Saturday Night Live - Musical Guests

[DTMX]

I also remember staying up to watch the Sex Pistols (I was quite the little punk-rock head when I was 11 or 12) and being really disappointed when I found out that they'd been bumped (pretty sure this was related to their initial difficulties with being admitted into the U.S.). The replacement? Elvis Costello, for whom I had little appreciation at the time.

Yeah, I remember that one too. That was another memorable one, as Costello was in full early-anger form and freaked everybody out by changing songs midstream, starting "Less than Zero" getting a few bars into it, stopping abruptly, and then kicking hard in "Radio Radio".

No idea if it was planned or not, the given explanation post-show being that Costello thought that the originally planned song was too British-specific so he called an audible, an yeah, ok, but planned or spontaneous it made for a riveting TV moment, and if you're old enough to remember that little window where all things "punk" (and how ironic in hindsight now to think of Costello as such) carried with them a genuine anarchy, hey, it was a moment.

I remember watching that as a teenager and wanting to turn around to someone and say "What the hell was that?" - suddenly that worn-out copy of KISS Alive II just didn't seem as important to me anymore.. The next day I was on my way to the record store for a copy of My Aim Is True. I haven't watched SNL for years but recently the Beastie Boys were on it and were playing "Sabatoge" when EC runs onstage and gives the same I'm-sorry-but-this-song-is-not-appropriate speech. After that, the quartet jumps into "Radio Radio". That was cool.

Seeing Devo play "Satisfaction" on SNL freaked me out so much I couldn't sleep. So did Fear.

[zen archer]

After watching the first and second seasons , i would say Zappa was the most riveting

i loved that he included Don Pardo into I'm the Slime.

Also great performances by The Meters , Paul Simon , The Kinks and jimmy Cliff was Great !

[Alexander]

Be amazed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Satur..._musical_guests

A lot fewer surprises as the years rolled on. Not to say that a lot of great artists didn't play on the show, but it was obviously linked to chart position/who was pimping a hit single after a certain point (during the mid 80s it seems to me). I can't believe that I missed some of those when I was in college (I wasn't watching the show anymore by that point). Parliament/Funkadelic!

[Alexander]

I also remember staying up to watch the Sex Pistols (I was quite the little punk-rock head when I was 11 or 12) and being really disappointed when I found out that they'd been bumped (pretty sure this was related to their initial difficulties with being admitted into the U.S.). The replacement? Elvis Costello, for whom I had little appreciation at the time.

Yeah, I remember that one too. That was another memorable one, as Costello was in full early-anger form and freaked everybody out by changing songs midstream, starting "Less than Zero" getting a few bars into it, stopping abruptly, and then kicking hard in "Radio Radio".

No idea if it was planned or not, the given explanation post-show being that Costello thought that the originally planned song was too British-specific so he called an audible, an yeah, ok, but planned or spontaneous it made for a riveting TV moment, and if you're old enough to remember that little window where all things "punk" (and how ironic in hindsight now to think of Costello as such) carried with them a genuine anarchy, hey, it was a moment.

As I heard it, Costello was told NOT to play "Radio, Radio" because NBC had a lot of radio holdings, and felt that the song conflicted with those interests. Costello was banned from the show until 1989, when he performed "Veronica." Costello was inspired by Jimi Hendrix stopping in the middle of "Hey Joe" on the "Lulu" show and tearing into another song.

[Big Al]

YouTube clips of the Costello segment apparently have applause overdubbed at the end of the song. I've never seen the undoctored non-applause segment. Is it even available?

I remember seeing Nirvana on SNL and thought that was too cool. Yeah, it'd all been done before, but actually seeing someone do it live--especially since a lot of music in 1991 sucked hard--was refreshing.

[Hot Ptah]

I remember the Ornette Coleman performance. It was at the very end of the show, and the comedy in that show was almost uniformly terrible, so it seemed like a very long wait. Then Ornette came out with his electric Prime Time band and played for what seemed like quite a long time, in an energetic, uncompromising performance. It was one of the wildest jazz performances I have ever seen on TV.

On the other hand, the Grateful Dead's performance, from the time when "Go To Heaven" was just released, seemed dull to me. I remember thinking, there's one old band that won't last much longer--little did I know.

The Ray Charles perfomance was great. Ray really tore it up on "What I Say", after a parody sequence in which the cast played a 1950's white group trying to sing it in the most cheery, souless manner imaginable.

I also liked the part where Ray's 1950s horn section was reunited, and they all played brief solos after being introduced. At the end, someone was wailing on alto sax, and then the camera turned and Ray himself was sitting there at the piano, playing the alto. It was a pleasant surprise, one of those "wow" moments.

[BruceH]

I also remember staying up to watch the Sex Pistols (I was quite the little punk-rock head when I was 11 or 12) and being really disappointed when I found out that they'd been bumped (pretty sure this was related to their initial difficulties with being admitted into the U.S.). The replacement? Elvis Costello, for whom I had little appreciation at the time.

Yeah, I remember that one too. That was another memorable one, as Costello was in full early-anger form and freaked everybody out by changing songs midstream, starting "Less than Zero" getting a few bars into it, stopping abruptly, and then kicking hard in "Radio Radio".

No idea if it was planned or not, the given explanation post-show being that Costello thought that the originally planned song was too British-specific so he called an audible, an yeah, ok, but planned or spontaneous it made for a riveting TV moment, and if you're old enough to remember that little window where all things "punk" (and how ironic in hindsight now to think of Costello as such) carried with them a genuine anarchy, hey, it was a moment.

As I heard it, Costello was told NOT to play "Radio, Radio" because NBC had a lot of radio holdings, and felt that the song conflicted with those interests. Costello was banned from the show until 1989, when he performed "Veronica." Costello was inspired by Jimi Hendrix stopping in the middle of "Hey Joe" on the "Lulu" show and tearing into another song.

Yeah, I heard that too. At the time they gave him a pile of shit for doing that, of the "You'll never work in this town again" variety.

Also, weren't the early Talking Heads on SNL, circa '77 or '78?

[Hot Ptah]

I also remember staying up to watch the Sex Pistols (I was quite the little punk-rock head when I was 11 or 12) and being really disappointed when I found out that they'd been bumped (pretty sure this was related to their initial difficulties with being admitted into the U.S.). The replacement? Elvis Costello, for whom I had little appreciation at the time.

Yeah, I remember that one too. That was another memorable one, as Costello was in full early-anger form and freaked everybody out by changing songs midstream, starting "Less than Zero" getting a few bars into it, stopping abruptly, and then kicking hard in "Radio Radio".

No idea if it was planned or not, the given explanation post-show being that Costello thought that the originally planned song was too British-specific so he called an audible, an yeah, ok, but planned or spontaneous it made for a riveting TV moment, and if you're old enough to remember that little window where all things "punk" (and how ironic in hindsight now to think of Costello as such) carried with them a genuine anarchy, hey, it was a moment.

As I heard it, Costello was told NOT to play "Radio, Radio" because NBC had a lot of radio holdings, and felt that the song conflicted with those interests. Costello was banned from the show until 1989, when he performed "Veronica." Costello was inspired by Jimi Hendrix stopping in the middle of "Hey Joe" on the "Lulu" show and tearing into another song.

Yeah, I heard that too. At the time they gave him a pile of shit for doing that, of the "You'll never work in this town again" variety.

Also, weren't the early Talking Heads on SNL, circa '77 or '78?

They were. The early B-52s were, too.

I recall that the Talking Heads performance was not like the "Stop Making Sense" film at all. It was much more sparse and tense.

The B-52s, on the other hand, were wild.

Edited March 3, 2008 by Hot Ptah

[B. Clugston]

The most memorable for me were Sun Ra, Elvis Costello stopping mid-song, and Linda Ronstadt and Phoebe Snow duetting on "The Shoop Shoop Song." There were a lot of great Paul Simon moments. Like the Rolling Stones appearance in 1978 as well.

I remember seeing Jarrett doing his contortion thing. Miles Davis was disappointing since I had recently gotten into Bitches Brew. That telecast was the determining factor in me not seeing Davis play live a few years later. As a result, I missed the infamous booting Wynton Marsalis off the stage moment.

I thought a lot of the '80s guests were spotty (Loverboy?!), but in 1988 there were good back-to-back episodes with Trent Terrence D'Arby and Robbie Robertson.

[Hot Ptah]

I remember that Rolling Stones' 1978 performance. Mayor Ed Koch was the host. I remember Mick Jagger flicking out his tongue and licking Ronnie Wood's face as he finished singing "Shattered". I didn't like that.

[RDK]

Sounds like some of you haven't seen the show since the 70s!

Lots of good musical acts since then. Beck did a great couple of numbers last year; the show turned me on to Corine Bailey Rae, for which I am grateful; a recent appearance by U2 (maybe 2-3 years ago) proved just how big a star Bono is; Scissor Sisters was terrific, as was Neil Young doing "It's a Dream." And who can forget Sinead O'Connor tearing up a photo of the Pope?

[Aggie87]

Sounds like some of you haven't seen the show since the 70s!

Lots of good musical acts since then. Beck did a great couple of numbers last year; the show turned me on to Corine Bailey Rae, for which I am grateful; a recent appearance by U2 (maybe 2-3 years ago) proved just how big a star Bono is; Scissor Sisters was terrific, as was Neil Young doing "It's a Dream." And who can forget Sinead O'Connor tearing up a photo of the Pope?

The Beck performance with the puppets was cool!

[Quincy]

Growing up in a small Midwestern town '78-79 brought in all sorts of weirdness to TV, with Devo, Zappa, Kate Bush, Talking Heads, Delbert McClinton, Ornette, hell, even the Chieftains. And annoyances, like Rickie Lee Jones & Bette Midler.

I thought Leon Redbone played on the show more than he did in the early days, though maybe one of the cast members imitated for a show or two. Dylan's "You Gotta Serve Somebody" was exceptional. Being a teenage atheist I felt very conflicted loving the performance but not the message. I chose the former! He ended up skipping a section of the song but the back up singers didn't miss a beat. It's hilarious to see the short bassist behind him head-bobbing & "funking out" if you see the video, as he looks like a brother to Spinal Tap's, plus to the way it's shot he looks no taller than a leprechaun.

Neil Young performing "Keep On Rocking In The Free World" in '89 was phenomenal. He was even an animal during rehearsals. The Pogues on St. Paddy's day in '90 were also fun (assuming you were drunk too.)

[JSngry]

I remember seeing Nirvana on SNL and thought that was too cool. Yeah, it'd all been done before, but actually seeing someone do it live--especially since a lot of music in 1991 sucked hard--was refreshing.

For that matter, the Pearl Jam set coming on the heels of Cobain's death was pretty intense.

[7/4]

I remember the Ornette Coleman performance. It was at the very end of the show, and the comedy in that show was almost uniformly terrible, so it seemed like a very long wait. Then Ornette came out with his electric Prime Time band and played for what seemed like quite a long time, in an energetic, uncompromising performance. It was one of the wildest jazz performances I have ever seen on TV.

I missed that one!

And who can forget Sinead O'Connor tearing up a photo of the Pope?

I did.

And I saw it too.

[Teasing the Korean]

Devo, Talking Heads, the Specials and Tom Waits all made an impression on me. This was pre-MTV, and before you heard much of this stuff on the radio in the US, so it was like a window into another world.

[take5]

Costello was inspired by Jimi Hendrix stopping in the middle of "Hey Joe" on the "Lulu" show and tearing into another song.

Jimi decided to play Sunshine of Your Love as a tribute to Cream. This recording is available on the BBC Sessions double CD.

When I was an angry teen, Pearl Jam was the be-all and end-all of music for me. Their appearance on SNL at the time was the coolest thing for me. They played 3 songs where most acts only get 2; they played a song or two from the new at the time Vitology album, an album that would have an interesting impact on my musical life a number of times; they did a killer version of Daughter; and Adam Sandler devoted a chunk of his popular Opera Man bit to them.

[Hot Ptah]

Sounds like some of you haven't seen the show since the 70s!

Eh? Eh? I just dropped the tin funnel I put up next to my ear--it rolled under my wheelchair. NURSE! Get my tin funnel, some young whippersnapper is saying something or another.

[DTMX]

Also, weren't the early Talking Heads on SNL, circa '77 or '78?

The first time they were on I think they did Take Me to the River and Artists Only.

Weird moment on SNL: watching David Bowie perform The Man Who Sold The World with Klaus Nomi singing back-up.

Weird moment while watching SNL: Watching Gary Numan sing Praying to the Aliens two months after the Bowie performance and having my mother say "I know who that is! That's that same guy that was on there a couple of months ago!" Not sure if she meant Bowie or Nomi.