Blue Öyster Cult ~ (Don't Fear) The Reaper 1976 Extended Meow Mix

Blue Öyster Cult was the first band ever to use an umlaut and back in 1976 America learned what that was. It is the two dots above the O and is used to signify a different vowel quality used in German or Hungarian. Since then, Motörhead, Mötley Crüe and Queensrÿche have copied this and have also reached mainstream audiences. What the hell is a Blue Öyster and why would they have a cult? Well there are two stories, the first one is that the name is an anagram of "Cully Stout Beer" that was first quoted by band manager Sandy Pearlman for a 1976 magazine interview. The other story is that the name came from the poetry of Pearlman where the Blue Öyster Cult was a group of aliens who had convened to secretly guide the world's history. That same poetry also lent the first name for the band when it was formed in 1968 as Soft White Underbelly, from a reference made by Winston Churchill describing Italy during WWII. I'm glad they went with BOC as it much better at describing the band. Did you know they assumed that name when they played dates at small clubs in the US and the UK during the 80's? The members at the start in 1968 were Donald Roeser(guitars), Allen Lanier (keyboards), Allen Bouchard (drums), Andrew Winters (bass) and vocalists Jeff Kagel and Les Braunstein. Pearlman's wish was to put together a group in America that would rival Black Sabbath and his connections to Elektra and Columbia records in addition to his lyrics they used from his poetry made them unique. Their first album for Elektra was shelved after completion when Braunstein left. Regrouping, they brought on Eric Bloom as their sound man and found that his voice was perfect balance to the hard rocking psychedelia of BOC. Winters left and Bouchard's brother Joe was brought on board to replace him. After the final name change, they released their first LP in 1972 and subsequent releases found them going further into hard rock and finding a larger audience. "Agents Of Fortune" was released in 1976 and went platinum based on the strong chart performance of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" sung by Roeser that he confirms is about eternal love and the inevitability of death. The mention of Romeo & Juliet and their suicides in the name of love brings a mystic and real feel to the message in the song. The edited single that omitted the organ solo peaked at #12 on the Hot100 and immediately cemented the influence of Blue Öyster Cult who found themselves the rock critic's darling so much so that when Rolling Stone listed the top 500 songs of all time, "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" checked in at #405. It has also become a pop culture reference used by Christopher Walken in a Saturday Night Live skit where he played a producer who uttered the classic "more cowbell" phrase which has now become a worldwide comic phenomenon. There was even a website where you can upload any song and you can choose how much cowbell and how much Christopher Walken dialogue was added to the finished product and uploaded for everyone to hear. I ran BT Express's "Express" through it and you can listen to it here https://youtu.be/KT-mlfu6n2Y The site is gone now so I'm glad that I did this back in 2008 when it had just started. Christopher Walken did retweet this one for me...

Added 12 Aug 2026