also, as i learned today from Open Culture’s site, elvis did it as a bit of an homage to jimi hendrix, who pulled the same sort of stunt when elvis was a kid, on the Lulu show:
watching it, i continue to be blown away by how seemingly effortlessly talented hendrix was.
I could swear that I read a story about this incident within the last year that appeared to verify that this was the reason Michaels was so upset- it through the timing for the entire show off.
I’m surprised so many peeps here saw this performance live. (like when it originally aired)
For a show that portrayed itself (at least back then) as rebellious and daring Lorne Michaels sure turned into a corporate tool in this case. I seriously doubt anyone at NBC would’ve even bothered listening to the lyrics instead of looking at the ratings.
Sex Pistols? I was shocked when they had Fear (at John Belushi’s insistence) on the show. I wonder if they had to drug Lorne Michaels to get him to agree to that.
Absolute ‘Hero’ moment for me. Costello was really unsure about the success that was building for him at the time. I never appreciated the stunt in regards to James Brown and Ray Charles, but you know; context…
It only took Lorne 20 years to be able to laugh about it, I guess.
But this was obviously all timed out in advance…
Yeah, Howard Cosell already had a show called “Saturday Night Live”. It was, um, interesting.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
