I saw something recently that didn’t merely suggest but stated outright that Blue Öyster Cult was/is the thinking man’s heavy metal band.
What a load of rubbish.
Thinking man’s heavy metal?
Meaning what exactly? That most metal is dumb? Hmmm... OK honestly, it is. But still, that hardly means that professors of history and anthropology prefer BÖC to Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Or that people who smoke pipes (generally regarded as smarter than almost every other living person) consider (Don’t Fear) The Reaper and Agents of Fortune superior to and more cerebral than War Pigs and Paranoid.
C'mon. Just because BÖC referenced Moorcock and Lucifer and wrapped everything in cryptic lines (and the cities they’d travelled) doesn’t mean they were better than the rest; especially so when one considers that metal bands in general were/are made up of thinking men aka nerds who devour everything from Tolkien and Coleridge to Aleister Crowley and Anton Levy.
Thinking man’s metal? Puhlease. Truth be told, I’m not sure if real metal fans would even consider BÖC metal. I mean harmony vocals, dude. How un-metal is that?!
Having said all that, I do have to admit that BÖC were pretty remarkable at what they did. But no, it’s not (Don’t Fear) The Reaper that I will always remember them for (nor that Saturday Night Live skit) but In Thee, the most endearing cut from 1979's much maligned Mirrors.
It’s my go-to song every time I find myself alone in an airport lounge.
Incidentally, In Thee is a kiss-off penned by keyboardist/guitarist Allen Lanier’s for Patti Smith, a fact, no doubt, that escaped everyone but thinking metal fans when it was released in 1979.
No comments:
Post a Comment