Blue Oyster Cult - Gojira

A serious classic rock band uses inspiration of men in rubber suits to craft a timeless tune that still gets the blood flowing nearly fifty years later.

When I hear the first bars of this song, Buck Dharma’s inimitable tone and style, I know I need to roll up the volume pot and just enjoy the tune.

Of course, I am talking about Godzilla. The riff is pretty simple, ample space for the classic Dharma riffing and short lead breaks. I am certain part of my fascination is an early dose of watching the original Godzilla movies out of Japan, warning about the dangers of nuclear Armageddon, and how unleashing torrents of radiation and fall out. And you can hardly blame them, being the only country that has experienced a nuclear explosion in war — twice.

Fun fact: I saw BOC once in the mid 1980’s, Rainbow opened for them, and Dokken was supposed to be the warmup act, but they got the boot from the playlist as Richie Blackmore thought that the axe slinger from Dokken, George Lynch, would upstage him and his humongous ego. So, while I did get to see BOC and Rainbow (yay), the bad I really wanted to see at the time — Dokken — was booted from the lineup. Boo!

So, without further ado, here is the original cult classic, Godzilla, a fan made video of the 1977 track:

Naturally, one of my all time favorite players and his band Racer X covered this tune in an absolutely monstrous way, bringing a level of virtuosity that Buck Dharma couldn’t.

Rock on my lovelies!

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