Agents of Fortune: The Blue Oyster Cult Story

Good book, and about the only one you'll find on Blue Oyster Cult ... but BEWARE! This is a UK edition - with a different title - of Martin Popoff's BOC: Secrets Revealed. If you own Secrets Revealed, there is no need to buy AOF: the BOC Story.

I'm surprised that no one else wrote a book abut Blue Oyster Cult till now. But Martin Popoff is the first and does an excellent, exhaustive job in this completist tome, which traces the band's history from their early years till their most recent CD releases (this is an updated version of an earlier edition). Each album gets a detailed track by track breakdown which will delight BOC fans. Even as a longtime fan of the band, I learned a lot from reading this book. Can get a bit repetitive at times and there's occasionally too much overlap from various sources, but this is a minor complaint when one considers the treasure trove of BOC trivia that's been assembled here. Highly recommended.

A nice chronology of the BOC albums but what is with all the negativity? Random tidbits like-Sandy Pearlman and Murray Krugman thought the band didn't do anything good after "Spectres"-Albert was no John Bonham-Buck wasn't a prolific songwriter-Allen was an anti-semite-Joe wore stupid patent leather shoes-Aerosmith was way more popular than BOC.This book is full of little somewhat random "informative" nuggets like that, one after another. Martin Popoff be trippin!!!

Product arrived on timely basis and is advertised condition. So, very happy with the merchant. As for book itself, I am a BOC fan from "Secret Treaties" days, and was happy the book provided actual history, insight and analysis of band itself and their music. I did not need a "fanzine" type of book, gushing over how great they are (though they are!) nor how great their music is (although much of it is!) nor providing statements like "Eric likes the color blue" or "Buck prefers Corn Flakes to Cheerios" and passing it off as insights as many current celebrity bios do. Learned a lot about one of the most relevant bands and one that we are still fortunate to have on tour. Highly recommend book, especially for those who know the group and are looking to learn/read more in depth....

What a great book! For those of us who enjoy the music of BOC, and especially those of us who grew up with their albums in the'70s, this is a must read book.Martin Popoff has weaved a well written story of the group, but in a way that he lets them actually do most of the telling.If you're not a BOC fan, I'm not sure how much you would enjoy this book, but for we, the Oyster Boys, it's a great read and highly recommend.

This book is a must for BOC fans. Extensive history and a lot of background on the group and the songs. The writing got a little tiresome in places and the book could use a good editing as there were some boring stretches but I give the writer kudos for writing what is obviously a labor of love. I learned a great deal about BOC I never knew.

Very good read. All band biographies should be this good. Lots of detail and quotes and interviews with the original band members.

Sometimes you wish that you had never wanted to know the truth because it removes some of the mystery and luster, and that is the case with this book, yet much interesting info.

This is a comprehensive compendium about the music of Blue Öyster Cult. This is NOT a biography. So do not expect to find gossip and drama. The focus and emphasis is very much on the music with a song-by-song, album-by-album analysis through interviews that have been carried out with the mysterious men in black over the years. This is the definitive Blue Öyster Cult reference.Having said that, the book suffers mildly from a lack of clear layout structure. Many a times, one loses track of who is saying what. The use of headers to highlight the interviewee from whom the extract has been lifted before diving into the main text would have helped to keep the reader on track.Finally, the book is sparsely littered with typos with the worse one and unforgivable at that, being Allen Lanier's passing being recorded as August 14, 2103!!!Five stars for content but four stars for occasionally losing the reader and the typos.

Rare to find any books on BOC , this is a pretty definitive work , though rather wordy and pretty American in style . Nonetheless a fascinating insight into what went so right and so wrong for the band. Also reveals the band often had no clue what some of the lyrics meant either !

This is an excellent book - it really delves just about as deep as you want to go into the history of one of American Rock & Roll's most enigmatic bands - Blue Oyster Cult. Martin Poppoff's detailed and well-researched tome describes the bands' ups and downs, and also goes into detail about their unusual lyricism. For the average music fan, BOC begin and end with'Don't Fear The Reaper', their most famous track, but there was so much more besides to the band, who, in 2017, are still a viable touring entity - I wish they'd make a new album! A fine, informative and well-written book.

Excellent book, great read, the author Martin Poppoffreally takes you behind the scenes and builds a greatstory about his subject, this time Blue Oyster Cult.This title is written by a fan for fans, great book.

A decent read with plenty of interview content with band.