Back when Paul Schafer played along with the musical guest on Letterman

similarly:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/pop/images/jools_1.jpg

Are you willing to play your current single in a boogie version: y/n

don't know when it started or ended, but I used to joke that I'd like to see him try that with someone like Nick Cave...

and then I saw it...

Dave holding up the long box!

I remember that Nick Cave one very clearly! The highlight was when Paul S took a brief keyboard solo-- suddenly his face contorted into a mask of sheer repugnance/fury/unholy passion. BEST SOLO FACE EVER. His expression didn't even match what he was playing-- his solo wasn't especially intense. My friend had taped it, and we made her rewind the keyboard solo over and over again.

It wasn't until the end that I realized that the Screaming Trees were from the NBC show. And why did they use another drummer? That wasn't even Anton Figg.

I remember Sonic Youth performing "100%" with 'The World's Most Dangerous Band' on the old NBC show, that was pretty weird. I think this practice continued for at least the first couple years he was on CBS, but less and less often.

Man, that clip really reminds me that the Chili Peppers was a pretty awesome band for a while.

And why did they use another drummer? That wasn't even Anton Figg.

looks like steve ferrone (currently with tom petty's heartbreakers) was filling in that night.

early bands played on letterman without the house band (cf. r.e.m. in 1983: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykp0Vq77IBw)...at some point in the late 80s when it became mandated that the musical guests had to play with shaffer et al. which was kind of a shame, because the brilliant steve jordan was no longer the drummer by that point, and bands had to make do with that ham-fisted fuck anton figg.

I remember seeing Motorhead on the old NBC Letterman show. Dave made fun of Motorhead the entire show adn then when they came out to play, Lemmy flashed a death stare at Letterman. I think they ended up playing an old Chuck Berry tune and not even a Motorhead song.

the letterman house band played "north american scum" w/ lcd earlier this year. the lot of them also played tambourine's when tokyo police club played.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6ogWgG0UOY

JAMC "Far Gone and Out"

Funky Bass! ALternately hilarious and infuriating.

that last one was controversial on the Prodigy shoegazing boards way back when

http://youtube.com/watch?v=YzuoXDC9ESw

Pixies w/the house band

i recall paul playing a one-chord keyboard part on beastie boys' "sabatoge" in the early CBS years. dave's line all night was "are you ready to get SARED???? we have the beastie boys here"

Man, this situation still bugs me.

Will Lee looks like a complete dork in that RHCP clip.

And what kind of green room conversation was taking place before the show when NBC brass was telling the band, "you guys sound great, but the drummer's going to have to play the triangle."

I mean, was this some sort of union joke or waht?

Something to do with budgets? I can't really remember. When the Letterman group played with L7, they had something like a total of six guitars going. Pretty crunchy.

When Peter Bjorn and John were on earlier this year, some lady from the band played the bongo part.

I've long been curious as to what, exactly, the arrangement is/was between the featured band and the Letterman house band, because my recollection is that not every musical guest employed Paul and the boys/girl (though the majority seem to), even post-'80s.

If it truly is, or was, a mandated thing, as Lawrence the Looter says, it's, of course, unfortunate that guests are made to present generally inferior performances to satisfy that obligation (not to mention members of the guest band being forced to break out the triangle just so they can participate -- I think drummers often fall victim to this simply because they might otherwise be have to sit in on someone else's kit, and that is almost always extremely uncomfortable). But truth be told, these collisions are often pretty fascinating for me -- I'm glad that we have that shaky version of "Trompe le Monde" (Black Francis in fine voice though) with bad Schaffer soloing and somewhat forced literate skronk guitar-work from Sid McGinnis.

And at other times, the performances are perfectly good. I'm not sure why anyone would object, on musical grounds, to the Screaming Trees and JAMC performances linked -- the bass player's white trousers and Stanley Clarke conviction in the JAMC one(?), because his playing is pretty faithful to the recording (maybe a bit busier and more R&B informed, but still appropriate and definitely not "funky" in the conventional sense).

Random notes:

Nice to see Steve Ferrone get a chance to, ahem, rock out (looks like he was having fun) in that Screaming Trees clip; he sounds good there.

One may not care for the playing of Anton Fig, he might not always mesh well with the featured act (though I think he does fine usually and is sometimes great), but he definitely isn't "ham-fisted". I prefer Steve Jordan, actually, but not everything he played on the Letterman show was golden either: check this performance of the band playing "Panama" with Eddie Van Halen(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZU32Ex4p04) -- not bad, per se, but kind of weird (all-around).

I'm pretty sure I once read an interview with Anton where he spoke of Tony Williams subbing for him in the band. How cool would it have been to see Tony Williams play behind The JAMC or Screaming Trees? I wonder who the band did back, if anyone, when Tony subbed (don't know how long he did either).

they backed up Dinosaur Jr. once I'm pretty sure (Start Choppin' era)

there's a Green Mind-era Dino Jr. clip on youtube, but it's in such terrible shape you can't really see if the house band is in on it

SJ sounds totally fine on that Van Halen clip to me. Still, what a weird thing to do.

lol @ Chad Smith on timbales. I wonder what would happen if you were in RHCP in the early 90s and you didn't have abs.

I still don't get why though.

PAUL SHAFFER circa. 1991: "Oh, FANTASTIC! Chainsaw Kittens are scheduled to come on AND I GET TO PLAY THE ORGAN AGAIN."

To be fair,it's really only some of the fills that I'm not feeling, as far as the drums go (and more-so it's the way that the toms are tuned -- just sounds odd for that song) in the Van Halen clip.

x-post

Jordan OTM on RHCP and abs.

I saw Urge Overkill play Bottle of Fur with the house band. Paul Schaffer was pounding the chimes at the end. They sounded better than they had any right to.

oh man i thought the same thing about abs when watching the video

maybe that's why they went through like 6 different guitarists at the time, dudes just didn't have the abs for it.

It's not every band that plays with the house band. It's actually quite rare. I always thought it was just bands with a cool sense of humor who were free wheeling enough to do it as a way to shake things up.

I think they did this with Stevie Ray Vaughan. I've seen it. It was on either Letterman or Carson.

I don't think a band would play on national tv w/out their regular drummer just for a laugh.

I thought it was a rule. A buddy of mine was in Poi Dog Pondering back in the day and when they did the Letterman show there were major negotiations to get every member of their own rather large band out on the stage- one of the two drummers ended up banging a stick on a soda can!

I'm trying to imagine what it would've been like had G.E. Smith played along with the Replacements on SNL, and I don't like what I'm seeing in my head right now.

I'll have to ask Ted about that, Ken.

Ha! You do that, John.

Found that SRV clip. The WMDB backed him on "Wall of Denial".

...and here's Sonic Youth

Here's a clip from a time when Dinosaur Jr. played and the house band guitarist took a little lead break that I don't think Mascis appreciated, as he proceeded to subsequently bitch slap him with a blazing solo in response.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV6b4eij7ZQ

I heard Tito Puente was on there once and they made him play the drum kit while Anton played the timbales.

Maybe it's a way for the guys in the show band to let real bands know that they're studio musicians for hire and they're available for recording?

Yeah, Will Lee never did a single jingle vocal until he was discovered during that Chili Peppers performance.

Okay so this is pretty fucking hysterical too, The La's "There She Goes" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVd2x0EpnYA&feature=related

funny becuase Shafers on the tambourine, the guitarist brought out the old Rickenbacker AND for the lead singer who supposedly demanded a mixer with the original 60's dust still on it when recording the album, this must surely be the sound he had in mind...

plus a Beatles bonus in the end. I LOVE it

This is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwhyGz2tQJc

Is that the clip where Paul throws his tampon into the crowd?

I had never seen that Dinosaur jr clip before - Mascis just SLAUGHTERS that house guitarist!

If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up
Posted: August 26, 2007 5:33:29 PM
Something to do with budgets? I can't really remember. When the Letterman group played with L7, they had something like a total of six guitars going. Pretty crunchy.

I'm glad that we have that shaky version of "Trompe le Monde" (Black Francis in fine voice though) with bad Schaffer soloing and somewhat forced literate skronk guitar-work from Sid McGinnis.

Was watching this clip for a while before I realized it must be from Letterman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jeZtxB_pGI&feature=related

I stayed up for that Ray Davies appearance (hey, 11:30-12:30 Central was LATE on a weeknight for a high schooler who had to get up at 6am for Jazz Band practice). I was disappointed that Dave wasn’t there, but liked the performance anyway. And Letterman’s wrong: it was their 26th album (counting live albums, not counting compilations), not their 48th.

It’s hard to see the hype sticker, but it calls the Kinks “The World’s Premier Rock & Roll Band!” They really wanted to fill the stadiums that the Stones and Who had filled in the summer of ‘89, but UK Jive topped out at #122 in the US, and the best they could hope for was 1/2-empty sheds on their 1990 tour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo6V2V6luLY

Liz Phair: "Supernova"

WOW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYifslpfSq8

The Feelies: "Doin' It Again"

oh big cheers for that one - they sound good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaoEuyObRkY

Bo Diddley: "Bo Diddley Put The Rock In Rock-'n'-Roll"

Lol @ Dave's bit of business with the LP cover at the start of the Liz Phair clip

(Liz doesn't sound her best there... too bad)

https://consequence.net/2023/01/paul-shaffer-fill-in-the-roots-jimmy-fallon/

(posted today)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnUI4a7BKpE

Letterman did one of his primetime anniversary specials not long after the SNL incident, including part of that clip in a musical guests montage, and there was audible booing.

On a related note, here's Julee Cruise w/the SNL band when she and the Spanic Boys pitch-hit for Sinead in '90.

https://vimeo.com/145203027

Borrowing from the "Controversial Opinions" thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29mx2bYvrJk

Herbie Hancock

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htqlOFuO-QM

#onethread

Slightly fixated on that Jon Lovitz-looking background dancer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-LZodq5Qxg

Ray Davies & The Max Weinberg 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYB22jmw3YY

David Johansen & The Max Weinberg 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQR52G6gvSk

📹

There's a bunch of Lou Reed clips like this, but singling this one out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVFcj-QLpu0

"Busload of Faith" during a Chicago residency. The Lou Mullet is OUT OF CONTROL

^^James Cotton on harp!

an example of this I quite admire is when XTC were on the show in 1989. I *think* this is the one and only time they played live on television after 1982 and PS and his band do a pretty good job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amx5CK7vdoc

from an interview with the plugz' bassist re: their famous/great turn as bob dylan's band on letterman in 1984:

Paul Shaffer tried to jam along with us at soundcheck. It didn't go well for Paul. Bob told Bill Graham, “Lose the clown on the keyboard.”

Ok, so I nominate this as the best clip of all of this phenomenon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUPSilcJFrQ

Duane Eddy sits in...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqy0JafNerE

the boys jamming with sly and robbie, 1985.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Padjp3Fhnhg

every year or 3 i do a search for the video evidence of john mcenroe jamming with toots and the maytals on his short-lived late nite show. no luck so far.

Do you know the David Bowie story about him?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcC6nx3C8i0

Pretty sure this is a repost. But I love this collection of Lou Reed playing on Letterman

xp

i didn't, but i just searched and assume you mean the story of bowie catching him butchering the "rebel rebel" riff in a hotel they were both staying in. ha!

Yes, that’s the one

Rosanne Cash & The World's Most Dangerous Country Band (featuring Anton Fig)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvsO8HvcTGs

A HAWT "Green, Yellow & Red"

Master bassist Will Lee on bongos! Anton and Mike D do the duel drums.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7-17aBxu5o

an example of this I quite admire is when XTC were on the show in 1989. I *think* this is the one and only time they played live on television after 1982 and PS and his band do a pretty good job.

📹

This popped up on my social media feed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4VTClsw8RY

As mentioned in the comments, this was actually from 1988, not 1990 (though the song/album is from 1984) and awhile back I posted a link to the Grammy ceremony mentioned. It may no longer be active, but it was startling to see how low tech the Grammy's used to be compared to today - it's almost like a high school production albeit taking place in Radio City Music Hall. Reed's performance is a brief segment in a long suite of performances celebrating NY. He basically performs half of a song in one of the box seats, and then Run-DMC runs out from underneath and performs in the aisles.

Anyway, re: the clip, I thought Sid McGinnis played some really good guitar on that one. I didn't know much about him, but a quick Google search reveals that he had some pretty strong prog credentials before Letterman was even on the air: he's all over Peter Gabriel's second album (and toured with Gabriel as well) and he also appeared on a few tracks from Robert Fripp's Exposure. He later played with Laurie Anderson and Warren Zevon (a close friend of Letterman's), and he's appeared on Dire Straits' Making Movies, Paul Simon's Hearts and Bones and David Bowie's much-maligned Never Let Me Down though he mostly appeared on two of the strongest cuts.

IGGY!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaI6ZeS8huk

"Real Wild Child" (1986)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujK_UO3Q1W4

"Cold Metal" (1988)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBZzL8sSARs

"Home" (1990)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IQhxFXWssM

"The Highway Song" (1993) (PAUL ON GUITAR!)

TIL Iggy Pop is left-handed.

Newly Uploaded DaJo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OewFqWI9y0

"Animals Medley" (1983)

...and "Stranded In The Jungle"

#onethread

"Meanwhile, back in the jungle..." is one of my favorite Dolls lines, mostly for the delivery and how it hilariously marks the change in perspective in the song.

I kind of wonder if it inspired Jonathan Richman's lyric "meanwhile, back in the bed..." even though they're completely different songs.

Probably. It’s from the original version of that song, or one of them, used to be able to keep track.

See also Chuck Berry -> Mark Bolam, “meanwhile, I’m still thinking.”

Mark Bolan

Marc Bolan

Meanwhile, I’m still mistyping

i think this is the original

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h9PbMucPXU

According to one of those Ace "Golden Age of American Rock'n'Roll" comps, it actually was this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewSKkewqNBE

A case of a Doo Wop group on a smaller label losing the hit to another, more established group on a bigger label.

^^the Doo Wop group=The Jayhawks

yeah! this is the "hitchhike" Marvin Gaye--> REM's cover over There She Goes Again thing all over again

I was reminded of the thing about The Jesters covering “The Wind,” by Nolan Strong and The Diablos, and being talked up by Lou Reed.

With ATCQ for their network debut. Bit chaotic but Paul gets some airtime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrbS29R0U-U

Jimmy Webb does MacArthur Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUPSilcJFrQ

this Leon Russell one is fantastic - Dave improving through some technical difficulties!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIpYRjnpGjQ

"We'll be back, right after this, with Jerry Seinfeld."