St Cecelia: The Elektra Recordings [Limited Edition]

Stalk-Forrest Group | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 4, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Limited Edition
• Label: Rhino Handmade
• ASIN: B0000DJZ8F
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #289,591 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A found "holy grail"...., November 3, 2004

By 

Barry P. Saranchuk (Moosic, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: St Cecelia: The Elektra Recordings (Audio CD)

Way back in the dim distant past....Creem was a good rock mag,and one of the things that reviewers in that magazine and era used to do was flaunt that they had heard certain "holy grail" LPs.This was one of 'em!

"St. Cecilia" is named after the right track,it's the best of the songs here(it's written about the Saint of music herself),other than "Arthur Comics".

This is the early ,literary ,1950's "Beat"-like version of what Blue Oyster Cult might have been if they never evolved into the cryptic-cult-biker-mavens they became. It's not much like what BOC fans are used to. But just to hear this long rumored set of recordings is like opening that "grail", to the true BOC fanatic!

Buck Dharma's guitar shines through on St.Cecilia(the title track),and there are lots of lyrics here that are cryptic,but unlike later BOC they do get a bit goofy at times.

This is one for the real "Cult O-Phile". No beginners should delve in at this point,or you just might drown in this swirling pool of weird lyrics and 1960's avant-garde rock.

A godsend to completest fans,confusion to "newby's".

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars On A Par With BOC's Best, December 12, 2004

By 

Sensitive Male Indie-Rock Fan (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: St Cecelia: The Elektra Recordings (Audio CD)

Ahem. I feel compelled to preface my comments by addressing the reviewer below who claimed the lyrics and titles on "St. Cecelia" were inane when compared to BOC's later work. Six words, dude: "She's As Beautiful As A Foot."

Having gotten that out of the way, I will trumpet the solidity of this record. I've had it for a couple years and listen to it quite a bit. On "St. Cecelia," no lame "Stairway to the Stars"-type boogie and no "Subhuman"-esque repetitive non-riffing are to be found: overall, the record has *much* less filler than any of the BOC records from the 1970s. On the other hand, there's no "Last Days of May" or "Cities On Flame" here either: all the songs are well-written and enjoyable rather than brilliant (or awful).

Also, "St. Cecelia" was recorded in 1969, I believe, and has a strong flavor of "American Beauty"-era Grateful Dead. Which is fine (even great) with me, but if you are more a fan of BOC's heavier songs you might want to go to Rhino's website and check out the sample tracks from "St. Cecelia" before spending your money.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars B.O.C. before B.O.C., February 26, 2004

By 

scott malcolm (chula vista, ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: St Cecelia: The Elektra Recordings (Audio CD)

This disc is a collection of recordings made for Electra Records in the late sixties,only to be shelved until Rhino Records obtained the rights to it.
I had always heard of the "Electra recordings" but I found mention of it on a BOC site.The songs,are mostly unreleased save for two or three on the reissued discs.
What can I say? The music is definately dated but the styles were emerging from Buck as well as Allan Lanier.Hearing familiar riffs from entirely different songs is cool. Warning: there are some songs that are duplicated in different tempos,etc.
Im not much of a reviewer but ALL BOC fans need this. The disc is numbered with a limited run of 5,000. Im at 4856 and
paid 30 bucks for mine