Blue Öyster Cult’s Dharma Reacts to Metallica’s ‘Astronomy’ Cover, Addresses Ghost Comparisons

UG exclusive: “I don’t think that they really do sound like Blue Öyster Cult.”

During a conversation with UG’s David Slavković, Blue Oyster Cult guitarist/co-founder Buck Dharma talked about some of the band’s biggest hits, including “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” and “Astronomy.”

Buck shared his opinion on Metallica covering the latter track on 1998’s “Garage Inc.” covers album, while also touching on Ghost and the comparisons to BOC.

As reported, the band is working on its first studio album since 2001. You can read more about it here and check out the interview below.

One of your famous songs is [1974’s] ‘Astronomy.’ There was a fairly popular cover of that song by Metallica back in the late 1990s. How did you react when you first heard the cover? Did you like it?

“Yes. I admire Metallica and I’m always flattered when someone covers a Blue Öyster Cult song. I thought they did a fine job and I was quite happy with it.”

Talking about younger bands these days, there’s the Swedish band called Ghost. Many rock fans have compared their work to Blue Öyster Cult. Have you ever heard their music and do you hear any similarities if you did?

“Yes, and I’ve also read interviews with the leader of that band where he says he’s not really trying to sound like Blue Öyster Cult. But I don’t think that they really do sound like Blue Öyster Cult, but I guess you could see some similarities.”

Going back to the old days – ‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper’ is your biggest song. When you wrote it and recorded it back in the day, did you expect it to be as big as it is today?

“No. I thought it was good at the time, but I had no idea that it was going to have the life that it has. And, of course, I’m very grateful for that.”

The story goes that you recorded the song in one take, along with the solo. Is this true?

“I recorded the lead in one take, not the whole song. The whole song was… [The band’s fourth studio album, 1976’s] ‘Agents of Fortune’ record took about, I guess, 10 weeks to record. The lead was recorded in one take.”

Did you have any rough idea of how the solo would go or did you completely improvise it?

“That’s how I play. I rarely plan out what I’m gonna play at the time. I just kind of go for it.”

Can you maybe give our readers any kind of advice – how do you manage to improvise a solo, record it in one take, and make it sound so good?

“Typically, I will record several passes of a solo, and one will be better than another one.

“And I do multiple takes where I’ll take parts of one track and parts of another track and crossover. So I do it all different ways, but the point is – the way I approach lead guitar is to improvise totally.”

You can check out all four parts of UG’s exclusive conversation with Mr. Dharma through the links below.