Steve Gans has said “there are two kinds of music: the kind you’re introduced to as a teenager, and everything else.” Quite true. I’ve been watching musical guests on SNL for decades, from the beginning to the present, and the two most memorable for me are still performances by Elvis Costello and the Specials which were aired only a few months apart in late 1979 and early 1980, when I was but a lad of 16. Seeing them again here, it’s reassuring to be reminded that the two performances were, in fact, very good, electrified by the unique urgency of the time, a late 70s nihilistic fury which even those of us who were there have long since forgotten. Nonetheless, these clips have withstood the test of time. I was right to have remembered the songs upon them so fondly.
http://youtu.be/ofkmV1jnguQ
