Classic Songs: I Love The Night

It's time to take another look at one of my favorite songs of all time. Unlike the last two I've done pieces on, which are more personal to me, and I experienced (in both cases) in my teens, this is a song I'm fairly certain I didn't hear until I was at least in early adulthood. So I don't have as much of an emotional connection to it. BUT, it is a song that grew on me over time, to the point that I don't mind saying, not only is it my favorite song by the band who created it, but it's easily in my Top 5 favorite songs of all time, ever.

The 1977 rock classic, Spectres.

Blue Oyster Cult as a band, is an odd duck, to begin with. They are one of the weirdest, and arguably the most eclectic rock bands of their era. For me personally, I encountered them at a younger age in life than I did Kansas and Metallica, the bands who originated the two previous songs in this series. That is, except for briefly seeing Metallica play "Enter Sandman" on some awards show in the early 90s, which for whatever reason at that age didn't yet grab me (though you'd think it would have). 

As I've covered when talking about my childhood experiences with Godzilla, during that glorious TNT's MonsterVision Godzilla marathon, they played a promo in between movies, a video package which played BOC's song "Godzilla" over movie clips. I had never heard that song before, and at about age 11 or 12, I thought it was the most bad ass thing I'd ever heard. So you could easily say that I was instantly a Blue Oyster Cult fan, due to that song, even though I wouldn't experience more of their catalogue until I was into my very late teens. It's entirely probable that I heard at least a clip of their most famous hit, "Don't Fear the Reaper" play on TV at some point. But "Godzilla" was the one that stuck with me.

BOC, in their 70s prime.

For a bit of history, the band that would come to be known as Blue Oyster Cult, started out as a college band called Soft White Underbelly, in the late 1960s. Band friend and rock critic, Sandy Pearlman, offered to be their manager, and also wound up being their creative partner. He was hugely influential in both their music and their success. After going through several name changes, and adding lead vocalist Eric Bloom, they would finally settle on Blue Oyster Cult, and saw their first official self-titled album release in 1972. 

From the start, BOC was a very unique act, both due to the quirky, more intellectual sensibilities of the band members, but also because of their collaborations with various outside personalities. Sandy Pearlman, being probably the biggest of these, contributed several of his own poems over the years, which were used as the basis for certain BOC songs. They would also collaborate lyrically with both rock critic Richard Meltzer, and early Punk Rock icon Patti Smith, among others. Another element of the band that was fairly unique, is that even on their first album, almost every band member sang lead vocals at some point. A tradition that persisted through their entire career, even though Eric Bloom and Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser have always been the main singers.

BOC's first album, part of their "Black and White era" of the early 70s.

While their early albums, which all featured black and white cover art, featured a few minor hits, such as "Cities On Flame With Rock n Roll" and "Astronomy", and the band saw steady growth through 1975, it wasn't until their 1976 epic "Agents of Fortune" that they finally hit the "big time". Their hit single "Don't Fear The Reaper" reached into the Top 15 on radio airplay, and became an immortal opus for the band ever since. 

They followed this success up with 1977's "Spectres", which produced another massive radio hit, the aforementioned "Godzilla", which also became a permanent favorite for fans at concerts. Buck Dharma, who also happens to be one of my favorite guitarists of all time, not only wrote (and sang) "Don't Fear The Reaper", he also wrote both "Godzilla", and the song I'm actually here to talk about, the low-key ballad "I Love The Night". They would continue churning out hit albums into the early 80s, culminating with what is arguably their overall best record, 1981's "Fire of Unknown Origin". Their success as a top act would wane during the course of the 80s and beyond, but Blue Oyster Cult had already forever etched their name into the proverbial Rock of Ages, as far as rock music was concerned. They had already achieved musical immortality.

From left to right, the three guitarists of BOC, Allen Lanier, Eric Bloom, and Buck Dharma.

The reason that "I Love The Night" has grown over time into one of my favorite songs, is first and foremost because of its incredible tone, and mood. It has just such a chill vibe, with haunting, almost baroque guitar work. Dharma's vocals are equally both peaceful and haunting, as well. It's such a great song to relax to, the perfect thing to put on if you're stressed out, or angry, or otherwise in a foul mood. It has a delicious melancholy to it, even a slight sinister tint, but it also somehow manages to exude such positive, calming vibes.

Lyrically, the song comes off as a very poetic, if not a bit spooky, love song. But underneath, it has supernatural undertones, the "Lady in White" being either some kind of ghost, or perhaps vampire. Regardless, the man in the song becomes mesmerized by a woman who dominates his thoughts, and whom he can only see under the darkness of night. Done perhaps any other way, especially considering the possible vampiric connotations, this is not necessarily the kind of lyrical content that I would gravitate towards, nor even enjoy. But the way Dharma's lyrics, singing, and guitar work intertwine, telling this haunting tale, it just captivates me. It's actually hard for me to believe that this song originally FAILED to be a major radio hit for the band. But for me, while Blue Oyster Cult has produced quite a few truly great songs over their career, this song (perhaps tied with its spiritual twin "Don't Fear The Reaper") is their greatest work.



Here are the lyrics, and the song, so that you may experience, and hopefully be captivated by it yourself:

That night her kiss told me it was over,
I walked out late into the dark.
The misty gloom seems to soak up my sorrow,
The further I went on, I felt a spreading calm.

Then suddenly, my eyes were bathed in light,
And the lovely lady in white was by my side.
She said "Like me I see you're walking alone.
Won't you please stay?"
I couldn't look away.

She said I love the night,
The day is ok and the sun can be fun,
But I live to see those rays slip away.
I love the night,
There's so much I can show and give to you,
If you will welcome me tonight.
If only you had been there my dear,
We could have shared this together.

No mortal was meant to see such wonder,
One look in the mirror told me so.
Come darkness I'll see her again,
Yes I'm gonna go, 'cause now I know...