Cowbells

The big metal bells hang in the sunlight sprinkling the farm with an unending melody that captures the very movements of life on the fertile fields of this little home on the prairie. They are the only sound to break the natural silence, and you know that night draws near when the tinkling tones begin to slow and eventually retreat into a sleepy stillness, silent until the sunrise. A cowbell is a bell worn by freely roaming livestock, so that they do not run away or wander off without being heard. While bells were used on various types of animals, they are typically referred to as "cowbells" due to their extensive use with cattle. In the Early Middle Ages, bells were mostly reserved for religious purposes. In the High Middle Ages to the 14th century, they became popular also in secular pageantry such as knightly tournaments. The earliest attestation of bells used for livestock dates to the late 14th to early 15th century when a cow bell was worn only by the best and leading piece of livestock, and the wider distribution of the bell worn by livestock is a gradual process of the Early Modern period. "More cowbell" is an American pop culture catchphrase originally derived from an April 8, 2000, Saturday Night Live comedy sketch fictionalizing the recording of the song "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult. The sketch featured guest host Christopher Walken as the music producer Bruce Dickinson, and Will Ferrell, who wrote the sketch, as fictional cowbell player Gene Frenkle. In the television special Saturday Night Live: 101 Most Unforgettable Moments, this sketch is moment number five. This sound uses the following file from Freesound: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=126275