Anniversary spectaculars are inevitable. Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music is exactly what you would think. A collection of famous faces who once appeared on the show, talking about the influential partnership creator Lorne Michaels found between daring musical acts and a growing audience. To think of all the comedians and famous faces who have passed through the sets of the show is magnificent. Utterly sensational and adding the musical influences of the times were so important. Miming was out the window – this was the real deal and Michaels should be credited for that innovation, which would not affect pieces across the Atlantic. Top of the Pops can only wish. Yet within this Questlove and Oz Rodriguez documentary is a sense of why these changes were made. They seem so trivial now, to ask a musician to play live music, to pair it with a live set.
But we take these matchups of music and comedy for granted. Saturday Night Live has such an influence on creative circles beyond comedy – and Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music gets to grips with that. Questlove and Rodriguez manage to understand and grip many of the performances which still define the show, and to list them would fill out the rest of the page. The show uses most of these musical acts as backdrops or sneaky transitions from point to point. It nails the build from The Bees to The Blues Brothers. But then it takes on some historical revisionism, painting their controversial moments as acts the show fully supported. Rage Against the Machine is thrown under the bus while Sinéad O’Connor is defended for actions which were denounced by the show and media at the time.
Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music is very much a case of having your cake and eating it. Lorne Michaels is a master of every moment. Even when a performance goes horrifically wrong, it is posed here as a capture of the times, a glimpse into the future with bands like Talking Heads or Captain Beefheart. Most of the performances are memorable, even if it is just a footnote in the show’s history. Watching them back with some new context, particularly the Elvis Costello performances across the decades, does well to demystify some of the more out-there rumours. But the show must keep some of this alive, it must hang on to some of the intrigue surrounding guests like Kanye West or Ashlee Simpson.
Effectively a set of talking heads, from Dave Grohl to Miley Cyrus, are safe bets on honouring the show but sharing some solid anecdotes. The real joys come from interviewing those on the show who have worked so intimately with the music department, the production of often charming and essential performances which still linger on the mind. Anyone who is anyone has tried their hand at an SNL performance, is the argument this documentary makes. It is not far off. Pockets of real interest pour through, particularly thanks to Debbie Harry and Blondie. But it is worth remembering that a documentary honouring the long-running comedy staple is bound to twist a few harsh truths into silence.
