I was curious about the title so I did a little Internet researching, then said "of course!"
"The Red Oyster Cult" is fictional, but it definitely is a reference to the band The Blue Oyster Cult. They are a band that was big in the 70s and apparently is still around and making albums. They were one of those very influential pre-metal bands - two songs which are well-known (and very good) and still played on classic rock radio are "Don't Fear the Reaper" and "Burning for You." They got started as a college band just like Guster did at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. - for the Blue Oyster Cult it was at Stony Brook college in Long Island, NY. The members who started the band dropped out of college and hit it big by playing to the college crowds.
I think Guster uses the "Red Oyster Cult" because the person the song is about thinks they can be successful big by giving up all their dreams and living the college life eternally, drugs and all, just like the Blue Oyster Cult did. People who are on drugs often talk about how they plan to do lots of grandiose things but rarely do they every actually get the motivation to do any of these things, and often end up idle and pathetic. That's my best guess as to what the song and the title mean.
I was curious about the title so I did a little Internet researching, then said "of course!"
"The Red Oyster Cult" is fictional, but it definitely is a reference to the band The Blue Oyster Cult. They are a band that was big in the 70s and apparently is still around and making albums. They were one of those very influential pre-metal bands - two songs which are well-known (and very good) and still played on classic rock radio are "Don't Fear the Reaper" and "Burning for You." They got started as a college band just like Guster did at Tufts University in Medford, Mass. - for the Blue Oyster Cult it was at Stony Brook college in Long Island, NY. The members who started the band dropped out of college and hit it big by playing to the college crowds.
I think Guster uses the "Red Oyster Cult" because the person the song is about thinks they can be successful big by giving up all their dreams and living the college life eternally, drugs and all, just like the Blue Oyster Cult did. People who are on drugs often talk about how they plan to do lots of grandiose things but rarely do they every actually get the motivation to do any of these things, and often end up idle and pathetic. That's my best guess as to what the song and the title mean.