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Astronomy
"Astronomy" is a rock song by Blue Öyster Cult that has appeared on several of the band's albums.
It was first published on their 1974 album Secret Treaties. Their second live album, Some Enchanted Evening, included a version with an extended guitar solo and a third version (sung by Buck Dharma) was included on the Imaginos album. Most recently the song was included on the A Long Day's Night album.
The song's lyrics are selected verses from a poem by Sandy Pearlman, the band's producer and mastermind behind their image, called "The Soft Doctrines of Immaginos".
In the poem, which was later released under the BÖC moniker as "Imaginos", aliens known as Les Invisibles guide an altered human named Imaginos, also called Desdinova, through history, playing key roles that eventually lead to the outbreak of World War I.
In "Astronomy", the character of Imaginos comes to realize his heritage and his role as the altered human. References are made to celestial objects throughout the song-- "The light that never warms" being the moon, "The Queenly flux" the constellation Cassiopeia, "My dog, fixed and consequent" being Sirius, the dog star. The "Four Winds Bar" may reference the Tropic of Cancer. All in all, it has Imaginos explaining his position as part of Les Invisibles. (Wikipedia)
Laudanum Version
Wwalkthrough and secrets:
The short intro is a mix of two acoustic guitars – one with flanger effect – and two samples:
The first one is a dog growling, referring to the “my dog” in the lyrics (being Sirius, the star).
The first two verses are kept very simple, with just the piano (the red Nord Stage keyboard) bass guitar and voice.
A short interlude with arpeggiated strings, a bass guitar melody (emphasized by a soft synth sound), separates the two verses. To add some tension, the piano doesn’t follow the chords of the arpeggio strings.
The bombastic theme which follows, introduces the electric guitar, playing the theme, and the acoustic drums. It features the arpeggio strings again + bass and acoustic guitars. The melody is played 4 times. The third and fourth time extra strings double the melody a third higher or so, making it sound more dramatic.
The “four winds bar” up tempo part has a samba feel to it, created by the combination of the bass melody and the tam-tam percussion sample. The acoustic drums are still there though.
The combination of acoustic drums and drum samples always works out great.
Recording acoustic drums is hard, and we are very lucky to be able to record them ourselves, in the garden shack at Pat’s house.
The never ending guitar solo starts off in the 4 chord scheme and arrangement of the “four winds bar” part. It then builds up in a 3 chord scheme with an organ, a heavier bass and another percussion sample.
Composing long guitar solos is tough, but we found an easy way out: we just let Stef improvise a whole afternoon, and then we build up a story using all the recorded parts as a puzzle.
More percussion samples drive the solo to its climax in
the reprise of the bombastic theme. The full stop at the end of the theme has a “sudden death” feel to it. And that’s because the chord that would bring the melody to a close, isn’t played. So it kinda stops in the middle of things, leaving only the guitar delay to die out.
The expected chord, with the last note of the guitar solo, starts off
the reprise of the laid back verses part. We’re back at the beginning of the song, now.
The third verse is sung and the string arpeggio interlude is played twice. A combination of 3 samples present a scene with aeroplane pilots spotting a UFO (“…and then came me…”).
The “Call me Desdinova” up tempo part is actually the reprise of the “four winds bar” part, with the same chords, but is meant to sound darker and more mysterious, using bass vocals underneath.
It suddenly cuts off, literally, since we just cut the wave file in two to get a “tic” as if you turn off the radio, and it drops us into
the twilight zone part. Dreamy arpeggio sounds and samples of child laughter, baby cries and grown up laughter, try to evoke an atmosphere of past - and future time being mixed up.
There’s a secret message imbedded. Decipher it, and you get a free Laudanum part at Sellaband.
The acoustic guitars that were introduced in the short intro of the song, take over, and the whole thing builds up to the
“Astronomy, a star” part, the finale, meant to be dreamy and propelling in the vocal part, and with a happy feel when the electric guitar solo answers.
The outro of the extra long version of the song (9,5 mins), pushes on the rhythmic drive with the repetitive electric guitar chord riff, and ends with the poppy combination of the piano and acoustic guitars of the “four winds bar up tempo” part, and the drums of the “reprise of the laid back verses” part. The children, the baby, the grown ups, the dog and the UFO impose themselves one last time.
