Jeff Stevens needs more COWBELL it's Buck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult

Jeff Interview the original Blue Oyster Cult member Buck Dharma

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I'm Jeff Stevens. Thanks for checkingout my eighty show podcast. You know,

(00:03):
Blue Oyster Cult has sold twenty fivemillion records worldwide, including seven million
in the US, and Buck Dharmahas been the sole constant member of Bloyster
Cult since the group's formation on LongIsland back in nineteen sixty seven. He
wrote and sang the vocals on Don'tFear the Reaper, Godzilla and Burning for
You. It's Buck Dharma from BlueOyster Cult. How are you, man?

(00:25):
I'm good, Jeff. How aboutyourself? I'm doing great, Thank
you very much. First of all, congratulations on the fiftieth anniversary of Blue
Oyster Cult. How is that evenpossible? You know, it seems like
yesterday, but some days it feelslike fifty years. It's actually fifty two.
We're in a fifty second year now. Amazing fifty two years. And

(00:47):
watching some of your live videos.I was watching the London like forty fifth
anniversary, it looks like you guysare still having a blast. Yeah,
we still have fun. Otherwise wewouldn't do it. You know, if
it ever stops, me and funwill stop. How have the crowds changed
over the years as you guys haveare now into your fifty second year.

(01:07):
Are you noticing your crowd as kindof growing up with you? Is it?
Some of the folks have been withyou the whole time and some new
fans. Yeah, if you canimagine a time lapse of view of the
audience, they started out getting older, then they got you know, then
they were starting to get shaggy andthe wrinkley, you know, and then
they got younger again. After theInternet it really blew open younger people checking

(01:32):
us out, you know, andsince they everybody can listen to anything now
from any era and you don't haveto go scrounging in the record bins for
it. So we've got a lotof younger fans now. Children are the
original ones and some of them arejust music fans in general. But I
would say the audience is getting youngernow. Yeah, I thought that might

(01:53):
be your answer. And talking toBuck Dharma of Blue Oyster Cult, the
only guy who's been in the bandconsistently the entire existence. But you guys
have an album out now, andyou've got a new live release coming in
August too. Tell me about Cherryand ghost Stories. Okay, ghost Stories
is resurrected pre production tapes from songsthat probably between seventy nine and the early

(02:19):
eighties, And these are songs thatdidn't make the constraints of a vinyl LP
at that time, so there areextra songs we'd sort of forgotten about them.
And the tapes were retained by GeorgeDuranius, who was our front of
house mixer for a couple of decades, and he still had him and he
digitized some of them and he mixedsome of them, and we pitched the

(02:43):
idea to Frontiers about fixing them upand polishing them up and releasing them,
and they went for it, andthat's what they are. So these are
songs that when the record is done, it sounds to my ear like a
long lost blo Oyster Cole record becauseit's all the original members and the performances

(03:05):
were intact. You know, therewas very little of it was changed.
It was just polystep to sound betterand modern ai D mixing tools and let
you have a little more control overthe modern production methods. So it sounds
crisp and vintage at the same time. So, Buck, did you ever

(03:25):
think back in the late seventies andearly eighties with these songs that never ended
up on an album anywhere that fiftysome years later you would be working to
essentially release them and get them outto the Blue Oyster called fans. No,
I mean I didn't. I've actuallyforgotten about these, A lot of
them in a somem I remembered,but Bloyster Cult never recorded a ton of

(03:49):
extra stuff. But these these thankfullywere resurrected and saw the light of day.
And you know, and they areghost stories in a way because Alan
on the Air is no longer withus, the keyboard guitarist of original Blue
Oyster Cult, and you know,to hear him play on this is just
really really nostalgic to me, andin a very very good way. Well,

(04:13):
and I'm sure the fans are eatingit up. To ghost Stories is
out now all major digital platforms,in Blue Oystercult dot com. And then
something to look forward to in youknow, maybe five or six weeks.
The live performance fiftieth Anniversary Live SecondNight will be on sale August ninth,
And that's that's great, and you'regonna want to hear that, you know,

(04:33):
just just needle drop those cuts.You're gonna dig it. They just
released Front two is just released theseven Screaming Disbusters from that effort. And
this was recorded back in September oftwenty twenty two. Is that correct?
Yeah? Yeah, it was atwenty two or twenty three, I don't
know. I guess it was twentytwo. Yeah, it seems like it

(04:54):
was yesterday. Yeah, that wasThat was a great three nights. That
was the contemporary band. And AlbertBuscher, the original drummer of boc On,
played drums on one song, buthe played guitar most of the most
of the night. So cool talkingto Buck Dharma and Blue Oyster call here
and Buck uh So. Of course, you know, we've got to talk
about a fun kind of iconic momentin history. And this is kind of

(05:16):
back to asking about your you know, maybe your audience is becoming younger.
Do you think that the SNL cowbell bit actually brought on new fans?
Because I would have to think theanswer is yes, yeah, yeah,
I would say so, yeah,there's there's there's younger people that only know
us from the Kobo skit, yeah, or they you know, that's when

(05:39):
they discovered us, you know,the Cowboy skit. So was that something
where you guys were on board.Were you consulted about that or did you
just kind of hear about it afterwards? Like what did they do last weekend?
They just went ahead and did it. Yeah, I from what I
understand, you know that when WillFerrell wrote the skit, you know it,

(06:00):
they tried it, they'd approached doingit three times, and it wasn't
until they had Christopher walking on itthat it flew, you know. But
it's of course it flew big time. It's one of the top five skits
of all time on SNL. Infact, we just we just did a
big interview with the Peacock Channel becausethey're doing a four part special on s
n L and the one of theparts of before is devoted to the Cowboy,

(06:26):
So it's obviously it moons large inSNL history. Well, and isn't
it crazy that they that they choseto Did you ever hear will Will Ferrell
say why they chose that song?Is it literally just because there was a
cowbell and he wanted to kind ofoverdo it. I don't know. I've
never met Will, you know.I hope I know he's interviewed for this

(06:46):
special, so I hope he explains, you know, what he had in
mind. You know that it's areally ridiculous notion, you know, to
make make the whole skit about thecowboy. But it's funny, you know,
I can't help but it's funny,you know whatever. Whatever you know,
it did to BOC. Besides,the publicity has been to the goods,

(07:08):
so well. That was my otherquestion is you know, as a
band, did you guys look atthat and go, hey, what are
they doing? You know? Orwas it all right? That's that's pretty
funny, you know, that's that'scool. Well, you know, I
mean The Reapers our biggest song,you know, and you don't want to
make a joke out of it.But in terms of the cowbell, we've
sort of ridden that horse in thedirection of skulling. You know, it's

(07:30):
to fight. It is ridiculous,you know. Yeah, we're married to
it, whether we like it ornot. That's a good point. Well,
like I said, it's still it'sstill funny, you know, Yeah,
I'm good with it. That's cool, that's cool. You have a
good take on it like that.And and let me just tell you that
is the perfect place to have acow bell. That song would not be

(07:51):
the same from the original recording.It would not be the same without the
cowbell. And there's certain songs thatare like that, and and Don't Fear
the Reaper is definitely one of them. Yeah. Well, I tell you
we never played the Cowboy live untilthe Skid. Now we played the Cawball
live really okay, yeah yeah yeah. For like, you know, twenty
years the band would play the Reaperlive and we wouldn't have a cowboy.

(08:15):
But after the after the Skid,we damn well have a cow That is
awesome. I'd never heard that,that is See. I love this this
little exclusive scoop here for Buck Thatis that is really fantastic. I'll tell
you. The first time I heardit was the Stephen King's The Stand back
in the nineties. They used ita lot in that and it was like

(08:37):
a you know, The Stand beforepeople were binging shows and I remember,
yeah, it was like a multipart series, right, and and that
song played such a role in there. Yep. When when when King wrote
the book The Stand, uh,you know, the publisher got in touch
with me because you know, theyneeded permission to quote the lyric and began

(09:00):
of the novel and I got tomeet him when I lived in Stanford,
Connecticut, and it was that wasa big thrill because I was already a
fan of his books, you know, and that was great. Well,
he obviously thought a lot of thatsong, and that song is iconically placed
in that as well. So Buck, it's really great talking to you,

(09:20):
man. Congrats on an amazing career. Folks should go out and grab Ghost
Stories if you don't have it already, and then look for fiftieth anniversary Live
second night coming on August night withBlue Oyster Cult. Buck Dharma, thank
you so much, man, greattalking to you. Okay, you too,