| Blue Öyster Cult – Live For Me Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| The story of 2 brothers with a psychic link, where one is killed by a drunk driver, but tells his brother to live his life for him -- enjoy it, but do it smart so that he'll survive. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Real World Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Everything is subjective, and miracles are hiding just over the horizon. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Damaged Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Longing to be a better person, but having a dark side that you enjoy. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Hammer Back Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| A feeling that you have to be prepared at all times, because the world is a dangerous and uncertain place. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – X-Ray Eyes Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Inspired by a Ray Milland movie, "The Man With The X-Ray Eyes", it's about seeing things beyond what most of us can normally see, and why such a gift may be a curse. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Power Underneath Despair Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| A story of a guy betrayed into jail by some gangsters, and his revenge. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – See You In Black Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Someone trying to convince a woman to kill her husband because he beats her up. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Demon's Kiss Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| The dangers of going with the darker desires. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Heavy Metal : The Black and Silver Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The lyrics to the song, "Heavy Metal: The Black And Silver" were inspired by the 1977 book, *The Iron Sun: Crossing The Universe Through Black Holes*, by Adrian Berry. Several of the lyrics to the first verse are derived from chapter titles of the book. The chapters to Part One (Through the Black Hole) are titled as follows: Where Matter Vanishes The Spinning Gateway Into the Whirlpool The Forbidden Circle Part Two (The Iron Sun) begins with (1) The Arm of Orion. According to "Morning Final #14", the songs "Vengeance (The Pact)" and "Don't Turn Your Back" were written following the script of the movie "Heavy Metal", with "Heavy Metal: The Black And Silver" also being inspired by the movie, but not directly from the script. |
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| Blue Öyster Cult – Unknown Tongue Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| According to the *NME* article, the song "Unknown Tongue" is a true story about a girl that David Roter (co-author of the song) used to know. Apparently a nice Catholic girl, she had a fetish for cutting her big toe with a razor and drinking some of her blood. Of course, in the BOC song, the girl cuts her palm, not her toe. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Monsters Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| According to the "SF-References-In-Music List" (copyright by Rich Kulawiec), the song "Monsters" is about a small group of people who escape a ravaged Earth but wind up battling each other over one of the women. An article in the British magazine *NME* referred to the song as being about "gang bangs and piracy in hyperspace". | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – The Marshall Plan Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The song "The Marshall Plan" details the story of a teenager who loses his girlfriend at a rock concert to the band, and, inspired by the experience, becomes a rock star himself. The song's title no doubt comes from the U.S. economic aid program for the reconstruction of post-WWII Europe of the same name. This program was intended in part to improve U.S. relations with Europe, however in some cases, some of the countries remained apathetic (or even hostile) towards the U.S. Similarly, while "Johnny" becomes a rock star in part to win back his girl, "still he reaches out, but Suzy's disappeared." Of course, it is likely that the title is a play on words where Marshall refers to amplifiers of the same name. Thus, Johnny's plan ("I ain't playin' no surf music - I'm gonna play some heavy music - I'm gonna play bad - I'm gonna play loud") to win Suzy back no doubt requires the use of lots of Marshall amplifiers. |
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| Blue Öyster Cult – Lips In The Hills Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The song "Lips In The Hills" may refer to an incident in July of 1947 known as "The Roswell Incident". Supposedly, a UFO crashed in the hills in or near Roswell, New Mexico, although this was denied/covered-up by the U.S. Air Force (originally saying it was a weather balloon). Many people in the area at the time supposedly saw/heard strange things going on right before the crash. The USAF recently released a report on the incident, revealing that the "UFO" was part of a secret government program, known as Project Mogul, to spy on the Soviet Union's nuclear weapon development. High-altitude balloons were equipped with special sensors and radar reflectors to detect atomic testing, but the project was canceled, with the balloons being allowed to fall back to earth. It is likely that flying saucer enthusiasts will remain skeptical of the USAF's report. While this interpretation may be valid, Eric Bloom once told some BOC fans that the original concept of "Lips In The Hills" was about breast feeding. |
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| Blue Öyster Cult – Divine Wind Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The song "Divine Wind", originally entitled "Ayatollah", was written by BOC as sort of an "Anti-Iran" song. During the time the song came out, Iran had been holding U.S. citizens hostage for many months. The lyric, "If he really thinks we're the devil, then let's send him to hell" refers to the Ayatollah Khomeni calling the U.S. "The Great Satan". When BOC performed this song in concert, roadie Joe Lauro, wearing an Ayatollah mask, played guitar on stage with the band. |
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| Blue Öyster Cult – Deadline Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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According to Albert Bouchard, the person in question was booking agent Phil King (who booked gigs for the band before they were signed to Columbia). Phil was apparently pressuring this guy to pay back a gambling debt, and the guy ended up shooting him. Phil King is also mentioned in the song, "Hot Rails to Hell" (in the lyric, "The King did not know"). Allen once described Phil King (also known as Phil Friedman) as a "big dude in a cheap vinyl leather jacket, two-tone blue '64 Lincoln Continental, wore a Fu Manchu mustache, combing his hair at all times, he had a perfect Shaft hairdo, chrome shades he never took off, wore 'em to bed..." Soon after BOC's first album was released, Phil was able to convince a New York DJ to play "Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll" on the radio. |
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| Blue Öyster Cult – Deadline Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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According to Albert Bouchard, the person in question was booking agent Phil King (who booked gigs for the band before they were signed to Columbia). Phil was apparently pressuring this guy to pay back a gambling debt, and the guy ended up shooting him. Phil King is also mentioned in the song, "Hot Rails to Hell" (in the lyric, "The King did not know"). Allen once described Phil King (also known as Phil Friedman) as a "big dude in a cheap vinyl leather jacket, two-tone blue '64 Lincoln Continental, wore a Fu Manchu mustache, combing his hair at all times, he had a perfect Shaft hairdo, chrome shades he never took off, wore 'em to bed..." Soon after BOC's first album was released, Phil was able to convince a New York DJ to play "Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll" on the radio. |
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| Blue Öyster Cult – Deadline Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| The song "Deadline" is based on the true story of an old acquaintance of the band, who was murdered. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Hungry Boys Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| The song "Hungry Boys", originally titled, "Hungry Boys In Brooklyn", is about drug addiction. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – The Vigil Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| The song, "The Vigil" is about some friends of the band who are UFO-watchers. The line "27 faces, with their eyes turned to the sky" may refer to the VLA (Very Large Array), a set of 27 radio telescopes (there actually is a 28th, but it only gets used as a backup if one of the 27 fails). The site, located in New Mexico (near Socorro), was completed right about the time *Mirrors* was released. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Dr. Music Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| According to the liner notes in the compilation CD set, *Workshop Of The Telescopes*, the song "Dr. Music" is a tongue-in-cheek look at S+M (sadism and masochism). | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – I Love The Night Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| The tale of a man's meeting with a female vampire - while the lyrics are always subject to interpretation, the third verse of this song (omitted from the album) makes the song's meaning more clear. Finally, according to Eric Bloom, his "After Dark" is sort of his sequel to "I Love The Night". | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Nosferatu Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Several BOC songs refer to vampires. "Nosferatu" is a re-working of Bram Stoker's "Dracula". In the original silent version of Nosferatu, the captain's log can be seen to include the lines "Rats in the hold. My crew is dead. I fear the plague", and the line "Only a woman can break his spell, pure in heart who will offer her blood" - these lines are used in the song. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – R. U. Ready 2 Rock Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| The initials "R.U.R." from the song, "R. U. Ready 2 Rock" were a tribute to the K. Capek play, "Rossum's Universal Robots". This play is cited as having the first appearance of the term "robot" in science fiction literature | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Golden Age Of Leather Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| According to Bruce Abbott, the song, "Golden Age Of Leather" refers to a group in a motorcycle club reaching a practical endpoint to that lifestyle. Having achieved their "golden age", the bikers make a suicide pact rather than age gracefully, "in this day of flaccid plumage". | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – The Revenge of Vera Gemini Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| The line "24th of May" in the song, "The Revenge Of Vera Gemini" refers to both Albert Bouchard's and Bob Dylan's birthday. On the occasion of his 25th birthday, Patti Smith gave Albert the lyrics to this song, which she presumably wrote about a true incident involving her and Bob Dylan. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – E.T.I. Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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The line, "when prophecy fails, the falling notion" in the song, "E.T.I." may have been inspired by the classic psychology text, "When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World", by Leon Festinger, Henry W. Riecken and Stanley Schacter (3 men - possibly to which the lyrics refer?). Presumably when this book came out, it was published under aliases, but the science world soon discovered the identities of the authors. The men were then criticized as frauds, and accused of writing the book only for financial reward. On report about them dubbed them "Agents of Fortune". The line "three men in black said, 'Don't report this . . .", also in "E.T.I." may have been inspired by the "The Men In Black Report" by Kurt Glemser (Galaxy Press). The book discusses UFO sightings and Men in Black (usually 3), that would visit UFO witnesses, warning them not to divulge what they had seen. The name "Balthazar", mentioned in "E.T.I." is the name of one of the three kings/wise-men/astrologers in the Bible who visited Jesus Christ soon after his birth -- the other two were named Melchor and Kaspar. Perhaps "E.T.I." is suggesting that Jesus Christ was brought to earth, or at least visited by, aliens. On the other side of the life of Christ, the Bible discusses Jesus' "ascension", where he is taken up to heaven in front of some of his disciples. The use of the word "ascension" in "E.T.I." may suggest that the ascension was some sort of alien abduction (Jesus rising into the sky, surrounded by a beam of light). "Balthazar" may also refer to the character in "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare. Balthazar is the name of the servant who tells Romeo that Juliet has died ("the awful truth"?). While this doesn't fit with the UFO/Jesus interpretation, it is interesting since on *Agents of Fortune*, the song "E.T.I." follows "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", where we are told "Romeo and Juliet are together in eternity". Other UFO references to UFO lore in the song "E.T.I." are provided by Dan Clore. "Daylight disk" comes from the classification system proposed by J. Allen Hynek in his 1974 work, *The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry*. It refers to a flying saucer seen during the day. "Fairy rings" refers to rings of underground fungus that make the grass very green above them. It also refers to a large circular fungus that kills the grass above it, leaving a big white circle. These are often identified as traces of UFO landings. "Tower beds" are a reference to UFO landing apparatus (Stonehenge is theorized by some to be a tower bed). Finally, "Dead leaves always give up motion" may refer to the term "dead leaf motion" or "falling leaf motion" of UFOs -- a pattern of descent, going back and forth and pausing. There is a real book titled, *The King in Yellow* (referred to in the song, "Extra Terrestrial Intelligence"), written by Robert W. Chambers, published in 1895. The book is believed to be out of print, with its last known publication being possibly in the late 1970's. It is a collection of short stories, several of which mention an imaginary book (play) titled "The King in Yellow". Like various tomes mentioned in Lovecraft, this (non-existent) play has detrimental effects on the sanity of readers. From *The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction* (by John Clute and Peter Nicholls): "The eponymous 'King in Yellow' is not a person, but a verse play in book form, which... drives its readers to despair, madness and even suicide. Of the four *King in Yellow* tales in the book, 'The Repairer of Reputations' is of particular interest, being set in 1920, after a war, in a USA that has legalized suicide." The book, *The King in Yellow* also contains a story titled, "The Street of The Four Winds". It is not clear whether or not this inspired the reference to the four winds bar in the song, "Astronomy". However, the song does not appear connected with the story in any other way. As for "The Queen in Red" (the other half of that line from "ETI"), this may refer to "The Red Queen" from Lewis Carroll's "Alice Through The Looking Glass" (a sequel to "Alice In Wonderland"). In the story, the Red Queen is a chess piece and is forced to run continuously but never actually moves because everything else in the landscape is also running, and so keeps pace with her. Based on this story, evolutionary biologist L. Van Valen proposed "The Red Queen Principle", which states that for an evolutionalry system, continuing development is needed just in order to maintain it's relative fitness. |
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| Blue Öyster Cult – Flaming Telepaths Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| "Flaming Telepaths" refers to experimental drug use (note: one article on BOC mentioned this song as being about a science fictional experimentation of drugs on humans, with disastrous side effects). | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – OD'd On Life Itself Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| In an old interview with *Creem* magazine, Eric Bloom says that "O.D.'d On Life Itself" is basically a song inspired when Sandy saw some girl who was "totally out of it, a real asshole; she'd O.D.'d on life". | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Morning Final Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Joe Bouchard says that the song "Morning Final" is based on a true story of a murder that happened at a subway stop at the corner of 23rd Street in New York City. Joe used to go to a deli that was near there, and he was a bit disturbed by the fact that a murder took place there. | |
| Blue Öyster Cult – Transmaniacon MC Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Altamont, which is referred to in the song, "Transmaniacon MC" (the "MC" standing for "motorcycle club"), refers to a festival in 1970 at Altamont (a racetrack in California). The festival was supposed to be another Woodstock. The Rolling Stones were the main act, and they controversially hired the Hells Angels as security. Apparently The Stones had used the British Hell's Angels as security in the past, and assumed that the California Hell's Angels would be the same. There was mayhem during the Stones' set, and the Angels stabbed one member of the audience to death (right in front of a camera), although the stabbed man was apparently holding a gun. The "Transmaniacon MC", according to Al Bouchard, are a mythical group that Sandy Pearlman invented called "the Los Maniacos Bus Boy Club" which was supposed to conjure up a picture of insane Mexican waiters that have a musical group. |
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| Blue Öyster Cult – Vengeance (The Pact) Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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"Vengeance (The Pact)" was originally titled "Taarna's Theme" - the song lyrics are taken from the last story in the movie (with Taarna, the warrior woman who rides the giant bird). The apparent reason for the song not being used is that it told the 17-minute (in the movie) story in 5 minutes. The soundtrack was finally officially released on CD in 1995, and an updated version of the movie was released in 1996. |
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| Blue Öyster Cult – After Dark Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| Buck said in an interview that this song is a sequel to "I Love The Night". So yes, Vampires. | |
| Rainbow – Catch The Rainbow Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Ronnie James Dio explains in a 1975 radio special "Catch the rainbow is lyrically medieval in that it's concerning a stable boy who makes it with a lady of the court. She sneaks off to sleep on his bed of straw every night and they think it's all going to work but as we rudely find out, it never does and they kind of go their own way, but it's a track that I think Ritchie and I are very proud of." Hail Rainbow R.I.P. RJD |
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| Rainbow – Man On The Silver Mountain Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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In a 1975 radio special with RJD & R. Blackmore, Ronnie explains this song - "It is kind of a semi religious song in the respect that the man on the silver mountain is the kind of god figure that everyone is crying out to come and save them ". Ronnie weaved such great words that it meant something and left room for your imagination to fill in the rest. |
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