In a new interview with Midwest Mixtape podcast, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT vocalist/rhythm guitarist Eric Bloom once again talked about the famous “Saturday Night Live” sketch “More Cowbell” which revolved around the band’s most famous song, 1976’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”. The skit, which aired on April 8, 2000, featured Christopher Walken in the role of music producer “The Bruce Dickinson“, Will Ferrell as fictional cowbell player Gene Frenkle, Chris Parnell as Bloom, Jimmy Fallon as drummer Albert Bouchard, Chris Kattan as guitarist Buck Dharma and Horatio Sanz as bassist Joe Bouchard. Asked what his and his BLUE ÖYSTER CULT bandmates’ initial reaction to the sketch was, Eric said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I never took offense to it. I can’t speak for Buck, but it’s been so many years now that I think originally he was worried that people making fun of it or whatever sort of bothered him originally. But I actually was sitting at home and saw it live — a rare Saturday night that I was watching TV instead of [being] at a show. So I’m sitting on the couch. I’m watching ‘SNL’, and then they go ‘Behind The Music: BLUE ÖYSTER CULT‘. I go, ‘What?’ And so I was a little more shocked that they were doing B.O.C. on ‘SNL’. And we’ve sort of been waiting for a call from them to say, ‘Come on the show and play.’ For however many years the show’s been on, they’ve never had us on the show. They’ve had on a million acts that nobody’s ever heard of, but never BLUE ÖYSTER CULT. I guess we’ll probably never be on that show. So they did a little riff on us.”
He continued: “You have to really put your finger on what makes that skit so funny. And I think what really makes it that funny is the fact that all the guys in the band start cracking up during the show, during the skit. And Jimmy Fallon starts laughing, and that sets everybody off. And also the ridiculous lines from Christopher Walken — you know, ‘You’re gonna be wearing gold diapers,’ and all that stuff. It’s just so silly. And that sets them — all the guys in the band start laughing. What does that even mean? And I had to watch it a time or two before… I was just shocked watching them do you. And [I was] more shocked when I watched it the first time. But the second and third watch, I started seeing what was really funny about it. ‘Cause when they’re doing you, it’s not so funny.”
Elaborating on “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”‘s cultural impact, Eric said: “It’s a great song, written by Buck when he was worried about how long he was gonna live. So, it certainly has stood the test of time. It’s on every classic rock station in the country here and in Europe, everywhere. It was recently on that TV show [‘The Masked Singer’], where everybody wears a costume and the judges have to guess who’s inside that costume… So I was really surprised when it was on that show. It really has crossed over. So it’s a little part of rock history now.”
Last year, Dharma, whose real name is Donald Roeser, told Vulture that the good publicity surrounding “Saturday Night Live”‘s use of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” outweighed the bad. “It’s funny to think about,” 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. But I would tell Christopher: It’s all bearable, I suppose. BLUE ÖYSTER CULT got through it and we persevered. 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.”
After the “More Cowbell” sketch became a hit, Dharma and BÖC had no choice but to change up their formula. “We began playing the cowbell in ‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper’ live,” he explained. “For 20-odd years, we didn’t use a live cowbell for our shows and never considered it. We had to play the cowbell because there was just no getting away from it. I’m grateful that as significant as the sketch is — because after 25 years, it still is — it didn’t kill the song, its original intent or its original mood. It’s still used as a cue in horror movies when you want that mysterious and metaphysically uneasy vibe. So I’m glad the sketch didn’t kill the song and didn’t make it one big joke.”
For over four decades, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT has been thrilling fans of intelligent hard rock worldwide with powerful albums loaded with classic songs. Indeed, the Long Island, New Yorkbased band is revered within the hard rock and heavy metal scene for its pioneering work. BLUE ÖYSTER CULT occupies a unique place in rock history because it’s one of very few hard rock/heavy metal bands to earn both genuine mainstream critical acclaim as well as commercial success.
The band is often cited as a major influence by other acts such as METALLICA, and BLUE ÖYSTER CULT was listed in VH1‘s countdown of the greatest hard rock bands of all time.
Upon the release of BLUE ÖYSTER CULT‘s selftitled debut album in 1972, the band was praised for its catchy-yet-heavy music and lyrics that could be provocative, terrifying, funny or ambiguous, often all in the same song. BLUE ÖYSTER CULT‘s canon includes three stone-cold classic songs that will waft through the cosmos long after the sun has burned out: the truly haunting “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” from 1976’s “Agents Of Fortune”, the pummeling “Godzilla” from 1977’s “Spectres” and the hypnotically melodic “Burnin’ For You” from 1981’s “Fire Of Unknown Origin”. Other notable BLUE ÖYSTER CULT songs include “Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll”, “Then Came The Last Days Of May”, “I Love The Night”, “In Thee”, “Veteran Of The Psychic Wars”, “Dominance And Submission”, “Astronomy”, “Black Blade” and “Shooting Shark”.
The intense creative vision of BÖC‘s original core duo of vocalist/lead guitarist Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser and vocalist/rhythm guitarist Eric Bloom are complemented by Richie Castellano on guitar and keyboards, and the longtime rhythm section of bass guitarist Danny Miranda and drummer Jules Radino.
