In the spirit of the Gods & Monsters giveaway I’m involved in —
— I’ve been revisiting some of my Recommendations that fit the category. And, well, I don’t think this quite what the giveaway is aimed at, but it’s nevertheless about Pop Culture’s most famous, most radioactive monster…
Invasion of Astro-Monster: Toho.
I’ve previously mentioned that a fair few rock stars are really just colossal nerds.
Allow me to present Exhibit B: longtime rock icons and cowbell aficionados Blue Öyster Cult, who have, as enumerated by TV Tropes, written songs: about Michael Moorcock‘s Elric Saga (Moorcock has also actually collaborated with the band), 1963 horror film X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes, silent Vampire film Nosferatu, popular horror writer and (well-known racist) H.P. Lovecraft‘s The Alchemist, and for 1981 cult classic Pulp Science Fantasy film Heavy Metal (which I’m not going to link to; it’s a very, unapologetically NSFW film…).
With that in mind, let’s turn our attention, the opening track of Blue Öyster Cult’s 1977 album Spectres: Godzilla.
Which certainly delivers what it promises.
In general, the lyrics pretty much describe every Godzilla movie ever, with our favourite giant, radioactive dinosaur wreaking a non-specific path of destruction across Tokyo — though mentions of subways, high-tension wires, and buses do sort of invoke the very first Godzilla movie specifically — though I’m pretty sure all of those things also happen in other Godzilla movies.
It’s a pretty, tongue-in-cheek song that falls squarely into Affectionate Parody territory.
That being said, Blue Öyster Cult were clearly paying attention, since the song includes a rather succinct summation of the entire Godzilla franchise:
History shows again and again
How Nature points out the folly of Man.
There is, of course, the original Blue Öyster Cult version:
And there’s also the end credits version from Bear McCreary‘s soundtrack to 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters featuring vocals by System of a Down lead singer Serj Tankian:
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