Album Review

William Ruhlmann [allmusic.com]

On Your Feet or on Your Knees, Blue Oyster Cult's first live album (there would be two more), was also their first to peak inside the Top 40 best-sellers, which is more of an indication of the audience the group was building up through extensive touring than of its quality. Songs that had a tight, concentrated impact on studio albums got elongated here, and that impact was dissipated. And the song selection left a great deal to be desired if this was to be a fitting summation of the band's career so far. Perhaps by their 1974 tour, BOC had dropped such classics from their first album as ''Transmaniacon MC,'' ''I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep,'' and ''Stairway to the Stars,'' but the less impressive material from the third album was no substitute. The album did mark the first commercial release of a version of ''Buck's Boogie'' as well as covers of the Yardbirds' ''I Ain't Got You'' and Steppenwolf's ''Born to Be Wild.''