What was the greatest musical performance in history of SNL?

Fishbone.

 

And I liked it, too!

 

A fine mess it is, too!

 

Um...that was stupid good!

 

Hello In There by John Prine

 

Another great one was Power Station doing Get it On Bang a Gong. Robert Palmer was fantastic and the band was amazing.

 

Neil Young had another moment that really blew me away: His solo acoustic guitar performance of Harvest Moon was incredible and haunting.

I wasn't really a fan at the time like most of my college friends at the time, but that and Keep On Rockin made me a fan for life. The fact that he could deliver both performances so well and so differently...I'm still in awe.

 

I remember that - I listened to a lot of WNEW in NYC and they really played that album a lot when it first came out, so I recognized it when he played it. That was probably my first exposure to Neil Young playing live.

 

I remember that night. Thanks for the flashback.

 

Probably in the top 5 live bands I've ever seen. Though probably for the best that Angelo didn't end the show naked with just a saxophone covering his modesty like most of their shows in the late 80's/early 90's!

 

So many classics mentioned here... Paul Simon in the turkey suit, Simon and Harrison, Devo, Fear, Neil, Patti Smith...

But for personal reasons I will go with the 'Mats. I remember my friend called me up that afternoon to tell me they were going to be on and I truly, actually didn't believe it. It didn't seem possible.

I watched the whole thing with a huge grin on my face. I couldn't believe one of our bands was on SNL. What a great moment.

 

Also wanted to say the story about Lennon and McCartney almost going on that night is physically painful for me to think about. So close.

 

The Band.

 

Thanks for this! I always wondered how the two x-pensive winos played with Neil, especially with drayton and Jordan swapping their normal instruments.

Killer performance.

 

One of my very favorites too.

 

Acts that made me go out the next day to buy the record:

Ricky Lee Jones " Chuck E's in Love "
Jimmy Cliff " Many Rivers to Cross " " The Harder they Come"
Stray Cats " Stray Cat Strut "
Sade " Smooth Operator "
Talking Heads " Take Me to the River "

After the first season I lost interest.

 

Lots of good ones mentioned. My favorites from memory

Radiohead - idioteque and national anthem. I didn’t get Kid A at all when it came it but seeing them play those songs, and absolutely slay, made me go back and reassess it, now one of my all time favorites

Keef - take it so hard
Neil - free world / needle and the damage done
St Vincent - digital witness / birth in reverse
Harry connick ‘all right with me’ - a fiery performance that made big band no longer seem a dusty antique to me.
Kd Lang ‘Johnny get angry’
Bjork ‘bachelorette’ - stunning song
Fleet foxes - Mykonos and Blue Ridge Mountains - they nailed those harmonies, even the drummer (the future father John Misty) was on pitch, with an a capella break on a song not even on their album - I thought that took some balls for a young band with little tv experience, some bands that’d be a pitchy disaster
Prince - party up
The time - jerk out / chocolate - 18 jumbo shrimp damn! They were so tight as a band and their moves, I loved it.
Bowie - boys swinging

Here’s the fleet foxes one

 

Other great performances include:

Black Crowes - Remedy/Nonfiction

Neil Young - Harvest Moon/Hank to Hendrix

Coldplay - Yellow/Shiver

Kings of Leon - Sex on Fire/Use Somebody

 

The correct answer is when Public Enemy played In Living Color.

 

Neil. Didn’t the drummer break a stick?

 

Right here. I will add one unmentioned: Arcade Fire "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)". Regine was mesmerizing.

 

Close the thread, you asked the question and I gave the correct answer.

 

I also liked Jimmy's second SNL appearance, in 1981, when he did "I Am the Living"

 

Patti Smith, Gloria.