On Your Feet or on Your Knees, Blue Öyster Cult's first live album (there would be two more), was also their first to peak inside the Top 40 best-sellers, which is more of an indication of the audience the group was building up through extensive touring than of its quality. Songs that had a tight, concentrated impact on studio albums got elongated here, and that impact was dissipated.
And the song selection left a great deal to be desired if this was to be a fitting summation of the band's career so far. Perhaps by their 1974 tour, BÖC had dropped such classics from their first album as "Transmaniacon MC,""I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep," and "Stairway to the Stars," but the less impressive material from the third album was no substitute. The album did mark the first commercial release of a version of "Buck's Boogie" as well as covers of the Yardbirds'"I Ain't Got You" and Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild." [A Strictly Limited Collector's Edition was released in 2013.]
by William Ruhlmann![]()
Tracks
1. The Subhuman (Eric Bloom, Sandy Pearlman) - 7:28
2. Harvester of Eyes (Donald Roeser, Eric Bloom, Richard Meltzer) - 4:56
3. Hot Rails To Hell (Joe Bouchard) - 5:38
4. The Red & the Black (Albert Bouchard, Eric Bloom, Sandy Pearlman) - 4:32
5. Seven Screaming Dizbusters (Albert Bouchard, Donald Roeser, Joe Bouchard, Sandy Pearlman) - 8:49
6. Buck's Boogie (Donald Roeser) - 7:12
7. Last Days of May (Donald Roeser) - 4:37
8. Cities on Flame (Albert Bouchard, Donald Roeser, Sandy Pearlman) - 4:04
9. Me 262 (Donald Roeser, Eric Bloom, Sandy Pearlman) - 8:22
10.Before the Kiss (A Redcap) (Allen Lanier, Donald Roeser, Murray Krugman, Sandy Pearlman) - 5:12
11.Maserati Gt (I Ain't Got You) (Clarence Carter) - 8:58
12.Born To Be Wild (Mars Bonfire) - 6:25
Blue Oyster Cult
*Eric Bloom - Lead vocals, Keyboards, Stun Guitar
*Albert Bouchard - Drums, Vocals
*Joe Bouchard: Bass, Vocals
*Allen Lanier: Keyboards, Rhythm Guitar, Synthesizers
*Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser - Lead guitar, Vocals
1974/77 Blue Oyster Cult - Spectres / Secret Treaties (2007 bonus tracks remaster and 2014 blu spec remaster)