(Don’t Fear) The Reaper is a 1976 song by Blue Öyster Cult about eternal love and the inevitability of death. Written and sung by lead guitarist Buck Dharma, this song was originally thought to be about murder and suicide because he brought up Romeo and Juliet in the lyrics. However, he just used them as a vessel for the overarching themes of love and death. This song was also written as an imagination of death by Dharma, who had earlier been diagnosed with heart arrhythmia and expected himself to die soon. (However, he was wrong, as he is alive today).