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‘We’re All At the Mercy of the Cowbell Sketch’

Twenty-four years later, Blue Öyster Cult’s front man on the agony, ecstasy, and relief of the SNL favorite.

Such is the premise of Saturday Night Live ’s Mount Rushmore of a sketch “More Cowbell,” with the music producer (Christopher Walken) trying to iron out the melodic kinks of Blue Öyster Cult’s enduring hit “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” alongside the band. (Idiom, informal: “An extra quality that will make something or someone better.”) Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser, Blue Öyster Cult’s co-founder and front man who wrote “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” for their 1976 album, Agents of Fortune, has managed to maintain a healthy relationship with the sketch, but he admits the fate could’ve been a lot different if he didn’t find the premise genuinely humorous. This is tangentially related to our discussion, but I was keen to bring it up anyway: I was reporting from Cleveland for this year’s Rock Hall induction and talked with some Blue Öyster Cult fans who lamented how the band hasn’t yet been nominated.

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