BOC “Godzilla” live in concert
“We were on the road and Patti Smith had put out a book of poetry…”
The 1977 song “Godzilla” by rock band Blue Öyster Cult is a tribute to the Godzilla film series. When the song is performed live, the band brings a Godzilla dummy on stage and the drummer has worn a mask of the kaiju during his solo. Watch the video below to see the band perform the song onstage…
The first track on the BOC’s fifth studio album, Spectres, the lyrics for the song “Godzilla” are a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the movie monster. The song was written by BOC member Donald Roeser, known by his stage name Buck Dharma. Although “Godzilla” failed to hit the charts, the song still got a lot of airplay, and has been a sleeper hit for the band.
Blue Oyster Cult founder Albert Bouchard told The Metal Voice, “We were on the road and Patti Smith had put out a book of poetry in one of the poems she started going ‘God- Zilla- God.’ So, Don called her up and said, ‘Patti, I want to write a song with you and call it “Godzilla”.’ She said, ‘That’s a great idea,’ but because of our schedules they could never get together. Eventually, Don just wrote it all by himself—but it started with Patti Smith. Now I always thought it would be great to have this song in a Godzilla movie.”
In 2019, a cover by Serj Tankian of System of a Down and Bear McCreary featuring guitarist Brendon Small and Dethklok was released for Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
