Blue Oyster Cult Founder Allen Lanier Passes Away At Age 67
Blue Oyster Cult Founder Allen Lanier Passes Away At Age 67
August 14, 2013
Founding Blue Oyster Cult keyboardist and guitarist Allen Lanier has passed away from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, he was 67 years old.
A statement on the band’s official website reads, “We have extremely sad news to report. We’ve lost our friend and bandmate Allen Lanier. Allen succumbed to complications from C.O.P.D. He is survived by his wife Dory, sister Mary Anne and mother Martha. Although he retired from touring in 2006 Allen returned to the stage for what turned out to be his final appearance, reuniting with BOC at the 40th Anniversary show in New York this past November. DFTR (referring to the group’s most popular song Don’t Fear The Reaper) sweet man. We love you and miss you.”
Blue Oyster Cult’s very own mysterious ‘Cigarette Smoking Man’, Lanier was equally comfortable behind the keyboards or the guitar. Allen was instrumental in the underlying rhythm that drove the band, appearing on such classic albums as 1974’s ‘Secret Treaties’, 1976’s ‘Agents Of Fortune’, 1977’s ‘Spectres’, 1979’s ‘Mirrors’, 19080’s ‘Cultosaurus Erectus’, and 1981’s ‘Fire Of Unknown Origin’, among others.
Onstage, Allen got plenty of chances to shine on both instruments by adding his lead guitar to “The Red And The Black” and by trading licks with Buck Dharma on the keyboards on “Buck’s Boogie”.
Blue Oyster Cult frontman Eric Bloom shared his condolences on Lanier’s passing by saying, “My great friend Allen Lanier has passed. I’ll miss the guy even though we hadn’t spoken in awhile. He was so talented as a musician and a thinker. He read voraciously, all kinds of things, especially comparative religion. We drove for years together, shared rooms in the early days. We partied, laughed, played. All BOC fans and band members will mourn his death. Ultimately smoking finally got to him. He had been hospitalized with C.O.P.D. It was Allen who heard some old college band tapes of mine and suggested I get a shot as the singer in 1968. A lot of great memories, over 40 years worth. Maybe he’s playing a tune with Jim Carroll right now.”
Courtesy of www.sleazeroxx.com