Soft White Underbelly: 1968–1971 One day in late 1968 some members of the band Soft White Underbelly, Donald Roeser (later
Buck Dharma),
Allen Lanier and Andrew Winters, entered the music store where Bloom was working. One of them spotted a photo that Bloom had put up as a joke—he had placed an 8x10 glossy of his old band Lost and Found up on the wall with all the major bands such as the
Rolling Stones and
The Who. One of the SWU members recognized it because Les Braunstein, their lead singer, had also been a Hobart College alumnus, and had told his bandmates about the other college band. As Bloom talked with them about the photo, they struck up a friendship. Bloom ended up doing some sound engineering for them at the
Electric Circus in
Greenwich Village, and they mutually impressed each other enough that in November 1968, the band's manager,
Sandy Pearlman, asked if Bloom would like to become their tour manager. Bloom moved into the group's house in
Great Neck, New York, in December 1968.
Blue Öyster Cult: 1972–present In April 1969, when lead singer Braunstein dropped out of the group, Bloom became the band's vocalist. The band went through several name changes, but in 1971 settled on Blue Öyster Cult. Their first album was released by
Columbia Records in 1972. In 1976, their platinum album
Agents of Fortune with its hit "
(Don't Fear) the Reaper" launched the band into international fame, though that particular song was sung and written by lead guitarist
Buck Dharma. Both
Creem readers and
Rolling Stone critics'''' voted "Don't Fear the Reaper" as the top single of the year. Bloom bought his own house in Great Neck in 1976.
Outside work Bloom is known for being an avid reader, especially science fiction and fantasy novels. He once sent a fan letter to English science-fiction author
Michael Moorcock, and then collaborated with him on three songs. "
Black Blade" was written from the point of view of Moorcock's
Elric character, and the other two were "
The Great Sun Jester" and "
Veteran of the Psychic Wars", the latter of which was used in the original
Heavy Metal movie. Bloom also collaborated with author
Eric Van Lustbader on the song "Shadow Warrior", and in 1998, 2001 and 2020 with
cyberpunk author
John Shirley on the
Heaven Forbid,
Curse of the Hidden Mirror and
The Symbol Remains albums. In 2006, Bloom began a partnership with artist Philippe Renaudin, to create and sell six elaborately painted custom-made guitars, each one of which interprets a different Blue Öyster Cult song, and each of which was played during BÖC performances. ==References==