Route 1, the band played so long that I couldn’t even stay awake long enough to hang out afterward. The next day I called my partner to ask how things went. He confirmed they kept playing late into the night, and when he finally sat down with them, they were relaxed, cordial, and genuinely interested in talking business.