I want to see "Fear" and William Burroughs on SNL!

[CanuckAmok]

I have only heard the legend of these two appearances; I want to SEE them, dammit.

[enigmatic]

1. I saw Fear on SNL

They were Belushi's favorite band. Lee Ving had/has an incredible singing voice too, believe it or not; I saw him sing "The Impossible Dream" at a show years ago..

[PittPoliSci]

6. wow, i can't believe Fear ever played SNL.

That's awesome. I'm going to try to find that performance now. Thanks! :-)

[driver8]

8. John Belushi was a big Fear fan and he was responsible for

getting them on. I think they got the plug pulled on them, if I remember correctly.

[CanuckAmok]

10. There's a great account in "Wired"

Belushi was in LA and had been taken out to a really fancy lunch by Lorne Michaels and a bunch of NBC brass. Really high-end restaurant.

John Belushi was completely frizzled and cokey, and raqving about how he wanted Fear on the show, even though they were virtual unknowns outside the LA punk scene. So one of the brass said "well okay but we want to hear them first", so Belushi pulled out a cassette from his coat pocket, and had the maitre'd put it on the restaurant's PA system...

"My house smells just like the zoo,
It's chock full of shit and pue,
Cockroaches on the walls,
Crabs are crawlin' on my balls..."


BTW, Lee Ving also played "Mr. Body" in the movie version of "Clue".

[Orsino]

23. The sound sucked, as I recall...

...even for SNL. I rather liked the noise that came through on my TV, though.

[hickman1937]

2. I thought Burroughs died.

How is he on SNL?

[hickman1937]

3. ooops. Sorry. An old one from back in the day?

Sorry. I'm laboring under a cold.

[SouthoftheBorderPaul]

4. Lee Ving played the cable guy

in The Wild Life, an 80s teen movie kinda like Fast Times. How comeno one remembers that movie?

[enigmatic]

5. I just saw that!

With Christopher Penn and Eric Stoltz; it was on cable up here last week..

[SouthoftheBorderPaul]

12. I remember it was kinda big when it came on HBO

but these days no one has even heard of it.

The big line was "it's casual."

Ah, the crap movies of the 80s....

[CanuckAmok]

13. That's the one where they're having a party and the wall collapses?

Right?

Classic movie!

[hickman1937]

9. Actually I was thinking more of Burroughs.

I just wiki'd him. I read a book a few years ago, can't remember the name, but he and Ferlinghetti thought Neil Cassady was just a thug. Twits. Elitist twits.

[swag]

7. Burroughs read "Twilight's Last Gleaming"

that wonderful tale with Dr. Benway and sound effects. It's clipped on the Giorno Poetry Systems Film/Video Burroughs, which is a great film, with a good linear history, Ginsberg, Huncke, Burroughs Jr., Lucien Carr, a harrowing set of accounts of Bill's drunken shooting of Joan, some great poetry, prose, and music. Pull-no-punches documentary storytelling. Can't recommend it enough. Don't know if it's on DVD.

But it has your clip.

I also saw Fear when it happened, and it's true, all those DC punks who had made the drive up were boomeranging all over the stage.

See Elvis Costello's first SNL appearance and DEVO's first jarring appearance also, if you haven't already. Elvis was on as a sub for the Sex Pistols, when they'd been denied visas (I think it was Steve's criminal record, but I don't remember precisely). He was quite good, and really quite a thing to see on TV at the time.

[CanuckAmok]

11. Was that when Costello did "Radio, Radio", or was that...

...his second appearance?

It's funny that Lorne Michaels was so pissed at Elvis for pulling that, but now he has released it on at least three "Best of SNL" DVDs.

But still no Fear or Burroughs.

[enigmatic]

14. the first time

That was amazing TV..

[swag]

15. Yeah, they started out doing "Less than Zero,"

then Elvis, evidently thinking that nobody in the US knew or cared about Oswald Mosley, halted the proceedings, said something like, "I'm sorry, there's no reason to perform this song here," and then I think, yeah, you're right, they did "Radio, Radio."

[tigereye]

27. that was a revelation!

just don't see stuff like that anymore!

[swag]

35. Yeah, that was good.

Very exciting times. I had tuned in to see the Sex Pistols, but there he was, Elvis Costello, doing this very weird thing.

I also vividly remember when I was 13 and saw DEVO's early film of "Jocko Homo" on Don Kirschner's Rock Concert. It was one of those, "Hold on, this changes everything!" moments.

Those radiant moments. Glorious.

[tigereye]

42. Don Kirschner's Rock Concert.

ooh, there's a phrase I haven't heard in many moons! Just picturing it conjures up too many 70s images and clothing to contemplate! :scared:

[swag]

47. My mind's eye just sees that great clip of the Stones doing "Silver Train"

their most undervalued song.

Then there was the Midnight Special with Wolfman Jack.

[tigereye]

50. wolfman jack was cool

hmmm. That Stones song isn't coming to mind. I'll go have a dig through the archives. I keep meaning to get some of the old Stones stuff on C D or what have you - Mother's Little Helper, Paint it Black and 60s era Brian Jones era stuff... that's the stuff I like.

[chenGOD]

19. Jeez that documentary sounds excellent.

Must try and find that now.

[swag]

20. It is really good, but I don't think it has made it to DVD.

It was done under the "Giorno Poetry Systems" imprint in the early 1980s, I think (I first saw it at Sidwell Friends School in DC, where they used to show excellent films during the summer, like "Pull My Daisy" by Robert Frank, and "Towers Open Fire," which you can now find online in various formats. Oh yes, and the Monkees "Head," which is just brilliantly subversive in so many ways, but anyway, me, me, me).

It's hard to find "Burroughs," but I have heard excellent things about this later documentary:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000DJYMC/104-2814488-4763104?v=glance&n=130&%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance

[chenGOD]

22. lol at the mention of Head. What a hoot that film is.

Anyhoo...thanks for the info, that other documentary is really good, I can definitely recommend it.

Giorno Poetry Systems hey...

Champion.


Woooo how did i not know about this....they're distributed through brainwashed.com (excellent distro btw)...hmm alright..things are looking up.

[swag]

36. "Head"

"Porpoise Song," definitely makes the tears well up for me.

Even Bongwater's cover.

I love that film. It's hilarious, so gleamingly of its unique moment, so subversive, and just beautiful. Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson, the Monkees, Viet Nam, Frank Zappa, and lots of Pop and hallucinogenic influence.

I also think Nesmith's "Circle Sky" is one of the most undervalued Monkees songs. Along with "Porpoise Song," of course.

[swag]

37. "Head"

"Porpoise Song," definitely makes the tears well up for me.

Even Bongwater's cover.

I love that film. It's hilarious, so gleamingly of its unique moment, so subversive, and just beautiful. Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson, the Monkees, Viet Nam, Frank Zappa, and lots of Pop and hallucinogenic influence.

I also think Nesmith's "Circle Sky" is one of the most undervalued Monkees songs. Along with "Porpoise Song," of course.

[Taverner]

45. Oooh Head

Circular filmmaking, a complete anti-establishment statement from an establishment band...

Oh, and a very young sexy Teri Garr to boot

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

25. Oh wow, I never knew it was on 'Burroughs'

It was never released in the UK on video (to the best of my knowledge) & it was out of print by the time I was interested (& plus there's the NTSC/PAL issues for me) so I just gave up on it. Time to pray it'll make the DVD leap - there's a British distribution company - 'Salvation Films' - that has put out a couple of Burroughs documentaries / compilations so there's some hope.

[HughBeaumont]

16. Saw that episode -

Belushi was in the pit (yes, they had a PIT on SNL for Fear) and during their last song, you can see Eddie Murphy way in the back pick up a guitar and start playing. Wonder why they never re-play that one? That's one of the best musical moments on SNL EVER.

[ghostsofgiants]

17. That sounds pretty badass...

And reminds me just how awesome Belushi was.

[chenGOD]

18. Goddamn I would fucking loved to have seen FEAR on SNL...

And to see Eddie Murphy pick up a guitar and play along with them?


And Burroughs? Wow. The mind boggles. Why not get Bukowski as well?

[swag]

21. There are some brief recollections of that evening in the book

Banned in DC, which is an excellent photographic chronicle of the DC punk scene. Somebody from SNL called somebody in DC and said, "Hey, we need a bunch of punks to come and dance while Fear plays," so they loaded up and went north on I95 for the show.

Get the book now, because I don't think Cynthia Connolly is going to do another printing:

http://www.southern.com/southern/band/CYNTH/banned


It's hard to imagine Alec Mackaye being so dramatic, but here it is. I wonder what Chris Bald is doing these days. Last time I saw Eddie Janney, we were both drunk off our asses at the old Dante's in DC.

Basta!

[driver8]

26. Eddie Murphy was in the back playing a guitar?? WTF?

I don't remember Eddie Murphy being on the show when Belushi was. Are you sure about this?

[driver8]

28. Never mind...Belushi was the guest host. I forgot about that.

[HughBeaumont]

38. The last song of the set, and I saw this episode twice . . .

you could see him in the very back near the wall grab a guitar and mock-playing it. I couldn't believe it when I saw it the first time, so I looked for it when it came on again.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

24. Somebody somewhere must have the Burroughs gig

I did my dissertation on Burroughs, supervised by Graham Caveney who wrote "The Priest They Called Him" (aka "Gentleman Junkie") and he'd never managed to track down a copy.

[Gregorian]

29. Fear- my favorite band of all time!

Sorry Iggy.

Let's have a war!

[atomic-fly]

48. I was thinking of them recently....

Do they hold up well...used to be fun stuff.

[tigereye]

30. there was a time when SNL

was really groundbreaking... hard to believe now. :)

[driver8]

31. They had some great musical guests -- Kate Bush, Van Morrison,

Elvis Costello, Joan Armatrading...to name a few.

[HughBeaumont]

39. Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, Madness . . .

Now they have nothing but steaming lamestream, flavor-of-the-hour shit like Ashley Simpson on there.

[tigereye]

40. wow

don't think I saw Capt Beefheart on there... when was that?

[HughBeaumont]

41. I'm not sure who hosted, I think it was Malcolm McDowell

and it was in the '80-'81 period because I remember seeing Charles Rocket (RIP) in the opening credits. I saw this (along with the Fear episode) on the Comedy Central "best of" repeats.

[no name no slogan]

43. I think I saw that one

IIRC Beefheart did "Ice Cream for Crow" during one of his sets. Memory is a hazy thing, though...

[tigereye]

44. ah that's a favorite around here

much loved by my kid... gotta love it when the young like the Capt.

[swag]

49. Right. Didn't Beefheart do "Hothead"?

Shit, that was brilliant.

[Taverner]

46. Yes, if I remember they had the Red Hot Chili Peppers back in the 80's

Way before they were mainstream...when they were just an LA Bar band...

[PittPoliSci]

32. i don't find it hard to believe.

the cast sucks now, therefore, it's only to be expected that the music will go the same direction.

[tigereye]

34. every now and then there will be a spark

when I watch it - which is rarely - I think Tina Fey has some of that energy that reminds me of the original days. I think when you rehash tired concepts over and over you lose the creativity, energy and playfulness that made the show so much fun to watch originally.

Some of those 80s? commercials they used to do ( like the one suggesting that corporate raiders were going to hell) and the Anonymously Gay Duo spots were pretty clever.

I'm not sure it's the cast... it's the writers (although I know often they are one and the same) and the fact that the "genre" has become moribund. Mad TV was much funnier there for a while.

(man that's what happens, I just watched some Joseph Campbell lectures - got me in blathering dissertation mode!)

:hi:

[mitchum]

33. You will see the lovely Lauren Hutton introduce him as "America's...

greatest living writer"
Mmmmm...a woman with beauty and brains.