The name Blue Oyster Cult was conceived by Sandy Pearlman (producer & songwriter). Supposedly he was sitting at Blue Oyster Bay on Long Island with Richard Meltzer, got stoned, and noticed a bottle of Cully Stout beer. With this name the two tried to come up with many anagrams  and came up with the name BLUE OYSTER CULT. This is believed to be untrue though. He also came up for the nicknames (above), but only Donald Roeser continued to use his nickname.  

Facts & FAQs

The symbol of Kronos (Saturn) appears on every BOC album. Sandy Pearlman liked the symbol and had it  put on all the albums, and it has become BOC's logo (and the tattoo I have on my left forearm) This symbol is also similiar to the Greek symbol of chaos. The Greek God Kronos according to Greek Mythology was given a sickle(the lower part of the symbol) by his mother to kill his father(the God Ouranos), but Kronos only sliced off his fathers genitals and threw them into the sea which later formed the Goddess Aphrodite. Kronos later fathered the Gods Zeus, Poseiden, Hades, Hera, Demeter and Hestia.

In "Before The Kiss,  a Redcap", the Redcap refers to a red pill-barbituautes. It seems that Sandy Pearlman watched a man & a woman exchange a kiss in a bar. He watched them exchange the pill through the kiss.

Suzy is a name we hear in many BOC songs. Suzy was originally one of Sandy Pearlmans girlsfriends.

"Dominance & Submission"  is a true story where some unexpected sexual actions are implied.

"Astronomy" discusses Suzy, and her sexual experimentation with a lesbian encounter, and the reaction to it.

"Debbie Denise" AOF 1976,was one of Patti Smith's (Allen Lanier's long time girlfriend) flirtations with lesbianism.

"Diz-Buster". Diz refers to the cleft in a man's penis, and "Dusters Dust" from the song "7 Screaming Diz-Busters" refers to sperm. Therefore a 'Diz-Buster" is someone/something that causes one to ejaculate.

The Umlauts. Umlauts are 2 little dots over a letter. The story has it that Sandy Pearlman and Richard Meltzer (Singer for Soft White Underbelly) were looking into the window of a restaurant and noticed the menu had Blue Point Oysters and decided to call the band Blue Oyster Cult, to which Richard said yea, and put an umlaut over the O. Pearlman later said itwas done to add ambigious impilcations to the name. The band was not too excited about the name, but it has stuck!

My favorite song is "(Then Came The) Last Days of May" and according to Buck Dharma is the true story of 3 college student drug dealers making a buy that went bad. Two of them died, but the third lived to testify against the shooters, who were from a notoriously wealthy family. They were convicted but received only 10years. The music and vocals are incredible.