What was the greatest musical performance in history of SNL?

Neil Young Rockin in the Free World was my Elvis on Ed Sullivan moment.

 

A poor quality clip of one of my top-5 performances, one that doesn't get cited a lot - Ornette Coleman and Prime Time laying into "Times Square" in all its wonderful cacophony, 1979:



Shame the album this is from, Of Human Bondage, has apparently been out of print since the '80s.

 

My two favorites watching live were the B-52s performance of Rock Lobster and Neil Young, Rocking In The Free World. Looking back, my favorites are Zappa doing Slime with Don Pardo and Bowie, TVC 15.

 

Shows how groundbreaking the show was at that time instead of the establishment. Sinead O'Conner's action wouldn't have been as controversial or criticized in 1976.

 

Devo

 

I pretty much stopped watching SNL after the original cast broke up so I don't have a lot of memories of SNL performances. But easily the one that made the biggest impression on me back in the day was Sun Ra's. First time I had a chance to see Sun Ra in action. No video up of it though.

 

Lorne Michaels is notoriously OCD and a micro manager when it comes to the show. It probably wasn’t about the content as much as it was about going off script. Legend has it that he gave the band the middle finger throughout their performance.

 

Nirvana was definitely the most significant for me.

In 1986 I entered my dead period for new music and I remained in it until I saw Nirvana on SNL.

I couldn't believe that I was watching a rock act with real drums, bass, guitar and vocals. As a result, I got back into music and bought hundreds of new albums in the 90s.

 

Not the greatest, but a favorite of mine.

 

2 come to mind

Zappa in 75

Neil Young in 89

 

Debbie Harry "Come Back Jonee" for me!

 

I sat there with my jaw dropping and called in my fiancee to witness this. She shrugged. Now she's my ex (of course).

Yeah, that gets my vote, with Prince debut a second ... but I haven't watched SNL in decades.

 

Elvis C. Radio, Radio

 

But their performance of "Jocko Homo" on the same show was far better - and sexier!

 

That's my choice and there were some terrific performances over the years that and the weirdly wonderful David Bowie....Boys Keep Swinging.

 

One of the best live bands ever, or were then

The Specials - Gangsters (Saturday Night Live, 1980)

Still hasn't been a cooler or better dressed front man IMHO

 

Another vote for Bowie '79.

 

love this

 

jerol

 

Which underscores why the show isn't near as funny as it could be. They're not willing to push the envelope and take chances enough.

 

In all fairness, the RATM appearance was back in the 90's with a presidential candidate as the guest host. They've pushed the envelope pretty hard lately. They are still a network TV show with all the constraints that come along with that. The reason SNL isn't as funny as it could be is the same as always : the writing.

D.D.

 

After all the great posts and opinions here I decided Devo gets my vote. At the time of this airing I had not seen them perform and didn't know much about them. They were beginning to get some air play at the local college station at Colgate U. In Hamilton, N.Y.
Joe Jackson caught my ear, but Devo never did. When they appeared on SNL I was like WTF??? I recall thinking after they finished Jocko Homo, what did I just see? I couldn't make sense of it at all. I laughed it off as a bad skit. Then they came back and did Satisfaction and I was like...whaaaat? That was my de-evolution moment. Once I got it, I got it. No other performance by any other performer on SNL ever made that kind of impact on me.

 

This makes all the other banned acts look pretty tame in comparison.

 

You put it best. Essentially, I think this is what many people are saying about their own "greatest."

For me, it was Bowie '79. It really opened up a whole new world for me.

 

I thought my comment was more than fair. ;-)