The album featured songs such as "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", "Stairway to the Stars", and "Then Came the Last Days of May", all of which the band still plays regularly during its concerts.

[2] Blue Öyster Cult toured with artists such as the Byrds, Alice Cooper and the Mahavishnu Orchestra to support the album.

And of course, Sandy Pearlman and Murray Krugman produced that record – so they kept us conceptually...instead of going way off track, they wanted to establish what was going to become Blue Öyster Cult.

"I'm on the Lamb but I Ain't No Sheep" is about a fugitive pursued by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and was originally recorded in 1970 (when the band was known as Oaxaca).

"Then Came the Last Days of May" is based on a reportedly true story, when two friends of Dharma's were killed in a drug deal gone bad in the West:It was still in the Soft White Underbelly days when we were playing dances at Stony Brook University [on Long Island] for our sustenance money.

Guitarist Buck Dharma explains the title as originating in an event witnessed by lyricist/manager Sandy Pearlman in which the titular drug was passed between partners during a kiss.

"Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll" was written by Sandy Pearlman, Donald Roeser and Albert Bouchard, and released as a single.

The riff was inspired by Black Sabbath's song "The Wizard," featured on their own self-titled debut album.

Lester Bangs gave the album a generally positive review in Rolling Stone stating, "with the Blue Öyster Cult, New York has produced its first authentic boogie beast, and with any luck this one should be around for awhile" telling readers that "I don't think you should miss this album.

"[14] Circus wrote that "it could well be the album of the Seventies",[15] while Robert Christgau in The Village Voice called it "the tightest and most musical hard rock record since – dare I say it?

Guitarist William Tyler performs a 2015 solo acoustic instrumental version of "She's as Beautiful as a Foot" on Aquarium Drunkard's "Lagniappe Sessions" page.