BY MIKEY MIGO
This week, we go season eleven to twenty. This ten year span, like the last one, had its ups and downs.
Lets just jump right into it.
In Season Eleven, we were blessed with the return of the almighty Lorne Michaels. With the cold open of the first show, Lorne administered drug tests to the entire cast. The youngest member of the cast, Anthony Michael Hall was the last person and had the honor of saying those seven magical words, "Live From New York, It's Saturday Night." Most people will remember Hall from the legendary movie, "The Breakfast Club." The same could be said about the musical guest, Simple Minds. They performed the theme song to the movie, "Don't You Forget about Me."
Later in the season, The Replacements got wasted and the lead singer dropped the "f-bomb" and it resulted in the band being BANNED from the show. Don't think it was all controversial that year, we had acts like Sheila E, The Cult, Al Green, Stevie Ray Vaughn, The Neville Brothers, and rounding out with the season finale was George Clinton and the P-Funk. Not too shabby for Lorne's comeback season.
Season Twelve was nothing to turn your nose up to either. The season kicked off with Buster Poindexter with Run DMC, Lou Reed, Paul Simon, The Pretenders, Deborah Harry, Willie Nelson, Percy Sledge, Los Lobos, and Roy Orbison following suit. No musician got banned that year and it was just a good season of awesome music. The comedy side had some awesome guests and I think it's safe to say that this was a fairly underrated season overall. The Delorian I spoke of in Part One would be welcomed for this season as well.
Due to a writers strike, Season Thirteen was only thirteen episodes. That doesn't mean there wasn't a musician strike. We got Sting, LL Cool J, The Cars, Cher, and 10,000 Maniacs to name some of the performers. It's a toss up with many people on what was the highlight of the season. Some say it was Terence Trent D'Arby's performance and mainly his James Brown inspired dance moves. Other say it was David Gilmour's first American television performance. The shortened season only proved that it's not quantity, but quality that makes a good season. Music alone, this was a good one.
I think Season Fourteen was probably the first season I remember seeing live as a kid. Sure, I was around seven or eight years old but my parents loved me enough to let me watch this great show and stay up late. Keeping the tradition of great season opener musicians, we got Keith Richards this time around. Following the man who'll be around with cockroaches and Cher was Tracy Chapman, The Bangles, Anita Baker, Luther Vandross, Gipsy Kings, Living Colour, John Cougar Mellencamp, Fine Young Cannibals, and Tom Petty. The most notable and talked about appearance in season fourteen had to be the return of Elvis Costello. After the whole "switch fiasco" from Season Three. I've not seen many of these episodes in syndication, but I have seen the Living Colour episode and it makes me smile every time.
Season fifteen kicked off with Neil Young and had a great season for music. Billy Joel, Don Henley, Eurythmics, David Byrne, Harry Connick Jr., Eric Clapton, and The B-52's. Those are fantastic musicians and I own albums and CDs of most of those that I listed, but on February 17th, 1990 history was made. There was this little skit that came on towards the end of the show that featured two slacker types from Aurora, Illinois. Of course I'm talking about Wayne's World. The show was sealed and delivered to pop culture that night when that night's musical guest participated in the skit. So my top moment of 1990 and I believe the top moment on E!'s 100 SNL moments was Aerosmith's appearance on Wayne's World. This is a classic moment that you should of seen a hundred times or so already. You know it rocks.
In the Sixteenth Season of SNL, the music line up featured some of my all time favorite groups. We kicked off with Sinead O'Connor, which isn't that notable as what will happen during her performance just two seasons away. An up and coming R&B Diva took the stage in Mariah Carrey, one of the most underrated bands of all time rocked the stage in Faith No More, a mockery of hip hop took the stage in Vanilla Ice, and one of the first U2-lite bands performed in INXS. I like INXS, but c'mon just accept it. R.E.M. put out an awesome performance of "Shiny Happy People" and The Black Crowes busted out a great rendition of "She Talks to Angels." But the funniest part was when Morris Day dropped the "f-bomb" during a rant about mocking rant about chicken and ribs. The F-Bomb has more of a place on this show than Jimmy Fallon.
In 1991/1992, we got one helluva music line up for Season Seventeen. Public Enemy kicks off the season in a blaze of glory followed by Color Me Badd and Tom Petty. And those were just the first three shows.
These early 90's shows really helped shape what was to come towards the middle of the decade. Bands like The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana all took the stage that season. Mix them in with the likes of David Bowie's Tin Machine, Annie Lennox, and Bruce Springsteen and you have yourself probably one of the best years for SNL Music even to this day.
Now this is where it gets interesting. In Season Eighteen, we fast forward to the second episode with Tim Robbins as host and Sinead O'Connor as the musical guest. She performed her first song with no luster or problems, but the second song was something that the entire world was talking about the next morning. At the end of the song "War", she pulls out a picture of Pope John Paul part duex and shouts "Fight the Real Enemy!" and then tore the picture up.
After that fiasco, things went a bit better with The Spin Doctors, Arrested Development, Neil Young, Black Crowes, Bon Jovi, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Sting, Mick Jagger, Mary J. Blige, and Lenny Kravitz all performed to round out some of the guests.
Season Nineteen was one that could also be held up as one of the best musical seasons as well. Nirvana launched a season that saw Aerosmith, The Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Blind Melon, Pearl Jam, and Snoop D-O-Double G. Don't think there wasn't any controversy though. On the second episode of the season, Cypress Hill smoked weed on air and destroyed their instruments. After that, Lorne Michaels "Elvis Costello'd" them and banned them from ever appearing again.
Rounding out the second decade of shows was Season Twenty. Eric Clapton opened what was to be a normal season, but bad language became a reoccurring theme. Michael Stipe of R.E.M. dropped the "f-bomb" none to wiser to the censors and Green Day dropped the word "shit" during their performances. It wasn't all controversial as we were given some great performances by Seal, Beastie Boys, Hole, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, and the Dave Matthews Band. The season left on a annoying note of Rod Stewart performing. But what can you do? I take it Michael Bolton wasn't available at that time.
Next week we cover the last twelve seasons of the show and bring us all the way up to Carrie Underwood's performance last week. There are a lot of awesome performances during this period so prepare yourself for a nice drive down memory lane.
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