BLUE ÖYSTER CULT - (DON’T FEAR)THE REAPER

Released: July 1976

Charted:  UK: #16    US: #12 

"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" is a song by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult from the band's 1976 album “Agents of Fortune”. The song, written and sung by lead guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, was rumored to be about suicide, but it actually deals with the inevitability of death and the belief that we should not fear it. When Dharma wrote it, he was thinking about what would happen if he died at a young age and if he would be reunited with loved ones in the afterlife.

Dharma was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat, which got him thinking about his mortality and inspired the song. "I thought I was going to maybe not live that long," he said in an interview. "I had been diagnosed with a heart condition, and your mind starts running away with you, especially when you're young-ish. So, that's why I wrote the story. It's imagining you can survive death in terms of your spirit. Your spirit will prevail."

Some of the lyrics were inspired by Shakespeare's “Romeo And Juliet”. In Shakespeare's play, Romeo swallows poison when he believes Juliet is dead. Juliet responds by taking her own life. This led many people to believe the song was about suicide, but Dharma was using Romeo and Juliet as an example of a couple who had faith that they would be together after their death.

The song is a metaphor for death. The lyrics compare death to different parts of life like seasons, wind, the sun, the rain, Valentine's Day, Romeo and Juliet, and 40,000 people. The chorus urges the listener to not fear the reaper and implies that death is nothing to be afraid of, since everyone's time eventually comes. The song also highlights that even though we all eventually pass away, we have the opportunity to find love, experience life, and cherish our time on earth.