best SNL musical performances

[turnipmonster]

fishbone doing "sunless saturday". angelo moore was the man.

--turnipmonster

[The Ocho]

A barefooted, barechested Henry Rollins. What a wacko.

As for a legitimate performance: I've always liked Radiohead's appearances, even though I'm not a big fan of the band.

[bdk3clash]

Elvis Costello, "Radio, Radio," or maybe the Replacements doing "Bastards of Young."

The Replacments' appearance on SNL is hilarious, mainly for the closing credits. The crew and host, Charlton Heston, are standing around, as are the Replacements. As the credits roll, you can see a very drunk Paul Westerberg hawk a loogie into his hand right before he shakes hands with Heston. Classic.

[astroglide]

is angelo moore dead now? faith no more was great for the time, but a new viewer would probably find it over the top. nobody gets to mention kaufman ok? my vote is fnm. but radiohead did a great job on their not-so-distant one.

[ThaSaltCracka]

Nirvana!!!!!!!!!!! /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[challenger84]

Faith No More. Mike Patton is the man.

[young nut]

I agree, Faith no more had the all time best SNL performance so far; although, Patton did look cracked out on some sort of drug during the performance.

[Sponger15SB]

vanilla ice. i am not even kidding.

http://www.x-entertainment.com/pics3/snlice03.jpg
http://www.x-entertainment.com/pics3/snlice11.jpg
http://www.x-entertainment.com/pics3/snlice05.jpg
http://www.x-entertainment.com/pics3/snlice06.jpg

[BeerMoney]

Public Enemy!!!

[Blarg]

Joe Cocker.

John Belushi's imitating him while he sang, and singing too, really unnerved ole weirdo Joe. Belushi's rolling on the ground back and forth on his own bloated belly, barely touching the ground, was a once in a lifetime classic. The funny thing was, the imitation going on at the same time was part merciless rip and part tribute, and the two meshed in a freaky way that I think confused everyone, even Belushi himself.

Also, Simon & Garfunkel, believe it or not, just for a moment. The two had broken up many years earlier when Simon broke a promise he had made to Garfunkel and told the press that it was he alone who did all the arranging and writing, and all Garfunkel did was sing. When they got back together years later in that appearance on SNL, a somewhat panicked look and a confused, then rueful smile spreads over Simon's face, and he shakes his head and tries to keep a straight face, as he realizes Garfunkel is indeed writing the lyrics this time -- he's making up weird lyrics to their old song as their duet goes along, and Simon has no idea what he's going to do next or if the whole thing is going to blow up in his face. That was ball-busting of a high order, and it really threw Simon off for a few moments. The very subtle "f**k you" expression on Garfunkel's innocent-appearing face as he freaked Simon out and made him try to figure out what to do without stumbling was priceless. You saw so much of the relationship and still unresolved feelings between the two in just a few seconds. It was one of the great instances of slyly panicking and slyly flipping someone off in full view of everyone.

[Rushmore]

An episode most people have never seen, and a performance even less-seen:

FEAR

Belushi had been doing his over-the-top Celebrity Lifestyle routine, and in his case, it meant dope and hanging with "dangerous people."

He pushed hard to get the band on, and when they did come, they brought a LOT of wacky friends for the audience.

Nobody was ready for it.

If the musical performance was nothing to write home about, it certainly made for great guerilla TV.

Honorable Mention: Rage Against The Machine, Public Enemy.

[Tuco]

I agree. Ive seen a good portion of the shows live and in reruns, and PE was unreal.

Tuco.

[whiskeytown]

Neil Young in '89 - He did Rockin' in the Free World and War of Man, and the band is dicking around on stage giving each other kicks in the ass as they're playing the jam.

Gotta realize the context too...Neil had just done 10 yrs. of crap - syn album/rockability album - stuff to piss off the label - so when he got back on Reprise, he let his guitars back up to 11, so this was sorta of like a comeback special - the rocking Neil returns to live with vengence.

RB

[Q8offsuit]

Absolutely +1 for Faith No More, especially "Epic" where Patton starts climbing around on the wall behind the stage.

Can't remember what the (I assume first?) song they did was- maybe "Falling to Pieces"?? In the reruns on Comedy Central they usually cut out a song.

[astroglide]

i think it might have been "from out of nowhere"

[NoPeak]

Faith No More, Stone Temple Pilots, or Dave Matthews Band when Courtney Cox was hosting come to mind.