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The Lone Sharks
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Moneyland
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I'm Not There (Original Soundtrack)
Various Artists
Home Before Dark
Neil Diamond
Toby Keith's 35 BIGGEST Hits
Toby Keith
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The Lemonheads
About a Son
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Loaded
Wood Brothers
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Anybody who cared about Saturday Night Live in its heyday – and, among the baby boomers, who didn’t? – could never deny the role that music played in the show’s hip demeanor. Humor was the shows raison d’etre, but music provided its heart. It was the combination of cool attitudes provided by the partnering of comedians and musicians that gave Saturday Night Live its unique identity, and made it a cultural force to be reckoned with. The seemingly endless parade of (usually) ultra-hip musical guests who appeared live each Saturday Night made a deep impression on mass-market media in a way that previously was not presented properly. In a while, there was MTV, but SNL came first, and it helped a generation to rethink (and eventually retool) music’s marketing capabilities.
"The Musical Performances, Vol. 1" culls fifteen stupendous musical performances from over twenty-five seasons of shows. Some are simply artful, while others pinpoint some of the most stupendous and exciting musical performances that have ever taken place on live television. Reaching back to 1977, this disk includes Elvis Costello’s brittle and potentially dangerous introduction to America, when he misled all parties by rehearsing one song all week and then, without notice, launched instead into the vitriolic bite of "Radio Radio", causing station programmers to suffer severe heart palpitations. Paul Simon introduced the phenomenal Ladysmith Black Mambazo and his career-altering album, "Graceland", by performing a stunning rendition of "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes." Virtually every performance is an artistic showcase, whether its Eric Clapton’s "Wonderfuil Tonight", Sting’s "If Ever I Lose My Faith in You", Annie Lennox’s heart-wrenching rendition of "Why", or James Taylor’s extraordinarily touching performance of "Secret O’ Life." Each song displays just how sympathetic the SNL sound crew, stage and staff were to these artists. Throw in Counting Crows, the Grateful Dead, Lenny Kravitz, David Bowie, Billy Joel and Randy Newman, and you end with one indispensable live collection.
Grade: 
 
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