11:11 a.m. - 2006-01-26
More cowbell: no more
I think I finally squelched the whole "more cowbell" phenomenon.
How?
By beating the holy fuck out of the thing, such that wood chips were flying all over the place and there could be no reasonable expectation of more. I played all the cowbell there was, Jim, and afterward there were no complaints of fever. This was during "Don't Fear the Reaper", of course. This past Tuesday, at Gomeroke, the weekly audience-participatory rockathon.
I got to play cowbell, not drums because Gregg the Florida drummer is up from Florida for a couple months, which is a big treat for everyone in the Gomers, but especially me, since I don't have to cover the drums and I can get up whenever I feel like it and take a piss or get a drink or something. But I usually remain on the stage and we both play drums at the same time, except when I'm playing cowbell, and I pay very close attention to what Gregg's doing for future reference, since he knows all those complicated seventies rock songs really well and plays them with rocktastic fury.
Other songs we did: Immigrant Song, S.O.S., Dead Flowers (in a new key!), Copa Cabana, that one Cheap Trick song that's not Dream Police or I Want You to Want Me. Shinky did A Little Help From My Friends, not the Beatles version but the those guys at Woodstock version. Singin' Irishman did The Night Chicago Died and later White Wedding, the second half of a Billy Idol two-fer, following Rebel Yell. Comfortably Numb, Carry On My Wayward Son, Rocking in the Free World, Dixie Chicken, another Zeppelin song, a song from the tv show South Park. Happiness is a Warm Gun. Heidi did Just What I Needed because her parents were there and it was their 36th anniversary. Unfortunately, no one could think of a song with the number 36 in the title. Why are there not more songs with numbers in them? A lot of songs have words. TOO many, in fact. I say: give it a rest already. Let's get some new songs, no words, just useful numbers, play em down, get through it, and we can all get home in time for the news. Or we can stay with the songs we've got, whichever, I don't care.
The songs themselves aren't really important anyway. The thing that matters is: creating a sense of community; making a place where people can go and forget their cares for a while. Most important, we give people a healthy outlet and in the process probably prevent a lot of violent crime. This is the Gomers's real contribution, not playing a bunch of songs. Although we also do a lot of different songs, so any Tuesday night you're free, do please stop by. It's Tuesday night and Laverne and Shirly isn't on any more, so there's really nothing stopping you.
NEXT: More of what's not on tv any more.
