The many SNL Presidents reunite on Funny Or Die - video

Funny or Die's Presidential Reunion from Will Ferrell

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Video and poem: Kill my landlord --> Eddie Murphy reads his character Tyrone Green's prison poem Images

You may or not remember this just bent enough for me Eddie Murphy sketch from SNL --it's hard to believe he was on the show for--what?--five years. I did get to see Eddie Murphy on the show in Studio 8H at a rehearsal Saturday afternoon (I had connections...thank you Cheryl [1]).

Images

by Tyrone Greene

Dark and lonely on the summer night.
Kill my landlord, kill my landlord.
Watchdog barking - Do he bite?
Kill my landlord, kill my landlord.
Slip in his window,
Break his neck!
Then his house
I start to wreck!
Got no reason --
What the heck!
Kill my landlord, kill my landlord.
C-I-L-L ...
My land - lord ...
Def!




[1] Our friend Cheryl Hardwick was the music director of the shows for many years, and played piano in the band. She and Pinky were the catalyst for meeting all sorts of interesting people witnessing a lot of crazy events and situations in the late 70s/esarly 80s. I was introduced to her by her partner, Pinky Rawsthorne, a co-worker of mine, and one of the funniest, and wisest persons I ever met in my life. We met or hung out at various times with all sorts of people in celeb and semi-celeb world: Larraine Newman, Garrett Morris, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Bob Cranshaw--the legendary jazzman (who we met a few times at her apartment, but the first time was when he was playing with Woody Shaw at a club in the East Village --but it was close to Broadway...I can't remember if the E. Village technically ends at 3rd or 4th or Broadway?); Lorna Luft; Maria Manville; Howard Shore; and Belushi and Ackroyd (I met Belushi once in the lobby of 30 Rock, when Cheryl came down to let me in...when he walked away, he stiff-armed a bunch of excited-looking kids who wanted to say hi. He looked wrecked--either recovering from a long, brutal night or working on the next one. Within a year or year and a half, he died in Hollywood); sometime not long after that, Cheryl took me downtown (we both lived on the Upper West Side) to the Blues Brothers Bar, a private dive owned/run by Belushi and Ackroyd. That was pretty interesting, mostly for the insane levels of Bolivian Marching Powder that were being consumed at any given moment. She played at a poetry reading Keelin, Nick,. Kevin, Pegeen, and I had in a theatre in Chelsea She brought some upwardly mobile dapper New Yorker poet (but I forget who!), and also got Gerald Stern to attend (he was just getting really hot). At a party at her place, for the publication of Gerald Stern's book The Red Coal, I got to meet Isaac Bashevis Singer (who had recently won the Nobel Prize for Literature, and a passel of NY literary celebs). It was pretty crazy stuff for a cracker kid from a farm town...
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video of the Saturday night live Palin-Biden debate parody 10-4-2008

Here is a video clip of the full Biden-Palin debate parody from Saturday Night Live, October 4th, 2008:

Elvis reprises his Radio Radio performance

Jack writing in from Boston, Mass:

You remember the wonderful Saturday Night Live appearance when Elvis Costello burned Lorne Michaels and played Radio Radio? He stopped in the middle of the song Michaels wanted, and started over, playing Radio Radio. This video is a callback to that episode, performed with the Beastie Boys on a Saturday Night Live anniversary show.

The original performance is also here on All This Is That: Video (and lyrics): Elvis Costello performs Radio Radio on SNL after a false start on Less Than Zero



Bonus video, since were here: Oliver's Army. Weak videom great song.



Other Elvis Constello links on All This Is That:

Elvis Costello And The Attractions Play "I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea (lyrics included"
The Elvis Costello Benefit—Seattle Does Elvis For David Egger's 826 Seattle
My five favorite Elvis Costello albums
Video and Lyrics: Elvis Costello Performs Nick Lowe's (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, And Understanding?
Video (and lyrics): Elvis Costello performs Radio Radio on SNL after a false start on Less Than Zero
Elvis Costello interviews Joni Mitchell
My ten favorite albums: Elvis Costello & The Attractions' Get Happy
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint Seattle Set List
Elvis Costello and the Presidential action figure
Rock show of the year (so far):::::::Elvis Costello & The Impostors with Allen Toussaint
Beyond Belief Lyrics by Elvis Costello
Favorite Rock And Jazz Shows (1966-Last Weekend)
Heroes And Villains No. 22---> Elvis Costello & Billy The Kid (a/k/a Declan McManus & Wiliam H. Bonney)
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Video (and lyrics): Elvis Costello performs Radio Radio on SNL after a false start on Less Than Zero

This is the famous "false start" clip of Elvis Costello & The Attractions on Saturday Night live (circa 1977). He had cleared the song Less Than Zero with the show, but a few seconds in, decided he didn't like it, and the band stopped and launched into his great song Radio Radio.

There is an oft-repeated story that producer Lorne Michaels was so angry about the switch in tunes that he stood off camera in the wings and gave Elvis a double middle finger throughout the performance.

Radio Radio is an eloquent and vitriolic statement about radio, and no doubt one reason it upset the suits on the show is that much of what Elvis sings/writes about radio applies to their medium as well. . .




Radio Radio
by Elvis Costello a/k/a Declan McManus

I was tuning in the shine on the light night dial
doing anything my radio advised
with every one of those late night stations
playing songs bringing tears to me eyes
I was seriously thinking about hiding the receiver
when the switch broke 'cause it's old
They're saying things that I can hardly believe.
They really think we're getting out of control.

Radio is a sound salvation
Radio is cleaning up the nation
They say you better listen to the voice of reason
But they don't give you any choice
'cause they think that it's treason.
So you had better do as you are told.
You better listen to the radio.

I wanna bite the hand that feeds me.
I wanna bite that hand so badly.
I want to make them wish they'd never seen me.

Some of my friends sit around every evening
and they worry about the times ahead
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference
and the promise of an early bed
You either shut up or get cut out;
they don't wanna hear about it.
It's only inches on the reel-to-reel.
And the radio is in the hands of such a lot of fools
tryin' to anaesthetise the way that you feel

[Chorus]

Wonderful radio
Marvelous radio
Wonderful radio
Radio, radio...
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