Secret Treaties is the third studio album by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released on April 5, 1974 by Columbia. It features the same band members and production team as their previous album.
The album spent 14 weeks in the US album charts, peaking at No. 53. It was certified gold by the RIAA in 1992.
In 1975, a poll of readers of the British magazine Melody Maker voted Secret Treaties the "Top Rock Album of All Time".
It is the only BÖC album that does not feature a track with lead vocals sung by guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser. The band also did not write any of the lyrics to the album, handing that duty to producer Sandy Pearlman, rock critic Richard Meltzer and singer Patti Smith.
Cover art
The cover, with art by Ron Lesser, depicts the band standing beside and sitting on a German Me 262 fighter aircraft; this scene is inspired by the song of the same name.
While the LP cover has the band name in red (a darker red on the Japanese LP), on the CD it is in lime green.
The compilation Don't Fear the Reaper: The Best of Blue Öyster Cult contains a version of "Flaming Telepaths" without the music box intro. The original version with the complete sound effects is found on the compilation Workshop of the Telescopes.
The psychedelic folk group Espers covers "Flaming Telepaths" on their CD The Weed Tree in 2005.
Release history
In addition to the conventional 2 channel stereo version, the album was also released in a 4 channel quadraphonic version in 1974. The quad mix appeared on both LP record and 8-track tape. The quad LP release was encoded in the SQ matrix system.
The album was reissued on the Super Audio CD format in 2016 by Audio Fidelity. This edition contains both the stereo and quad mixes.
Accolades
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! Publication
! Country
! Accolade
! Year
! Rank
|-
| NME
| UK
| Albums of the Year
| 1974
|align="center"|13
|-
| Dave Marsh & Kevin Stein
| U.S.
| The Best of the Album Chartmakers by Year: 1974
| 1981
|align="center"|36
|-
| Kerrang!
| UK
| The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums of All Time
| 1989
|align="center"|22
|-
| Mojo
| UK
| Mojo 1000 - The Ultimate CD Buyers Guide
| 2001
|align="center"| No order
|-
| Rolling Stone
| U.S.
| The 50 Coolest Records of All Time
| 2002
|align="center"|47
|-
|}
Track listing
Personnel
;Band members
- Eric Bloom – vocals, stun guitar, keyboards
- Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser – lead guitar
- Allen Lanier – keyboards, rhythm guitar, synthesizers, second lead guitar on track 11
- Joe Bouchard – bass, vocals
- Albert Bouchard – drums, vocals
;Production
- Murray Krugman, Sandy Pearlman – producers
- Tim Geelan, Jerry Smith – engineers
- Lehman Yates, Lou Schlossberg – recording
- John Berg – cover design
- Bruce Dickinson – production (2001 remaster)
- Thom Cadley – mixing on tracks 10 and 11 (2001 remaster)
- Vic Anesini – remastering (2001 remaster)
Charts
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|-
! Chart (1974)
! Peak<br/>position
|-
|-
|}