Don’t fear the reaper, just keep on playing: Blue Coupe hits up El Mocambo this month

What do you get when you mix two former Blue Oyster Cult members with the ex-bassist of the Alice Cooper Band?

Blue Coupe — a legacy rock trio that performs not only some of the better known hits of their previous employers, but also some pretty decent originals.

Between them, Joe and Albert Bouchard, 73 and 75, respectively, spent 16 years as the rhythm section for Stony Brook, N.Y., rockers Blue Oyster Cult. Bass player Dennis Dunaway, 75, first formed the Earwigs, which later evolved into the Alice Cooper Band, back in Phoenix, Ariz., in 1964.

They’ve now been Blue Coupe — which performs at the El Mocambo on July 21, Hamilton’s the Casbah on July 22 and Oshawa’s Biltmore Theatre July 23 — for nearly 14 years, releasing three albums of their own: 2010s “Tornado on the Tracks”; 2013’s “Million Miles More” and 2019’s “Eleven Even.”

So why are they still in the game?

“We all still really love what we’re doing,” Dunaway said in a recent phone interview. “We don’t phone it in. We’re enthusiastic about writing, doing interviews and performing. We’ve always been like that and that’s probably common for people who have been in successful bands because that’s what’s required.”

In a separate interview, Joe Bouchard said it keeps them young and vibrant.

“Most guys my age would be in the retirement home, by now,” Bouchard said. “Not us. We’re bringing it to the people — people want it.”

The brothers Bouchard had been with Blue Oyster Cult since its 1967 inception, back in the days when they were churning out hard rock albums and known as one of the first bands to adopt lasers for their stage performances. They sold 25 million records around the world, with their biggest hits including the cowbell-driven “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” “Godzilla,” “Burning for You” and the one that Joe had a hand in writing, “Astronomy.”

However, his main instrument was the guitar — which he plays in Blue Coupe — not the bass, which he played for his entire tenure in Blue Oyster Cult. And he thought it was time for a change.

“Rock bands always need bass players,” he said. “It’s a good fallback if you need a job. I stuck with it 16 years. But toward the end of my time with Blue Oyster Cult I was feeling frustrated. I really wanted to play more guitar.

“There was a whole stack of reasons why I left the band, but constant touring was the main one. I needed to take some time off and, after I did, I realized it was time for me to find something else. I didn’t know how to do anything but be a rock star in a rock band. It was too easy a ride for me. I like to go the hard way and go out on my own.”

The Bouchard-Dunaway collaboration happened as far back as 1972.

“We were in North Carolina, this outdoor festival, and the Alice Cooper Band had finally gotten to the point where we were headliners and we looked for an opening act. (Drummer) Neal (Smith) and Alice (Cooper) and I were walking about in the crowd, and Blue Oyster Cult came on and we said, ‘Hey, let’s get those guys.’ ”

The two groups toured together for quite a while, but even Dunaway admitted, “We don’t remember the shows as much as the parties.”

As they befriended one another, Dunaway discovered that the Bouchard brothers and lead guitarist Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser all lived within the same New York City tri-state area. He would run into them on a train, and they’d get together to party and jam.

During the final days of CBGB in October 2006, the infamous Big Apple punk and rock club, a number of fundraisers were held to help stave off its closing.

“We were all playing for free to try to help bail them out, and Joe and Albert and I ended up going onstage,” Dunaway recalled. “The three of us did a few songs together, and this guy in the audience jumped up and said, ‘Hey, I have a club in the Poconos and you guys have to play there.’

“We told him we weren’t really a band, but he offered us enough money that we said yes. We did two sets without any rehearsals and the guy begged us to do a third set so that people wouldn’t tear the place apart. We ended up doing every song we’d heard in our lives, I think, that night,” Dunaway added with a laugh.

Dunaway’s own illustrious history has quite a few notable Canadian moments, including the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival Festival held in 1969 — the one where singer Cooper threw a chicken into the audience only to see it horrifically torn apart by concertgoers.

“We started using chickens in Detroit because Glen Buxton, our guitar player, would do this thing where he would tap his fingers on the strings and it reminded me of chickens clucking,” Dunaway explained. “So we thought it would be funny to have chickens appear on the top of the amp. We’d unleash them in the club and if anyone caught a chicken, they’d come backstage to return it, and we’d give them posters and stuff.

“In Toronto, I think Alice really believed that chickens could fly when he threw one into the audience.”

Although the Detroit-born Cooper — a.k.a. Vincent Furnier — is better known today as a solo performer and personality, “Alice Cooper” was actually the name of the entire band at the beginning. The band initially recorded avant-garde rock and migrated to Los Angeles, where they were initially signed to Frank Zappa’s Bizarre Records label.

And about that audition … Dunaway confirmed they played for Zappa at 7 a.m. after he had just returned from a lengthy tour with his band, the Mothers Of Invention.

The band had been lobbying the woman who babysat Moon Unit, Zappa’s daughter, to ask Zappa to come and hear them play. She was eventually successful and a time was set up: 7 a.m.

While Zappa and his wife Gail were sleeping, the band set up their equipment and blasted out rock music much to the chagrin of the household.

“He opened the bedroom door, stopped us and said, ‘Let me have some coffee and I’ll listen.’ And he ended up signing us.”

The real hit magic occurred once Toronto producer Bob Ezrin became involved. But Dunaway had a hand in writing all of Cooper’s first big hits, including the rock anthems “I’m Eighteen” and “School’s Out,” as well as “Elected” and “Under My Wheels.”

On writing “School’s Out”? “We thought, what’s the most exciting thing about school? The final bell. We thought, ‘Well, any age can relate to that.’ That one fell in our laps. That was 50 years ago and that song has been inducted into Grammy Hall of Fame. We never imagined it would have such legs.”

As with Joe Bouchard’s Blue Oyster Cult situation, seven albums and constant touring over six years took their toll on Dunaway — who said he suggested that Furnier turn into a character for each song and also the black eye makeup that eventually became Alice Cooper’s signature — and the band broke up, although Dunaway has toured with Cooper several times since.

“You get popular and all of a sudden it’s different than you imagined,” Dunaway reflected. “The band found it hard to be alone in the room together because there were so many people at our house all the time or in the hotel rooms or even cars. We’d go to get into our limousine and the disc jockey’s kids would be in there, and we’d have to take another car and follow our own limousine.”

Things are much different with Blue Coupe, who plan on releasing a combined DVD/CD project called “When Legends Collide” in 2023.

“We’ve all been around the same block a few times, and we don’t mind getting down in the trenches and driving to gigs. And we just have a lot of fun,” said Dunaway. “The Bouchard Brothers are always smiling. They’re easy to work with.”

Added Joe Bouchard, “A lot of people say we sound a lot like Blue Oyster Cult. Well, I was there …”

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