Blue Öyster Cult – "Before the Kiss, a Redcap" (1972)

Their lips apart like swollen rose

Their tongues extend and then retract

I discovered Blue Öyster Cult almost 50 years ago when I bought a Columbia Records three-record sampler album titled Music People at a record store in Houston, Texas:

Back then, record companies issued sampler albums to publicize new bands or give a bit of a goose to more well-known musicians whose forthcoming albums weren’t expected to do very well. 

The most famous of these sampler albums were the “Loss Leaders” series of mostly double albums produced by Warner Brothers/Reprise records and sold by mail order for $2. The musicians represented on The Big Ball, Schlagers, and others of that ilk included some very mainstream artists (like Petula Clark and Peter, Paul and Mary), but were dominated by crazies like the Fugs, Captain Beefheart, and Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention.

Music People included cuts by superstars (Bob Dylan, the Byrds), cult favorites (Spirit, It's a Beautiful Day, Mahavishnu Orchestra), and some utterly forgotten never-wases (Sweathog, Compost, Grootna, and Mylon with Holy Smoke).

The fourth cut on side one of “Music People” was “I’m On The Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep” by Blue Öyster Cult (or “BÖC,” as I will hereinafter abbreviate it) - and it impressed me sufficiently that I immediately ran out and bought BÖC's eponymous first album, which led off with this song. 

That's right, boys and girls.  Columbia Records sucked me right in – I did EXACTLY what they hoped I would do.

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BÖC’s biggest single, “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper,” was released in 1976 on its fourth studio album, Agents of Fortune.  If I hadn’t bought Music People, that might have been the first BÖC record I ever heard.  And if that had been the case, I would never have explored the group’s earlier albums – I wasn’t a fan of “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper.”  (None of my friends owned those albums, and I never heard a BÖC song on the radio before “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” became a hit.)

But Music People caused me to buy the first BÖC album, which caused me to buy their second album (Tyranny and Mutation), which caused me to buy their third album (Secret Treaties).

The cover of BÖC’s eponymous debut album

BÖC’s first two LPs failed to crack the Billboard top 100, while Secret Treaties made it only to #53.  But those albums are chockful of great songs, none of which sound like any other group you’ve ever heard.  (The lyrics, the guitars, the drums – every aspect of those records is distinctive.)

If I put my ten favorite BÖC songs up against my ten favorite Rolling Stones songs or my ten favorite Led Zeppelin songs, I’m not sure which group would come out on top.  (I am sure that no other group’s best ten songs would match up to BÖC’s.)

Underrated?  You can say that again.

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I featured “I’m On The Lamb but I Ain't No Sheep” on a 2010 2 or 3 lines post.  I’m shocked that’s the only post about a BÖC song that I’ve ever written.

Of course, that post spends a lot of time talking about not only the featured song, but also four other songs from those first three BÖC albums – including “Before the Kiss, a Redcap” (which may be my personal G.O.A.T. BÖC song).

Click here to listen to “Before the Kiss, a Redcap.”  And click here to read what Genius.com has to say about what the song means.

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: