Will Ferrell has had an interesting career. He rose to prominence on Saturday Night Live and then turned that into a career of guilty pleasure funny films that many of us still watch repeatedly. What he likely did not mean to do was change the career path of one iconic rock band. Maybe he knew this would be accidentally done, but an SNL sketch can turn into madness.
The issue was this. On an episode of SNL from 2000, which was hosted by Christopher Walken, Ferrell played the fictional Blue Oyster Cult band member Gene Frenkel, in which he played the cowbell on the BOC gem of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper." Walken played the producer of the single and simply wanted more cowbell.
The whole thing is a gem. The tension built by Walken is fed off by Ferrell who bangs his cowbell with great ferocity. 24 years later, the clip is still worth watching multiple times. What makes it even better is that there is an actual cowbell played on the real song by Albert Bouchard of Blue Oyster Cult.
Blue Oyster Cult had to change concerts due to Will Ferrell and his cowbell
The problem for the band is that Ferrell's performance is so legendary - well, heck...the whole scene is - that the group had to change a couple of things in future live performances. One is that the band had to ban people from bringing cowbells into concerts because all the banging would throw off the timing of the band. The other is the band would have to add cowbell into their own gigs.
According to an interview with Vulture, Blue Oyster Cult's Buck Dharma was incredibly respectful of the skit. If nothing else, what Ferrell, Walken, and others did was an homage to the greatness that is (Don't Fear) The Reaper" and not anything to call the song bad. Most people who listen to the track can appreciate it.
Dharma said, "I feel bonded to Will and Christopher in a way because we’re all at the mercy of the cowbell sketch in different ways. I feel a little bit of kinship and sympathy with them. Will’s character, Gene Frenkle, was made up. We dedicate the song to him sometimes...When we play 'Reaper,' people still mimic playing the cowbell, and we had to ban people from bringing actual cowbells to the concerts. But, again, it’s a tiny cross to bear...We had to play the cowbell because there was just no getting away from it."
That's true. Even among us mere mortals, there is little getting away from Ferrell and his cowbell. At least, the moments give us a laugh instead of something tragic. Things could be worse.