Hey Dialophiles!
Tonight, the Dial cuts through the static to bring you a classic
rock signal from 1981, a track providing an exploration of a person’s fragile
mental and emotional state after years of abuse from an unstated antagonist.
Allow us to present Blue Öyster Cult’s “Veteran
of the Psychic Wars”.
Appearing on their 1981 release Fire of Unknown Origin, “Veteran” melds elements of progressive
rock (think ‘70s era Genesis and Styx) and hard rock (ala Black Sabbath and
Nazareth), with brutally honest lyrics detailing a mind weary of constant
conflict.
It never charted as a single, which is typical of the output of
B.O.C. In fact, they only reached the American top 40 twice… first with 1976’s
iconic “Don’t Fear The Reaper” (#12),
and next with the rock standard “Burnin’
For You” (#40), which was also extracted from the Fire of Unknown Origin LP. However, despite their limited chart
impact, BOC’s songs have influenced legendary acts as diverse as Metallica,
Guns N Roses, Nirvana, and fIREHOSE.
Now it’s time for a little personal history…
Back in the early 90s, I stumbled across an arresting vision of an
animated gigantic smiley-faced spaceship hovering over the Pentagon on cable TV
around 1am. Now, when you see something like that, you owe it to yourself to
stick with it, and I quickly found myself mesmerized by the second half of “Heavy Metal”, a movie I was only vaguely
familiar with prior to that point, but once the end credits rolled, I made it a
priority to seek out and watch the entire film.
Shortly thereafter, I visited my local Blockbuster, and was
informed that Heavy Metal wasn’t available for rent or purchase… something
about legal issues surrounding the music on the soundtrack. However, not to be
thwarted, I snagged a professionally packaged VHS bootleg from a record show
(recorded off of a late 80s Showtime airing), which allowed me to finally view
the entirety of this genius, surreal, “chock-full-of-rock”, sci-fi anthology
masterpiece.
So what’s the connection here? BOC’s “Veteran” is featured prominently in an early segment in Heavy
Metal, a futuristic film noirish piece entitled “Harry Canyon”. A tale about a cabbie that gets tangled up with
gangsters, a mysterious woman, and an ancient artifact of pure evil, Harry
Canyon’s story ended up providing the basic plot line for the 1996 live action
sci-fi thriller The Fifth Element.
So if it were not for that chance encounter on cable TV two
decades ago, we here at the Dial may never have discovered Blue Öyster Cult’s rockin’ 1981 ode to being
on the verge of insanity… whether in an animated world, or not.
You
see me now a veteran of a thousand psychic wars…
I’ve
been living on the edge so long, where the winds of limbo roar
And
I’m young enough to look at, and far too old to see
All
the scars are on the inside…
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