More Cowbell! - watch more funny videos
National Public Radio recently aired a segment on the chirps of prairie dogs. Through controlled experiments and analysis, the scientists found that the prairie dogs could "talk" to each other. Different sounds, identifiable by us humans only with computer analysis, identify a particular predators and even communicate information about the predator's size and color. Knowing about a potential threat is important stuff, and though we can't hear it in their calls, the animals have evolved to be sensitive to the frequencies that communicated this important information.
Now, cows, for example, are important to humans. You don't want to loose your cow and the valuable milk, cheese and meat she represents. So naturally the cowbell was developed with a frequency the human ear is particularly sensitive to, making those valuable lost heifers easy to locate.
"More Cowbell!" sounds silly, but it's a call directly from our DNA. We want it. We need it. Cowbell speaks to us on at a deep level.
The while the classic Christopher Walken SNL video makes fun of the staple percussive "Konk," let's face it, it's ubiquitous in dance, Latin, rock and jazz music. We all want more cowbell.I've had a few, but the one tucked into this post is Latin Percussion branded cowbell about 10-12 inches long. It's held up well considering I've had it for 30 years or so. It's been mounted on my drum kit between my toms and I've recorded and sampled it many, many times. On this I pounded out the Honky Tonk Woman beat and practiced along with Tito Puente recordings.
Organizing my possessions and purging the unwanted is something I do periodically. I've gone through three drum sets (Read about it: 1,2,3). So though I decided I didn't need a drum kit twice in my life, somehow this cowbell always landed in the "keep" pile.
I love my cowbell, I can't get enough of it.
I gotta agree with Christopher Walken's character, "The Bruce Dickenson."
"I got a fever, and the only cure is more cowbell!"
