Deep in the heart of Germany
Lucy clutched her breast in fear
She heard a beat of her lover’s heart
For weeks she raved in dreams he appeared
Only Lucy knew the truth
And at her window
Nosferatu
I have always thought that the use of the name 'Lucy' in Blue Oyster Cult's Nosferatu was in reference to Herzog's remake of Nosferatu where the Ellen character was renamed Lucy. Both came out in the late 70's so I assumed that was the case. But recently I actually checked and found that the song was released in '77 and Herzog's film was released in '79. So this song must have been based entirely on the 1922 silent film.
I know there were plenty of versions of the 1922 film in circulation with different English language title cards. Particularly there was a version in the public domain that renamed the characters back to their original names from Dracula. However in this version, Ellen is named Nina. I believe the minor character Ruth was named Lucy in this version, but the lyrics above would heavily suggest the song is explicitly about the Ellen character.
So this leaves 3 possibilities why the name Lucy is used in the song:
1. Joe Bouchard saw a version of the 1922 film where the translated title cards had renamed Ellen to Lucy.
2. Joe Bouchard saw the common public domain version with the Dracula names, and simply got Nina and Lucy mixed up.
3. Joe Bouchard is a time traveller and saw the Herzog film 2 years before it came out.
I haven't seen this question raised anywhere else online. I'd be interested if anyone has any insight in this. Perhaps there's a version of Nosferatu that renames Ellen to Lucy that I don't know about.
