Creepy Halloween Tunes – Blue Oyster Cult’s ‘Harvest Moon’

All month long, I'm spotlighting some creepy songs to get us into the Halloween spirit. Our spooky mixtape continues with a deep cut from Blue Oyster Cult.

There will probably be plenty of BOC songs in this recurring feature, because their music just lends itself to Halloween. They're great to listen to all year long, but even more so on these cool-ish Fall days. There's something awesome about cranking up some Cult on an October afternoon. I did just that last weekend and kept coming back to this one.

BOC haven't been very prolific as far as releasing new music. They've only had 2 albums of new material in 20 years, and their last one was in 2001. With a band that spends as much time on the road as they do, they don't have to! But it's a shame because their two "later-day" albums, 2001's Curse of the Hidden Mirror and 1998's Heaven Forbid, which this song comes from, are excellent.

This song is like a little Stephen King novel in five minutes.  There's always a sinister undercurrent in the lyrics, leading to a terrifying final chorus. I won't spoil it for you, just listen to the song. The "ahhh" harmonies are spooky. The whole song just has a ton of atmosphere. Not to mention an absolute shredding guitar solo from Buck Dharma, and one of the coolest re-entries to a song after the solo that I've ever heard. You can actually hear the band putting the brakes on at about the 3:17 mark.

Pleasant dreams.