Memorable musical guest moments of Saturday Night Live.
So I tried to make Two separate lists for today; one was
going to be sort of WTF moments, and the other were going to be OMG
moments. I thought it would be cool to
title them “WTFSNL” and “OMGSNL”!
Well the problem was that there were too many moments that
blurred the lines of both (Ev’ryBody Get Up!) So I didn’t know where to put them. Plus then I realized ranking them or doing
them in any sort of order was going to be difficult as well.
So what I have decided to do was give you just a big pile of
memorable moments in Saturday Night Live musical history. Some are “good” some are “bad”. Some will
make you say” hot damn” I love that, and some will make you cringe, and say “
oh no, don’t do that” some will make you
say “I don’t understand why this is on
here, that’s not cool at all” and all of them will make my dad say “Don’t you
have anything better to do dammit?” (On
a side note of that, if anyone reading this comes in contact with my brother; please
make him read this! I have called him and talked to him about it on numerous
occasions, and he still hasn’t read any of my posts)
So hey I hope these make you laugh, and I hope all the links
work. Again it is hard to find Saturday Night Live footage without the vultures
of NBC picking it off the intraweb.
Still trying to reach Jimmy Fallon. I put a tweet out to Tom Hanks
hoping maybe he could help. I mean Shit I gave That thing you Do the number 3
spot in my Fictional bands post.
Keep in mind again that these videos are hard to find.
Ok so here comes a trip down old memory lane…
Ashlee Simpson –
October 23, 2004
I figured that if I didn’t start here you all would just be
waiting for it the whole damn time. Ok
we all know she lip synched and then did a shitty jig for us all to watch;
before sauntering off the stage totally embarrassed and leaving her band there
to just keep playing for another half minute.
But what pissed me off was that she then blamed her band for
playing the wrong song. Come on Bitch
you aren’t even that good of a singer and if your sister wasn’t so hilariously
stupid, and you weren’t fucking Pete Wentz you would have never even had a
career.
Don’t you ever blame
it on your band. Those are the underpaid motherfuckers that make your music at least
half worth listening to.
She then called MTV on the following Monday and said that
she had “severe acid reflux disease and had completely lost her voice and was
advised not to sing by her doctor” Well
that doesn’t make sense, because your voice was working 100 percent fine when
you threw your band under the bus; Bitch!
But she then said “her father made her use a vocal guide
track for the performance, but her drummer hit the wrong button, which caused
the wrong track to be played. “ Listen
Sweetie, I have daddy issues to, but when I fuck up or make a fool out of
myself I don’t blame him. And, leave
your drummer alone maybe he did hit the wrong button, but that was not a guide
track. I have heard guide tracks, they aren’t usually that loud and clear.
And then she said “ I made a complete fool of myself” Hey she got one right. Her dad probably told her to say that though.
Ok, listen I am not against vocal guide track’s or lip
synching due to illness or something like that. In fact in some cases it makes concerts sound
a little better, and also, it is better than cancelling last minute.
So I don’t put her at fault for that, but to just leave the
stage, and then all the different excuse, that is what bothers me and shows a
complete lack of professionalism. (It’s like a waiter who blames the cook, even though
the waiter actually forgot to ring in your order and that’s why it’s taking 25
minutes for your fucking Mozzarella Sticks- Fuckin Applebee’s)
So here, enjoy, your order is up.
Sirvana - December 15, 2012
If you don’t know about this then where the fuck have you
been?
Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, and Krist Novoselic
The final line up of Nirvana, plus Paul McCartney, are you
shitting me. And you didn’t watch this.
Paul is left handed too!!!
I forgive the fact that Martin Short only introduced them as
Paul McCartney, that is totally ok.
So they were doing a song that they had written together.
They originally got together for the Hurricane Sandy relief concert. And they
made this song for a movie that Grohl was making. But seriously this is totally
awesome shit
Paul Mccartneys vocals are beautiful and a little more
higher pitched then Kurt was, but the song has a totally frenzied Nirvana
feeling to it. And Mccartneys slide guitar playing on that kick ass Cigar Box
Guitar is fucking incredible.
I always loved when McCartney screamed or had some growl in
his voice like Helter Skelter or Lady
Madonna. And Grohl rocks the drum like he is god damned Animool from the
Moopets
And Smear, well he just does his thing, and I have always
thought he was solid, and he is just projecting so much fun into the thing.
Novoselic meanwhile, has the same aloofness he had in the 90’s and I love it.
But what I don’t know is what he is thinking at the end. To me he is either thinking,
“ I wish Kurt was here for this” or “that was so good, I am saddened by it” I
mean either way I admire both of those thoughts and maybe he was thinking both.
Anyway about it this is a cool moment that blew my mind
Cut Me Some Slack
- McCartney, Grohl, Novoselic, Smear (SNL 12-15-2012) from Alan Queenero on
Vimeo.
Simon and Garfunkel
- October 18, 1975
Under normal pretenses a Simon and Garfunkel performance
would be totally cool as is, but this was even more special.
You see, Garfunkel, wanted to be an actor(with that face and
hair?) And realistically lets be honest you are not supposed to mix business
and pleasure. So the group broke up once
in 65 but got back together and then in 1970 called it quits indefinitely
.
So at this point they had gotten together once in 72
briefly, so this was their second time
together in the public eye in like 5 years.
So this was truly an amazing moment. To put it into perspective folks, for me and
weezer fans, it would be as if Rivers Cuomo and Matt Sharp appeared together,
or as if Andre 3000 and Big Boi got back
together and did Bombs over Baghdad. Or
if any fucking band that you loved that broke up and then got back
together. Get it?
So the tension is so fucking heavy when Art walks in, the
crowd is pissing their pants Paul doesn’t seem to be as excited as they are.
Doesn’t even stand up, then he fucking starts jabbing at him, I seriously think he was trying to make him
feel dumb. Garfunkel doesn’t respond at all.
Then they just pick that shit right up where they left off.
After the first song they awkwardly touch each other and
have a weird 2 part harmony conversation. That shit is so uncomfortable, the
audience has no idea how to react But
the songs are still good, their harmonies are incredible(they always were)
After this performance they
stayed away from each other for 6 more years, when they played a concert
in Central Park for over 500,000 people.
That’s a lot of people.
But this night this was a memorable night.
Beck – October 28,
2006
Ok, this was a great episode all around, and was the night
that Dr. House was the host. There will be a moment from that coming up at some
point in the next few days, but this performance by Beck was off the fucking
chain.
Let me first say that I love Beck and think that he is one
of the coolest guys in town, also, putys on the meanest awesomest live
shows. That being said this performance
was no different.
This is a rare Beck
song that appears on the remix album he made called Guerolito.
This is such a great musical performance and seriously when
I saw it I was so fucking taken aback. I mean the song is so dope to begin
with, but sit your band at a dinner table and have them play every fucking
thing on it , now you are thinking outside the box.
And speaking of boxes, they got those god damn marionettes
of them selves doing exactly what they are doing. That is so cool, it’s like extra art for your eyes.
And the breakdown with the extra percussive shit, Beck plays
a roll, then does a kick ass harmonica solo, and yells as he plays, and adds
extra words and gets all crazy.
Maybe you won’t appreciate this the way I did, but I thought
it was the coolest thing that I had ever seen the moment I saw it, Obviously it
really isn’t but at the time.. .
This is a link to a
Japanese video so don’t be alarmed by the ads or letters you might so, but feel
free to question why it is subtitled in American English, I don’t get it either. Also you have to click on it for it to become a video. it works it is not crazy I promise .
Joe Cocker - October
2, 1976
If anyone in my immediate or very close family says they
watched this live and remember it, I will call bull shit, because I don’t think
my parents were showing SNL at their
Wedding Reception!!
By The way, Happy belated anniversary Mom and Dad,
So this was an incredible performance, and you know what
this time I am not going to explain, other than to say that No The dapper man
playing the saxophone is not Muhammad Ali .
Ok so watch the video then I will tell you more.
See what I am
talking about. That was fucking awesome
and incredible. Is it comedy, maybe, is it imitation, of course, but isn’t that
the best form of flattery . I mean realistically Joe Cocker made himself famous
by doing other peoples songs.
And The best part is that I think Belushi does it a little
better, also, I think Cocker purposely toned down his mannerisms whish makes Belushi look over the top, but I
have seen videos of Cocker where he gets wild.
I mean the matching outfits the crazy antics and both of
them dropping great vocals. Its awesome.
How about Belushi grabbing a Miller High Life in the midst
of the song, and offering it to Joe who refused even though at that time was a known severe alcoholic. But actually it was through his success in 76
he got a new manager and made a great comeback, because the manager made him
sober up.
Also, what is really
cool, for me personally is that Joe Cocker’s real name is John Robert Cocker. ,
which if you don’t know my full name is John Robert Wade. I was actually named
after my 2 grandfathers, but it is a cool coincidence.
Oh and this probably isn’t the last you will be seeing from
either of these guys this week
And finally for those of you that don’t know - Joe Cocker
suffers from expressive language disorder. Which he has had his whole life,
which makes interviewing him a bit of a task, and also what helped him make his
own style, and also was the reason behind him doing so many covers.
Ok, Moving Along
Fear - October 31, 1981
Now this is fucking Punk Rock.
It’s the Halloween episode on Halloween, Hosted by the
original Doctor Loomis from the Halloween series. So
that is awesome enough. By the way he is just trying to get the audience to
give the band a chance at the beginning .
But this was the 80’s when Lorne Michaels was not around. Look into that on your own time. I don’t have
time to tell you about that whole debacle.
So the show was being run by Dick Ebersol. But just so you know, not
much good came from that era. For Fucks sake they stopped saying Live From New
York Its Saturday Night. I mean come on son, that’s bull shit
So the producers wanted to make the show a
little better by putting an old favorite in the episode. One of my heroes -John
Belushi. But you see Belushi was as fed
up with the shitty era of SNL as the rest of the world was. (really quickly, in my opinion, had they not
had Eddie Murphy the show would have died by 1982. )
So Belushi agreed he would do the show, but only if his
favorite punk band from LA was the musical guest. Well, SNL agreed and we were
given the gem that you see here.
The band brought in it’s own mosh pit which included
Belushi, and Ian MacKaye(Fugazi) and like 25 to 40 other dudes, they tore shit
up. I mean tore shit up, they had just a
crazy ass mosh pit, fucking stage dives and craziness.
I mean the performance isn’t nessicarily the best, the rest
of the crowd hated it, It was so beautiful in the way it was opposite anything
that SNL ever was. The studio Audience
just hates it and screams you suck during every break. The band eats it up and
just tries to be friends, they offered the crowd money to be their friends
Fear by the way is led by lead singer Lee Ving, who played
Mr. Boddy in the Clue movie if you ever saw that. Ving at one point says, “It’s
nice to be in Jersey” which just pisses off the crowd more.
This was just one of the most craziest ruckus events that
has ever happened at 30 rock, by the time they got to their 3rd song
they just went to commercial. But by
that point the damage had been done. I
have seen estimates on differernt accounts that range from 20,000 dollars all
the way to 500,000. If I ever get in
contact with SNL, I will attempt to find the real price.
So here, check this
out. It doesn’t get more punk than this.
Frank Zappa - 1976
December 11,1976
Really quickly I
just want to say that I learned about Frank Zappa after seeing this video from my Aunt Karen and my Uncle Mark. I have
never publicly addressed this, but those two people taught me about music, life
, acceptance, and just all the coolest shit, that you could want to learn about. I miss them very much. Very much. Even though my Aunt lost the
battle to cancer, I still consider Uncle Mark my uncle, even if he never was my
dad’s brother in law. My aunt Karen is the person in my life who taught me that
it was ok to question everything. I
mean they had a giant Beatles poster in their basement. And a loud stereo in
every room. So fucking cool!!
I will be totally honest with you, this is the reason that I
like Frank Zappa, and if you are not into Frank Zappa, I will totally give you
a pass on that one. It is an acquired
taste.
That being said, I think this will totally make you want to
check out more of frank Zappa. I mean he
is a fucking performer for the sake of
performing, and this a great performance.
He modulates his vocals, he appears in the drum set, yeah
that is a cool moment.
My favorite part is when Don Fucking Pardo , the man that
has been SNL’s announcer forever speaks
a verse of the song, and not only that but as he is doing that, Frank displays
the lyrics on a chalkboard and just teaches them to the audience.
Then out of nowhere the song takes a literal turn and the tv
actually gets covered with slime.
One thing to remember too, about this whole thing was that
Frank Zappa didn’t do drugs.
Seriously. He didn’t hate them
and was against the “war on drugs” but he, himself did not do them.
It is seriously one of the coolest odd ball performances
that there is out there. I love it.
Please watch this and enjoy it.
It is so worth it.
Sinead O Connor –
October 3,1992
There it is, the elephant in the room that everyone has been
waiting to talk about.
In my opinion, the most controversial musical moment in SNL
history.
Was it good, The fucking song was incredible, an awesome a cappella
version of Bob Marley’s War. It was really good, I don’t think that you can
deny that at all. It was raw and full of emotion.
We thought she was singing a nice song and she was then all
of a sudden it happened. First she
changed a lyric to fight child abuse, no big deal, Child abause is bad, but
then as she sang the word evil…. Ok just watch, I will see you when it’s done
Ok, that’s some deep shit, What did you think?
Me personally I fucking loved it. For those of you that do
not know I am atheist, and proud of it, but that has nothing to do with why I
loved this. (Hell I was an altar boy in my younger days…..No nothing happened
it, it was actually an enlightening experience)
She was out there speaking of the child sex scandals of the
Catholic Church, and at that time, that shit was taboo. We now know that the church was hiding a lot
of things, so maybe Sinead had a point.
Look, first thing you should know is that the guy in charge
of putting on the applause sign purposely did not. NBC did not want to be
associated with this at all. So that created a lot of awkward silence in the
room, and at home.
Sinead stuck to her guns and never regretted it, and always
spread the same message, and that is not something you see everyday, even when
people were smashing her albums she never apologized. That is some balls
I seriously think it is a cool performance and totally
drives the point home. Sorry if you
disagree, but shit, it got people talking, and she is a good singer.
And, that’s all I have to say about that (Forrest Gump
Voice)
Nirvana - January 11,
1992
This was the moment that made me forever love Nirvana. Forget the fact that they performed Smells
like teen spirit, forget the fact that they made out at the end of the show, My
moment was when they performed Territorial Pissings
Territorial Pissings is still one of my favorite Nirvana
songs. And this particular night they
performed the shit out of it.
They looked cool as hell. Novoselic was much more into this
performance than he was with Paul, I mean He does the cool intro part which is
one of the things that I love about the song.
Dave Grohl plays a giant minimal drum set at the fucking speed of light, he
pounds the shit out of that stuff.
But then when they finish that is one the fun begins. They
take out all their angst on their equipment.
Cobain jams the head of his guitar into his speaker. Novoselic chucks
his bass into the air, and Grohl treats his drumset like it owes him fifty
bucks. At one point Novoselic throws a
cymbal back towords Grohl, that looks like it hits him.
Seriously it is an awesome moment. Please enjoy it.
Elvis Costello – December
17, 1977
This is an event that to me is one of the coolest ever.
First things first, I love Elvis Costello, and think he is
one of the coolest guys ever. To top it
off, this is one of my favorite Elvis Costello songs so this is the shit.
It was a normal night Costello sang Watching The Detectives
first, which was awesome, then for his
second song, He started playing Less than Zero, which was the song Lorne Michaels
wanted him to play, but the problem was, Less than Zero is about Oswald Mosley,
A british Politician. Costello felt the song meant nothing in America.
So Costello played Radio Radio, an anti-commercialism, anti-Radio,
anti-broadcast and network establishment song, that Lorne Michaels did not want
him to play.
The song kicks ass and is so good, why the Fuck would you
not want him to play it.
Well needless to say Lorne Michaels was not impressed and
banned Costello from the show. (there are also some reports that say Michaels
gave Costello the finger through the entire performance.)
Come on this is a gem, and seriously ban Elvis Costello?
Fuck you. Check it out
The ban did not last forever, and one night this happened
which is equally if not 10 times fucking cooler than the original….
So there it is after much debate There they are. I don’t know how many subjects I covered
looks like 10 or so, I don’t know, and I just re watched the Fear video, so I
don’t fucking care.
I hope you are enjoying this and let me know if you remember
something I didn’t .
Ps. Still haven’t heard back from Jimmy Fallon or Tom
Hanks :-(
No comments:
Post a Comment