Blue Oyster Cult: "Heavy Metal: The Black and Silver"

From the Columbia recording "Fire of Unknown Origin", released in
June of 1981.

Words and music by Albert Bouchard, Eric Bloom, and Sandy Pearlman.

Guitars by Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser.

Transcription by Gary Regester (descry@erols.com).


Legend
------

b = bend (the number after the b is how far to bend; 3/4 = a half
          step plus a quarter step, 1 1/4 = a whole step plus a
          quarter step; two bends in a row are executed without re-
          attacking the note)

pb = pre-bend (bend the note before playing it)

 = tap fret with middle finger of right hand

~ = left-hand vibrato

(7) = a number in parentheses indicates a note is played or is still
      ringing but does not get re-attacked

/ = slide up

h = hammer-on

. = staccato (cut the note or chord short)

FB = feedback (I wrote in the most obvious places where feedback is
               used as part of the guitar part.  Feedback occurs in
               some other spots as well, simply because there is so
               much feedback going on overall.  Where feedback IS
               indicated, the guitar might not generate feedback
               every time, but most of the time it will.)

= = unmeasured tremolo (pick very fast to sustain note or chord)



INTRO
=====

With distortion and some SERIOUS feedback

Played freely


  FB throughout          hold bend  release bend   release
                             
|-12b3/4--12b3/4--12b3/4-----24--------(24)------11pb1--11b1/2-b1 1/4
|--------------------------------------------------------------------
|--------------------------------------------------------------------
|--------------------------------------------------------------------
|--------------------------------------------------------------------
|--------------------------------------------------------------------


|-11b1 1/4--12--10~~~~~~~~~~~-||
|---------------10~~~~~~~~~~~-||
|-----------------------------||
|-----------------------------||
|-----------------------------||
|-----------------------------||



MAIN RIFF
=========

With distortion and feedback

This is on a different track from the Intro guitar, which you can
hear still holding that last double-stop when the Main Riff starts.


           . FB . FB                         4x
|-------||-------------------|---------------||
|-------||-------------------|---------------||
|-------|*-------------------|---------------*|
|-------|*---------------7---|-5-------------*|
|-5/(6)-||-7----7----5h7-----|---7-3-5-----5-||
|-3/(4)-||-5----5------------|-------3-----3-||



VERSE 1
=======

              +----------- +----------------
              |1-3.         |4.
              |             |
              |           4x|
||------------|------------||-----------------||
||------------|------------||-----------------||
|*------------|------------*|-----------------||
|*------------|------------*|-----------------||
||-7--------7-|-5--------5-||--5--------5/(7)-||
||-5--------5-|-3--------3-||--3--------3/(5)-||



CHORUS 1
========

Repeat Main Riff 4x



VERSE 2
=======

Same as Verse 1 with different 4th ending:


+--------------
|4.
|
|
|---------------||
|---------------||
|---------------||
|---------------||
|--5----------5-||
|--3----------3-||



CHORUS 2
========

Repeat Main Riff 4x (last bar on 4th x is different:)


|--------------||
|--------------||
|--------------||
|-5------------||
|---7-3-5------||
|-------3------||



MIDDLE SECTION
==============

                               +----------------------------
                               |1-3.
                               |
  FB    FB       FB    FB      |FB    FB       FB    FB      4x
||--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------||
||--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------||
|*--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------*|
|*---7-7--7-----|---7-7--7-----|--------------|--------------*|
||---5-5--5-----|---5-5--5-----|---7-7--7-----|---7-7--7-----||
||--------------|--------------|---5-5--5-----|---5-5--5-----||


+------------------------------
|4.
|
|
|---------------|---------------||
|---------------|---------------||
|---------------|---------------||
|----9-9--9-----|---9-9---9-----||
|----7-7--7-----|---7-7---7---5-||
|---------------|-------------3-||



LAST CHORUS
===========

Repeat Main Riff 6x (last bar of 6th x is different:)


|--------------||
|--------------||
|--------------||
|-5------------||
|---7-3-5------||
|-------3------||



ENDING
======

There's alot of feedback going on here, as you know.  Most of it
appears to be the open strings feeding back at very high harmonics.
Towards the end it appears that Buck influences the sound by
fingering certain notes but perhaps not actually picking them,
instead letting the feedback sustain them.  What I've done is written
down the actual pitches of the feedback so that you can re-create the
sound (some notes are actually another octave above where I've
written them).


  .  FB  .  FB            .  FB             .  FB
|--------------14----17-|-------------17-17----------------------|
|----16-----16----16----|----------------------16-17-15----------|
|-----------------------|-------16-15-------------------12-14-12-|
|-----------------------|----14----------------------------------|
|-7------7--------------|-7-----------------7--------------------|
|-5------5--------------|-5-----------------5--------------------|


  FB                 ======
|-------17-------17------------||
|------------------------------||
|-17h18----15h16---------------||
|------------------------------||
|--------------------7-----(7)-||
|--------------------5-----(5)-||


I expect it's played like this (notes is parentheses are fingered
but not picked)...


  . FB  .  FB    . FB  .  FB
|--------------|----------------------------------|
|--------------|----------(4)-(5)-(3)-------------|
|--------------|----------------------(2)-(4)-(2)-|
|--------------|----------------------------------|
|-7-----7------|-7-----7--------------------------|
|-5-----5------|-5-----5--------------------------|


  FB                        =====
|---------(5)---------(5)-----------||
|-----------------------------------||
|-(5)h(6)-----(3)h(4)---------------||
|-----------------------------------||
|-------------------------7-----(7)-||
|-------------------------5-----(5)-||



The original title of this song was "Ear Damage".  It was inspired by
the animated film "Heavy Metal", although not directly from the
script.  The lyrics were inspired by the novel "The Iron Sun:
Crossing the Universe Through Black Holes" (1971), written by Adrian
Berry.  Some of the lyrics to the song were taken from actual chapter
titles used in the book ("Where Matter Vanishes", "Into the
Whirlpool", "The Forbidden Circle").



During the European leg of the tour for the "Fire of Unknown Origin"
album, the band added a double-time riff to the middle of the song.
This appears on the LP "Still Kicking" (1982, Good Shape Records
#101).  This version was recorded live at Donnington Park on August
22, 1981.  The riff is at double the speed of the rest of the song
and fits in between the Middle Section and the Last Chorus.


DOUBLE-TIME RIFF
================


  1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &    1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

|-----------------|-----------------||-----------------|
|-----------------|-----------------||-----------------|
|-----------------|-----------------|*-----------------|
|-----------------|-----------------|*-----------------|
|---------3-5-3---|-----------------||---------3-5-3---|
|-5-5-3-5---------|-5-0-3-0-5-0-3-5-||---5-3-5---------|


  1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &    1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
                  4x
|-----------------||-----------------|-----------------||
|-----------------||-----------------|-----------------||
|-----------------*|-----------------|-----------------||
|-----------------*|-----------------|-----------------||
|-----------------||---------3-5-3---|-----------------||
|-5-0-3-0-5-0-3-5-||---5-3-5---------|-5-0-3-0-5-0-3---||


Buck's solo starts on the last "and of 4" above when the rest of the
band goes to a D chord for 8 measures.

The Double-Time Riff repeats as before, but with only 2 repetitions
in the middle instead of 4.

Then 8 more bars of D with solo.

Then repeat the Double-Time Riff as before with 2 instead of 4
repetitions in the middle.  The last bar is different and then it
goes on from there...


  1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &   1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &    1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
                                                       2x
|-----------------|-----------------||-----------------||
|-----------------|-----------------||-----------------||
|-----------------|-----------------|*-----------------*|
|-----------------|-----------------|*-----------------*|
|-----------------|---------3-5-3---||---------3-5-3---||
|-5-0-3-0-5---3-5-|---0-3-5---------||-5-0-3-5---------||


  1 & 2 & 1 2 3 (the 1 2 3 represents quarter note triplets)

|---------------|-------------||
|---------------|-------------||
|---------------|-9-----------||
|---------------|-9-----------||
|---------3-5-6-|-7-----------||
|-5-0-3-5-------|-------------||

                  hold for 4 bars (drum fill)


Otherwise the version on "Still Kicking" is pretty much the same.
Buck uses a whammy bar as well as feedback for the Intro and Ending
(which come out completely differently).  He also solos over the
Middle Section and a bit during the Verses.



Thanks goes to John Swartz' BOC FAQ for a lot of the info found here.