I got a fee-vah and there is only one cure
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
This high school basketball season in general has been an interesting one in Highland County, to say the least. Many different sights and sounds have been heard as the season inches closer to postseason play.
One sound that has caught my attention has to do with that of the pep bands.
The sound was music to my ears, so to speak. It just caught my attention so much, I swear I stopped what I was doing just to see if it was the sound I was thinking of.
When the pep bands are at games, it just gives the pregame a different feel. The bands make the game feel more important. Fans enjoy hearing the bands play before, and during the games, as they are an important part of the whole entertainment value of high school basketball.
There is one sound, one instrument, one beat that catches my attention more than any other, each time I hear the pep game pregame warm-up music, not the rap music that blasts through the speakers or the Chicago Bulls’ theme that is used at Lynchburg-Clay in player introductions (the greatest sports theme of all-time.)
The first time I noticed the sound was either at McClain or Hillsboro High School for a game in which I honestly don’t remember who was playing who, but it was early in the season. I just heard this sound again when I attended games at McClain and Hillsboro this week, so I confirmed this to myself.
Anyways, the sound I heard was magical. In fact, it even brought a slight smile to my face as it took me back to my favorite “Saturday Night Live” skit.
With this sound, you could hear the passion being banged out each time the drum stick collided with metal to produce a wave of sound that boomed over every other sound that came through the gym.
The sound can even cure fevers, as Christopher Walken said in the SNL skit: “Guess what, I got a fee-vah and the only prescription is more cowbell.”
Yes, I am 99.9 percent sure there are cowbell players in pep bands, and I think that is pretty much the coolest instrument ever!
I always bring up how great the cowbell skit is on the old SNL shows, and it is pretty much all that and a bag of potato chips. (That is a gooooood thing!)
OK, time for the top moments in the history of cowbell: The intro to “Low Rider” by War “George Lopez Tonight” uses this as the opening for the show and for his sitcom as well. He never has a fee-vah), “Play That Funky Music White Boy” by Wild Cherry, the discovery of the website ineedmorecowbell.com and printing of T-shirts with More Cowbell.
Boise State football marching band has a blind girl who plays the cowbell. (I think that is a cool thing.)
Did you know the “Cowbell Skit” has its own Wikipedia page?
What, you need more cowbell?
The cowbell is officially a part of the sports culture. Remember the Tampa Bay Rays and their cowbells during their run to the World Series?
I don’t know if that is the technical term for the instrument (if it has one), but having a cowbell in a pep band can’t be a bad thing, and I just find it exciting that the cowbell has found a home in high school athletics.
The next time you are at a game with a pep band playing, you know you are going to listen for the cowbell (admit it, you will), and it will be the only sound that you will be drawn to throughout out the entire performance!
So here’s to you, Mr. Basher of the Cowbell Player. You show school spirit with your inspired banging of wood onto metal at each basketball game a band is just a band, but when the unique noise of cowbell fills the gym, everyone takes notice!
Stephen Forsha is the sports editor of The Highland County Press.
This high school basketball season in general has been an interesting one in Highland County, to say the least. Many different sights and sounds have been heard as the season inches closer to postseason play.
One sound that has caught my attention has to do with that of the pep bands.
The sound was music to my ears, so to speak. It just caught my attention so much, I swear I stopped what I was doing just to see if it was the sound I was thinking of.
When the pep bands are at games, it just gives the pregame a different feel. The bands make the game feel more important. Fans enjoy hearing the bands play before, and during the games, as they are an important part of the whole entertainment value of high school basketball.
There is one sound, one instrument, one beat that catches my attention more than any other, each time I hear the pep game pregame warm-up music, not the rap music that blasts through the speakers or the Chicago Bulls’ theme that is used at Lynchburg-Clay in player introductions (the greatest sports theme of all-time.)
The first time I noticed the sound was either at McClain or Hillsboro High School for a game in which I honestly don’t remember who was playing who, but it was early in the season. I just heard this sound again when I attended games at McClain and Hillsboro this week, so I confirmed this to myself.
Anyways, the sound I heard was magical. In fact, it even brought a slight smile to my face as it took me back to my favorite “Saturday Night Live” skit.
With this sound, you could hear the passion being banged out each time the drum stick collided with metal to produce a wave of sound that boomed over every other sound that came through the gym.
The sound can even cure fevers, as Christopher Walken said in the SNL skit: “Guess what, I got a fee-vah and the only prescription is more cowbell.”
Yes, I am 99.9 percent sure there are cowbell players in pep bands, and I think that is pretty much the coolest instrument ever!
I always bring up how great the cowbell skit is on the old SNL shows, and it is pretty much all that and a bag of potato chips. (That is a gooooood thing!)
OK, time for the top moments in the history of cowbell: The intro to “Low Rider” by War “George Lopez Tonight” uses this as the opening for the show and for his sitcom as well. He never has a fee-vah), “Play That Funky Music White Boy” by Wild Cherry, the discovery of the website ineedmorecowbell.com and printing of T-shirts with More Cowbell.
Boise State football marching band has a blind girl who plays the cowbell. (I think that is a cool thing.)
Did you know the “Cowbell Skit” has its own Wikipedia page?
What, you need more cowbell?
The cowbell is officially a part of the sports culture. Remember the Tampa Bay Rays and their cowbells during their run to the World Series?
I don’t know if that is the technical term for the instrument (if it has one), but having a cowbell in a pep band can’t be a bad thing, and I just find it exciting that the cowbell has found a home in high school athletics.
The next time you are at a game with a pep band playing, you know you are going to listen for the cowbell (admit it, you will), and it will be the only sound that you will be drawn to throughout out the entire performance!
So here’s to you, Mr. Basher of the Cowbell Player. You show school spirit with your inspired banging of wood onto metal at each basketball game a band is just a band, but when the unique noise of cowbell fills the gym, everyone takes notice!
Stephen Forsha is the sports editor of The Highland County Press.