Memorable Musical Performances, From SNL

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.

Simon & Garfunkel - SNL, October 18, 1975 from Simon and Garfunkel News on Vimeo.

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 3^rd 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.

Frank Zappa - I`m  The Slime - 1976 by gyrgyl25

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

War - Sinéad O'CONNOR ( a cappella) on TV in 1992 by Petite-Pince-Sans-Rire

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.

territorial pissings - Nirvana live @ sarurday nig… - MyVideo

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  :-(

Music of SNL- Musical Performances

The greatest musical performances on SNL

Ok, so this whole week is going to be SNL moments, one because I am excited about this weekend’s performance; (Fucking Timberlake and Fallon) And Two, because Saturday Night Live has always been on the cusp of new music, and honestly it is where I have discovered a lot of cool music.

By The Way, Everyone is invited over to my house on Saturday to watch this episode. BYOB! (Woman of the house, I hope this ok with you?!?!) I mean seriously, I am considering doing a whole list of JT and JF musical work on here!!

Ok, so today’s list is my favorite musical performances,  These are not neccesarily the craziest or wildest, that is tomorrows list, this one is strictly for the music, Literally half of these are the performances where I began to love artists, or songs.  With some of them even being the first time that I had heard or seen them at all.

Quick Disclaimer, videos of SNL are hard to come by, so what I have provided was the best I could find. Some may even disappear before you get to see them  If you want better quality or what not you will have to talk to GE, I personally put a phone call into Jimmy Fallon and tweeted him, hoping he could help me get better clips, but I have yet to hear from him.  So some of these clips are mirrored or in weird sizes, but they provide the best audio I could find.

So without any more overdue pomp and circumstance here goes the top ten!

10. Patti Smith  -Gloria -  April 17, 1976

I mean I have already highlighted this song as one of my favorite songs, well, this version bares little resemblance to  Van Morrison’s  but it is pretty fucking serious.

Obviously I was not even thought about  yet, Hell my parents were not even married yet.  And I don’t know how I really found this performance, other than constant pop culture nerdiness, but I love it.

Patti Smith was left off of my list of favorite women singers, because after a while I grow tired of her, but this song and obviously My Generation  and a few others are memorable.

But this is just awesomeness at its best.   It starts out subtley and builds into a giant punk rock orgy for your ears. But the whole time Smith looks like she is so pissed off,  even when the band launches into the chorus, and the shit is supposed to be fun, she is so pissed about it, as if she doesn’t care for spelling.  Like  “how dare you make me spell this shit again”

And the whole fact that at the end she shouts Happy Easter after repeatedly telling us Jesus didn’t die for her sins, That is so unbelievably Punk Rock!

Patti Smith, Gloria from Jc Stolen on Vimeo.

9. Green Day – Geek Stink Breath-  December 3, 1994

Ok, so by this point everyone had seen or heard of Green Day. I was no exception, So this night was not incredibly memorable where things are concerned in timeline of the band or my love for them. (That is a crazy ass sentence, but it makes sense to me, so that’s all that matters)

The reason that this made the list was because, this was the second song that they played, they played When I come Around first, which was their current single, but then they played Geek Stink Breath.  A song that they wouldn’t release as a single until September of 1995 .

That is why it stuck in my head for so long, I heard it once and I my friend  Jacob had a vhs tape of it, and that was the only way to hear this song for me for 9 months.  (Remember children YouTube was invented until 2005)

The album it was on wasn’t released until October so I had to wait 10 months to have my own copy of the song, but by then the video was on mtv.

Also, a few other notes on this song,  lyrically it was crazy as a 13 year old kid, I didn’t know what Methamphetamine was, or the effects that it had on you, but Billy Joel taught me through this song. 

And probably the coolest thing was, the word shit was not censored out.  This happened because NBC didn’t know the song at all, and Billy Joe sang with his mouth half shut so half the words are unintelligible, but listen in the last verse you will hear it.

Finally, in the end of the video, Where does Tre go? And why is he so quick to get there?

8.The Blues Brothers – Soul Man- November 18, 1978

This was The Blues Brothers Last performance on SNL, but it was also their best.

This was the whole vision finalized and presented in a lot of glory. The story, the intro it was all so important and so incredible. Fucking Garrett Morris makes the greatest intro, I think every band should get an intro like that (Mad Cats I am available if you are interested)

This version of the song is actually most people’s go to version, and is still played on the radio today. I wasn’t there, and again, I was negative 3 and a half years old; but I think this was the moment that America took The Blues Brothers seriously.

“Play It Steve”

Anyone that I have ever heard sing this song or do it live has had some variation of this phrase in the song, come on that’s culturally Iconic.

 Now I am not trying to Blaspheme Sam and Dave; I know they said it first,  but Belushi didn’t have to shout it, it would have made no difference, but he did, It helped that the same Steve (Steve Cropper) was in his band.  Again I know it was done first by Sam and Dave, but shout “Play it Steve” at a musician, and irrevocably they will think of Soul Man by The Blues Brothers.

To be fair here is Sam and Dave’s Best version of this song, In my opinion.    Click Here

I love John Belushi, and this won’t be the last time you see him this week. But he really does have a great voice, at least for singing the blues, it works well and I love it.  His cartwheels and movements. And Akroyd’s dancing is beautiful  and his bass voice, along with his good chops on the harmonica, forget it these guys are killer (bees)

Ok, so the video I wanted to show you is HERE

Here is the scaled down version

7. Alabama Shakes- Hold On – February 16, 2013

This is the moment where I realized how sexist I was, when it came to music.  I had heard this song a few times before and just sort of scrubbed it off as a blues rip off by a dude trying to be every great blues singer I had heard. Sure he had a great falsetto,  I liked the song but I didn’t love it.

Slap head moment of my life.

She says her own fucking name like 5 times throughout the song.  So, Brittany Howard, if you ever read this, I am incredibly sorry that I thought you were a guy and so Fucking impressed by you.  I truly mean that!

It may seem weird that I am so impressed or enthralled because of a woman singer. But seriously, if you have not ever heard this song, you will be impressed I promise you.  

Don’t get me wrong the whole band is good, not just the singer, the performance is very killer. And so worth the watch.

I mean if you go all the way to the end, you will see how much she puts herself out there leaving herself almost breathless by the end of the performance. It really is something.

6. Neil Young – Rockin in the Free World-  September 30^,  1989

This was the first time I saw Neil Young that I remember, I was fucking 7 and thought that it was the coolest shit that I had ever seen.  I still liked Michael Jackson and MC Hammer but this Neil Young dude was out of control.

I have since seen him in concert and he still plays the song with that much intensity. It is so fucking cool it is a riot.

In this performance he was 44 years old and already a legend, I mean he is in the Rock and roll hall of fame twice (and really should be three times) but he is acting like all of the cool punk rock guys that I would soon look up to.  Young was working out for a half an hour before the performance to get himself amped.

Never mind the fact that the song is an angsty denouncing of the Bush administration(The old man one). The song is so killer I mean come on, the solos will rip your hair out they are so loud and tight.

Caution, This is seriously loud, if you are wearing headphones take them out !!! Seriously!!!

Neil Young - Keep On Rockin' In The Free World by Killer_Tomato

5. Vampire Weekend – Diane Young -  May 11, 2013

You bet your sweet bippy that this made my list, I know, pretty recent eh?  Well this is a performance that got me hooked into a song.

This was the very first time that I had heard this song and I was blown away by it. I had listened to Vampire Weekend previously in my life, and I enjoyed them. I watched this episode of SNL to see Kristen Wiig, but when I heard this song I was transformed into a huge Vampire Weekend fan, and fuck the Target lady!

I mean, I still don’t know exactly what the song is about but I don’t care, the way they do the vocal modulations is incredible.

And there is a dude in a top hat playing a bass saxophone That dude is not even in the band, but you cant help but stare at a dude playing a saxophone bigger than he and wearing a top hat.  That guy makes anything that Kenny G does sound like a queef (Yes I googled to make sure I was spelling it right)

There is some other electric stuff happening and I don’t know who was controlling all that but hey the shit is good.

I then went out and bought the cd as soon as I could and played it all summer.  My kids love this song just as much as I do, unless they are just pretending so they don’t get grounded.   

4. Paul Simon and George Harrison  – Homeward Bound- November 20,1976

This could easily be one of those instances where I just leave it at the title and show you the video,

But this is worth talking about.  Paul Simon is the original JT, I mean think about it,  successful group, even more successful solo career.  Then hosting SNL numerous times. I love Paul Simon, don’t get me started, (Paul Simon will be featured a lot this week)

Ok but then you have 25 percent of the Beatles there too. And George is no slouch himself, he made some of the most beautiful music to come from the Ex Beatles.  

So this performance has it all and it is enough to give you chills and really get you excited.  Harrison and Simon just sort of fall into each other vocally and it sounds beautiful.

Their guitar playing is so awesome too, I love at the end when Harrison is riffing and Paul looks over with excitement, It is just so cool that a star is in awe of someone else, playing his song nonetheless.

3. White Stripes – Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground/We Are Going To Be Friends – October 19, 2002

The first thing you will notice is the John McCain intro. I don’t care what your voting preference is, but I watched this episode for John McCain, I thought he was actually quite funny.  I didn’t realize I was going to have my face melted off by a duo, then be serenaded about a half an hour later by the same beautiful duo.

I took notice as soon as I heard Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground,  The fact that these two people could make so much awesome sounding  noise with two instruments  blew me away .  I absolutely loved it.

Let me state that I remember thinking initially when it aired, “ you mean the people with the lego video?” I mean the video for Fell In Love with A Girl was pretty cool, but the song is by far not their best work. So I wasn’t thrilled.

But man this was an awesome sound for their first song, then on their second song. They become polar opposites.  I mean to go from the way that Jack White was thrashing all over the place in the first song to just calmly standing there singing me something that sounds  like Simon and Garfunkel.  It was so beautifully visceral.

I can’t help but also point out that Meg playing drums looked like she was on a good trip through both performances.

And I have always loved her drumming. She always sounds a half a second off tempo and leaves a lot of space for Jack to play around in.  I mean that as a compliment.

The White Stripes - SNL (live) from Lordlicorice on Vimeo.

2. Rage Against The Machine –Bulls On Parade-  April 13, 1996

Up to this point Rage was just a band that I had heard of, and thought was wild. My cousin liked them and he usually liked good music. So check it out right.

Holy Shit, I was enthralled, they were so angry and so loud, and the things that Tom Morello did with his guitar were out of the world. I mean he used like fifty different effects for one song.  And he soloed like it was joke, and it sounds cool as hell.

This performance for me was memorable because I fell in love with Rage because of it and through Rage; I became more interested in politics and world happenings.  So for any of you that remember my horrible 2010 mayoral campaign, thank this video for getting me into politics.

Another thing that happened was all the controversy around their performance. They didn’t do a second song, which I remember because I was confused. Every band at this point always did 2 songs.  Then I saw an MTV News update by Kurt Loder talking about the incident. And I thought that Rage was even cooler. (I tried to find a clip of this and was unsuccessful, but trust me it happened. It might have been John Norris though.  I tried both)

You see, right before they went onstage Rage hung upside down flags on their amps. And NBC was not happy about that ; so NBC workers  tore the flags down seconds before the airing, and then right after the song the band was asked to leave.

 Really seriously Read Rage’s account of the incident HERE – seriously read it, or I will hurt a kitten!!

1. Justin Timberlake- Suit and Tie – March 9, 2013

I mean think about it Timberlake is half the reason I am making this list.  Why wouldn’t a performance of his be on the list.

This was an incredible episode; this was when my liking of Justin Timberlake turned into love.  (GO ahead make all the man crush jokes you want) This was the day that Timberlake joined the 5 timers club. He was introduced for his second song by the god damned 3 Amigos!

I mean, come on, you will see him in more posts and understand why he is so awesome. I promise.

But this was the moment when I really took him serious as a musician, and I don’t know what took me so long.  I mean I l knew he had a cool voice and could dance like Michael.  But this song has like a 70s groove feel to it. Flute and horns. Come On Son!! Plus the whole big band thing. And the dancers.

But Wait, There’s More. Jay Z shows up and does his own part. Come on, this is Jigga we are talking about. The man fucks Beyonce-He doesn’t need to do SNL, but he does it anyways, and just makes the performance go off the charts.

I mean, usually rappers that are featured in songs, don’t actually show up for live performances. (Try to find a clip of Katy Perry and Snoop together) But this was different because not only did Jay Z show up, he also killed it. Live rap usually doesn’t sound good. But this sounds good.  

Timberlake is a lady killer. Just you wait and see.

Ok so There are My favorite musical performances. I hope you enjoyed, I hope you got to see them all or at least tried to see them all. They are worth it.

Keep in mind, before you think I left something important off, Tomorrow I will give you some performances that had great performance value, or were controversial or what not.  So don’t give away the big finish.  Today was strictly music.

Alright see you tomorrow, oh and can someone make a Taco Dip to bring over on Saturday.

Supergroups

Incredible Supergroups 

Before you read any further- Fuck Cream, Everyone calls Cream the greatest supergroup of all time, but I disagree. Don’t get me wrong, I love Cream, and I think everyone in the group is great. But to me, I wasn’t there. So in retrospect for me, it is hard to piece the puzzle together.

Also, I do not consider a supergroup to just be a replacement of 1 or 2 guys and wham you are super. So you won’t find Audioslave on this list either. Again I love them, but No .  Also. Velvet Revolver was sort of the same thing too.  Yeah sure Velvet Revolver added a guitar player, but still its just Guns and Roses with a new singer.

So I wanted to put together a short list for you of groups that I think are supergroups.  Groups that I think deserve to be called that; Also, groups that you may or may not have heard of. 

It’s not a top ten list of the greatest, because really I don’t know what I would have to do to consider who goes where. I mean you can’t compare apples to oranges, unless you say they both are fruits and one has better juice than the other.

So really you can easily compare apples and oranges.  But I am not going to.

So here goes nothing…

Or something, depending on how you look at it….

Oysterhead

So you take Les Claypool of Primus, then you add Trey Anastasio from Phish. Right then and there you already have a good band. But wait, you still need a drummer. So who do you get?  Fucking Stewart Copeland from The Police. 

The band came together to perform for a festival in New Orleans, and it was supposed to only happen once, but the world loved it, and why wouldn’t they?

So they put together an album a year later and then have now reformed a few times for a few festivals and rare live performances.

Seriously if you love good music, and if you love a good jam, check them out, their shit just gels  together and you can’t help wanting to just groove out when you hear it.  Just check it out. I promise  you will not be disappointed.

Damn Yankees

Ok, so  you get Tommy Shaw from Styx,  and Ted Nugent from, Ted Nugent, and Jack Blades from Night ranger  put them together with a drummer nobody cares about named Michael Cartellone(He would later go on to become the drummer for Lynard Skynard)

You have just put together an incredible fucking line up.

The band came out of necessity for Tommy Shaw.  He didn’t want to do any more concept albums or weird love music with Styx,( and really that was all that Dennis DeYoung wanted to do.) And his solo career was not as good as it could have been.

Jack Blades needed the band because, well who really gave a shit about Night Ranger?

And Ted Nugent, well he could do whatever the fuck he wanted, whenever he wanted.

The band charted a few singles and played some ass kicking stadium tours, but never really went wild.  But the music was good. Especially when they did hard rock covers of renegade, or made fun of Styx in some other way.

All in all the band was pretty cool, and they always seemed to be having a lot of fun…

 

The Bens

I won’t be mad if you don’t know these guys at all. But I think it is one of the coolest supergroups ever, and it’s supercool how they all have the same name.

So take 3 successful indie guys and put them all together and you get the Bens.  Ben Kweller, Ben Folds, and Ben Lee. 

Again all of them have had successful careers on their own, obviously, Folds is the most household name of them all.

The cool thing about the Bens is, if you watch through their YouTube clips, they all play every instrument.  

The thing kind of started as a tour of a few powerhouse indie guys playing together, but then they would all come out and start jamming with each other, and by the end all three Bens would be playing and singing and jamming for you.

The whole thing was very reminiscent of the way the Rat Pack guys would do their concerts, except these were just cool nerdy guys that did it all.

The Highwaymen

Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson.

Why these guys came together, I don’t know but who the fuck cares. 

I tell you what, if Kristofferson was not in this group, I would not think he is half as cool as I do.

Sadly half the group has passed on. But they still are incredible.   I really don’t feel like saying much more because after seeing these dudes names you should already know how fucking cool it is.

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

 These guys are royalty to me.  Pure punk royalty, and I am about to copy and paste their lineup, straight from their Wikipedia page.

Spike Slawson (of Swingin' Utters and Re-Volts) – lead vocals

Fat Mike (of NOFX) – bass, backing vocals

Chris Shiflett (of Foo Fighters ex- No Use For A Name) – lead guitar, backing vocals

Joey Cape (of Lagwagon) – rhythm guitar, backing vocals

Dave Raun (of Lagwagon) – drums

Lazy I know, but now you know why I consider them a supergroup.  They are a powerful punk supergroup.

What makes them cooler than any other band on the list though is that they are strictly a cover group. And they are not afraid to cover anything and they have covered some good stuff from the 60’s to the 00’s.  From Elton John to the Dixie Chicks to everything in between.

The Gimme Gimmes are literally in my top ten favorite bands. Also, I won’t even lie, they are the reason why I enjoy so many songs that I do. Hell most songs I know on guitar were inspired by the Gimme Gimmes in some sort of way. 

So seriously here are a few videos by them to whet your whistle.

Traveling Wilburys

The names in this band are so incredible.  How you get these guys together is ridiculous.

The band is:

George Harrison

Tom Petty

Bob Dylan

Roy Orbison

Jeff Lynne

I mean seriously come on. How can this not be a success and it was.  A bunch of great men come together simply because they happened to be hanging out and knew each other. Top it off with the fact that they were recorded at Dave Stewart of Eurythmics house.

The whole thing is crazy. I mean the lineup, the name, the fact that the members of Monty Python were in the gag and were the historians of the group.

 The name comes from what George Harrison used to say about mess ups in the recording studio.  He said “We’ll bury them in the mix” so any sort of mess up became a wilbury. 

George Harrison was working on an album so he wanted to make a b side to one of his singles which was being produced by Lynne, who was also working with Roy Orbison. So the three of them were eating and talking about making a song and decided to go to Bob Dylan’s house to do it.

 Meanwhile George forgot his guitar at his friend’s house and went to retrieve it, but he decided to bring his friend with him too.  His friend of course was Tom Petty.

You can’t make this shit up

They are seriously the greatest supergroup there ever was.

If this was a top ten list they would be number 1

Well there you have it, some of my favorite supergroups.  Look them all up. Enjoy them all. Seriously some great music is there for you to enjoy 

Happy Songs Volume 1

Time to have some fun!!

So lately, I have been listening to that song Royals by Lorde.  I fucking love that song.  I know that it is a current song and a pop song and a song that everyone loves to cover in various ways. 

This song just makes me happy I don’t know exactly what it is, but it makes me want to dance, and be silly, and sing along. It is just a good happy song.

Periodically I will make compilation CDs that I entitle my happy CDs. I suggest that everyone goes out and makes a happy CD, at least one or two.  Having a rough day, or just want to pick it up a little and have fun, a happy CD is the way to go.

So I have listed here for you a few of my favorite happy making songs.  These are not songs that I think are the greatest songs in the world, in fact some of them are what a lot of people would even call guilty pleasures.  Maybe for me, they are sort of guilty pleasures, but these damn songs make me happy.

So it is not a top ten or a special list, and there are a lot more of these, but these are a few of the songs that make me happy.

OMC- How Bizarre

This is just a jam that makes no sense. Well, it makes sense, but I don’t care about the lyrics at all, I just like listening to the song.

I have no idea what people from New Zealand do for fun. Nor did I realize that they looked vaguely  Philipino and sounded like Robin Leach. 

I am not trying to knock on anyone there at all.   I just was taken aback when I found out that OMC was from New Zealand.  Call it ignorance on my behalf. Whatever you might consider it , I was just not smart.

But how can you deny the hooks in the song, how can you not get caught up in the happiness.  How Bizarre indeed!!!

‘N Sync – Pop

This is one of the few boy band songs I like, and probably the only ‘N Sync song that I like.

I think this was when I realized that Justin Timberlake was a cool guy. This was all also off of their last CD that they released as a group, so I think that is why it was so good.

Lyrically the song explains exactly why you should like the song.  Because it is just pop and it makes you want to shake your ass.

Secretly I think the song is saying” One of us is going to be a star and another one a gay cosmonaut, can you guess who? “

This leads to the question of why any of the New Kids on The Block didn’t start their own famous career.  Well I take that back wasn’t Donnie in one of the saw movies?  

I digress, This song is fun it’s catchy and it might make you dizzy, plus we finally got to see Timberlake without his shitty perm.

Kyu Sakamoto – Sukiyaki

Fuck if I have any Idea what the hell he is saying.  I don’t even give a shit, I just make up my own shitty Japanese to sing along with this.

Ok, so this was a Number 1 song in America, and remains the only Japanese song to ever hit number 1.

I know that it is translated roughly to I look above when I walk, but exactly what that means makes no sense either.

How can you  listen to this song and not try to sing along?  This is a sing along song, suitable for a Mitch Miller album.

 Seriously , I don’t even care if it is also the name of a soup.  I want to eat the damn soup so if anyone has a recipe let me know. Until then I will enjoy the song.

Doktor Kosmos – Holiday

I don’t know why or where I first heard the song.

I don’t know why it makes me so happy. It is silly and doesn’t really have a worthwhile ending, but it just cheers me up gets my fingers in the air and I am dancing like your drunk old aunt at a wedding. 

I don’t even know enough to tell you about Doktor Kosmos.  It is a band and they have a few albums, but I will be damned if this song does not make you happy.

Chuck Mangione – Feels So Good

Do I need to move beyond the fact that this song was number 4 on the hot 100. It had no words and instead featured an incredible Flugelhorn solo throughout the whole song.

Chuck Mangione tells you right in the title. This shit is so tight it will make your ass feels so good.

The song has 2 parts it has the slow, lets just feel this out lets relax and have some fun, then there is the lets get a band and jam this out part.  Both parts are equally as nice.

This shit makes me want to go to a Piggly Wiggly and walk the aisles just sort of strutting. Buy some Sunshine Mist soda, some of those cheap wafer cookies. You know the ones that are pink brown and tan colored and taste worse than the holy bread at catholic church.(I am not knocking the body of Christ, just saying that communion wafers are awful, but not as awful as shitty cookies).  Anyways, this song makes me want to go do those things. Those are things that I have not done in over 20 years.

Forget about the fact that Chuck Mangione looks cooler than anyone you know.  This song is killer and it makes me want to party, in a smooth everyone leave by 9 pm sorta way.

Color Me Badd – I Wanna Sex You Up

For some odd reason I love this song.  I also didn’t even realize that they were another boy band on my list when I was earlier talking about  ‘N Sync.

This is the first tape that I ever stole.  Yes that is right I stole it, then had to get it out of that big weird case thing.  But it was so worth it.  

Plus my mom wouldn’t let me buy it nor would she buy it for me.  So if anyone from the Kmart on 52^nd street in Kenosha is reading this. I am sorry. (I don’t even know if that Kmart is still open.

There is just something really cool about this song and I know it is dirty as hell, and all the guys are ugly as dick(even by 90’s standards.  This is just a jam worth listening to and having fun with.

I would not be surprised if this song and video are the inspiration for Dick in A Box, and if it isn’t then Color Me Badd should look into some sort of a lawsuit..

Billy Ocean – Get Outta My Dreams, Get into My Car

If you can listen to this song without wanting to dance then, you are dead to the world or a red head.

This is one of my favorite dancing songs, and if you ever go out with me, expect to dance with me to it, because I will inevitably request it.  Especially at those places nowadays that show videos.  This song has a killer video with a cartoon that plays the god damn saxophone.

The song builds and builds and just gets better until at  the 3:45 mark the greatest piece of music in the world happens, that build up is fantastic, and gives me blue balls just thinking about it.

I mean maybe you prefer Carribean Queen or some other song bu Billy Ocean, but then again maybe you are a Nazi.  This is the shit..

Deee-Lite – Groove Is in the Heart

Q – Tip raps during the breakdown and I piss myself I am so happy. 

I mean this is just a superior jam song that makes little to know sense, other than the fact that the groove and hotness to music, comes on like an infatuation.

Makes a lot of sense, I crush on songs all the time and then I find a new one.  I mean I don’t do that with girls, but music sort of does that.

I am literally rambling.  I will tell you one thing, on my Pandora, this is the only station that I have named after a specific song. And all the songs that accompany it are awesome as hell. 

So I am unofficially ending this post there.  There are plenty more on my list, but what is on yours? What songs absolutely make you happy and you don’t care what anyone thinks about it?

I will make part two soon, but enjoy these jams while you have a chance and have some fun!!

December 8th 1980

 It didn't have to happen 

When it comes to icons and role models in my life, most of them have been musicians. Some have been a voice for me, and others have been a voice to me. But John Lennon was both. He said the things that I wished I could say, and he said things to me that I wished I could hear.

John Lennon was the first musician that I ever looked up to. John Lennon was the first man that I aspired to be like. John Lennon was and still is more popular than Jesus Christ.

I am not going to give you a history or a biography lesson about John Lennon.  Because frankly, If you don’t know anything about John Lennon, well then there is something wrong with you.

I mean really, He was in the most influential and scrutinized band in the history of the world.

But there are are so many things about John Lennon that are incredible, aside from being a Beatle. I figure that I can just give you a few tidbits, something that maybe you didn’t know. So its all info, that I consider common knowledge, but I am sure it isn’t . But these are just things that I pick up from various spots. I promise you though this is cool shit.

First things first, let’s get one thing straight right away, Yoko Ono, is not the reason that The Beatles broke up. The Beatles broke up because Brian Epstein died.

 Maybe it is just my opinion but if you read through everything that happened, when The Beatles lost their manager, there was no control anymore. 

Keep in mind these are 27 year old guys with the full weight of the world on their shoulders that  we are talking about.

Another interesting fact is that John Lennon is the only one of The Beatles that never became a full time vegetarian.   It seems like a weird thing to bring up, but that is pretty crazy.  Late in his life Lennon adopted a macrobiotic diet, but he was not very strict about it.

 Don’t think that this means that he wasn’t a peaceful man, he actually felt bad about it, but considered that meat  tasted too good to say no.

John Lennon hated his own voice, I know it sounds crazy but it is true. I know many people know this, but if you didn’t know this go have a listen to any of his solo stuff. He always has an effect over his voice.

This was the only way that he liked it. Just listen to Imagine, there is a delay on the vocals.  He asked his engineers to do whatever they could to fuck up his voice.

John Lennon was the best man at Peter Boyle’s wedding.  Maybe that isn’t even worth knowing but it is cool. I mean this is Peter Boyle that we are talking about. The older crowd will remember Peter Boyle as the Monster in Young Frankenstein. The Kids will know him as Frank Barone from Everybody loves Raymond. I mean  come on, that doesn’t seem likely but its true, they were friends, their wives were friends, it’s just weird to think about.

John Lennon is missing. That’s not to say he has been misplaced, that’s not to say we need to search for him.  But he was cremated 2 days after his death and his ashes were given to Yoko Ono, and that is all that is known.  Some legends say that she spread his ashes over the ocean.(Lennon loved the Ocean), other rumors say his ashes were spread in Central Park. Ono has never revealed where his remains were, and I like it that way.

 Fucking leave him alone.

It makes sense. 

He just needs his peace.

So another thing that is strange, is as far as I know of, John Lennon only played 3 Beatles songs live I don’t mean like 3 songs, I mean 3 whole times. He played Come Together on his own.  And then as a result of losing a bet he played I saw her standing there and Lucy in the Sky, at an Elton John concert. That’s it 3 times.  (Half of Paul’s  set list  these days was written by John)

Paul and John came together for a recording session in 1974. It was during John Lennon’s “Lost Weekend” era. He was in Los Angeles, hanging out with Harry Nilsson and getting thrown out of clubs.  When all of a sudden one night A crazy group of dudes got together and played some music.

Let’s be totally honest, everyone in the room was high as fuck on one thing or another, but nonetheless McCartney and Lennon were back at it. 

Now it is a complete bootleg and nothing is really useable from it, it is really just a jam session. Oh and Stevie Wonder is there playing the Keyboards, Paul McCartney played drums,( They actually were Ringo’s drums, Ringo was Nilsson’s drummer, but wasn’t invited to the jam.)  

This is one cool event that I wish would have turned into something more. 

I guess at this point, the Anthology is as close as we are ever going to come again.

I guess I just hope through all of this, you understand that 33 years ago, something happened that didn’t need to happen. Something happened that seems to always happen to people that support love and equality. I just hope we treat each other a little better for a while.  Use this weekend as your chance to give back in a way that you know you should.