<P> Released as an edited single (omitting the slow building interlude that's in the original), the song was Blue Öyster Cult's biggest chart success, reaching #7 in Cash Box and #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1976 . Additionally, critical reception was mainly positive and, in 2004, "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was listed at number 405 on the Rolling Stone list of the top 500 songs of all time . </P> <P>--Buck Dharma, lead singer </P> <P> The song is about the inevitability of death and the foolishness of fearing it, and was written when Dharma was thinking about what would happen if he died at a young age . Lyrics such as "Romeo and Juliet are together in eternity" have led many listeners to interpret the song to be about a murder - suicide pact, but Dharma says the song is about eternal love, rather than suicide . He used Romeo and Juliet as motifs to describe a couple believing they would meet again in the afterlife . He guessed that "40,000 men and women" died each day, and the figure was used several times in the lyrics; this rate was 100,000 off the mark . </P> <P> "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" was written and sung by the band's lead guitarist, Dharma, and produced by David Lucas, Murray Krugman, and Sandy Pearlman . The song's distinctive guitar riff is built on the "i - VII - VI" chord progression, in an A minor scale . The riff was recorded with Krugman's Gibson ES - 175 guitar, which was run through a Music Man 410 combo amplifier, and Dharma's vocals were captured with a Telefunken U47 tube microphone . The guitar solo and guitar rhythm sections were recorded in one take, while a four - track tape machine amplified them on the recording . Sound engineer Shelly Yakus remembers piecing together the separate vocals, guitar and rhythm section into a master track, with the overdubbing occurring in that order . </P>

What is the meaning behind the song don't fear the reaper