From: Liquor via: alt.callahans

It seems that there is a local band that started to get a few more gigs – that’s paid gigs, not just places they could play — after they started incorporating some old Beatles tunes into their repertoire.

They had covers for such songs as ‘Yellow Submarine’, ‘When I’m 64’, and a really funky arrangement of ‘Hey Jude’. Reverend Spooner, one of the organizers of the local country fair, decided that it would be terrific if the group were to play there. They figured that it would appeal to both the older folx, and the kids.

They even arranged a very effective ‘stage’ – even though it was really just the open side of the cattle barn. They just set up some curtains across the sides and back of the opening to keep the cows out of sight, and set up the band’s equipment in front.

This would have been pretty good, but as they got into the spirit of things – You know, the long chorus of ‘Hey Jude’ where the audience joins in, more and more of the audience were trying to get up onto the sides of the stage and close to the band.

Meanwhile the cows were getting disturbed by all the racket – this group was playing a funky version with lots of strange sounds from the synths that disturbed the cows – and then somebody pushed the curtains over against the cows. That was just too much for the cows. The cows ended the performance for them – they charged accross the ‘stage’ to get out of the barn, flattening most of the band and a lot of the audience in the process. (Can you say, ‘Stampede?’)

Nobody was killed, fortunately, but there were a lot of broken bones (mostly in people’s feet) and large bruises. What’s worse, the result should have been predictable. After all, as Spooner said, . . .

“Moo-touch funk Jude is bad for your health.”