More #cowbell: the making of a minor tweme

It all started innocently enough.

I was grooving to some Beatles when “Baby, You Can Drive My Car” (from Rubber Soul) came on, and I noticed, for perhaps the first time, the presence of cowbell. It was an epiphany of sorts.

It was all downhill from there. Next thing I know, I’m posting this:

Apres moi, le deluge.

Le deluge of #cowbell tweets, baby!

I asked the Twitterverse, and the twitterverse responded, turning my humble quest into a minor tweme. We didn’t quite achieve our goal of becoming a “trending topic” on Twitter search, but I’m very proud of all that we accomplished in the span of a few short, unproductive hours.

Twitterverse, once again you have shown the kind of can-do attitude that makes things happen. And for that, I thank you.

My gift to you, in return, is this:

Blue Oyster Cult: Don’t Fear the Reaper (Remix, Now with 92 percent Cowbell and 45 percent Walken)

And, from my friends across the Twitterverse:

The SNL clip that started it all (via @debmaue)

A really big cowbell (via @tsand)

Top 10 cowbell songs of all time (via @TimNekritz)

The cowbell timeline (via @stomer)

The history of the cowbell (via @bonnerj)

Don’t let the #cowbell tweme die! As @bradjward so eloquently put it (in fewer than 140 characters), “If you want to make a grown man’s dream come true, won’t you say #cowbell back to me?”

Log on today to Twitter and post something — anything — using the #cowbell hashtag. Please, do it for the grown man you see here before you.

Friday Five: Kickin’ it old school

Lately there’s been some chit-chat on some of the higher ed blogs I frequent about old school vs. new school styles of marketing. I’m thinking about weighing in with a post of my own soon, but the staff of this blog, despite its name, has been thinking more about music than marketing lately. (By the way, if you’re wondering what happened to the playlist for this blog’s best music of 2008 feature, I’m sorry to break it to you but it’s gone, daddy, gone. I keep music online for a limited time only, so as to not clog up the Intertubes.) And maybe it’s all the crappity news coming out about the economy, but we’re finding ourselves hearkening back to a simpler time, when rock was rock and mass media ruled the airwaves.

So we’re thinkin’ old school, but not in a marketing sense. Although the record industry marketers of the old days did know how to get into our heads. Otherwise, why would I bother listening to this stuff over and over again? Yes, it’s good music, but how would I have discovered it if not for the marketers, God bless ’em.

Anyway, enjoy these five old-school tunes and think back to a simpler time.

Firday Five: Kickin It Old School