There's a secret stigma, reaping fear...: Teasing out the R.E.M./BÖC nexus

From songs that sound like other songs:

I wonder how many other REM/BOC parallels we can track (maybe deserves a separate thread?)

― Can Butch Vig not do "dynamimcs"? (morrisp), Monday, September 14, 2020 11:00 AM

Can you start it? How many do we have so far?

― ABBA O RLY? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, September 15, 2020 12:57 PM

1. "don't fear the reaper" (BÖC) bites the opening of "when i touch you" (spirit) pretty hard
― reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, September 5, 2017 6:48 AM

2. R.E.M.’s “So. Central Rain” sounds like a distant cousin of “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”
― 60... 90... 120 Minute IPA (morrisp), Friday, August 2, 2019 3:34 PM

3. the opening riff of "burnin' for you" by BLUE OYSTER CULT
the opening riff of "disturbance at the heron" house by REM
― reggie (qualmsley), Wednesday, September 9, 2020 1:00 PM

(hat tip also to pplains for the thread title)

Whoops, I miffed the first citation (lol):

"Driver 8" sounds like "Don't Fear The Reaper."

― Stranded In the Jungle Groove (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, February 23, 2013 11:53 AM

As a student i used to watch reruns of the Monkees drunk in the middle of the night and I decided there and then that REM were a parody of the Monkees

R.E.M. used to cover "Stepping Stone" in their early live sets so NV is OTM

1. "don't fear the reaper" (BÖC) bites the opening of "when i touch you" (spirit) pretty hard
― reggie (qualmsley), Tuesday, September 5, 2017 6:48 AM

jeeeezus fing christ i like spirit actually but i swear to god every time they string together five notes in an intro to a song some classic rock band that's way better than them gets accused of stealing it....i don't hear it at all

it's a weirder accusation since you know the Byrds was clearly the inspiration for it and I don't think Buck hides that he loves the Byrds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z_e17GJ_Ao

I'm digging the concept of the thread actually but it's got to have more meat on the bone than "arpeggio + clean guitar tone" witch hunt

https://archive.org/details/MonsterTour1995Part3/55+Don%2527t+Fear+the+Reaper+(1995.11.19+-+The+Omni%2C+Atlanta+GA).mp3

xp (great find with that cover!) Yeah - I mean the fact that James heard "Reaper" in "Driver 8," and then I heard it in "So. Central Rain" (independently, several years later), means there's not actually an outright swipe happening in any one particular song, as much as a general style/sound thing (which is still fun to track)

Also, I don't think I ever thought of these bands as being connected - as opposed to, say, the oft-noted Byrds or VU influence on R.E.M. - so it's just kind of a cool discovery.

yeah I'm into it, the Byrds have a very odd and malleable influence that probably isn't explored enough because they never really got to be huge in the Beatles/Stones sense

The Patti Smith connection, two guitarists named Buck– DO U SEE?

no offense to REM but that's more fans vs peers (BOC) wrt Patti

So you are saying there is no there there?

There is a tenuous minutemen connection, their last tour before d boon died was opening for REM, during which the minutemen would sometimes close their set by covering "the red & the black". They closed out the tour by joining REM onstage in the encore for d's last performance ever, a cover of television's "see no evil". Then they got back to home to find that BOC lyricist Richard Meltzer had written lyrics for them too: http://hootpage.com/hoot_spielgushermeltzerminutemen.html

REM had a lead guitarist named Lincoln and he was killed by Blue Oyster Cult's original drummer who was named Kennedy.

J0hn and I did a brief goofy Agents vs Document thing here in 02: Taking Sides: Smiths vs. REM

I love REM, despite what it seems like there. I knew them before the Byrds so I heard "Reaper" as proto-REM as a kid. Idk that the connection really goes further than a vibe in the end, though.

Thought about that tenuous minutemen connection last night and read a few Mike Watt interviews to reconfirm. Didn't really get much to bolster the, um, case of this thread. Did learn that apparently D. Boon styled his name after E(ric) Bloom.

Blue Oyster Cult's live album "Some Enchanted Evening" is partially recorded at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, GA 1978.

I'd say there is a pretty decent chance that one or more members of REM 'might' have gone to that show.

Interesting.

Another connection: neither band is Boards of Canada

I was waiting for that one, couldn't figure out how to phrase it myself.