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Best live musical moments on "Saturday Night Live"


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Posted

Oddly enough, I watched it pretty much every week from 1975 on and the musical acts were often "eclectic" to say the least. I was pretty into music as a young kid and I really disliked a lot of the crap on there. Rarely do I recall many really good bands/performances which is why, for example, Tom Petty stood out so much to me. They rarely got huge names in the 70s, so the Stones were a bit of a coup, I'd imagine. "Fridays" often had better live acts and I think that helped push SNL to get bigger bands on there. The Specials were good. Kind of like some of the regular guest "stars" they had in the early days. I never "got" Buck Henry, for example.

Posted

First Season

Talking Heads doing "Take Me to the River"

Posted

Skid Row doig "Monkey Business".. in their prime and NONE more rock! Absolutely BRUTAL.

Video link?

On a somewhat related note, pun intended, Megadeth did one song, possibly the title track, from Countdown to Extinction on Letterman and were quite brutal. Dave was sober, Friedman was beyond impressive, and Nick Menza was flat-out destroying the drums!

Posted

I saw that one, but that was four or five seasons in when they started to get better artists.

I kept thinking that the Cars and Pretenders were on SNL, but they were definitely on Fridays (after checking out the YouTube clips). MUCH better music there usually. Must've had a bigger entertainment budget.

Posted

One of the most awesome things I ever saw on "Fridays" was King Crimson performing "Elephant Talk" and "Thela Hun Ginjeet". "Thela" was especially mind-blowing! The way Adrian Belew controlled his feedback to play the solo completely blew away my 17 year old mind!

I haven't been able to locate any online videos of either of those performances from "Fridays". Anybody else seen one?

Posted

OMG would I LOVE to have seen that!!!

Posted

One of the most awesome things I ever saw on "Fridays" was King Crimson performing "Elephant Talk" and "Thela Hun Ginjeet". "Thela" was especially mind-blowing! The way Adrian Belew controlled his feedback to play the solo completely blew away my 17 year old mind!

I haven't been able to locate any online videos of either of those performances from "Fridays". Anybody else seen one?

I´ve seen the "Elephant Talk" video on YouTube. Don´t know about the other one but I´d love to see that.

Posted

I still remember hearing "Discipline" for the first time. I was in a Mall Record store (and thinly-veiled head shop, as many were back then) and remeber hearing "Elephant Talk" over the system. REALLY loud.

I can't recall who said it first, but not having heard Belew before (just reading a few articles about his playing), I remember mentioning that that HAD to be that Belew guy. Sure enough, it was, and I walked out with that Album.

The hands-down coolest version of KC ever.

Posted

One of the most awesome things I ever saw on "Fridays" was King Crimson performing "Elephant Talk" and "Thela Hun Ginjeet". "Thela" was especially mind-blowing! The way Adrian Belew controlled his feedback to play the solo completely blew away my 17 year old mind!

I haven't been able to locate any online videos of either of those performances from "Fridays". Anybody else seen one?

I haven't seen many episodes since 2000....I'm may be fortunate. I always managed to catch, say, Bobby McFerrin and miss Midnight Oil :P I have a higher recollection of King Crimson being on Fridays!

Me too! That KC performance and Midnight Oil on Thicke of the Night stand out greater than anything i've seen on SNL. I bought the first used JC-120 I could find and started making noise. :)

I've got MP3s of the KC performance but they're on a dying drive that I disconnected before it totally conced out. I shared it with Brooks, I think...

I do have a VHS of the Midnight Oil show somewhere that I will eventually convert. I remember Peter singing with shredded newspaper on the floor during Read About It then lighting the one in his hand. After the spoken word, he drops it and and all the shit starts to burn. Here come the prop guys to snuff it out while Peter does his wildman jig. Kickass.

Posted

Edie Brickell and New Bohemians..... a breakthrough performance that launched her career and heralded the new wave of female vocalists and Lilith Fair type singers. There would have been no Sarah or arguably even Love without Edie.

<cough> one hit wonder </cough>

Guest JackButler
Posted

Skid Row doig "Monkey Business".. in their prime and NONE more rock! Absolutely BRUTAL.

Video link?

On a somewhat related note, pun intended, Megadeth did one song, possibly the title track, from Countdown to Extinction on Letterman and were quite brutal. Dave was sober, Friedman was beyond impressive, and Nick Menza was flat-out destroying the drums!

HERE YA GO!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LeJlpocIT4

Posted

If Edie Brickell didn't perform on SNL, how would she have then been able to snag one of the most frequent musical guests on SNL (after Randy Newman or Leon Redbone, WTF?), Paul Simon?

I don't know that she ever really had much of a career after that song, did she?

Posted

I GET Sebastian Bach. I never got Axl as a frontman.

THAT was a great SNL performance. I've not seen them live sound that good-usually really hissy and distorted. Cool!

Posted

Okay, it's the Fridays KC, but they NEVER would have made SNL!! I still love that song...

Elephant Talk - Fridays

Posted

I'll take you a step back before SNL....

National Lampoon Radio Hour had most of the original cast of SNL, including Belusi, Ackroyd, Gilda, that black guy, etc. I recall a show where Hunter Thompson (RIP) drove to somewhere on the west coast where the Dead and fans were all on barges. The barges were cut loose, not to stop until they reached Hawaii, and the Dead started the first set playing a song about shooting cocaine, "Talkin' 'bout that cocaine express, mainline..." Like 1973 or so? Anyone else remember that? Sure sounded like Jerry and the boys, but I've never run across any reference to the band playing for the show.

Posted

Devo: "Satisfaction" (Gawd only knows how many people, in late '78, saw that quintet that looked rejects from a nuclear waste disposal site and said "Whut the hayull izzat?")

Elvis Costello: Meltdown on "Less Than Zero" (I think) switching to "Radio Radio". Re-hashed in person on one of the anniversary shows...but who remembered the original?

Boy I distinctly remember seeing both of those shows live and the performances were each great!

I was and am still a big Elvis Costello fan and was really looking forward to seeing him live on TV and he didn't disappoint. First song was "Watching the Detectives", excellent (Watching the Detectives - Live) and then was the aforementioned "Less than Zero" for a little bit then Elvis says "STOP, STOP!" and something about not wanting to do that song and launching into a furious rendition of "Radio, Radio" (Radio, Radio - Live) which we found out later he was told not to play and I think got banned from SNL or just not asked back anyhow. Shades of the Doors on Ed Sullivan

Definitely THE Most Memorable Saturday Night Live musical guest for me was DEVO!! I had seen weird posters on campus for a band nobody seemed to know about called DEVO and was curious so when I saw they were on SNL I wanted to check them out. I lived in this "scholarship" house with 40 guys and it really didn't matter who was on, we usually tried to catch the show anyhow. So they announce the musical guest and I'm thinking "OMG who are these freaks from a bad Sci Fi movie?!?!" Then I realize they are playing "Satisfaction" and thought it was fucking nuts! I loved it. (Satisfaction - Live) The rest of the guys watching weren't into it at all but what REALLY got them was when they came out for the final song and played "Jocko Homo" - it started with a short intro by Booji Boy and then total DEVOlution. (Jocko Homo - Live) Cleared the room in a flash. But I couldn't believe what I was seeing and hearing and have been a DEVOted fan ever since. I went to the record store (yes they were record stores in '78) and bought Q: Are We Not Men? A: We are DEVO the very next day and it's still one of my favorite albums of all time, although now I have it on DVD and my Ipod. Still think I've got the vinyl in my one last box of records I can never seem to get rid of...

edited to add all the performances found on YouTube - how cool is that!?

Posted

Okay, it's the Fridays KC, but they NEVER would have made SNL!! I still love that song...

Elephant Talk - Fridays

Thanks for posting that one. One of my fave guitar solos of all-time is the studio version solo Belew does in Elephant Talk. Actually one of my fave Cd's now that I think of it.
Posted

Skid Row doig "Monkey Business".. in their prime and NONE more rock! Absolutely BRUTAL.

Video link?

On a somewhat related note, pun intended, Megadeth did one song, possibly the title track, from Countdown to Extinction on Letterman and were quite brutal. Dave was sober, Friedman was beyond impressive, and Nick Menza was flat-out destroying the drums!

HERE YA GO!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LeJlpocIT4

Smokin man!! They were really good then. Jack.

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