Review: ‘Ladies And Gentlemen, 50 Years Of SNL Music’

I got a text from an old friend, Carolina Phil, last Monday asking for a review of the new television special Ladies And Gentlemen, 50 Years Of SNL Music. I had no idea what he was talking about…I don’t watch a lot of network TV. I’m not saying that to sound like a snob, I’ll binge watch with the best of you but there really isn’t any “Must See TV” here at the house anymore. I’ve just started watching How I Met Your Mother and it’s been off for years. Despite the fact that I rarely do “requests” here on B&V, I felt this merited some inspection. With my thanks to Carolina Phil, this was an awesome special. The memories this thing stirred up… oh my.

Saturday Night Live started, as everyone knows, in 1975. At the time it was heavily influenced by the counterculture. I don’t think we still have a counterculture and if ever there was a time for subversive comedy, it’s now. Fight the power kids, fight the power. In ’75, believe it or not, I was too young to watch SNL. I think my parents were still making me go to bed at 10, which as a night owl I hated, so I wasn’t even aware SNL was a thing until a couple of years later. I don’t think I started watching in earnest until maybe ’76 but certainly by ’77. And there were always reruns. I fell in love with the comedy of the Not Ready For Prime Time Players – Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Jane Curtain, Lorraine Newman, Garrett Morris and Bill Murray. Oddly I was never a big Chevy Chase fan… he seemed like an asshole. It was on SNL that I discovered Steve Martin. We would all show up to school on Monday ready to parrot the bits we saw on SNL be it the Coneheads or Weekend Update.

But I have to admit, and I think this special crystallized it for me, I used to love the music on that show. Admittedly, not all the music. Occasionally there was stuff I was too young to understand. But around the same time I started watching SNL, I started listening to rock n roll. I remember seeing the Stones on there in ’78 during the Some Girls tour (it was the first LP I bought) and being blown away at seeing my newfound heroes rocking out on my TV. We were young so we were a little weirded out about Mick sticking his tongue in Ronnie Wood’s face, but hey, we figured they’re English. Rock n roll and comedy seemed so intertwined in my mind that SNL just fit into that world view.

I can remember being in junior high, too young to drive. We would be tearing around the neighborhood like a street gang, on our 10-speed bikes, likely terrorizing the neighbors. We’d try to scrape some money together and convince some passing high school kid to get us beer at the local 7-11 store. Yes, we started drinking in junior high, we were early adopters on booze. Eventually somebody would get a joint from their big brother… psychedelics never were a fit for me, so I mostly stuck to beer. We usually hung out to the limits of our curfew. I think I had to be home by 11 and I typically strolled in at 11:00:59… But if there was a good band on SNL, we’d make whatever excuse and head home early to be sitting in front of the televison for the 10:30 opening. I remember my buddy Brewster leaving early one night and announcing, “Hey man, I’m going home… I want to see Meatloaf on SNL.” Laugh if you will, but we all dug Meatloaf, don’t lie about it.

I think it’s fitting that they put together this special highlighting all the great musical performances. The show starts with a montage of dozens of performers on a split screen with sometimes 3 or 4 going at the same time. It’s like a mashup tape of the Beatles White Album and Jay-Z’s The Black Album. At one point Freddie Mercury and Queen are on one side of the screen and Vanilla Ice (gads) is on the other. I missed the Queen performance in the ’80s but I remember this guy Mark at work telling me, “It was Freddie being Freddie.” Eventually they land on Belushi, dressed up as Mozart, snorting snuff and then slipping on some shades and playing a perfect imitation of Ray Charles. I remember seeing that live. Of course Belushi and Aykroyd later formed the Blues Brothers, which grew out of a Bad News Bees skit, and those guys are responsible for turning me onto a lifetime love of the Blues.

From there, it’s literally a stroll down memory lane. They talk about some of the performances that didn’t go well. They talk about some of the performance that were iconic. They cover the scandals – Sinead O’Connor tearing up the Pope’s pic, Elvis Costello’s “life time ban” (which didn’t happen) when he changed the song he was playing midstream, and of course the Ashley Simpson lip synch debacle. The thing about SNL – anybody who is anybody was on that show – from One Hit Wonders to legendary artists. From Aerosmith to ZZ Top. It’s pretty amazing catalog of popular music. I love the Rage Against the Machine story… but I won’t be a spoiler.

From there they delve into the subject of some of the musical parodies they’ve done over the years. Whether it’s Jim Belushi doing a Joe Cocker imitation or the video for “Dick In A Box,” they cover it all. They also delve into what it’s like to double as the host and the music artist, which sounds pretty taxing. Those guys put in so much hard work…

While I said there is no “Must See TV” around here anymore, I’ll amend that statement to tell you this special is a Must See. I’m kinda bummed that once I hit high school I was typically up late drinking beer, telling lies to girls and I stopped doing the Irish Exit to get home to watch SNL. I missed a lot of iconic comedy and musical performances. Luckily we have this special which felt a little like looking through an old photo album, so many memories flooded into brain.

Ladies and Gentlemen, dial this special up and belt up, it’s quite a ride. Cheers!