One of comedian Will Ferrell’s most memorable Saturday Night Live characters was musician Gene Frenkle, the belly shirted cowbell player from the ‘70s rock band, Blue ?yster Cult. His cowbell playing was intoxicating and hilarious and prompted this now quotable line: "I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell."
I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell.
That line, delivered by Christopher Walken, catapulted onto t- shirts and bumper stickers, and helped put the instrument designed for agriculture into the mainstream musical spotlight. But where did cowbell come from? And how did it migrate from the farm to the recording studio? Chicago based journalist Lori Rotenberk wrote an article for Modern Farmer called “More Cowbell: From Herdsman’s Tool to Cultural Icon.”
Here at Word of Mouth, we find the cowbell really brings another element to our interviews:
