Secret Treaties, datato 1974, chiude il cosiddetto "black-and-white period" di quella formidabile band che risponde al nome di Blue Öyster Cult. Caratteristica fondamentale dei BÖC del sopraccitato periodo è la cattiveria, mista a crudeltà e spietatezza, sia nelle lyrics che nei ritmi delle canzoni. Ma anche nella copertina, in cui tutte le tematiche care alla band si sprigionano in questa opera d'arte. Sul fronte un disegno della band davanti all'aereo da guerra tedesco Messerschmitt 262, con cani al seguito e il simbolico scheletro-pilota. Da notare il logo della band al posto della svastica nazista (a quanto pare sostanzialmente una variante camuffata) sull'alettone posteriore del velivolo. Il retro presenta lo stesso aereo in fase di decollo e i cani che giacciono a terra sgozzati.
A supportare tutto ciò, queste angosciose quanto enigmatiche sleeve notes: "Rossignol's surious, albeit simply titled book, the Origins of a World War, spoke in terms of secret treaties, drawn up between the Ambassadors from Plutonia and Desdinova the foreign minister. These Treaties founded a secret science from the start. Astronomy. The career of evil". Le tematiche esplorano mondi misteriosi, ambienti dark, paure ataviche, orrori nascosti, l'esoterico suburbano, il mistero, il mistico di una leggenda metropolitana, in una sorta di "stream of consciousness" orripilante.
"Career of Evil", scritta insieme a Patti Smith, è un formidale hardrock con il fraseggio di chitarra semi-prog e la solida base tastierisitca di Allen Lanier a sostenere l'ossatura di questo del brano, in cui tutto è perfetto. "Subhuman" tratta uno dei soliti "temi caldi", nonché punti forti della band: essenzialmente temi dark, supportati dall'atmosfera cupa della musica. "Dominance And Submission" è uno dei pezzi forti dell'album, caratterizzato da ritmi incalzanti ed eclettici, in cui la chitarra di Donal Roeser (in arte Buck Dharma) fa dei miracoli, soprattutto nel velocissimo assolo.
Spesso si ha la sensazione, nei primissimi secondi di un brano dei BÖC, che si tratti di un banale rock'n'roll. Qui sta una delle tante grandi cose dei Blue Öyster Cult: il fatto di saper riciclare i vecchi schemi del rock'n'roll più classico per farseli propri e quindi riadattarli a qualcosa di completante proprio. Basta ascoltare l'inizio di "ME 262", all'apparenza un banale rock'n'roll, che si sviluppa in una pezzo di hardrock al 100%, con ritornello cantato alla grande, soprattutto quando ripete ossessivamente nel finale il nome del motore dell'aereo (Most these Englishmen live that I migh die / Junkers Jummo 004). Inquietante è il punto di vista della Seconda Guerra Mondiale, vista cinicamente dall'alto di un caccia tedesco durante il Nazismo.
"Cagey Cretins" è il brano dove il cantante/chitarrista Eric Bloom da il meglio di sé con la sua voce, senza contare la ritmica incalzante della batteria di Albert Bouchard e del fratello Joe al basso. Anche i coretti in falsetto fanno la loro bella scena. Ancora una volta le tastiere del genio/chitarrista/tastierista danno quel tocco in più, soprattutto se il brano è "Harvester Of Eyes" (il raccoglitore di occhi, altro brano dall'immane cattiveria!!!). La chitarra qui è davvero secchissima, essenziale, con quella parte rallentata del finale cantata da Eric Bloom sembra dalla uscita dalla voce dello psicopatico di cui parla il brano.
Non può non salirmi un brivido lungo la schiena, se penso ai due meravigliosi brani finali. Il primo è "Flaming Telepaths", un'inquietante pezzo dalle mille sfaccettature, con ritmi sincopati e chitarre magiche dall'inizio alla fine. Suggestivo e variegato, questo brano merita di entrare negli annali della musica rock. Il secondo è ovviamente la bellissima, appassionata e stupenda "Astronomy", una ballata toccante struggente, con un'atmosfera vagamente crepuscolare, e con un fascino indiscutibile. Gande. Semplicemente grande!
Questa manciata di canzoni, che oserei definire davvero straordinarie, vanno a formare il terzo nonché il miglior album mai pubblicato dai Blue Öyster Cult. Nonostante questo capolavoro non abbia riscosso il meritato successo, arrivando soltanto al numero 53 in America, Secret Treaties ha iniziato a spianare la strada al grande successo che sarebbe arrivato con (il deludente) Agents of Fortune. Secret Treaties farà apprezzare i Blue Öyster Cult anche dalle critica. Concludo nel modo più classico, perché non si può fare altrimenti con Secret Treaties: pezzo assolutamente essenziale, immancabile in ogni collezione di musica seria che si rispetti. Da avere!
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Career of Evil (04:00)
I plot your rubric scarab,
I steal your satellite
I want your wife to be my
Baby tonight, baby tonight
I choose to steal what you chose to show
And you know I will not apologize
You're mine for the taking
I'm making a career of evil
Pay me I'll be your surgeon
I'd like to pick your brain
Capture you inject you
Leave you kneeling in the rain
Kneeling in the rain
I choose to steal what you chose to show
And you know I will not apologize
You're mine for the taking
I'm making a career of evil
I'd like your blue eyed horseshoe,
I'd like your emerald horny toad
I'd like to do it to your daughter on a dirt road
And then I'd spend your ransom money,
But still I'd keep your sheep
I'd peel the mask you're wearing,
And then rob you of your sleep
Rob you of your sleep
I choose to steal what you chose to show
And you know I will not apologize
You're mine for the taking
I'm making a career of evil
02 Subhuman (04:37)
I am becalmed
Lost to nothing
Warm weather and
Holocaust
Left to die by two good friends
Abandoned me and put to sleep
Left to die by two good friends
Tears of god flow as I bleed
So ladies fish and gentlemen
Here's my angled dream
See me in the blue sky bag
And meet me by the sea
Oyster boys are
Swimming for me now
Save me from the
Death-like creatures
Oyster boys are swimming now
Hear them chatter on the tide
We understand, we understand
But fear is real and so do I
So ladies fish and gentlemen
Here's my angled dream
See me in the blue sky bag
And meet me by the sea
Oyster boys are
Swimming for me
Just one deal is what
We made now
Forest keys and whirlwind cold
Green keys too and keys of gold
And even locks that don't explode
When the skies become a scroll
So ladies fish and gentlemen
Here's my angled dream
See me in the blue sky bag
And meet me by the sea
03 Dominance and Submission (05:22)
Oh Yeah!
I spent ten years, half my life
Just getting ready, then it was time
Warpage in my figures, radios appear
Midnight was the barrier, back in 1963
Each night the covers were unfolded
Each night it's Susie�s turn to ride
While Charles, the one they call her brother
Covers on his eyes
Murmurs in the background
It will be time
Oh Yeah!
Susan and her brother, Charles the grinning boy
Put me in the back seat, and they took me for a ride
Yeah, the radio was on, can't you dig the locomotion
Kingdoms of the radio, 45 RPM
Too much revolution, then
Each night the covers were unfolded
Each night it's Susie's turn to ride
While Charles, the one they call her brother
Covers on his eyes
Murmurs in the background
It will be time
It's past midnight said Charles the grinning boy
And looking at me greedily, said it's 1964
In Times Square now people do the polka
Dominance! Submission. Radios appear.
This New Year's Eve was the final barrier
Dominance! Submission. Radios appear.
We took you up and we put you in the back seat
Dominance! Submission. Radios appear.
From year to year we looked out for the venture
Dominance! Submission. Radios appear.
Dominance! Submission
Dominance! Sub-mission
Dominance! Sub-mission
Dominance! Submission
Dominance! Sub-mission
Dominance! Sub-mission Sub-mission
Dominance! Sub- submission sub- sub-
Dominance! Submission submission
Dominance! Submission submission submission
Dominance! Sub- submission submission
Dominance! Submission submission submission
Dominance! Sub- submission sub- sub- submission
Dominance! Submission submission!
Dominance! Submission!
04 ME 262 (04:44)
Goering's on the phone from Freiburg
Says Willie's done quite a job
Hitler's on the phone from Berlin
Says I'm gonna make you a star
My Captain Von Ondine is your next patrol
A flight of English bombers across the canal
After twelve they'll all be here
I think you know the job
They hung there dependant from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers are ripe and ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die
In a G-load disaster from the rate of climb
Sometimes I'd faint and be lost to our side
But there's no reward for failure - but death
So watch me in mirrors keep in the glidepath
Get me through these radars, no, I cannot fail
While my great silver slugs are eager to feed
I can't fail - No, not now
When twenty five bombers wait ripe
They hung there dependant from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers are ripe and ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die
ME-262 prince of turbojet
Junker's Jumo 004
Blasts from clustered R4M quartets in my snout
And see these English planes go burn
Well, you be my witness, how red were the skies
When the fortresses flew for the very last time
It was dark over Westphalia
In April of '45
They hung there dependant from the sky
Like some heavy metal fruit
These bombers are ripe and ready to tilt
Must these Englishmen live that I might die
Must they live that I might die
Must these Englishmen live that I might die...Junker's jommo 004
Bombers at 12 o'clock high
05 Cagey Cretins (03:16)
Ooo cagey - what you got?
What you got there dummy?
What you got there man?
Ooo cagey - what you got?
What you got there honey?
What is it, a worm?
Dumb clouds are raging
Stupid clouds at my door
Creepy weather coming
Coming 'round my floor
Dumb clouds stay away
Don't come back no more
Ooo cagey - what you got?
Got an awful tummy,
Oh no it's inflamed
Ooo cagey - what you got?
It's so lonely honey
In the state of Maine
Dumb clouds are raging
Stupid clouds at my door
Creepy weather coming
Coming 'round my floor
Dumb clouds stay away
Don't come back no more
I'm graduating in one more term
Because I haven't any time to burn
Repeating taste of high-heeled shoe
An eel is waiting under the train
Being chased around by the neighbor's cat
Well it's so lonely in the state of Maine
Dumb clouds are ringing
Ringing in my ear
Mother's wombs are crying
Ringing in my fear
Mothers never run
Except when rape is near
Ooo cagey
08 Astronomy (06:27)
The 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
Like lesser birds on the four winds
Like silver scrapes in May
And now the sand's become a crust
And most of you have gone away
Come Susie dear, let's take a walk
Just out there upon the beach
I know you'll soon be married
And you'll want to know where winds come from
Well it's never said at all
On the map that Carrie reads
Behind the clock back there you know
At the Four Winds Bar
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Four doors at the Four Winds Bar
Two doors locked and windows barred
One door to let to take you in
The other one just mirrors it
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Hellish glare and inference
The other one's a duplicate
The Queenly flux, eternal light
Or the light that never warms
Or the light that never, never warms
Or the light that never
Never warms
Never warms
Never warms
The clock strikes twelve and moondrops burst
Out at you from their hiding place
Miss Carrie nurse and Susie dear
Would find themselves at Four Winds Bar
It's the nexus of the crisis
And the origin of storms
Just the place to hopelessly
Encounter time and then came me
Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!
Call me Desdinova
Eternal light
These gravely digs of mine
Will surely prove a sight
And don't forget my dog
Fixed and consequent
Astronomy...a star (repeats)
09 Stairway to the Stars (03:44)
You can have my autograph
I think I'll sign it love to you
But should I sign it just for you
Stairway to the stars, I think I'll write good health to you
Stairway to the stars, we got better things to do
You can drive my motorcar
It's insured to thirty thou
Kill them all if you wish
Stairway to the stars, I think I'll write good health to you
Stairway to the stars, we got better things to do
You can have my autograph
I think I'll sign it good health to you
Upon the cast, your broken arm
Stairway to the stars, I think I'll write good health to you
Stairway to the stars, I hope you heal up real quick
Stairway to the stars...
Come on, let's get on outa here.
Carico i commenti... con calma
