The Friday Flash Review with Jon Deutsch: Blue Öyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”

The Friday Flash Reviews is the bit where the TNOCS.com admin and I pick a category of song to review, and the community votes up the song they want reviewed within said category.

This week’s voting category was:

It ended up with an unprecedented tie.

So I extended the deadline for voting. Which ended with another tie.

Which he dutifully outsourced to his dutiful…dog. 

Look, we each have our own preferred outsourcing strategies. Who am I to judge which species he outsources a key decision like this to?

It’s not like his dog’s vote was any less nutty than decisions many noted presidents have made of late, amirite? 

So, what did the dog drag in?

Perhaps the only song for which a Saturday Night Live skit about the song is far more popular than the song itself. 

Dogs and skits aside, there’s a key issue with reviewing “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper:“

Yet, the nature of the category (“Billboard’s Hot 100 chart”) essentially requires me to review the single version that was released to the Billboard charts. 

This is all slightly made more complicated by the fact that it was only the album version that charted in UK’s pop charts, but that’s not Billboard, folks.

Meanwhile, the edited-down single version went all the way up to #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

So here’s what I’m going to do: I’ll review the single version primarily, and add appendages where I feel the album version significantly deviates from the assessment of the edited single.

Fair?

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In-a-Flash “Gut Take” Review:

“(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” is yet another song that definitively defines the sound of “classic rock:” Guitar-driven, moody, accented by a series of guitar solos/riffs, and lacking in pure pop song structure to give the impression of a live jam session.

As you may or may not recall, I was raised by a music nazi who didn’t allow me to listen to “noise” until the 1980s.

And my outsider perspective on (DF)TR is that it’s an epic classic rock song that has a seriously long tail, and certainly creates a mood.

However, as a song — especially the edited single that made it to #12 on the Billboard 100 — about all it is, is a mood (the album version is far more of an interesting-if-disjointed song). 

As mood songs go, it scores high. But the edited single to me doesn’t light my fire, if you will. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a very good song. But I simply cannot co-sign onto the epicness that appears to surround the feelings for this song far and wide. 

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The Full Friday Flash Review:

Creating a mood requires a strong point of view that is executed end-to-end in the production. And this is achieved to great effect here. I’d argue that the vocal production does the most to evoke this vibe: they’re smooth-as-silk, delicately overlaid, and elevated high in the mix so that their softness doesn’t act as a detriment to sonic legibility.

(And the guitar solos in the middle of the song in the album version take this song into a whole other stratum of production decisions.)

But perhaps the most perplexing production decision is the series of “breaks” – where the song kinda reboots itself over and over again throughout the song. Don’t get me wrong — these work. But they work far better in the album version. 

And once in a while rises to the top of the mix, to add even more “classic rock” vibes to the whole experience. 

As Hooktheory.com nicely conveys, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” does punch above its songwriting weight in melodic complexity and, interestingly, the chord bass melody. I say interestingly because the way this song is mixed, I barely hear the bassline.

Even in the edited version, the songwriting stands out for two reasons: 

1. There is precious little commitment to traditional song structure. The chorus just seems to burst right in whenever it wants to, and the post chorus is prettier than the chorus, and the versus sometimes sound like pre-choruses. In fact, perhaps they are, in which case there are literally no verses in this song. That’s weird! But also interesting, and interesting is good here.

2. There’s just a lot of melody in this song, coming from the vocals primarily, but also the guitar. The way the vocals and the guitar riffs do interplay, it ends up being something far more than a traditional song melody. It’s more like a ping pong match, done to music. Very good stuff.  

The album version takes things a notch or two higher with the addition of an entirely new subsong that lives within the song that’s cut from the radio edit.

It does so by completely switching up the key we’re in and doing something completely different with melodies, tones, and guitar riffs. It’s frankly quite disjointed, but it also inarguably elevates the experience at the same time. 

There is an intangible essence to the vocals on this track that not only ground the mood the song conveys, but allows (DF)TR to stand out uniquely amongst virtually all songs.

Usually, reverb is used to allow elements to blend in better with its surroundings. In this case, the reverb is used strategically to pull the vocals out from the mix. That’s interesting. And it makes for a rich, full, yet somber vocal experience that has rarely — if ever — been repeated. 

Singer and guitar player “Buck Dharma” (oh, the 70s!) had recently been diagnosed with a heart condition and needed to process the grief he was experiencing that his demise may be nigh (spoiler alert: he’s still alive).

This, ladies and germs, was apparently quite easily misconstrued as a song valorizing suicide, and specifically, suicide pacts, which created a bunch of hoopla back in the day.

I have to say, I’m kinda with the people who misconstrued the lyrics. 

So, when your lyrics say this (after referencing Romeo and Juilet and saying “C’mon baby, don’t fear the reaper”):

Love of two is one
Here but now they’re gone

Came the last night of sadness
And it was clear she couldn’t go on

Then the door was open and the wind appeared
The candles blew and then disappeared

The curtains flew and then he appeared
Saying don’t be afraid

“(Don’t Fear) The Reaper{” – Blue Öyster Cult – Billboard # 12, August 1976 -Songwriter: Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser

…it really does absolutely sound like the narrator died and is inviting his love to join him in death. 

And I have no problem with this interpretation, despite Buck’s insistence to the contrary. No matter how you slice it, these are pretty poetic and thoughtful lyrics about death and love, intertwingled. 

Be it in the intro guitar riff that repeats throughout the song, or the very first vocal (not even sure it’s a verse), it seems like the majority of the stanzas of this song end up being everlasting earworms.

I’m not even a huge fan of the melody myself, but it sticks to your cranium like eggs on an unseasoned skillet. Only one point deducted because the earworms themselves just seem to be a bit…creepy? Yes, even “Buck Dharma” preferred to think of it as creepy! 

Final Friday Flash Review Score:

TL;DR: 

The Full Friday Flash review has not changed my mind: I am personally dead-set on this being a solid 7/10 song, even if it is considered to be one of the more epic songs in classic rock history.

I personally think it’s considered epic due to Will Ferrell.

The Full Friday Flash Review does bump things up from my personal POV, which is absolutely fine, and in fact, good. Truthfully, I don’t think I’d want to endure the feedback if the full review didn’t raise things up a level! 

The full review has good reason to one-up my gut take: the lyrics are really pretty, poetic, and philosophical, and the earworm effect is undeniable, even if you don’t particularly enjoy the earworm (like me). This is a weird song that twists its way into being quite good on multiple levels. 

Ratings aside, the most fascinating thing about this song to me… besides the fact that the cowbell is actually downmixed incredibly well:

It’s cowbell confabulation. And I’m here for it.  

Cheers!

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