On SNL's 25th Anniversary in 1999, Elvis Costello busted on the SNL stage whilst The Beastie Boys were performing their classic hit "Sabotage".
The story behind it, was that in 1977 Elvis Costello was invited to perform on SNL as an alternative to The Sex Pistols (whose visas were denied because of their criminal records). Costello wanted to perform "Radio Radio" - a protest song about the collusion formed between radio stations and record companies to regulate what can and would be played on radio. However, his record label did not want him to perform this song for this reason.
Costello started to perfom "Less than Zero" to please his recording label - but being the punk rocker that he is, they switched to "Radio Radio" and Costello was banned from performing on SNL.
However, SNL lifted the ban on Costello and he was "invited" to perform his classic hit to the surprise of everyone.
What a rocker - hope you enjoyed.
Anyways peeps - TTYL!
That's awesome! Two great songs: Sabotage and Radio Radio! But seeing those cute guys with their ivy league hairdos playing their instruments, I now am craving both Weezer and Vampire Weekend. What a great clip!!
ReplyDeleteI tought the clip was pure punk rock - the attitude of Elvis was young but yet sophisticated - if that makes any sense - I guess I'm trying to say he did it with class!
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah - I was trying to figure out if ot was all the members of Beastie Boys - but yeah - they do look quite young!
Was not aware of the back story... Great stuff and thanks for sharing! In my humble opinion, short of Belushi bringing FEAR in to trash the SNL set, this was perhaps the greatest musical performance in a long history of superb SNL musical performances.... Great stuff.
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