I’ve been into Blue Öyster Cult for as long as I can remember. This track from guitarist Buck Dharma’s only solo album Flat Out (1982) could easily be on a B.O.C. album. There are similarities to Spectres (1978) and Mirrors (1979), and although it’s certainly on the cheesier side of Buck’s songwriting, it’s one of my favorites.

The chorus is infectious, with a three-note guitar refrain that sticks in your head and a wall of backing vocals – “Oh, oh, ohh” – that never fails to make me smile. And the lyrics – “That summer night by the light of the full moon / The look in your eye as you promised forever” – will forever remind me of the characters of Ben and Susan in Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot (I was listening to the audiobook of King’s 1975 novel at the same time I bought this album). Which is interesting, because King is a B.O.C. fan and the band is well known for its literary influences. For me, King and B.O.C. go pretty much hand in hand in defining the American fantasy/horror storytelling of the ’70s and early ’80s.

Guilty pleasure? Maybe, but then I’d have to say the same about my enormous Blue Öyster Cult collection. Which I won’t. Click on the cover and check it out.

Carlos I. Cuevas