Satisfaction.

It's been a while, hasn't it? Anyway, I'll work on fully updating the sidebar stuff later. I was moved to post by Noel Murray's AV Club item on the Ten Memorable Saturday Night Live Musical Moments . Mainly he gets it right. And though I've never been a Vedderhead, his call on Pearl Jam's performance of "Alive" is spot on; it was THAT good. The one he missed and missed horribly was DEVO from 1978. They opened with their fractured take on The Stones' "Satisfaction" and closed the show down with a 10+ minute "medley" (really a film followed by a filmed in-studio performance) highlighted by "Jocko Homo" and the band disrobing (well ripping their spaceman garbage suits off to reveal DEVO boxers!). It's that spirit that U2's show-closing performance harkened back to.

To retain a classic 10, what would I remove from Murray's list? Personal taste would call for removing The Replacements, but since I was living in England in January 1986 and didn't see it that would be unfair. Instead I'd probably lose that early Simon and Garfunkel appearance because over the years they have become so ubiquitous on the show and in random sketches that they're almost an extra house "band."

For Simon Reynold's interesting take on late 1970s cultural differences between the UK and the US with specific emphasis on televised music, go here.

Good to be back.