The Story Behind How Rock Critic Richard Meltzer Helped Write Blue Öyster Cult’s 1981 Hit “Burnin’ for You”

When Blue Öyster Cult was working on their eighth album, Fire of Unknown Origin, rock critic Richard Meltzer ended up writing one of the band’s biggest hits. Meltzer, who had already co-written a series of songs with the band throughout ’70s—”Stairway to the Stars,” “She’s as Beautiful as a Foot,” “Harvester of Eyes,” “Death Valley Nights,” and more—originally titled his new song “Burn Out The Night.”

Like Patti Smith, who also shared her poetry and wrote or co-wrote songs for the band, along with writer and producer Sandy Pearlman, and others, Meltzer would often leave behind pages of typewritten lyrics for the band to peruse and work around.

At first, Blue Öyster Cult guitarist Don “Buck Dharma” Roeser wanted to use Meltzer’s latest song for his 1982 solo album, Flat Out, before he added his lyrics around Meltzer’s and switched the title to “Burnin’ For You.”

[RELATED: 6 Songs You Didn’t Know Patti Smith Wrote for Blue Öyster Cult]

“Richard would write on a typewriter and we’d have sheets of lyrics and on the page and it would look just look like poetry with a lot of lower case and free form, free association,” said Roeser in 2017. “I don’t know how long I’d had his lyric but it was about 1980 and we’d moved to Connecticut. Originally it was going to be on my solo record, but Sandy [Pearlman] convinced me to give it to BOC (Blue Öyster Cult).”

Roeser added, “I wrote it in my garage studio. I’m quite proud of it. It’s one of Richard’s more sentimental lyrics—something he’s not known for.”

Home

The beginning verses of the song are centered around home, which is repeated, and captures a feeling of longing and not belonging.

Home in the valley
Home in the city
Home isn’t pretty
Ain’t no home for me

Home in the darkness
Home on the highway
Home isn’t my way
Home will never be

The chorus wraps around an anything-goes mentality—hopelessly burning through days and nights.

Burn out the day
Burn out the night

I can’t see no reason to put up a fight
I’m living for giving the devil his due
And I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you
I’m burning, I’m burning, I’m burning for you

Time

In the end, home, nor time, is on anyone’s side.

Time is the essence
Time is the season
Time ain’t no reason
Got no time to slow

Time everlasting
Time to play B sides
Time ain’t on my side
Time will never know

“Burnin’ For You” was a hit for Blue Öyster Cult, topping the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and making the top 40 of the Hot 100. Fire of Unknown Origin also became the band’s highest-charting album hitting No. 24 on the Billboard 200.

A 1950s Monster Movie Video Set

The song was also tied to the first music video Blue Öyster Cult released, and it was filmed on the same site as a famous 1950s monster movie. “We made [‘Burnin’ for You’] in the storm drains of LA,” remembered singer Eric Bloom. “If anyone has seen the [1954] movie about giant ants called ‘Them!’ with James Whitmore, it was filmed in the same place.

The video was filmed the same day as another shot for “Joan Crawford,” which also appears on Fire of Unknown Origin. “I think we were there a good 12 straight hours,” added Bloom. “We had a bunch of extras and pyro because we burned a car. And that was all done as on the cheap as possible, and with low production values and bad editing. But we had fun doing it because it was new to us.”

Bloom added, We thought [the car on fire scene] was very Hollywood, very cool. They had to have a Hollywood film/pyro guy there, who was licensed to burn shit up. He had propane tanks, and he had to have a hulk of a car to burn. It was fun. It was a little taste of Hollywood for us.”

Photo: Pete Cronin/Redferns