The Bruce Dickinson - Comedy Versus Reality

Comedy Versus Reality

The song "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult indeed features a cowbell, but it is overshadowed by the main instruments playing throughout the song. According to Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser, the lead singer for the song, the sketch accurately portrays the look of the band during the 1970s but inaccurately portrays some of the details of the actual recording:

• Parnell plays the group's lead singer, "Eric". While Eric Bloom was a member of the band, Roeser performed lead vocals for "Don't Fear the Reaper".
• Gene Frenkle is a fictional character invented for the sketch, although his appearance was modeled on Eric Bloom's appearance at the time. Despite the fact that Frenkle is fictional, fans occasionally expressed their sympathies to Blue Öyster Cult over his death.
• Christopher Walken portrays producer Bruce Dickinson (not to be confused with the Iron Maiden vocalist of the same name). Although Dickinson has produced many songs and albums for many different artists, he was not the actual producer of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper." The song was produced by David Lucas, Sandy Pearlman, and Murray Krugman. Bruce Dickinson was a mid-level manager at Columbia Records whose name appears on Blue Öyster Cult reissue CDs and a greatest hits compilation as the "reissue producer". Lucas has claimed credit for being the one who suggested the addition of a cowbell to the track.
• There are conflicting claims as to who actually played the cowbell in the original recording.
  • Producer David Lucas, on his website and in interviews when he was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame, says that he was the one who played the cowbell.
  • Eric Bloom has said that he played it, but that the original idea came from David Lucas.
  • According to former band bassist Joe Bouchard, the cowbell part was overdubbed by his brother Albert after the rest of the song had been recorded.
• Albert Bouchard was the drummer, not Bobby Rondinelli, who did not join the band until the late 1990s.