I have a fever, and its only prescription is more cowbell.
Yes, inspired by the Christopher Walken SNL skit regarding The Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” I decided to get a cowbell. I suspect that it will be utilized during college football games, and their subsequent parties. However, I’ve come unto a dilemma.
Do I get an authentic cowbell, with the clapper inside it, or do I get a drumset cowbell, which is struck with a drumstick? Each produces their own unique sound, and each has their pluses and minuses. For instance:
Authentic Cowbell
[und]Postives[/und]
Can be used extremely enthusiastically
Much louder
Can be worn around the neck
[und]Negatives[/und]
I won’t be going to Mississippi St. football games
Too loud? (Can there be too MUCH cowbell?)
Can’t be utilized as well in pickup honkytonk bands (i.e. washboard, harmonica, jug, banjo)
"Professional" Cowbell
[und]Positives[/und]
Can be used to “explore the studio space”
Much slimmer in shape
Two-handed makes it much more “Ed Grimley”-ish
Much more conducive to a musical environment
[und]Negatives[/und]
Having a bell and a drumstick could be unweildy
Do they always have the clamp on there?
Cannot be worn around the neck
Will look out of place in the event I do attend a MSU game
Thanks, folks. Which would you prefer?
Strange as it sounds, I have one of each, for the reasons you mentioned.
A nice Mienl cowbell will set you back around $30. That means you have to bring some striking device, which may seem a bit, er, premeditated in some circumstances (as if wearing one around your neck wouldn’t…)
An “authentic” cowbell can be cheap or free, and seems like it would stand out less (Hey, look what I found in our basement!) When carrying implements of noisemaking, it’s nice to appear prepared, yet not TOO prepared. Yes, they can be really, really loud.
Well, you get the first tone of the stick hitting it, then the rattle of the clapper inside. If you are holding the cowbell in the palm of your hand, it will be very muted and the clapper rattle will sound a bit odd. If you hold it out by the handle and hit it, there will be a tone, like a bell, with much more rattle. Authentic cowbells tend to have a heavier guage metal, so the tone will be low and last for a long time
I clamped one of these to my drumkit and took it off ten seconds later. The internal clapper makes is almost unusable in any rawk setting.
However, in the setting you described, it would be perfect. With all the adjacent noise the clapper wouldn’t be very noticable if you decided to hit it with a stick. Don’t be surprised the first time you hold it by the handle and swing it around if the guy in front of you spills his drink, becuase it will be really, really loud.
Thank you for the welcome…one never knows what little tidbits might come in handy, does…er, one?
We used my cowbell in college as a summons to run out for ice cream. Heaven help the guy who had the cat lying on him at the time.
As a bit of a hijack, I’m wondering if my name is too stupid. It was my third try and I was getting desperate.
Er…third try? Make sure you contact the mods if you may have any inadvertent sockpuppets laying around. (A sockpuppet is any multiple account owned by one user.) But I imagine you just mean that your first two names were already taken.
But no, the name’s fine. Is it a reference to anything?
Well, it’s the name of an Einsturzende Neubauten song. They’re a german “industrial” band that basically started that musical movement, but they used the real thing, not samples in a keyboard (giant springs and jackhammers and shopping carts). Pretty interesting live show. I’m a passing fan of the genre; I like a little bit of everything, or at least I like to thing so.
It translates to “It’s me”. Just struck me as funny the day I was signing up.
