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More cowbell!

If you know, you know.

21 years ago yesterday, one of the most iconic Saturday Night Live sketches of all time aired.

Will Ferrell is undoubtedly the star of the show, but Christopher Walken deserves a pat on the back, and so too do the other cast members who somehow manage to hold it together without breaking character.

It’s clearly a struggle for Jimmy Fallon, who plays the drummer, and comes perilously close to what the kids today might dub a ‘LOL’.

Before we dive in, consider how the sketch came to be, with Ferrell telling Rolling Stone this back in 2017:

Every time I heard “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” by Blue Öyster Cult, I would hear the faint cowbell in the background and wonder, “What is that guy’s life like?”

To the less-observant eye, the sketch was an excuse to let my belly hang out and wear tight Seventies clothing. But it really was about the exuberance of a guy who was given the green light to really express his art.

To add another layer to the mystique, the band is rumoured to have seen the sketch and commented that Ferrell had hit the nail on the head, “because the guy who played the cowbell was a little bit like that. This guy really wanted to be heard.”

You won’t find the full sketch on YouTube, but thankfully Gethin Jones (we assume he’s Welsh) uploaded it to Vimeo:

Comedy magic.

As for Ferrell’s awfully fitted shirt, there’s a story behind that, too:

‘Don’t Fear the Reaper’ was released back in 1976, and although it’s tough to believe, cowbell was a last-second decision.

Blue Öyster Cult drummer Albert Bouchard is quoted by Ultimate Classic Rock explaining why:

“We had put a whole bunch of overdubs on the song, and one of them was Randy Brecker — he put a flugelhorn part on it, or a trumpet or something, in the middle part. We didn’t like it so I said ‘Hey, I want to do a triangle in that part. That’s what I want — I really hear a triangle in my head.”

According to Bouchard, it was composer and jingle creator David Lucas who made the fateful call to add a cowbell instead of a triangle.

“‘I just want to hear that sound,'” Bouchard recalled Lucas insisting. “I said ‘Okay,’ so I play it, and I’m like ‘Yeah, it’s not working,’ and he’s like ‘Oh, well, put some tape around it,’ so I put some tape around it. I used, like, a timpani mallet, and everybody’s like ‘Yes, that’s it!’

So it’s funny that [Ferrell] even noticed it, because it was mixed very low. You don’t even really notice it in the track.”

Now, thanks to Ferrell, it’s impossible not to.

Happy Friday – remember to respect the cowbell:

[sources:rollingstone&ucr]