Blue Öyster Cult in Film & TV

 

Blue Öyster Cult in Film & TV: 

Rock & Roll’s Underrated Contribution to the Great Soundtracks of Movies and Television Shows 

 

 

“All our times have come

Here, but now they're gone

Seasons don't fear the Reaper

Nor do the wind, the sun, or the rain

 

(We can be like they are) Come on, baby

(Don't fear the Reaper) Baby, take my hand

(Don't fear the Reaper) We'll be able to fly

(Don't fear the Reaper) Baby, I'm your man

La, la, la, la, la

La, la, la, la, la”

 

There's a good chance you’ve heard those song lyrics at some point in a movie or TV show from the past six decades. The song is “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” from the 1976 album Agents of Fortune. It has played on the radio ever since its debut and can still be heard regularly on classic rock stations, but who is this band that the song is credited to? You might have heard of them before. They may seem like a one hit wonder from a bygone age to the uninitiated, though in reality, they are so much more than that. These pioneers of early hard rock and heavy metal are still going strong today, and as of writing this, just put out their sixteenth studio album only a few months ago, over fifty years after their debut self-titled album. For a time in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s the band was identified by several monikers, such as Soft White Underbelly and Stalk-Forrest Group, but they eventually came to be known as the iconic, the prolific, the underrated, Blue Öyster Cult.

"I've got a fever! And the only prescription is more cowbell!"

Many people know about BOC thanks to a memorable skit on Saturday Night Live from April 8^th, 2000, summed up best with one quote (“More cowbell!”), which not only ruined their careers for the 21^st century but also the career of Christopher Walken, who was the most memorable part of that skit. Of course, I’m exaggerating when I use the word “ruin,” but the truth is, a large majority of people know Blue Öyster Cult and their number-one hit “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” from SNL more than from anything else—and yet, BOC has had a presence in the soundtracks of numerous movies and TV shows throughout the years, whether you noticed them or not.

This is not just a PSA for how great Blue Öyster Cult is (they are, for the record, one of my personal all-time favourite bands); this is more of an informative history of how their music has been used in cinema and television—and that “Reaper” song, in particular, which everyone is so rightly obsessed with. Let’s start with a legend from the horror genre who comes more from the world of books than movies, but has left his own stamp on cinema, too: Stephen King, who had an early obsession with that inspirational song about accepting death. 

King has famously said “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” was part of his inspiration for writing the novel The Stand, published in 1978. The epic post-apocalyptic fantasy begins with quoted lyrics from the song, so it’s appropriate that the first screen adaptation of the novel used it in a creative way. The 1994 TV miniseries features the song during the opening credits of part one (of four), showing scientists and workers who died instantly from exposure to a deadly virus before it swept the planet, which creates a memorable juxtaposition of music and visuals. The song was used again in a different way for the 2020 miniseries adaptation, but let’s go back to the year 1978 when King’s novel first hit book stands, because that same year, BOC’s number-one hit debuted in what I believe is the first film to feature it. The film had nothing to do with Stephen King, but we aren’t straying from the genre he’s so well known for.

Director John Carpenter and producer Debra Hill were hired by indie producer Irwin Yablans and financer Moustapha Akkad to make a horror movie about babysitters being stalked by a killer on Halloween night, and what they ended up making became one of the most influential horror movies of the 1970’s. Halloween has an original score by Carpenter (he would go on to do the scores for most of his future films), but it also has a couple other non-soundtrack-tracks used throughout. One of them plays on the radio as Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) rides with her friend Annie Brackett (Nancy Kyes) in her car, and both of them are talking over it, so it’s easy to miss it the first time. Horror fans took note of every detail in the film, and a couple of those fans went on to bring back “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” for future installments in the Halloween franchise.

It was re-used for the 2007 Halloween remake directed by Rob Zombie, who was known for his horror-inspired music as a solo artist and with the band White Zombie prior to his directing career. It’s not one bit surprising he chose to bring back that classic song, and it was included amid a variety of different songs, some others having been used in various sequels to Halloween. The 2018 Halloween rebooted the series, following the continuity of only the ’78 original, and “Reaper” was featured once again in the third and final film of the reboot trilogy, as yet another tribute to its initial use. I don’t really remember its precise use in the 2007 remake (likely because it was used briefly in such a music-heavy film), but it was used in full for the end credits of Halloween Ends (2022). I remember sitting in the dark theater, stupefied at how bad the movie was, and instantly recognizing why the song was used. For me, the end credits were the best part.

The initial use of one of their greatest songs in what began as a little, unassuming horror movie and turned into a very big deal certainly contributed to the song’s (and band’s) lasting relevancy in the genre, but “Reaper” has cropped up time after time and is still used in contemporary films. In the second film of the Netflix Fear Street trilogy, Fear Street Part Two: 1978 (2021), it forms a part of the great, of-the-era soundtrack, and given the blatant homage the film pays to slasher films of the 70’s/80’s, it would not be surprising if that song was chosen as a subtle nod to Halloween. In Ti West’s derivative slasher flick X (2022), “Reaper” plays on a truck radio in a particularly intense scene, which is a much more obvious reference.  

It’s no surprise to find “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” is used most frequently (and most notably) in horror films, given it’s a sublimely entrancing song that deals with rather dark subject matter in a unique way that sounds upbeat yet also haunting. A cover of the song was used in Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners (1996), which is more of a horror-comedy than pure horror—and that brings us to non-horror films that have used the song, to many different effects. From the sports drama Miracle (2004) to the goofy comedy Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector (2006), these films have demonstrated the song’s versatility. In David Fincher’s thriller Gone Girl (2014) it plays in the car as Ben Affleck’s character Nick is driving his elderly father back to the care home. The more you’ve heard the song, the easier it is to realize how unsubtly it’s often used. One of my favourite uses of all is in Zombieland (2009), when it hard cuts to the characters getting high with Bill Murray in his mansion, tapping it as an exemplary track from the stoner 70’s in which the song was born. As of writing this, it was most recently used in the biographical wrestling film The Iron Claw (2023).

Dean holding the BOC record Fire of Unknown Origin

Then there’s the entertainment world adjacent to film that has used the song even more frequently: television. I couldn’t possibly list every episode of every show that’s ever featured it—there have been medical dramas, sitcoms, action shows, sci-fi-comedies, horror anthologies—but there are a couple standout shows in the realm of horror where it’s nice to hear the familiar tune. The continuation of the original Evil Dead film series on the Starz network, Ash vs. Evil Dead (2015-2018), was a pleasant surprise, and the show’s soundtrack was likewise pleasantly surprising. Chocked full of classic rock hits and more obscure bangers, it took until Season 3 Episode 7’s end credits for the “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” needle drop, which took too long to finally happen, honestly. In the first season of the long running series Supernatural (2006), there’s an episode in which Dean says “we’re dealing with a reaper” just as the song fades in.

It might seem like I’ve dedicated most of this exploration so far to only one of the band’s many songs and skipped over the others. I have focused on “Reaper” a lot, but that’s because Hollywood, like the classic rock radio stations, has decided to just replay it over and over instead of play some of their other great songs. In spite of a stellar back catalogue, BOC has only ever really had two other major hits aside from “Don’t Fear (The Reaper),” and only a scattering of less popular tracks have made their way into movies and shows. There have also been a couple more obscure cinematic references to the band and their number-one hit without the use of their music. I'll cover those before I get into their other most-used songs.

Death (played by William Sadler) plays an important role in the Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure sequel, originally titled Bill & Ted Go to Hell. There’s a moment in the movie, which ended up being called Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991), when Alex Winter’s Bill turns to Keanu Reeves’ Ted and says, “Don’t ‘fear the reaper!’” and then they both do air guitar. In Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) a student asks Robert Romanus’ character Mike, a scalper, if he has any tickets to see the band, to which he says, “No. I don't have any Blue Öyster Cult. I ate 34 pairs last time around. Where were you?” It comes off like a minor diss, but honestly, it’s not inaccurate. BOC just never hit the mainstream like other rock bands from the same era—but those who do get it, get it, y’know?

One of BOC’s other most famous songs aside from “Reaper” is “Godzilla” which has been used three separate times in a trio of very different movies. In Detroit Rock City (1999) the distinct opening riff kicks in at the introduction of Chongo, a particularly large and imposing character, and in the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys (2002) it forms a part of the stellar classic rock soundtrack for a story about the 70’s Zephyr skateboarding team. You probably already guessed that the last movie is an entry in the franchise whose namesake inspired the song in the first place. The song was originally released in 1977, and it took forty-two years for a filmmaker to have the sense to include it in a Godzilla movie. Michael Dougherty’s MonsterVerse sequel Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) features a cover during the end credits, with System of a Down’s Serj Tankian providing the vocals.

What about less frequently heard songs? Unfortunately, it’s a very short list, but there are a few worth noting. Lords of Dogtown (2005) is a biographical drama based on the same story told in Dogtown and Z-Boys, so it was only appropriate that BOC appear in the soundtrack. The first track from their second studio album, “The Red and the Black” (an energetic retooling of another song from their debut album) fits right in with the other songs from the era. Let Me In (2010), an American remake of the Swedish horror/drama Let the Right One In, uses “Burnin’ For You” which is the song I hear most often replayed in classic rock mixes and completes the trifecta of biggest hits with “Godzilla” and “Reaper.” While not used nearly to the same degree of repetition as “Reaper,” “Burnin’ for You” has been featured in a number of TV shows and a few different movies, as well. The CW series iZombie features “Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll,” a song from their debut album, in Season 2 Episode 15 (2015), and to no one’s surprise, a later season also has an episode that uses “Reaper.”

A show I mentioned earlier, Supernatural, used two more BOC songs—“Burnin’ For You” and “Fire of Unknown Origin”—in the 17^th episode of the first season, “Hell House.” But, the deepest cut of lesser heard tunes has to be from the movie Heavy Metal (1981). This animated anthology film, based on the magazine of the same name, has a killer rock ‘n roll soundtrack, with songs by Sammy Hagar, Devo, and Black Sabbath, among many other greats, including Blue Öyster Cult. They wrote the song “Vengeance (The Pact)” specifically for the movie, which included an effective summary of the segment “Taarna” in its lyrics, but it turned out the song did too good of a job summing it up, so the filmmakers swapped it out for “Veteran of the Psychic Wars” instead. Both songs ended up on their eighth album, Fire of Unknown Origin, which came out the same year as Heavy Metal.

A movie that stands out in a unique way amid the cinematic history of BOC is the 1992 direct-to-video Full Moon Features Production Bad Channels. To come back to Stephen King for a moment, when he made his directorial debut with Maximum Overdrive (1986), he got his all-time favourite rock band AC/DC to do the soundtrack. Rock band soundtracks are sometimes awesome, in a cheesy kind of way, as is the case with Maximum Overdrive, but sometimes they just don’t work, and almost makes it feel more like a glorified music video than a real movie. Other times the music ends up becoming arguably more iconic than the movie itself, which I believe was the case with Queen’s score for Flash Gordon (1980). Bad Channels is unlike either of those movies—but I don’t know whether I should say “fortunately” or “unfortunately.”

The premise concerns a shock jock radio host whose radio station is descended upon by an alien with an oversized cranium and robot slave, intent on using the radio waves to abduct hot women in the nearby small town and shrink them down to be trapped in glass containers. It’s an intriguing sci-fi premise that fits with themes commonly found in BOC lyrics (while Zeppelin sang about a stairway to heaven, they sang about a stairway to the stars), but in typical Full Moon Features fashion, the execution is as low budget as you can get. Plenty of rock music is used throughout; it’s worth noting that while BOC has a couple originals on the featured songs list, the actual original soundtrack they composed amounts to less than half an hour of music, and it’s mostly short, unremarkable ambient tracks—plus, you don’t even hear the original songs by them in the actual movie! It’s all songs by other far less talented rockers. The evidence is right there in the title. Bad Channels is a bad movie, and the soundtrack is the only notable thing about it.

There’s one last movie to cover, which might be the greatest tribute to the music of Blue Öyster Cult in all of cinema—even though it didn’t originally intend to be. The indie comedy The Stöned Age (1994), about two stoners, Joe and Hubbs, on a quest to hook up with “chicks” and party in L.A. one night in the 1970s, was originally written to have Joe as a huge Led Zeppelin fan, but the rights to that band’s catalogue weren’t available, so they eventually settled on BOC. Hubbs calls “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” the band’s “pussy song” and makes Joe change out the tape as they’re driving around, but Joe is obsessed with it because when he went to a BOC concert they shone their laser light right on him as Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser played the epic guitar solo. Not only do we also get to hear “Burnin’ for You” at one point as well, “Reaper” is played a total of three times, and during the flashback to Joe’s life changing moment at the concert, we see authentic footage of the band playing live. Aside from the obvious inclusion of the music and working it into the characterization for Joe, there are other notable references throughout The Stöned Age, the first of which is in the movie’s title: using an umlaut over the “O” just like the band’s name. Other metal bands like Mötley Crüe and Mötörhead and Queensrÿche have used the two little dots, too, but BOC was the first.

Hubbs and Joe’s car is decked out with all kinds of artwork—including the band’s logo, the hook-and-cross symbol, painted in red on the hood, and the album cover for Cultosaurus Erectus, pasted in the back window. When we first see Lanie (the chick they want to score with), she’s wearing a shirt with the album cover for Tyranny and Mutation on the front. Joe’s jacket also has the hook-and-cross on the back, and he chats with Lanie’s best friend, Jill, about the Agents of Fortune album later in the movie. But best of all? There’s a post credit scene where Joe and Hubbs go up to two guys selling bootleg Blue Öyster Cult t-shirts on the street corner. Those two guys just so happen to be played by Buck Dharma and Eric Bloom, of Blue Öyster Cult fame! It’s the only time they ever cameoed in a movie, and proves they endorsed the use of their music in this dumb little comedy. Even though it isn’t great, with many sub-par jokes, some amateur acting, and poor continuity, I would say it’s still a must-see for die-hard stoner comedy (and Blue Öyster Cult) fans.

I thought it would be appropriate to end this exploration with The Stöned Age, not just because it’s a partial love letter to the band, but because it’s an indie movie that was not nearly as well-known as another, somewhat similar movie from the same year, Dazed and Confused, with a similarly great soundtrack of 70’s hits. It’s a direct parallel with the band itself in the genre of rock and roll. Blue Öyster Cult, for whatever reason, just never hit it big in the eras when they were at their most prolific, despite their number one hit about what’s going to come for us all in the end. As time goes on, and in the age of digital music when it’s easier than ever to find music you like and listen to it at the touch of a button, they have not faded into obscurity, but rather the opposite.

Even if most people don’t know all their greatest hits, they at least remember “Reaper,” and while that will ultimately be the band’s inescapable primary legacy long after they’re gone, the presence they’ve had in the soundtracks (and more) of film and television will be just as valuable to their lasting impact. This has been by no means a definitive history of every single use of a BOC song in every movie and TV show up to the modern day, but I think I’ve covered all of the most important examples and shed some light on one of my favourite bands in conjunction with an art form they have been inconspicuously tied to for as many decades as they have been releasing great music.

As a little bonus, here are my personal top ten Blue Öyster Cult albums, with my top three tracks from each.

 

10. The Symbol Remains (2020): iii) “Fight” ii) “Train True (Lennie’s Song)” i) “Florida Man”

9. Blue Öyster Cult (1972): iii) “Stairway to the Stars” ii) “Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll” i) “Then Came the Last Days of May”

8. Agents of Fortune (1976): iii) “Debbie Denise” ii) “E.T.I (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) i) “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”

7. Club Ninja (1985): iii) “Shadow Warrior” ii) “Dancin’ in the Ruins” i) “Perfect Water”

6. Cultösaurus Erectus (1980): iii) “Unknown Tongue” ii) “Monsters” i) “The Marshall Plan”

5. Fire of Unknown Origin (1981): iii) “Veteran of the Psychic Wars” ii) “Heavy Metal: The Black and Silver i) “Burnin’ For You”

4. Tyranny and Mutation (1973): iii) “O.D.’d on Life Itself” ii) “Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quicklime Girl) i) “Baby Ice Dog”

3. Secret Treaties (1974): iii) “Harvester of Eyes” ii) “Dominance and Submission” i) “Astronomy”

2. Spectres (1977): iii) “Golden Age of Leather” ii) “Death Valley Nights” i) “Godzilla”

1. Heaven Forbid (1998): iii) “See You in Black” ii) “Real World” i) “Harvest Moon”

Sources:

https://www.what-song.com/Artist/7076/Blue-Oyster-Cult

http://www.blueoystercult.com/Media/movies.html

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1584302/