Sandy Pearlman (born Samuel C. Pearlman) is an American music producer, manager, poet, and songwriter. He is best known for his work with the band Blue Öyster Cult, though he also produced bands such as The Dictators, the Clash, Pavlov's Dog, and Dream Syndicate (of the Los Angeles Paisley Underground scene).

Biography

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Pearlman graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1966, where he had been Student President. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in the History of Ideas, and completed graduate work at Brandeis University. He was also a New School Fellow in Sociology and Anthropology.

During this time he wrote a series of poems called Imaginos, whose characters and lyrics would feature in his later career.

In 1967 he was one of the original rock music critics for Crawdaddy! magazine, along with Paul Williams, Jon Landau and Richard Meltzer. He is widely regarded as the originator of the term "heavy metal music."

Pearlman is also hailed (or blamed) by The Village Voice for creating "the Triumph of the Will guitar sound."

He came up with the name for the band "Blue Oyster Cult", based on a group in one of his Imaginos poems. He also originated the name of the pre-BOC band "Soft White Underbelly", taking the phrase from a speech by Winston Churchill in World War II. It is believed by many music industry insiders that Christopher Walken's portrayal of the record producer in the Saturday Night Live skit "More Cowbell" was based on Pearlman.

In 1989 he took over as president of the alternative record company 415 Records and established a production and distribution deal for the label with MCA Records. In the late 1990s, he became one of the first 25 employees of e-music.com, serving as their vice-president. He also served as vice-president of marketing for MoodLogic.com from 2000 - 2003.

Pearlman is presently an adjunct Professor of music technology at McGill University in Montreal. He is in high demand as a public speaker, giving lectures about the future of the music industry, strategies for remonetizing music downloads, and the history of heavy metal music.

Awards

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• Recipient of more than 15 gold and platinum records

Trivia

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• A character representing Pearlman was played by Christopher Walken in the Saturday Night Live More Cowbell parody skit of the making of "(Don't Fear) the Reaper". However the name used was mistakenly that of Bruce Dickinson, another CBS records producer who compiled B.O.C. reissues -- but never produced any in-studio tracks (not to be confused with Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden's lead singer).

References

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• Sandy Pearlman's website
• The Village Voice, BÖC reviews by Robert Christgau
• Blue Oyster Cult FAQ
• Hot Rails: BOC Fan Site

American musicians | American record producers | American songwriters | Living people | Managers

Sandy Pearlman