Tag: Cowbell

I thought it was time to include some arena rock since I haven’t posted any for a long time. The band will always be connected to the Cowbell because of Saturday Night Live…but this is a fun song. It helps that I’m a huge fan of Godzilla.

This song was obviously inspired by a series of Japanese films from the 1950s featuring the one and only Godzilla.  The song lyrics depict famous scenes from Godzilla films. The band didn’t understand why the 2014 movie didn’t use the song but…in Godzilla The King of The Monsters…it was used but it was a remake…not the original version…they should have used the BOC version.

The song appeared on the album Spectres. The album peaked at #43 on the Billboard Album Charts, #58 in Canada, and #60 in the UK in 1977. The song didn’t chart and wasn’t a hit but lives on and on….on classic radio.

The band’s guitarist, Buck Dharma, wrote this song and shared lead vocals on the track with Eric Bloom. Dharma loved monster movies, and when he came up with the guitar riff, it made him think of Godzilla, which gave him the concept of the song.

In concert at one time, a smoke-spewing animatronic Godzilla with flashing eyes would appear on stage when the band performed this song. Buck Dharma would give it a convincing introduction, often referring to recent newsworthy catastrophes. In later years, the stage Godzilla was retired, but the band still used a barrage of sound effects to start the song

According to the book Contents Under Pressure: 30 Years Of Rush, while opening on tour with Blue Öyster Cult, Rush members replaced a sound recording that queued up with a video of Godzilla at the opening of the set with a recording of “Hello, My name is Mister Ed.” The two bands often played pranks on one another during the tour.

The tune has been used in the soundtracks of numerous other movies, such as “Detroit Rock City,” “Dogtown” and “Z-Boys,” as well as in television shows, commercials, video games, and compilation recordings. It has been covered by bands like Racer X and the Smashing Pumpkins. It also has been parodied by several artists, most notably Blue Oyster Cult members Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser, who released “NoZilla” in response to their song not appearing in the 1998 “Godzilla” film soundtrack.

Buck Dharma:  “The story of the tune was, I just came up with the parallel fifths guitar riff in a hotel room in Dallas, Texas back in the day, probably about 1975. And it immediately made me think of Godzilla, like the plodding, you know, guy-in-a-suit monster. And I started writing the lyrics from what happened in the movie. Like, the high-tension wires are a big part of that movie.”

The NEW version

Godzilla

With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high-tension wires down

Helpless people on subway trains
Scream, bug-eyed, as he looks in on them

He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town

Oh, no, they say he’s got to go
Go, go, Godzilla (yeah)
Oh, no, there goes Tokyo
Go, go, Godzilla (yeah)

Oh, no, they say he’s got to go
Go, go, Godzilla (yeah)
Oh, no, there goes Tokyo
Go, go, Godzilla (yeah)

Godzilla!

臨時ニュースを申し上げます
臨時ニュースを申し上げます
ゴジラが銀座方面に向かっています
大至急避難してください
大至急避難してください

Oh, no, they say he’s got to go
Go, go, Godzilla (yeah)
Oh, no, there goes Tokyo
Go, go, Godzilla (yeah)

History shows again and again
How nature points out the folly of man
Godzilla!

History shows again and again
How nature points out the folly of man
Godzilla!

History shows again and again
How nature points out the folly of man
Godzilla!

History shows again and again
How nature points out the folly of man
Godzilla!