Tune Tuesday

25 years ago today a catchphrase was born. One of Saturday Night Live’s funniest sketches aired for the first time. The host? Christopher Walken. On Cowbell – Will Ferrell.

It’s a Behind The Music sendup, with Walken playing producer Bruce Dickinson, sent to deliver a hit. We see Blue Oyster Cult rehearsing the song (Don’t Fear) The Reaper. When they run through the song, Ferrell plays the cowbell with alarming enthusiasm. Walken loves it, ordering “more cowbell” and telling him to “really explore the studio space,” which he does. Jimmy Fallon, playing the drummer, almost ruins the bit by laughing his way through it.

Incidentally, there really is a Bruce Dickinson, but he wasn’t the band’s producer – he worked on re-mastering the album, which is likely how his name got used.

On a recent visit to the Tonight Show, Ferrell told Jimmy Fallon:

“I went to see Christopher Walken years later in a play he was doing and I talked to him backstage and he’s like, ‘You know, you’ve ruined my life,’ “

When Ferrell asked how, Walken responded:

“Every show, people bring cowbells for the curtain call and bang them and it’s quite disconcerting.”

Happy 25th Anniversary to “More Cowbell!”