I received this email a couple of weeks back. It is definitely the coolest 'fan mail' that i've been sent thus far. Dig it!
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Just to introduce myself I am a deployed soldier in Iraq and one of the ways we cope with being here is the need for more cowbells. This week for us is National Cowbell week. One of the things I do is send out via e-mail to other soldiers is Cowbell stuff, pictures video clips etc. Anyway I just wanted to let you know how much you site ineedmorecowbell.com has helped out. Thank-you.
Erik B. Benson SSG
Stay low and watch your back!
Just say it, baby! This photo was taken in the northlands of Ontario last weekend by Pat, who actually doubled back up the highway for the pic once he passed the sign! For that sir, we award you with a set of gold-plated diapers. Wear them with pride.
Whether it was just painfully obvious or blatantly overlooked (or both), the Captain has brought to my attention the fact that i have yet to cover this topic in a top 5. Since he in fact made the call, he reserved rights to a couple of songs that would have appeared on my list, but the fever is strong in this category. I did actually pinch one, but that's neither here nor there, so strap on your gold plated diapers and just say it, baby!
Disclaimer: No Blue Oyster Cult or Santana entries allowed; they are already in the Cowbell Hall of Fame.
Top 5 Songs That Feature the Cowbell
- Good Times Bad Times - Led Zeppelin. This song has a killer groove founded on a thunderous single bass drum pattern and of course the cowbell.
- Down on the Corner - CCR. A solid cowbell intro continues throughout the song, giving it the rock steady beat and party vibe that it possesses.
- Low Rider - War. Another party classic revived by the movie Dazed and Confused, with a cowbell intro that's instantly recognizable.
- The Streetbeater (Sanford & Son) - Quincy Jones. More often than not, i only watched the intro to the show just to groove out to Quincy and his ridiculously dirty track all lathered up with that dang cowbell!
- Honky Tonk Women - Rolling Stones. I used to love listening to the drum/cowbell intro to this song (of course i still do), but it became slightly tainted for me when i started jamming along to it only to realize that Charlie speeds up the song by like 10 bpm as it goes along! Ahh the beauty of the old live off the floor sessions with no click track. That's rock and roll, baby.
Honourable Mentions - Old School: Hey Ladies - Beastie Boys; New School: Poor Ol' Broken Hearted Me - The Trews.
Honourable Genre Mention - Cock Rock. The 80s metal scene carried on the fine tradition of the cowbell within the rock/metal drum track. Band such as G N'R, Poison, Skid Row and Motley Crue embraced the cowbell for ride patterns and unique drum fills. Kudos to all of those bands for encouraging me to add a LP Black Mambo cowbell to my arsenal and never look back!
I recently had a request for this, so here it is for all to use and enjoy!
Gene Frenkle is alive and well and living on this website. I have ripped, in it's entirety, Gene's cowbell-bangin' appearance with Queens of the Stone Age from SNL a couple of weeks back. It was the highlight of the show for sure, and a welcome sight for huge fans of the original Blue Oyster Cult: Behind the Music sketch where Gene first appeared. The cult following that Gene has received since then has been proven month after month as thousands of people arrive at this weblog by searching for Will Ferrell and his cowbell.
Click here to play or save the clip. It's about 30 megs or so, in MPEG format, but worth the wait. I didn't want to compromise quality, allowing it's full genius to shine through!
I know that most people, like myself, were expecting some way funnier stuff with the return of Will Ferrell to SNL this past weekend, but the show for me was validated by the sweet cowbell skills of an apparently resurrected Gene Frenkle (the original cowbell sketch ended with 'in memoriam') jamming with QOTSA. Great to see Will back in his most celebrated role, and of course the inspiration for this website. I hope to get that clip up here soon as The Captain is doing a video transfer for me. I gotta have that cowbell!
...and the only prescription is this Bizarro cartoon!
And a good day to you sir! A friendly neighbourhood blogger named Affy dropped by yesterday and posted up what many of you have been asking for and i have not been able to deliver as of yet since my video copy is like 50 megs, but here is the full Windows Media version of the Blue Oyster Cult - Behind the Music SNL skit, of which this site is completely inspired and named after, with Gene playing that cowbell like there's no tomorrow! Give it a spin and tell me it's not the funniest SNL sketch in existence - enjoy - Thanks Affy!
Ok, so i know a few people might be wondering why i have ineedmorecowbell.com as my website. It goes back to the early Budapest days - probably last August or September - when the boys and i were discussing favourite SNL sketches, and came across a great website that had many SNL video clips (the clips have since disappeared off the site due to legalities). We watched many Celebrity Jeopary episodes, along with almost daily viewings of of the infamous Blue Oyster Cult: Behind the Music episode, featuring Will Ferrell as Gene Frenkle, the wild cowbell player on the track Don't Fear the Reaper. Christopher Walken is producer Bruce Dickinson, and gets to lay down most of the classic lines in the sketch, including "I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!".
I thought the relative obscurity of the focal point of the sketch - the cowbell track on Don't Fear the Reaper - along with the fact that it came off as so damn funny, was inspiration enough to grab a related domain name to keep the inspiration alive. The site was originally planned to chronicle our Budapest experiences, but since 2 out of 4 of us that went over are back in Canada, the focus has changed to my personal website. The blurb on my homepage outlines some future plans for the site. But in the meantime, here are a few links to some additional BOC: Behind the Music info: the SNL episode information, a Will Ferrell fansite that lists that sketch as his #1 SNL moment and a transcript of the sketch itself. Maybe try searching for it on Kazaa or something. Anyhoo, enjoy!