"Ladies and gentlemen, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band" or add any other famous musical guest. I look forward to those words on Saturday nights. Saturday Night Live has been a staple on NBC for the entire memory of my life. Early memories of SNL include Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, and many others from the original cast, and I remember Rosanna Danna, Mr. Bill, "Cheezburgas," and the Samauri. But once I hit my teen years in the mid-80's, I came to look forward to a special segment of Saturday Night Live, the two performances of each episode's musical guest. My love of music comes from many sources, but one that still resonates with me is the musical guest performances on SNL.
SNL has introduced me to many artists on the show like The Cars, Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians, Living Colour, and Sinead O'Connor or more recently Greta Van Fleet and Dua Lipa. The SNL musical performances give us a peek into performances of some of the greats like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Prince, R.E.M, Lenny Kravitz, and so many more. Most recently, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band gave a performance on the famed stage as it was decked out in lights and wreaths for the Christmas of 2020. To see Bruce and the band live is a bucket list item for me, but SNL brought the performance right into my living room.
What is it about the SNL musical performances that jolt me with energy, comfort me with joy, and make me feel like everything is cool? The energy is easy, it's music! Not just any music, but the best music in the world. Look at those bands and artists mentioned above. Just do a search for "SNL Musical Performances" and you will find dozens maybe hundreds of websites that discuss top 10 artists and top 10 performances on SNL. In general, music moves deep down inside of me and while I will listen to just about any music, live music moves me most. Of course, live in the terms of being in the audience while the music is created is the pinnacle, but any live performance is special whether you are seeing it live on the television or recorded live. When the music is live it isn't just listening to a song, it is experiencing the music itself, hearing things you don't hear on a recording like a spontaneous cheer of the crowd at a certain lyric or heavy beat or something in the performance. The visual performance is also part of the experience. Seeing the band, the artist, the crew along with lights and video effects or just the stage dressing adds to the appreciation of the music and performance overall and brings energy along with it.
The Saturday Night Live stage is legendary in my mind, and I think it is what brings me comfort while watching. We have watched artists perform from that stage for decades. I can close my eyes and see different performances that have taken place there. They are like ghosts of the past that bring greatness to those who will perform this week, next season, or seasons to come in the future. My favorite view of the stage comes at Christmas time when the stage is decked out for the holidays like it was for the recent Springsteen performance. Such a warm feeling that brings comfort to me and a clear sense of nostalgia not only for the holidays but for the comfort that SNL and the musical performances will be there every year.
Everything is cool. SNL has always been a feature of the weekend. When I was a kid, it was the excitement of staying up late with my older brother and sister laughing when they laughed and checking out the new tunes hearing some of the songs of artists my brother played on his record player. In college, we would wait to go out until we saw the musical performance. SNL was the gateway to the night. As an adult, it is a different kind of gateway to the weekend. It is time to start thinking about what the next week will start to look like. The musical guest performance may be the last time in the weekend where I can release myself to something like a song or a message or a bizarre performance. It is late, time to let the weekend energy burn off into some laughs and then an unforgettable meaningful performance. Everything is cool for this hour and a half.
The performance that inspired me to dig into these thoughts was the recent episode that I mentioned above. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band delivered a strong message in the performance of these two songs. It is a celebration of life and a recognition that those who have gone before us are there waiting for us. In Ghosts he sings, "I make my vows to those who've come before, turn up the volume let the spirits be my guide, meet you, brothers and sisters, on the other side." Then they go into a classic E Street Band jam with a "cheers to us" finish. It is beautiful, all brought to us from the legendary stage of SNL. Enjoy!
UPDATE 7/4/21
I apologize. The videos that originally accompanied this post are no longer available.
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