5 on Friday -- Set 273

Spinning Friday tunes since 2010...

For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.

This year I'll be taking a once-a-month look at specific instruments and showcasing five songs or tunes which place that instrument front and center.

This year's feature is called Spotlight On...

...and for our seventh installment, I'm venturing out from the primal body instruments of hand-clapping, whistling and vocal harmonies to explore percussion. Following April's look at drums, May's look at the vibraphone or vibes, and June's look at piano, here are five songs which shine a spotlight on the cowbell.

1 - Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult - 1976

On April 8th, 2000 as season 25 of Saturday Night Live was drawing to a close, a sketch originally titled Behind the Music: Blue Oyster Cult but now commonly referred to as More Cowbell aired to immediate acclaim. It has only grown more popular in the fifteen years since it was first broadcast.

Cowbells as part of the percussive instruments is more common in salsa music, but has a recurring place in pop and rock music. Apparently the 1970s enjoyed something of a cowbell renaissance.

Don't Fear the Reaper is one of many classic rock songs attached to one my favorite shows of all time -- Supernatural. To be honest, however, for me it will always belong to the 1994 miniseries The Stand. 

2 - Low Rider - War -1975 

3 - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet - Bachman Turner Overdrive - 1974

4 - Incense and Peppermints - Strawberry Alarm Clock - 1967

5 - Honky Tonk Women - The Rolling Stones - 1969

  

Through the Opera Glasses - 35 - Spartacus Ballet

For today's Through the Opera Glasses, here are two scenes from Spartacus, performed by the Bolshoi Ballet.

This is part of the lead-up to Thursday's Blogblast For Peace event.

Spartacus tells the story of a Roman slave who leads an uprising against the empire. In the first scene, a duel between a consul and Spartacus results in a show of mercy for one who has never shown mercy to others.

The following scene shows how wounded pride can fuel not only personal vendettas, but often lead to full-scale war.

















On Nov. 5th I'm taking part in the Blogblast For Peace. Won't you join me?


"Where Mercy, Love, and Pity dwell
There God is dwelling too."

- William Blake