Agents of Fortune
- This Ain't The Summer Of Love -- (M. Krugman, A. Bouchard, D. Waller)
- True Confessions -- (A. Lanier)
- (Don't Fear) The Reaper -- (D. Roeser)
- E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) -- (D. Roeser, S. Pearlman)
- The Revenge Of Vera Gemini -- (A. Bouchard, P. Smith)
- Sinful Love -- (A. Bouchard, H. Robbins)
- Tattoo Vampire -- (A. Bouchard, H. Robbins)
- Morning Final -- (J. Bouchard)
- Tenderloin -- (A. Lanier)
- Debbie Denise -- (P. Smith, A. Bouchard)
- *Fire Of Unknown Origin (Original Version) -- (A. Bouchard, P. Smith, D. Roeser, J. Bouchard, E. Bloom)
- * Sally (Demo) -- (A. Bouchard, P. Smith)
- * (Don't Fear) The Reaper (Demo) -- (D. Roeser)
- * Dance The Night Away (Demo) - (A. Lanier, J. Carroll)
* only available on Columbia/Legacy Re-Master
Release Notes: Released May 1976 by Columbia. Re-mastered on "gold" CD and released January 1998 by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, with restored and expanded liner notes. Re-mastered by Columbia/Legacy (with bonus tracks, lyrics, and expanded liner notes) and released June 2001. Produced by Murray Krugman, Sandy Pearlman, and David Lucas. Instruments: Eric Bloom (vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion), Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (guitar, vocals, synthesizer, percussion), Joe Bouchard (bass, vocals, piano), Albert Bouchard (drums, vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion, harmonica), Allen Lanier (keyboards, vocals, guitar, bass), Patti Smith (vocal on "The Revenge of Vera Gemini").
Additional Notes: The album went platinum. In addition, "(Don't Fear) The Reaper was listed in the August 1997 issue of *MOJO* magazine as #80 on the magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Singles of All Time". Helen Robbins also goes by (and has been credited on BOC albums) as "Helen Wheels". The lead vocal on "True Confessions" is Allen Lanier -- his only "official" lead vocal on all of BOC's albums (Allen does provide lead vocals on four other demos, including "Dance The Night Away" which appeared on the remastered version of this album). Also, according to Albert Bouchard, Allen plays the bass part to "Morning Final" on the album. The songs "Tattoo Vampire" and "Debbie Denise" were originally titled "Tattooed Vampire" and "To Remember Debbie Denise" respectively. The song "E.T.I.", originally an instrumental track titled "No Traffic", was tried with different lyrics by Sandy Pearlman (titled "Punishment Park", it may have even had a vocal track by Sandy) and Joe Bouchard (titled "Des Pot Soup") before using the current lyrics. Also according to Albert Bouchard, Michael Brecker plays saxophone on "True Confessions". His brother Randy Brecker also played a fluglehorn part for "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", but it was edited out of the final mix. The riff to "This Ain't The Summer Of Love" was inspired by the song, "Ascension Day" by Third World War. Don Waller, who came up with the title for "This Ain't The Summer Of Love", also used the title for a song by the Imperial Dogs - the only similarities to BOC's song, other than the title, is the lines "This ain't the Garden of Eden. This ain't the Summer of Love." The album cover depicts someone holding 4 Tarot cards based on Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot: Death, The Empress, The Emperor, and The Sun. Stories say that these cards were part of an actual Tarot card reading done for the band. The song "Fire Of Unknown Origin" is an outtake from this album's recording sessions. The songs "Sally", and "Dance The Night Away" were demoed for this album but not used - versions of these songs were later recorded and released by The Brain Surgeons and Jim Carroll respectively. The liner notes to the re-master incorrectly credit "Sally" to (A. Bouchard) when they should in fact be (P. Smith, A. Bouchard).
References:
Agents of Fortune at allmusic.com
Agents of Fortune at amazon.com