Live from New York! Saturday Night Live's Best Musical Moments.

Others, off the top of my head:

-- Elvis Costello, last-minute substitute for the Sex Pistols, does a fake start for "Less than Zero," then switches to a killer version of "Radio, Radio."

-- Frank Zappa (of course, the usual suspects can bite yer tongues!) conducting the SNL Orchestra, when Belushi comes onto stage with his guitar, a mike, and dressed as a Samurai and issues various Samurai- ish grunts, leading FZ to "conduct" the orchestra to "respond" thereto.

-- Belushi (again), imitating Joe Cocker, only to have Joe Cocker himself come out onto stage and join him.

-- The Rolling Stones, late seventies. Ass performance, notable only because Keith Richards is looking especially cadaverous.

-- Eddie Murphy imitating Stevie Wonder, only to have Mr. Wonder himself come out and join him.

Ryan Adams was on tonight. Alas, I was out drinken.

A couple of years ago I saw the show where Fear were on (I think it was originally broadcast in 1981). Donald Sutherland had to introduce them and he looked terrified. As their songs were all so short they were able to do about five of them in the allotted three/four minute timeslot. The last one they dedicated to (I'm quoting from memory) "All those assholes who got Reagan in". They were faded out very quickly.

Dieter's Dance Party on Sprockets. "Weird Nun" by Schreibmaschine and "Darwin's Burden" by the Obelisks were upset on the chart by "Escapade" by Janet Jackson. The Trout Dance was delicious.

Tadeusz-one of those weird back up singers was Klaus Nomi. The other was Nomi cohort Joey Arias, the face of late 70s/ early 80s Fiorucci. And Billie Holiday channeler. Also-Jimmy Destri from Blondie was on keyboards.

I remember all the kids at school freaking out over that Stones performance because Mick french kissed Ron Wood at the end. Mick's a fag, man!

Other way-out perfomances: Patti Smith singing "Gloria" and "My Generation" and yelling "kill censorship!" at the end. I don't recall what they censored. But it all seemed very righteous at the time. Wouldn't it have been great if Patti walked onstage a la Joe Cocker while Gilda Radner did her Patti takeoff, Candy Slice?

The B-52s appearance with "Rock Lobster" inspired a nation of new wave misfits and Marianne Faithfull was *really* losing her voice when she performed "Broken English."

And I think I remember Kate Bush singing "The Man with the Child in His Eyes" while undulating on top of a piano.

I love it when they get a musical guest who refuses to act all chummy with the cast at the end of the show. Oasis were good for that sort of thing.

I've seen maybe five worthwhile musical performances on SNL (and I used to slavishly watch reruns on Comedy Central for years). The selection of music there has always been rather mainstream with a turgid Rock slant, which of late has gone towards vacuous pop. One would think they would at least *try* to be a little ground breaking...

Neil Young - "Keep on Rockin' in the Free World" - I have never liked that song, and still don't - but that was one of the most incredible performances ever - that was when Neil was back - after releasing so many dud albums.

Fear - (for reasons stated above.)

Replacements - "Bastards of Young" - te Mats ripped it up in a drunken scramble - typical of them.

Captain Beefheart - "Hot Head" - I'm still amazed that he was even on the show. I think those years (early 80s) were the best musically because the writing and the acting sucked. I also remember seeing Jack Bruce & Marianne Faithful doing some great numbers during that period.

Spice Girls total disintegration on stage.

Just downloaded from Morpheus a snippet from David Bowie's 1979 appearance on Saturday Night Live. Bowie was locked in some sort of faux tuxedo/straightjacket looking thing, and was moved to the mike by two assistants/back-up singers who looked like some sort of cross between Gary Numan and M.C. from Cabaret, whereupon Bowie sang "The Man Who Sold the World."

Funny thing is, this is the first music performance I ever remember seeing on television, and I was just stunned -- I had never seen men (?) that looked like that before, it just seemed so beautiful and strange. It's probably to blame for at least half of my subsequent taste in music.

So it's available at Morpheus, eh?

I say Ryan Adams this weekend--nothing really special.

In terms of my favourite musical moment on SNL though...

I'm a Canuck, so I'd have to say when the Tragically Hip was on and Dan Akroyd (sp?)--sporting a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey--introduced them. The first tune was "Grace Too" and Gord Downie replaced the first line "You know I'm fabulously rich" with "You know I'm tragically hip." I'm not the biggest Hip fan, but I really enjoyed that.

Also, Nirvana's appearance was particularly standout. Kurt's voice is gruff and bristly, and it sounds beautiful. Also, the band members frnch kissing each other at the end of the show (instead of being all cummy with the cast) was memorable.

I agree with Elvis Costello, David Bowie, and Sprockets as well.

Arthur, thank you for mentioning Nomi, Arias, Fiorucci, and Candy Slice. I really can't wait to meet you. :)

FEAR!

..and the Sugarcubes doing "Motor Crash". Einar was doing some weird little robotic dance, dressed in a tight, tight black turtleneck suit.

This performance would become the influence of the skit series "Sprockets".

At the end of the show for Paul Westerberg's post-Mats appearance (which was good musically), host Charlton Heston forgets his name as he's thanking people, so Paul sneezes into his hand just before shaking Heston's hand. You can see Heston wiping the snot on his pants afterwards. Classic TV moment.

Would kill to see the footage of the Funky 4 + 1 performing on that show, though I suppose all I need to do is go to the Museum of Broadcasting....

Agree with Costello, Nirvana (the '92 appearance), Neil Young (YES! probably the single best performance that show's ever had, musically). As far as non-musical musicians' appearance, Stevie Wonder's Nikon camera commercial parody is still the single funniest thing I've ever seen in my life, period. Close second was the Weekend Update with Mike Myers as a mincing Mick Jagger, doing a point- counterpoint with Keith Richards, played by...Mick Jagger. "Mick," he slurred, "you ignorant shlut."

Also gotta give props to Public Enemy, on in '91 or '92. My mother still doesn't understand Flavor Flav. Ah, memories....

I can't believe no one has said the Sinead O'Connor incident. I enjoyed it, tearing up a picture of the pope isn't that bad. I've seen worse things done to the pope's picture, heck, I've done worse things.

I have always been partial to the Teenage Fanclub and Morrissey performances...don't ask me why...I think I get all sentimental sometimes...

I'm so down with the Bowie/Nomi thing on SNL, like Nicole it was probably one of the first music on TV things I remember (one of those transfixing moments like Blondie doing Heart Of Glass on American Bandstand). My deal to stay up and watch was that my dad also had to be watching, and I remember sitting there thinking 'Dad, don't flip out about the robot men' same as I remember thinking 'Dad, don't flip out because Mick's in drag'. But usually I was lucky and he'd pass out on the sofa 15 minutes into the programme.

The best (a lot come to mind here): Devo in 1978 playing "Satisfaction" - the most wonderfully bizarre thing I'd ever seen. Talking Heads (also in 78) Sun Ra Blondie Sam And Dave The Clash Queen The Motels Madness The Kinks (they've been on a couple of times, all of them great)

Least favorites: Dexy's Midnight Runners. Kevin Rowland's voice broke about 30 seconds into the song and everything went to hell after that.

I will second that Sugarcubes performance, as that was utterly brilliant. In more recent times, Radiohead's live version of "Idioteque" was startlingly wonderful.

Just to be specific--I was referring to Nirvana's 1992 appearance.

Suzy (and Arthur), yeah I forgot to mention how much that Bowie SNL thing was burned into my mind as a lad, it really made an impression on me. And I DID see Blondie on American Bandstand as well! They were on TV several times around that time, and I always made a point to catch the broadcasts; this was well before cable, and I was SO excited seeing them. "Scary Monsters" and "Parallel Lines" were two of the first records I ever bought, btw.

This is too easy..

1. FISHBONE! Watching this performance as a child changed my whole life! I didnt know live music could be so powerful.

2. Faith no More cuz Mike Patton went inside the fan on stage.

I'll second (or third) the Bowie appearance with Klaus Nomi--I think he did the second of his two tunes in what appeared to me at the time to be a flight attendant's outfit, complete with slim-fitting skirt-- and Beefheart. Both were like projections from an alien world beamed into my Bible-belt suburbia fastness. I immediately decided I wanted to move there, wherever that was.

B-52s first performance doing Rock Lobster scared the hell out of the audience, where i remember there was a pause before applause as the audience was blown out of the water. i will alway remember that moment, I knew I belonged to a group of smarter, artists.

and understood a highly refined, grammar.

The Clash, "Straight to hell" ?

It's tough because us in the UK would have loved to have seen all these from thenabouts. There was a while when SNL got broadcast over here, but I don't remember any guest musical spots apart from one Blues Brothers one, and a silly one with Simon and Garfunkel appearing on-stage (but not at the same time)...

Wasn't Prince on around the time of Dirty Mind, and he knocked his mikestand over at the end? Or was he on some other show (Fridays? SCTV? were those even on the air in 1980), and I'm just confused? Either way, he was great.

Best SNL appearance ever, though -- one of the best music TV performances I've ever seen anywhere -- was Funky Four Plus One in 1981, brought on by Blondie. I saw it when it first aired, never since. It's not on youtube (and neither is the Prince one.)

Captain Beefheart, Devo, Costello, Fear all very memorable, though.