I realize you reactors that have never heard these songs always feel that nostalgic vibe as we do as if you have heard it your entire life as we have...it shows that through music we can tap into the collective consciousness and feel a vibe within it whether we have the memories or not.
I was born in 82 and I feel a nostalgia when I listen to Boston. I always felt as if maybe I grew up in the 70’s and died early, reincarnated and when I hear it again it brings back a collective memory from a past life
This song was written by Buck Dharma, lead guitarist. He was told by his doctor he had a bad heart and had just a few years left. Of course the doctor was totally wrong and 50 years later Buck is still rocking and playing guitar!!!
Bugs!!Beating Gregg Allman w/him pickin @ "Name that Tune" was a lot more Fun!!!Loved that Brother!Many a Backstage&some on!!Met Many&All (mostly,1 bad apple) just the same as You&I.
Buck Dharma is an excellent guitarist in my opinion. He has composed some really good music, much of it never made it to the radio. If you get a chance, listen to some of B.O.C.'s music that they have made. In other words, review their catalog. I would suggest the album "Fire of Unknown Origin"and the albums "Mirrors"and "Imaginos".
BoC is a very versatile band, influences include prog, blues, jazz... Prolific group, had a massive catalogue with some great lyrics. This song has some dark lyrics, which are strangely soothing.
I've always felt that they were referring of course, to death. Don't fear the reaper is pretty self explanatory - don't fear death, it's just another crossroad of life. I would call this rock. Simple as that.
I think of the intense instrumental part as a representation of her fight against an illness. Ultimately, she couldn't fight anymore ("Came the last night of sadness And it was clear she couldn't go on.") Then the reaper (death) came for her, and she wasn't afraid.
Two notes: Don't fear the Reaper is a song played while a virus wiped out humanity during "The Stand" by Stephen King Mini Series. 2nd, there is a great skit about Blue Oyster Cult on Sat Night Live about "MORE COW BELLS" making fun of how many bands added the cow bell sound. My friends would call this psych rock pretending we were sharing a joint during it (or not pretending). It is about suicide
Hi..love this song. And yes in Steven Kings " THE STAND" thought it was one of the best usage of a song to for the mood. Loved it and of course lived the cow bells .you can look that up. SNL Cow bell bit. Also i always think of that old movie"The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" when she's old & quietly passes away on the chair..and just like that..the wind blew and the candle flickered and the curtain blew and then.. HE appeared.. saying 'come on baby take my hand' & she wasn't afraid. Yikes..Man i hope that's true. Anyway awesome reaction.✌
The song is not about suicide, according to the songwriter. It's about the inevitability of death. We all have to do it sometime, whether we want to or not, so just go with the flow. Don't fear the Reaper, he comes for us all.
the man on the cover pic is a fortune teller. he is holding tarot cards. the cards read, "he who comes against the power faces death." the power is pointed to by his other hand.
Incredible band and that song is a masterpiece. I bet you would really like Godzilla. It was also a hit and it has a message about the folly of man. Musically and performance-wise, it's just so fun. So fun.
If you like their base lines you should try their hit “Godzilla”. I remember seeing BOC in 1990 at a small hotel indoor swimming pool (a blizzard canceled the original venue) and they played to just a couple hundred and it was so fun. The singer kept jumping on the diving board while singing. Lol.
Some of the band's members were doing an interview and were saying the song is about a woman whose husband died before her, and now she is sick and dying and her beloved has come to take her, with the help of the reaper, into eternity where they can be together again, forever, like Romero and Juliet
This song was also on Supernatural in the episode where Dean got electrocuted and Sam took him to that blind faith healer, and it turned out it was the preacher's wife who was controlling the reaper; her husband was only able to heal people because while he was healing someone the reaper was sucking away some innocent person's life force to feed it into the sick person. The blind preacher heals Dean but Dean figures out something bad had actually happened to make him well, and the preacher's wife sends the reaper to kill Dean before he and Sam can ruin her little faith healing setup (her husband didn't even know he wasn't actually healing anyone himself!). That was a great episode, if you go back and rewatch it you hear part of this song when that reaper is after someone! I believe it's from season 1.
@@MugnifyRTS Hi. First off ..fanatical fan of Supernatural here..psssst ..they don't have a bad episode...em hem..so.. season one episode 12 .. unsurprisingly entitled 'Faith' . absolutely heartbreaking awesome episode.i think all 15 seasons use songs perfectly season 2 episode 12 the song renegade used its fantastic it really sticks in your mind✌
One of the main reasons this song was so popular when released and still so popular now, the lyrics are written very loose. While Buck definitely had ideas he was trying to convey, he did so in a way that left room for personal interpretation. This song means a lot of very different things to each person who hears it and many of them hold those associations and meanings to be incredibly dear. Then there's the whole fucking Cowbell sketch from SNL, but that's not really as important as the music and lyrics themselves.
Great song. I have their CDs. They play this song at the end of one of the 8 episodes of "1899." Great show on Netflix, btw. This is Rock-n-Roll. 100%. I grew up with this stuff.
that absolutely ripping guitar solo intro is one of the greatest moments in the history of rock music, just devastating when that guitar blast screams in. I was a little disappointed you weren't more moved by it, but taste is subjective.
I've had the pleasure of seeing them live twice. My favorite BOC song and always will be. The beginning of Stephen King's "The Stand" (1994 and best version) features this at the beginning. Some folks back when this was on the radio every day thought it was encouraging suicide but deep down it's a love song. "The love of two is one". Another band with this kind of vibe and depth you need to check out if you haven't already is Kansas. Fun fact: Before they were Blue Oyster Cult, they were The Great White Underbelly.
I haven't read all comments, but as a long time boc fan, you pretty much nailed it. We must all greet the reaper at some point. Don't fear the inevitable. Good reac. I subscribed.
Nice job getting the meaning of the song the first time. I've been watching several other reactions to this song and most didn't. I'm sure they will. But for sure, don't fear death, it is part of life and there is no avoiding it.
I am pretty sure that BÖC was the first group to use the umlaut, i.e., the two dots over a vowel. Umlaut: A change in a vowel sound caused by partial assimilation especially to a vowel or semivowel occurring in the following syllable. If you ever watch the Spinal Tap movie, they put the umlaut over the "N."
Style-wise, this is hard rock, but it's on the smoother/mellower side (except for the guitar solo). Buck Dharma, the writer of this tune is a genius at pairing dark lyrics with a breezy groove. It's definitely about death, but the actual statement is somewhat open to interpretation. A lot of people think it's about suicide, but I don't think it is (in the early 80s people thought almost everything was about suicide). I think there's a story about a ghost or maybe the Reaper himself guiding the woman into the afterlife or something like that. BOC is worth checking out in more depth. Some of their songs that weren't huge hits are really interesting. They had several people in the band writing songs - some of whom were outside lyricists, so there's a huge variety of styles and subjects. There's macabre stuff like this ("Nosferatu", "Tainted Blood" etc), silly horror movie type stuff ("Godzilla", "Joan Crawford"), fantasy Dungeons and Dragons type stuff ("Black Blade", "The Alchemist"), love songs ("In Thee"), science fiction-ish stuff ("Astronomy," "Veteran of the Psychic Wars"), and straight up rockers ("Career of Evil," "R U Ready 2 Rock" (years before Prince, btw), "That Was Me" "The Marshall Plan")
Unlike other songs about the death of a lover, this one is accepting it as a natural process that is just a part of life and death is not to be feared. And perfectly written, played and performed.
Sorry, i found you a few days ago and bingewatch your Toolreactions now. And i recognized, that you haven´t heard ticks and leeches. I love the drums there. I'm looking forward to it if you listen to it 😁
For many who are suffering, or, who are ready to meet the Lord, the death angel is a beautiful and welcome sight. My grandmother exclaimed joy just before she died. She saw something and she embraced it.
They made up their own term for this style of song that they put out. They called it power pop. This didn’t really take off as an official terminology among people. It’s always the intention of the artist to let the listeners interpret their songs. Buck Dharma the vocalist and writer of the song says the song is a love song about life after death. I heard a DJ one time say that he thought it was a vampire suducing an young woman into becoming a vampire. But it’s really up to the listener to make their own decisions about the song. The overall thing is that the listeners enjoy the music.
I heard Buck say in an interview that when they first started, they wanted to be a psychedelic band, like a NYC area version of The Grateful Dead, but they ended up sounding like themselves instead. He said Garcia was one of his favorite guitarists and when asked if he could play any instrument in any other band besides BOC, he said he'd like to have played guitar with The Dead. This supports the observations that it was versatility, not a sound, that they got from the Dead. 🤟🧙♂️🤟
You can always restart BOC 👍Like others have said, this is 70's rock. I would add that BOC feels/sounds more like early progressive rock. Anyway, whatever you call it 🔥 More to explore that you would like. If you dig this try "Godzilla", "Burning for You", "I Love the Night".
It's not about suicide. According to Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, who wrote, sang lead and was lead guitarist on the song, the song was written after he received a diagnosis of an irregular heartbeat. Fearing that he wouldn't live very long, his thoughts took off. What he realized that should he die early, he hoped he would be reunited with loved ones that had passed previously. That was comforting. As he said in interviews, it is a love song where that love transcends the physical existence. It helped him to realize that we should fear the inevitability of death. People always interpret the "Romeo and Juliet" line as advocating for suicide or suicide pacts. In fact, Romeo and Juliet never had a suicide pact. In the play, Juliet is given a potion by a friar that will simulate death. She hopes that her family, who had always been strictly against her romance with Romeo, would find her body and regret that they had been so determinedly against their love. Unfortunately, Romeo finds her body first. Thinking she was actually dead, Romeo kills himself, not wanting to go on without her and hoping to reunite with her in the afterlife. Juliet awakens from the effects of the potion, sees Romeo lying dead, and kills herself - again not wanting to live the rest of her life without him and hoping to be together with him in the afterlife. Neither of their deaths were planned or an agreed upon thing. They were spur of the moment decisions. Regarding the line "40,000 men and women everyday", Dharma said that he was guessing at the number of people that died everyday, of all causes, not just suicide. He missed the mark by about 95,000 as about 135,000 people died everyday at the time the song was written.
It's gothic blues rock. Buck Dharma didn't help matters when he cited Romeo and Juliet, which naturally leads one to a theme of suicide, not natural death. Only after many years when I finally could get hold of the lyrics did I realize that the theme was losing the fear of death. And he further screwed up by citing "40,000 men and women everyday." Well that represents _neither_ the annual number of suicides _nor_ deaths in a day. But hey, the _song_ is fire!!! And the other songs from this album are awesome, especially when Patti Smith joins in. Enjoy!
I'm with Tupac on this: it's really rebirth that scares me. Blue Öyster Cult's lyrics are not only highly metaphorical but also metaphysical in nature. Your analysis of the lyrics was perfect - life, death, rebirth in a never-ending reincarnational cycle. It is said that it is possible to transcend and forever escape this dark carnival called "existence" but each one of us has only until one's final breath to find the path, retrace one's steps and jump the cosmic queue. Thanks for posting this!
At first between the Romeo and Juliet thing and the 3rd verse I thought it was about suicide. But it’s not. It’s about not fearing death, embrace it as part of life and you’ll be free
While there are people who think that "Don't Fear the Reaper" is about suicide. It's not really, it IS about death, and its inevitablity. It's not something to fear, it's just the natural end of a life.
That is rock and roll. And that’s not a bass line. That’s Buck Dharma playing an electric guitar. Don’t know which one on this original version. He has a bunch of them. This song is about love that transcends death. He passes away 1st and she has to live on, in sadness, without him. But eventually she passes too and he’s there waiting for her and they’re together again. It’s about true love that never dies. There’s a live version on the album, Some Enchanted Evening. It’s a rare example of a live performance being as good as the original album version and, in this case, even just a little better in that there’s a magnificent guitar solo finale. Damn it’s good!👍
This is a 1974 song about suicide, the 70s had such classic songs with real music , not like this music of today, 63 and forever will listen to the old school songs
We came upon a Brother that just wrecked His Car Bad&when we&Police got there This Was Blaring!Took Him a while But Came thtough&Bro He was on the Borderline of here&Gone!
picture this ,a woman on her death and her dead lover comes too tell her its ok to let go and join him in the ever after, the drum trans is them reuniting and going into the forever together
Although I'm not a CZcams reactor like yourself, if I'm sure of song lyrics I just click the 'cc' button in the lower right side of the player and get closed captioning. I'm using it right now on your reaction. And by the way, Don't Fear the Reaper is just a great example of 70s classic rock, not what I'd call nostalgic at all. It's just their style. In the band's later years they turned to a softer rock style and still remained relevant. Good reaction. You worked on the words a lot, trying to sort out the song's meaning. I applaud you for that. Keep it up, man. I just liked and subscribed.
I 4get who said as quote. Nutn is sure in life but death n taxes ... We all gonna go on our final trip can't change it. Try not to fear a 4. Sure thing
One of the 70's greatest bands, all but forgotten except a few gems of songs. Their catalog is so deep and good, you can really just pick 5 songs at random (maybe a few from each era) and not hear the same thing twice. They were managed by the same guy as Black Sabbath and toured together in the 80's. Seriously, just pick any song from their classic era and any song off their latest album (only a few years ago) and i bet youll like at least one, if not both. As they used to say in the recird biz back then, the albuma are "All killer, no filler" every track is a banger. 🤟🧙♂️🤟 Rich the Ancient Metal Beast
The vibe is 70s rock,can't beat it !!!!
💯
We called it war music. Viet Nam was going on, and the guys were coming home. Welcome Home.
I realize you reactors that have never heard these songs always feel that nostalgic vibe as we do as if you have heard it your entire life as we have...it shows that through music we can tap into the collective consciousness and feel a vibe within it whether we have the memories or not.
well said!
Thank you. @@karenmandeville7116
I was born in 82 and I feel a nostalgia when I listen to Boston. I always felt as if maybe I grew up in the 70’s and died early, reincarnated and when I hear it again it brings back a collective memory from a past life
Interesting...I was born in 72 and I feel that within the late 60s era.@@johncarpenter3751
Couldn’t of said it better.
This song was written by Buck Dharma, lead guitarist. He was told by his doctor he had a bad heart and had just a few years left.
Of course the doctor was totally wrong and 50 years later Buck is still rocking and playing guitar!!!
Buck's about 5'5"&My 6'5" Bro got to Jam onstage w/1 of His Heroes!Great Band&Players!!
@@alansnowdeal9845 so cool.
definitely one to brag about for a lifetime!
Bugs!!Beating Gregg Allman w/him pickin @ "Name that Tune" was a lot more Fun!!!Loved that Brother!Many a Backstage&some on!!Met Many&All (mostly,1 bad apple) just the same as You&I.
Buck, in an interview said this was a love song.
Buck Dharma is an excellent guitarist in my opinion. He has composed some really good music, much of it never made it to the radio. If you get a chance, listen to some of B.O.C.'s music that they have made. In other words, review their catalog. I would suggest the album "Fire of Unknown Origin"and the albums "Mirrors"and "Imaginos".
This is Classic Rock at its finest
BoC is a very versatile band, influences include prog, blues, jazz... Prolific group, had a massive catalogue with some great lyrics.
This song has some dark lyrics, which are strangely soothing.
Not really dark, they are just saying don't fear what's coming for everyone. That's all.
Good analogy.🤘⚡
Nearly 50 years old holy cow it's amazing
At the time we didn't really worry about the genre of music. Rock, pop, country, jazz, whatever, if it sounded good we liked it.
I've always felt that they were referring of course, to death. Don't fear the reaper is pretty self explanatory - don't fear death, it's just another crossroad of life.
I would call this rock. Simple as that.
Exactly. For me it's as simple as that too. We don't always have to try to find a deep message in everything.
That's what I got from the song. Death us a part of life.
I think of the intense instrumental part as a representation of her fight against an illness. Ultimately, she couldn't fight anymore ("Came the last night of sadness
And it was clear she couldn't go on.") Then the reaper (death) came for her, and she wasn't afraid.
This band will keep you interested throughout their catalog. Some really good music awaits you
This band is Godzilla
True!
Two notes: Don't fear the Reaper is a song played while a virus wiped out humanity during "The Stand" by Stephen King Mini Series.
2nd, there is a great skit about Blue Oyster Cult on Sat Night Live about "MORE COW BELLS" making fun of how many bands added the cow bell sound. My friends would call this psych rock pretending we were sharing a joint during it (or not pretending). It is about suicide
Itvwas also used in Halloween. They were getting high driving around in the station wagon.
Hi..love this song. And yes in Steven Kings " THE STAND" thought it was one of the best usage of a song to for the mood. Loved it and of course lived the cow bells .you can look that up. SNL Cow bell bit. Also i always think of that old movie"The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" when she's old & quietly passes away on the chair..and just like that..the wind blew and the candle flickered and the curtain blew and then.. HE appeared.. saying 'come on baby take my hand' & she wasn't afraid. Yikes..Man i hope that's true. Anyway awesome reaction.✌
The song is not about suicide, according to the songwriter. It's about the inevitability of death. We all have to do it sometime, whether we want to or not, so just go with the flow. Don't fear the Reaper, he comes for us all.
An unappreciated aspect of this song is the harmonization of the band members; Buck and Eric weren’t the only singers/voices.
Great SNL skit back in the day: More Cowbell!!!
My favorite bit about that skit was Buck trying to keep a straight face through it. Every time he looks a Will Ferrell he nearly loses it.
This music was called “hard rock” back when it was created. Today most would call it “classic rock”. One of my all-time favorite bands.
One of the greatest riffs in rock history.
Starting the song with the riff puts it up there with "Whole Lotta Love" and "Smoke on the Water"
Exactly!
the man on the cover pic is a fortune teller. he is holding tarot cards. the cards read, "he who comes against the power faces death." the power is pointed to by his other hand.
BOC is Big Time Mugz, ya really should checkout "Godzilla" and "Black Blade" from these guys.... I call their style Sinister!
Classic rock, you can't beat riding your motorbike with this playing through your earphones
Incredible band and that song is a masterpiece. I bet you would really like Godzilla. It was also a hit and it has a message about the folly of man. Musically and performance-wise, it's just so fun. So fun.
This is playing on the radio when Jamie Lee and Annie are getting high in the car with Micheal Myers following them in a station wagon
If you like their base lines you should try their hit “Godzilla”.
I remember seeing BOC in 1990 at a small hotel indoor swimming pool (a blizzard canceled the original venue) and they played to just a couple hundred and it was so fun. The singer kept jumping on the diving board while singing. Lol.
Some of the band's members were doing an interview and were saying the song is about a woman whose husband died before her, and now she is sick and dying and her beloved has come to take her, with the help of the reaper, into eternity where they can be together again, forever, like Romero and Juliet
The magician guy on the L.P. cover represents the whole L.P., not just the song.
I would say that the level of talent transcends genres & time.
It's just rock and roll. We heard this back in high school, we grew up on it. I'm glad you dig it. 👍
Three more great BOC songs are: 1) Burnin' For You 2) Debbie Denise (About a cat) 3) Shooting Shark (Look for 7 min. long version). Enjoy!
This song was also on Supernatural in the episode where Dean got electrocuted and Sam took him to that blind faith healer, and it turned out it was the preacher's wife who was controlling the reaper; her husband was only able to heal people because while he was healing someone the reaper was sucking away some innocent person's life force to feed it into the sick person. The blind preacher heals Dean but Dean figures out something bad had actually happened to make him well, and the preacher's wife sends the reaper to kill Dean before he and Sam can ruin her little faith healing setup (her husband didn't even know he wasn't actually healing anyone himself!). That was a great episode, if you go back and rewatch it you hear part of this song when that reaper is after someone! I believe it's from season 1.
Hmm... That's interesting YOu remember what episode number?
@@MugnifyRTS
Hi. First off ..fanatical fan of Supernatural here..psssst ..they don't have a bad episode...em hem..so.. season one episode 12 .. unsurprisingly entitled 'Faith' . absolutely heartbreaking awesome episode.i think all 15 seasons use songs perfectly season 2 episode 12 the song renegade used its fantastic it really sticks in your mind✌
One of the main reasons this song was so popular when released and still so popular now, the lyrics are written very loose. While Buck definitely had ideas he was trying to convey, he did so in a way that left room for personal interpretation.
This song means a lot of very different things to each person who hears it and many of them hold those associations and meanings to be incredibly dear.
Then there's the whole fucking Cowbell sketch from SNL, but that's not really as important as the music and lyrics themselves.
More cowbell please
🤣😂🤣 That SNL sketch is the best... Will Ferrell is sooooo dumb in it that it's freaking hysterical!!!😜@@Nicknine72
That SNL sketch is probably just as famous as the actual song
Cities on Flame With Rock and Roll is my favorite song of theirs.
Vengeance, the Pact is my favorite.
Great song. I have their CDs.
They play this song at the end of one of the 8 episodes of "1899."
Great show on Netflix, btw.
This is Rock-n-Roll. 100%. I grew up with this stuff.
that absolutely ripping guitar solo intro is one of the greatest moments in the history of rock music, just devastating when that guitar blast screams in. I was a little disappointed you weren't more moved by it, but taste is subjective.
6:03 I interpret that interlude as the protagonist doing the ultimate sin-suicide.
I've had the pleasure of seeing them live twice.
My favorite BOC song and always will be.
The beginning of Stephen King's "The Stand" (1994 and best version) features this at the beginning.
Some folks back when this was on the radio every day thought it was encouraging suicide but deep down it's a love song.
"The love of two is one".
Another band with this kind of vibe and depth you need to check out if you haven't already is Kansas.
Fun fact: Before they were Blue Oyster Cult, they were The Great White Underbelly.
He’s a vampire. In the beginning this song was about vampires. However, BÖC changed the narrative later on.
So many layers. This, I would consider this to be on the lower end of Orchestral Rock.
One of the coolest things I've ever heard 😊like ice cold lemonade on a scorcher of aday
I have a sickness, and the only cure is more cowbell.
Soooo right!!! Can never go wrong with more cowbell!!!
There was a time in human history that the thought of an eternity with more cowbell was not looked on with joy.
Truly the dark ages.
I haven't read all comments, but as a long time boc fan, you pretty much nailed it. We must all greet the reaper at some point. Don't fear the inevitable. Good reac. I subscribed.
More cow bell😂😂
More Cowbell. SNL classic skit.
More cowbell!
this is progressive rock at its finest.
Nice job getting the meaning of the song the first time. I've been watching several other reactions to this song and most didn't. I'm sure they will. But for sure, don't fear death, it is part of life and there is no avoiding it.
Excellent Excellent song,, great band
This song just makes me 😁
"That's quite the changeup."
Yes, the Reaper is coming!
I have a strong feeling you'd like the Zombies, Time of the Season. Oh, and I'll thrown in She's Not There, as a bonus.
Beginning of the rock n roll scene !!
I am pretty sure that BÖC was the first group to use the umlaut, i.e., the two dots over a vowel. Umlaut: A change in a vowel sound caused by partial assimilation especially to a vowel or semivowel occurring in the following syllable.
If you ever watch the Spinal Tap movie, they put the umlaut over the "N."
They were the first to use the umlaut. Other bands followed, such as Motley Crue.
- - - - - MORE COWBELL ! - - - - - Christoper Walken, SNL circa Y2K . . . . .
Not too many songs take you on a musical journey… this one does.
Style-wise, this is hard rock, but it's on the smoother/mellower side (except for the guitar solo). Buck Dharma, the writer of this tune is a genius at pairing dark lyrics with a breezy groove.
It's definitely about death, but the actual statement is somewhat open to interpretation. A lot of people think it's about suicide, but I don't think it is (in the early 80s people thought almost everything was about suicide). I think there's a story about a ghost or maybe the Reaper himself guiding the woman into the afterlife or something like that.
BOC is worth checking out in more depth. Some of their songs that weren't huge hits are really interesting. They had several people in the band writing songs - some of whom were outside lyricists, so there's a huge variety of styles and subjects. There's macabre stuff like this ("Nosferatu", "Tainted Blood" etc), silly horror movie type stuff ("Godzilla", "Joan Crawford"), fantasy Dungeons and Dragons type stuff ("Black Blade", "The Alchemist"), love songs ("In Thee"), science fiction-ish stuff ("Astronomy," "Veteran of the Psychic Wars"), and straight up rockers ("Career of Evil," "R U Ready 2 Rock" (years before Prince, btw), "That Was Me" "The Marshall Plan")
Veteran of a Thousand Physic Wars and Vengeance the Pact are really good.
Unlike other songs about the death of a lover, this one is accepting it as a natural process that is just a part of life and death is not to be feared. And perfectly written, played and performed.
Great reaction and comments! Truthfully, I've enjoyed this song since first hearing it but never contemplated it's meaning.
Sorry, i found you a few days ago and bingewatch your Toolreactions now. And i recognized, that you haven´t heard ticks and leeches. I love the drums there. I'm looking forward to it if you listen to it 😁
There are only a few bands in my opinion that can achieve this level of sophistication and complexity. Blue Oyster Cult, Tool, and Rush come to mind.
You got it they took you on a journey we're all going to have to take someday don't fear it
For many who are suffering, or, who are ready to meet the Lord, the death angel is a beautiful and welcome sight. My grandmother exclaimed joy just before she died. She saw something and she embraced it.
They made up their own term for this style of song that they put out. They called it power pop. This didn’t really take off as an official terminology among people. It’s always the intention of the artist to let the listeners interpret their songs. Buck Dharma the vocalist and writer of the song says the song is a love song about life after death. I heard a DJ one time say that he thought it was a vampire suducing an young woman into becoming a vampire. But it’s really up to the listener to make their own decisions about the song. The overall thing is that the listeners enjoy the music.
I heard Buck say in an interview that when they first started, they wanted to be a psychedelic band, like a NYC area version of The Grateful Dead, but they ended up sounding like themselves instead. He said Garcia was one of his favorite guitarists and when asked if he could play any instrument in any other band besides BOC, he said he'd like to have played guitar with The Dead.
This supports the observations that it was versatility, not a sound, that they got from the Dead.
🤟🧙♂️🤟
I graduated in 1977
You can always restart BOC 👍Like others have said, this is 70's rock. I would add that BOC feels/sounds more like early progressive rock. Anyway, whatever you call it 🔥 More to explore that you would like. If you dig this try "Godzilla", "Burning for You", "I Love the Night".
Always thought it was about suicide. "Romeo and Juliet, together in eternity. We can be like they are. 40,000 men and women everyday...."
It's not about suicide. According to Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, who wrote, sang lead and was lead guitarist on the song, the song was written after he received a diagnosis of an irregular heartbeat. Fearing that he wouldn't live very long, his thoughts took off. What he realized that should he die early, he hoped he would be reunited with loved ones that had passed previously. That was comforting. As he said in interviews, it is a love song where that love transcends the physical existence. It helped him to realize that we should fear the inevitability of death.
People always interpret the "Romeo and Juliet" line as advocating for suicide or suicide pacts. In fact, Romeo and Juliet never had a suicide pact. In the play, Juliet is given a potion by a friar that will simulate death. She hopes that her family, who had always been strictly against her romance with Romeo, would find her body and regret that they had been so determinedly against their love. Unfortunately, Romeo finds her body first. Thinking she was actually dead, Romeo kills himself, not wanting to go on without her and hoping to reunite with her in the afterlife. Juliet awakens from the effects of the potion, sees Romeo lying dead, and kills herself - again not wanting to live the rest of her life without him and hoping to be together with him in the afterlife. Neither of their deaths were planned or an agreed upon thing. They were spur of the moment decisions.
Regarding the line "40,000 men and women everyday", Dharma said that he was guessing at the number of people that died everyday, of all causes, not just suicide. He missed the mark by about 95,000 as about 135,000 people died everyday at the time the song was written.
It's gothic blues rock. Buck Dharma didn't help matters when he cited Romeo and Juliet, which naturally leads one to a theme of suicide, not natural death. Only after many years when I finally could get hold of the lyrics did I realize that the theme was losing the fear of death. And he further screwed up by citing "40,000 men and women everyday." Well that represents _neither_ the annual number of suicides _nor_ deaths in a day. But hey, the _song_ is fire!!! And the other songs from this album are awesome, especially when Patti Smith joins in. Enjoy!
I'm with Tupac on this: it's really rebirth that scares me. Blue Öyster Cult's lyrics are not only highly metaphorical but also metaphysical in nature. Your analysis of the lyrics was perfect - life, death, rebirth in a never-ending reincarnational cycle. It is said that it is possible to transcend and forever escape this dark carnival called "existence" but each one of us has only until one's final breath to find the path, retrace one's steps and jump the cosmic queue.
Thanks for posting this!
Always on the playlist! ❤
At first between the Romeo and Juliet thing and the 3rd verse I thought it was about suicide. But it’s not. It’s about not fearing death, embrace it as part of life and you’ll be free
British Classic 70's rock...
Blue Oyster Cult is from California.
BOC Then Came the Last Days of May. Off their self titled debut album.
Great song more cowbells
While there are people who think that "Don't Fear the Reaper" is about suicide. It's not really, it IS about death, and its inevitablity. It's not something to fear, it's just the natural end of a life.
Rock. Its just rock n roll.
I like your insight into this song. Good job!
“Burning For You & Astronomy next por favor
BOC sound track of my childhood 👍
The style is “classic rock”
It's rock n roll
Just go with it
That was great man!
My high school days days ❤
That is rock and roll. And that’s not a bass line. That’s Buck Dharma playing an electric guitar. Don’t know which one on this original version. He has a bunch of them. This song is about love that transcends death. He passes away 1st and she has to live on, in sadness, without him. But eventually she passes too and he’s there waiting for her and they’re together again. It’s about true love that never dies.
There’s a live version on the album, Some Enchanted Evening. It’s a rare example of a live performance being as good as the original album version and, in this case, even just a little better in that there’s a magnificent guitar solo finale. Damn it’s good!👍
We called it soft rock.
This is a 1974 song about suicide, the 70s had such classic songs with real music , not like this music of today, 63 and forever will listen to the old school songs
We came upon a Brother that just wrecked His Car Bad&when we&Police got there This Was Blaring!Took Him a while But Came thtough&Bro He was on the Borderline of here&Gone!
I'd say this song fall somewhere in the rock pop genre.
The style? It’s called the 70’s.
picture this ,a woman on her death and her dead lover comes too tell her its ok to let go and join him in the ever after, the drum trans is them reuniting and going into the forever together
the tempo and beat is up the lyrics are dark and down a story of death and suicide while saying be brave and don't fear the envied
My ZILLIONTH & one time listening to Reaper but that is A OKAY!!😊😎🔴
I feel like this song is about a man coming back for his soulmate when she is close to death to spend eternity with him
I'll try something new from Blue Oyster Cult get the other side of them and listen to the song called Godzilla you're going to dig it
Although I'm not a CZcams reactor like yourself, if I'm sure of song lyrics I just click the 'cc' button in the lower right side of the player and get closed captioning. I'm using it right now on your reaction. And by the way, Don't Fear the Reaper is just a great example of 70s classic rock, not what I'd call nostalgic at all. It's just their style. In the band's later years they turned to a softer rock style and still remained relevant.
Good reaction. You worked on the words a lot, trying to sort out the song's meaning. I applaud you for that. Keep it up, man. I just liked and subscribed.
I 4get who said as quote. Nutn is sure in life but death n taxes ... We all gonna go on our final trip can't change it. Try not to fear a 4. Sure thing
1:02 It's pop/country, which was why this song and album took so many BÖC fans off gaurd. The thing is it sold.
One of the 70's greatest bands, all but forgotten except a few gems of songs. Their catalog is so deep and good, you can really just pick 5 songs at random (maybe a few from each era) and not hear the same thing twice.
They were managed by the same guy as Black Sabbath and toured together in the 80's.
Seriously, just pick any song from their classic era and any song off their latest album (only a few years ago) and i bet youll like at least one, if not both.
As they used to say in the recird biz back then, the albuma are "All killer, no filler" every track is a banger.
🤟🧙♂️🤟
Rich the Ancient Metal Beast
The instrumental interlude seems to be the suicide itself. The soft fast drum beat is the anxious heartbeat that then slows down.
I don't think it's suicide more of an illness or age.
You gotta listen to Godzilla next
well it is 50 years old
First record I ever bought...
❤
I’ve got a fever! And the only prescription is more cowbell! 😊
I believe this tune was banned from commercial radio play as the powers that be considered that it promoted teen suicide ffs
I would say 70s classic music