The Contrarians Dark Horse Albums: Blue Öyster Cult's Club Ninja
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- We discuss the BÖC Album Club Ninja!
The Contrarians is a show where one of us jumps in the hot seat picks a dark horse album from a band as that band's best album. The guest host will argue against them with facts, stats and all around truth, subjective and objective!
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Madness To The Method is one of my favorite Blue Oyster Cult songs. In my top ten for sure.
Yip. It's a great song.
Agreed. Love the outro.
One of my favourites too,bloody fantastic song.
Always envisioned it sounding great in a big hall like Madison Square Garden.Was also one of roadie Sam Judds favorites(altho he hated Goin Thru The Motions and I of course told him how much I loved that song too).Perfect Water and Dancing In The Ruins both great and other good tunes.
Good album , key tracks : Perfect Water , Dancing in the Ruins.
Great Album art !
From the moment I bought this album (first day in record store) Perfect Water became and still is my favorite BOC song.
I think Perfect Water and Madness To The Method are two of the most defining songs in their catalog. Also, I like the modern BÖC sound. Cheers
I love Club Ninja. Perfect Water has one of Buck Dharma's best guitar solos.
Spy in the House and Perfect Water always stood out to me.
I appreciate anything BOC much like Matt, 7.8 on Club Ninja.
A massive dark horse. I love the album, but I have to use a special track sequence I created.
How did you come to enjoy the album with a different track sequence?
I am a big fan of this album...would love to see a episode of buck's solo album flat out...love the show
White Flags is a very underrated song off Club Ninja.
Do you remember Oldsmobile using that song in a commercial?
I am solidly on board with CN, it has two of my favorite songs in Perfect Water and Dancin in the Ruins. This is a good example of the run from 'Revolution' to 'Heaven Forbid' - I would have chosen 'Mirrors' for this topic. 8.5
You just mentioned my two faves as well. Melodic and well done.
Really enjoyed this episode a lot. I love the episodes where I learn so many new things about albums I already thought I knew well. And as is true with all BOC albums, it turns out I knew nothing at all. Great work, all four of you. Enjoyed all of your comments!
One thing I never ever see mentioned, is that Beat Em Up appears almost 6 months earlier on Lee Aaron's Call of the Wild - does that make it a cover, or just two bands drawing from the same well? I remember someone else recorded it as well, but I don't remember who, or when.
The Revolution By Night and Club Ninja are pretty interchangeable albums for me. I dig them both, but it’s hard for me to pick which one I like over the other most times. Right now, I’d say Club Ninja because of Dancin’ In The Ruins, which is amazing. Great discussion gentleman!
I really like this album despite some very cringe worthy moments make rock not war being one of them but treasures such as white flags, perfect water, shadow Warrior and madness to the method are the highlights of this very maligned album but I totally dig it
And to be honest, this album should of been been bigger considering albums that came out Bon Jovi Farenheit, DIO's Sacred Heart, RUSH Power Windows & Night Ranger Seven Wishes
A much better album than it gets credit for, just wish it included Wings Of Mercury! A killer live song they played in 1986 but never made the album.
I still have the T-shirt from that Summer Jam concert in Kingston NH. I stood against the fence between the crowd and the stage. Every hit on the kick drum I could feel the legs on my blue jeans moving. My ears rang for three days. Club Ninja was one of my work commuter albums at the time 1-1/2 hours each way.
It's definitely one of my favorite albums of this particular period of the band, much better than the two releases before and after it. "Madness to the Method" is an amazing song.
Great conversation. Matt, your information was highly appreciated.
Martin, I like your comparison and reference to your podcast episode Canada Invented Hair Metal. Listened to that episode recently and can see the relationship.
The 80s was a tough decade for BOC in so many ways. A couple of instant classic albums, but boy I remember hating a few of them when I first heard them. I thought this was a decent enough album if only someone else had done it; maybe a Buck Dharma solo record or something. But then Imaginos came out, and that one got me very angry that I had wasted my money on it...I couldn't even finish listening to the damn thing and threw it on the shelf. It was so noisy and muddled-sounding. Then about 10 years later I decided to give Imaginos another chance, and this time it just clicked! And for a few years there Imaginos became my all-time favorite BOC album. I still can't believe how my opinion changed that much, from active hate to total love.
I personally can’t fathom hating Imaginos!! Simply amazing album
Hated this album upon release back then but has grown on me over the years, kinda like Mirrors has grown on me too. I think Dancin in the Ruins is better than Burnin for You. Love Perfect Water
I adore this album! It is the second album that I owned when I was very young along with Fire OUO. I hold this album so much higher than "Mirrors" or "Secret Treaties" for sure! Is it their best = Absolutely Not, but not their worst either. I like it more than their newer albums and "IMAGINOS", IMHO... I also thought that the artwork was very good and unique for the band.. Kind of reminiscint of ELO's "Out of the Blue" in a way, or a Journey or Petra album of the time. But, maybe I am just bias though, but I really like about 80 % of this album! Though I know how much it is despised!
But this album was an Experiment with the 80's sound, as BOC experimented ALOT as we all know! And at the time it failed.
Anyways I give it a 7 out of 10!
Good Video guys! Lots of cool insight! 🙂
Great Discussion as always! Always liked this album along with Revolution By Night and I tend to listen to Club Ninja more in the last couple of years. Dancing In The Ruins is my
favorite track. Not a huge fan of the production back in the day, but now I feel it made sense. my rating 6/10
Good video, thanks! Club Ninja is my least favorite BOC album, and it's not even close. I appreciate that other people like it and respect that, though.
I can certainly see this as their worst album. i'd have to listen to more post 80s records . . .
Wow, has Matt written a book on BOC? He sounds like an expert on the band. Id love to hear his thoughts on all their albums!
Great album! Remember buying it late 85 and still play it to this day. The band has no bad albums in my opinion.
Regarding "When War Comes" from Imaginos II: Bombs Over Germany, as opposed to the Club Ninja version, Albert said in one interview very recently that in the recently discovered writings of Sandy Pearlman, which he is now in possession of, there are often up to a dozen different versions of every song lyric he ever wrote. There were some cases where they changed some of Sandy's lyrics when laying down vocals, because Eric was having difficulty singing them as written, which was true of "OD'd On Life Itself". In his remakes of these songs, Albert has went back to presenting the lyrics the way Sandy intended. So the Club Ninja version was likely an alternate version written by Sandy, or his original idea of how it should be presented. This may be true of the different song titles as well.
Cool! Thanks for the information. Do you remember where that Albert interview is? I'd love to check it out.
This is a great record, with a great cover. 9.5/10
Saw them on tour for that album.Very good concert.👍
I always felt that Club Ninja was intended as sister album to Fire of Unknown Origin.
It failed on that and on many other levels.
I like about half of it.
I like a few songs on this album! I really couldn’t care less about lyrics. They don’t mean anything to me as long as the melody moves me. If I cared about lyrics I’d probably be a rap fan. Lol. To each their own though
Great pick. Imaginos is another great pick for dark horse BOC album.
We actually did an episode on Imaginos a while back. Check it out!
I love BOC, but i cant really defend this one. Looking forward to everyone's take on it though!
Nah Club Ninja rocks lol. I get why people favor BÖC’s 70’s work over their 80’s work (as they’re very radically different after Cultösaurus Erectus) but to me I’ve always favored their 80’s stuff as it felt more fun to me. Imaginos especially. Their 70’s work is still absolutely fantastic as well however especially Specters.
Not my favorite BOC album but it has lots of great songs, I love When The War Comes with the drum solo at the end, Shadow Warrior has a great solo, not a bad song om it
Recently I played all the BÖC albums in order and the only album I had a hard time with was Heaven Forbid. It starts and ends well but the middle is like a garage band trying to sound like BÖC. Club Ninja has it's cringe worthy songs as mentioned by dickwhiskey8041, but it has seven songs that are really good. I enjoy everything but Make Rock, Not War and Beat 'Em Up. I'd give it a solid 7.5.
I’m from England and I stumbled upon BOC around 1976 when I was 15 and Tyranny and Mutation was my introduction to BOC. Sadly BOC have never enjoyed a lot of airplay here in the UK, ‘Reaper’ gets played, but little else! As a long term fan I felt Revolution by Night, Club Ninja and Imaginos were below par albums and I sort of lost interest in the band around that time to be honest! Sure, Ninja and the others mentioned contain 2-3 strong tracks, but not enough to regard them as great albums in my humble opinion. Heaven Forbid & Curse restored my allegiance and I think Symbol Remains is a superb album. From a UK perspective I am of the opinion that BOC were not marketed as well as they should have been here in Europe. Had they have been I feel they would have been HUGE, but Ninja and the other 2 albums I mentioned would feature in the bottom 3 of the BOC catalogue.
Hello Mark: Interesting about BOC not being big in the UK . . . I certainly agree with your comments on Club Ninja. Really for me there's just the one very good song (Ruins). You seem to be a bigger BOC fan than i am: Would you agree their Golden Age was 72-81? I cannot find much I like afterwards. The Michael Moorcock collabs were fantastic.
19:24 That 30 seconds of psychobabble by Howard Stern reminds me of Ice T's garbage rap on Black Sabbath's Forbidden, in that both moments blemish (but don't ruin!) otherwise excellent albums. Glad to hear the Stern bit was left off the European mix.
I love Club Ninja. I was only a casual fan of BOC back then (now I love them and appreciate their brilliance), but taped it from an album at my local library when it came out. Songs are just catchy. Yes I thought Make Rock Not War had cheesy lyrics, but it was still a good song. Perfect Water and Dancing in The Ruins are great.
Love this album
This album grows on you. It's got some hidden gems. I like it better than revolution by night. I give it a 7.5 also.
I've been listening to more of their later 80's production lately and find myself enjoying it. I did not like it at all when it was originally released.
He mentioned 1986, but Club Ninja was released in late 1985.
I enjoy White Flags still today.
I regard Club Ninja like the proverbial little girl with a little curl in the middle of her forehead: "When she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid." The good songs on this album -- "Perfect Water," "Dancin' in the Ruins," even "Madness to the Method" -- are very, very good. Maybe not absolute top-shelf BOC, but certainly in the tier right below. But then comes the raft of "what were they thinking?" stuff -- "Make Rock, Not War," "Beat 'Em Up," "When the War Comes" -- that is, for a band of BOC's caliber, truly horrid.
Beyond the two singles (PW and Dancing ruins), club ninja is indefensible. The other maligned record, Revolution by night, is a far better listen.
I love this album and the cover aer,
When it came out I was not really a fan. It grew on me slowly and now I am cool with it. There are 3-4 dud songs but the rest are pretty solid songs. I give it a 7.25.
For me the last 1/3 of the album is a dud . .
Love the book.
I always hated this record (and thought it was their worst), but I'm willing to give it another shot.
A great song (Perfect Water), some good songs (Madness, Dancin, House, Flags), some average songs (Shadow) & a couple of appalling songs by outside writers that should be nowhere near a BOC disc ... it's the weakest (just) but it's decent, heck it's still BOC !!
If erics voice could take it id love to hear white flags now
It's not much different than most of the rest of their albums: some songs are great, almost orgasmic... while others don't even hold my attention
It's OK. Dancing in the ruins and perfect water. Not my fav BOC
Horrible Production. Weak songs. Near least favorite BOC album
What’s your least?
It´s maybe the weakest of their albums.
Fire of unknown origin is a sell oout and Imaginos is a mess??? And should I buy your book?....no thanks...
Wings of Mercury and the 2 tracks for the atrocious Bad Channels movie Demon's Kiss and Horsemen Arrive blow away this entire album.... mid 80's blatant " let's get airplay" ....at the worst time for music.....generic hairbands and that hideous 80's mtv pop sound....I have the glorious boxset and I would gladly trade out club ninja and imaginos for the far superior Heaven Forbid and Curse of the Hidden Mirror
Hello Contrarians and Everybody: Another great, thought-provoking discussion. 🤓Club Ninja from 1986 is well outside BOC's Golden Age, 1972-81, and I gotta wonder why it exists at all. A perfectly mediocre mid-80s album. The rating is a 5.5 (outa 10) which is as mid as it gets. On the 5-scale it's a 2.75. Could not round it up to a 3 because it simply doesn't sound as good as a typical 3 - no doubt a result of backending all the particularly tuneless tracks.
The Best Song is by far Dancin' in the Ruins, along with an it-could-only-come-from-the-mid-80s video. The Worst one is When the War Comes which we can re-name When the Song Ends (answer: any time time, guys, any freakin' time 😎) .
Does the album have a theme? I agree with Bill. It certainly does have a theme: something about violence. Theme's a theme even if unintentional. The title Club Ninja does not seem to have anything to do with anything. (If someone addressed this point in the video then sorry if I missed it. )
Important lesson to all aspiring songwriters: Just because you are doin' a song about water you don't need to rhyme the world's most famous oceanographer with "radio" simply because you can. 🐟
These guys never should've let Halligan anywhere near their songs! Make Rock Not War and Beat Em Up are terrible! Take those two out and put some remotely decent songs in their place and it's still lower-tier B.O.C but very listenable.
Love this album.