Because life often needs more cowbells, members of Blue Öyster Cult, past and present, will appear in Long Island Saturday, May 30, on the 50th anniversary of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.”
The event kicks off 8 p.m. at the Long Island Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame, 97 Main St., Stony Brook.
The program will feature seven songs, including the cult classic The Reaper, which gained a revival with Saturday Night Live’s More Cowbell skit roughly 25 years ago. Additionally, Norm Prusslin, Hall of Fame co-founder and board member, will be moderating a Q&A with four musicians and Paul Rappaport, the former Columbia Records VP who introduced it to the world, propelling the band from small venues to stadiums.
Prusslin told South Shore Press, “I’ve known the original band literally since 1969 because they started in Stony Brook. They weren’t students but all the people that helped them get record deals and move ahead were Stony Brook alums, so I’ve known them forever.”
The Reaper, which debuted on May 21, 1976, he said, “continues to be one of the biggest rock songs ever... (and) gets played almost every day somewhere in the United States on a classic rock radio station.”
It’s also perhaps one of the most mysterious, with many trying to grasp its meaning. “It’s a song about I guess eternal love,” Prusslin said, written when a mild heart condition had band member Donald Roeser (stage name Buck Dharma) thinking about the afterlife.
It is also a true product of Long Island with Roeser composing it just two miles from Five Towns College in Dix Hills, where he received an honorary music doctorate this May.
Saturday’s show will be a first time collaboration for the players, which include former band members/brothers Albert and Joe Bouchard, and current members Danny Miranda and Jules Radino.
For tickets see the website.