![]() The band recorded an album's worth of material for Elektra Records in 1968.īraunstein played his final show as Soft White Underbelly's lead singer in the spring of 1969. In 1968, the band moved in together at their first house in the Thomaston area of Great Neck, New York. Pearlman was important to the band – he was able to get them gigs and recording contracts with Elektra and Columbia, and he provided them with his poetry for use as lyrics for many of their songs, including "Astronomy." Writer Richard Meltzer, also a Stony Brook University student, provided the band with lyrics from their early days up through their most recent studio album. The band's name came from Winston Churchill's description of Italy as "the soft underbelly of the Axis." In October 1967, the band made their debut performance as Steve Noonan's backing band at the Stony Brook University Gymnasium, a gig booked by Pearlman. The band's original lineup consisted of guitarist Roeser, drummer Albert Bouchard, keyboardist Allen Lanier, singers Jeff Kagel (aka Krishna Das) and Les Braunstein and bassist Andrew Winters. Pearlman offered to become the band's manager and creative partner, to which the band agreed. History Early years as Soft White Underbelly (1967–1971) īlue Öyster Cult was formed in 1967 as Soft White Underbelly (a name the group would occasionally use in the 1970s and 1980s to play small club gigs around the United States and UK) in a communal house at Stony Brook University on Long Island when rock critic Sandy Pearlman overheard a jam session consisting of fellow Stony Brook classmate Donald Roeser and his friends. Blue Öyster Cult‘s music videos, especially "Burnin' for You," received heavy rotation on MTV when the music television network premiered in 1981, cementing the band's contribution to the development and success of the music video in modern popular culture. The duo of the band's manager Sandy Pearlman and rock critic Richard Meltzer, who also met at Stony Brook University, played a key role in writing many of the band’s lyrics. The band's current lineup still includes Bloom and Roeser, in addition to Danny Miranda (bass, backing vocals), Richie Castellano (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), and Jules Radino (drums, percussion). Despite, or perhaps due to, their motive to avoid the banality and entrapments of commercial success, the band has developed a cult following and their most popular songs remain classic rock radio staples.īlue Öyster Cult's longest-lasting and the most commercially successful lineup included Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser (lead guitar, vocals), Eric Bloom (lead vocals, " stun guitar", keyboards, synthesizer), Allen Lanier (keyboards, rhythm guitar), Joe Bouchard (bass, vocals, keyboards), and Albert Bouchard (drums, percussion, vocals, miscellaneous instruments). The band's innovative fusion of hard rock with psychedelia, World War II, the occult, fantastical story-telling, and intentionally tongue-in-cheek lyrics had a major influence on heavy metal music. ![]() Despite the band's impassioned intent to keep astray from the pop world, they are still widely known for their hit singles " (Don't Fear) The Reaper", " Burnin' for You", and " Godzilla", the band has sold 25 million records worldwide, including 7 million in the United States. s t ər/ OY-stər sometimes abbreviated BÖC or BOC) is an American rock band formed on Long Island in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967. P.S.-Dharma also wrote BOC’s song that was a tribute to Godzilla.Blue Öyster Cult ( / ˈ ɔɪ. I was thinking about my wife, and that maybe we’d get together after I was gone.” “I wrote the guitar riff, the first two lines of lyric sprung into my head, then the rest of it came as I formed a story about a love affair that transcends death. “I was thinking about my own mortality,” he told Performing Songwriter. Dharma wrote the song while picturing an early death for himself. The song, written and sung by lead guitarist Donald Roeser-known by his stage name, Buck Dharma-deals with eternal love and the inevitability of death. “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” appeared on Blue Oyster Cult’s 1976 album Agents of Fortune. I think it would be cool to hear at funeral.” ![]() People thought it was glorifying suicide and the occult-though it had nothing to do with either. However, here were so many urban legends around it that it caused satanic panic back in the ‘70s. ![]() “‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper’ by Blue Oyster Cult is a classic rock standard that came from the fear of death. ![]()
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