"I've got a fever. And the only cure... is more cowbell!"

Harumph!

My goal is to one day form a 120-piece cowbell orchestra whose sole purpose will be to perform insanely intricate renditions of James Brown pieces.

Songs with cool cowbells

Dude on street says to me carrying cowbell, bro, you need more cowbell, and right then I realize that "bro" is the new "dude".

oh no

I'm not afraid to state loud and clear: this skit was not, is not, nor will ever be funny. Theres nothing funny about it, nor is there about Christopher Walken, Saturday Night Live, Will Ferrel, jokes referencing this skit, nor is there anything that resembles humour in the premises, foundation, and details (on a grand and microscopic scale) within, or around this skit.

The fact it is so loved is truly symptomatic of one of the tragedy of our time.

The fact it is so loved is truly symptomatic of one of the tragedy of our time.

what

the tragedy of people continuing to feed SNL's festering corpse

mehlt sounds like a super hilarious bro

I will now pull out my Will Ferrell SNL dvd, watch this sketch, and laugh at it for about the 200th time just to make mehlt angry.

(I agree that the way it has worked its way into the vernacular is pretty annoying.)

'No Other' by Gene Clark has the best use of the cowbell in popular music. Now let us put this issue to rest.

"Pay to Cum" by Bad Brains is overlooked cowbell genius

Cowbell = good.
Skits about more cowbell = bad.

Skits about more cowbell beating a meme into the ground = bad boxcar.

People who have a problem with cowbells = insane.

I'm not afraid to state loud and clear: this skit was not, is not, nor will ever be funny. Theres nothing funny about it, nor is there about Christopher Walken, Saturday Night Live, Will Ferrel, jokes referencing this skit, nor is there anything that resembles humour in the premises, foundation, and details (on a grand and microscopic scale) within, or around this skit.

^^^got one thing correct

http://morecowbell.dj

http://www.morecowbell.dj/listen?id=DGqIiY

holy shit

http://www.morecowbell.dj/listen?id=CL7S3q

i hope something else comes along soon that replaces "mooore coooowbell" as the dumb thing that gets yelled out at every show

http://www.morecowbell.dj/listen?id=CdXfCo

Wow!

i hope something else comes along soon that replaces "mooore coooowbell" as the dumb thing that gets yelled out at every show

http://www.morecowbell.dj/listen?id=DSeHxK

"More Cobweb!"
"Mar Cal Bears!"
"Mere Gobble!"

ps refreshing the recent page is simultaneously hilarious and depressing. they must be getting a dozen new songs every few seconds, and they are mostly jonathan coulton, beck, and AC/DC.

Gas - Klang

(This one actually doesn't sound that weird with cowbells.)

Pretty much any New Fast Automatic Daffodils until 1991. Even then, there's cowbell presence on Exit Body Mind here and there.

The ethnomusical roots:

from Ned Sublette...

There's been enough talk about "cowbell" that it's time to talk about what it really is and where it came from.

I personally do not call this instrument cowbell, by the way. The Cubans, from whom the use of the instrument passed into rock and roll, don't call it anything to do with cows -- they call it campana, which is also what they call a churchbell, you feel me? It's what pushes the envelope of the trance.

If you listed your favorite ten salsa tunes, they would all have this instrument.

Here is the relevant passage from Cuba and its Music:

Arsenio [Rodríguez] popularized the use of the campana (a big, heavy cowbell). The campana, which became a standard instrument in conjuntos, redefined the role of the bongosero, who was previously the star of the son group. When Arsenio's band got to the montuno, the bongosero set down his bongó, picked up the campana, and whacked it with a thick stick at the mouth of the bell in a steady 1-2-3-4 (filling in the upbeats on the closed end of the bell, in a formula which respects the clave). It was an exciting sound: hard, loud and fat. It kicked the tune into the next gear and locked it down for the dancers. Arsenio didn't invent the idea; you can hear, for example, the bongosero switching to a campana on a Sexteto Nacional side recorded in 1930, with a lighter sound and without a tumbadora to keep the heartbeat going. But Arsenio made it a standard move.

Iron was a fundamental power element in the regions of Africa where black Cubans came from. No sacred drum ensemble was complete without an iron instrument. By adding the campana, Arsenio evoked the Abakuá bell called the ekón, and the implements of Zarabanda and Ogún, the blacksmith-sorcerers. The campana connected the piano more tightly to the rhythm, because its bell-like clang and percussive attack fused with the timbre of the dancehall piano. In Arsenio's "Sandunguera," composed by Luis Piedra and Marcelino Guerra, the pianist drops into bell-like quarter-note octaves on the piano to lock in with the cowbell. Listening to the recording today, you can still feel the thrill they were getting from making that new sound in 1943.

I can't be the only one who thought this thread was going to be about new(ish) DFA classic rock signings, the very 'more cowbell' Free Energy?

http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/07/03/markets-to-the-fed-we-need-more-cowbell/?mod=WSJ_markets_article_liveupdate

I want to be mad at it but somehow I'm not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvYnw9Fse2U

Something about that band just bugs the hell out of me.