Music / The Revölution by Night

The Symbol Remains

The Revölution by Night is the ninth studio album by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released in November, 1983. The album was intended to build on the very well-received and commercially successful Fire of Unknown Origin released two years before. It also revived the experiment made with the indifferently-received album Mirrors, seeking to blend harder rock with more radio-friendly pop music themes and elements. (this time, with a little more success). In the two year hiatus between studio LPs, there had also been friction and change within the group. This was the first BÖC album not to feature all of the band's original members. After several bad arguments concerning how little of his material made it to the final take, drummer Albert Bouchard had (according to the stories) either been fired during the previous tour, or else had walked out of the group of his own accord. For subsequent tours and for this album, he was replaced by roadie Rick Downey. (Who had looked after Albert's drum kits while on tour).The next studio album would be Club Ninja in 1986.

Tracklist

Side one

1. "Take Me Away" (4:31)
2. "Eyes On Fire" (3:56)
3. "Shooting Shark" (7:09)
4. "Veins" (3:59)
5. "Shadow Of California" (5:10)

Side two

1. "Feel The Thunder" (5:48)
2. "Let Go" (3:25)
3. "Dragon Lady" (7:08)
4. "Light Years Of Love" (4:05)

Principal members:

• Eric Bloom – guitar, vocals
• Buck Dharma aka Donald 'Buck Dharma' Roeser – lead guitar, keyboards, vocals, mixing
• Allen Lanier – piano, keyboards
• Joe Bouchard – bass, electric and acoustic guitars, vocoder, vocals
• Rick Downey – drums

Additional musicians:

• Larry Fast – synthesizers, programming
• Aldo Nova – guitar and synthesizers on "Take Me Away". Lyric credit on "Take Me Away".
• Gregg Winter – backing vocals on "Eyes on Fire"
• Randy Jackson – bass on "Shooting Shark"
• Marc Baum – saxophone on "Shooting Shark"

Production

• Bruce Fairbairn – producer, mixing
• Sandy Pearlman – management, mixing

Other:

• Ian Hunter - songwriting credits ("Let's Go")
• Patti Smith - songwriting credits. ("Shooting Shark")

At the Decree of the Beast, he who tropes on all Hallow's Eve is forever doomed to trope and confined to TV Tropes in all eternity. Beginning here.

• Alien Abduction: "Take Me Away" is about the narrator's wish for this to happen. In the video for this single, a sure sign of impending doom is the Gas Station of Doom tended by its Creepy Gas-Station Attendant.
• Ascended Extra: Drums roadie Rick Downey found himself elevated to full band member after Albert Bouchard walked out.
• Call-Back: The BOC's first three albums are referred to by fans as the "Red, White And Black trilogy", an allusion to the minimal colour schemes used in the sleeve design by a record company that really didn't want to allocate too big a budget on an unproven band. Those three primal colours are also frequent allusions and references in the early songs. Here, thirteen years on, the colour scheme of the sleeve is a minimal use of black, white and red. The next LP Club Ninja would also call back to the band's beginnings.
• Dangerous Clifftop Road: Feel The Thunder translates the action to a trio of drunken and coked-up Hell's Angels taking their bikes out for a midnight burn on a notoriously dangerous coast road in California. Not unreasonably, tragedy happens:
  They came around the coast too fast, only time for a scream;
  A fiery crash of chrome and steel was the beginning of their longest dream...
• The Men in Black: Inevitably, they show up in the video for "Take Me Away" to monitor events.
  • When the band are seen performing the song in the video, they are all dressed as MIB.
• Rule of Three: "Shooting Shark"
  Three times I've sent you back from me, three times my boat's gone dry;
  And three times I've seen the shooting shark, lighting up the sky!
• Sleeps with Everyone but You: "Eyes On Fire":
  At the stroke of midnight, staring at the phone'
  For the millionth time I'm all alone
  I'm the guy she turns to, when her lovers leave
  I'm the wild card she's got up her sleeve
  But she don't look at me with
  Eyes on fire, glowing like coals in the night
  Hungry eyes, burning with love and desire...
• The Wild Hunt: Again, the legend of the hunters ceaselessly roaming the night sky on Haloween Eve is updated to include spectral Hell's Angels on ghost motorbikes.