"The Musical Performances," Vols. 1 & 2
(Dreamworks)
If you were watching Saturday Night Live in 1977 when Elvis Costello abruptly switched songs in mid-verse from the tenderhearted "Alison" to the vitriolic "Radio, Radio," you know how exciting this show once was. One never knew what was going to happen on SNL back then. Like the time Peter Tosh was singing "(You Got To Walk And) Don't Look Back" and Mick Jagger came prancing out from the back of the stage to join him in song. Or the time when Michael Stipe of REM performed with Federal Express envelopes plastered all over his body. People used to look forward to the musical segments of Saturday Night Live. It was especially an in-crowd type of experience for hipsters who enjoyed settling into their couches in the late seventies. For twenty-five years, SNL has presented what they felt were the most important musical guests they could find. Certainly, the masses should be inclined to agree with them since these two discs feature performances from mega-stars like Paul Simon, REM, Jewel, Nirvana and Counting Crows, to name a few. While SNL has been lauded for their history of gonzo television comedy, the selections here are noticeably mainstream. True, the 1977 performance of The Grateful Dead performing "Casey Jones" was not a Top 40 move at the time, but hindsight has insured that all the artists included on these two, separate volumes are both marketable and mostly inoffensive. With musicians like Randy Newman (from 1983) and Billy Joel (1978) placed alongside nineties' performances by Lenny Kravitz, Eric Clapton and Tom Petty, Volume One seems designed for the over-thirty crowd. Volume Two is a bit more edgy and is clearly courting a younger audience with spirited performances by the likes of Hole, the Beastie Boys, Oasis, Beck and Green Day. As a matter of fact, the only selection on Volume Two that occurred before this decade is Neil Young's 1989 performance of "No More." While one might take issue with the omissions of vintage appearances by jazz iconclastics like Sun Ra or Ornette Coleman, SNL's "Musical Performances" are indisputably top-drawer, though strictly commercial.
by Mitch Myers
copyright 1999 New City Communications, Inc.