I present to you the ‘Mats on Saturday Night Live.
This is fitting because I’ve been obsessed with Bastards of Young for about a month now. I am not sure why. But the refrain gets stuck in my head while I am supposed to be sleeping at night and, well, it just gets worse from there. I will not bore you with the details.
What I’d like to know is how many of you actually saw this performance when it originally aired? I know I didn’t, because I was 14 13 and the only band that existed in my world was Limited Warranty Madonna (I just checked the actual date, see, I told you I am a liar).
No, I didn’t see the SNL performance when it originally aired 1-18-86; only caught it many years later courtesy of trades w/ Matt Tomich from Skyway. You can lipread Paul telling Bob “C’mon fucker” during “Bastards” which landed them in a heap of trouble. Anyone remember the running of credits at the end of show? You can see Westerberg doing his best James Brown moves in the background. Man, what an ace performance.
i just fucking love this performance. my friend, mick, has always said that inside of the excellent studio version of “bastards” there lurks an even BETTER song. one viewing of the famed snl performance, and he said, “and there it is.”
I have a VHS of it made that night. I saw it live. I think I was smiling.
btw, you know how people say/have said that, in their heyday, the replacements were either sloppy drunks annoying the audience or THE GREATEST BAND ON EARTH?
a whole concert like these performances would be almost too much to take.
i almost creamed myself when i saw this two minutes ago. i can’t tell you how many times this video gets taken down on youtube. thank you so much. i’m 18 so i dont think i was born when this aired, so there.
Thanks for posting this — I’d never seen it before. Maybe they were drunk for these performances, but at least Paul sticks to the lyrics unlike in the two July ’87 live bootlegs I’ve heard. I love the wink at the audience when he sings “the ones who love us least.”
It didn’t hit me until five years ago (which was nine years after I first heard “Tim”) how jaw-droppingly good the following lyrics from “Bastards of Young” are:
The ones who love us best are the ones we’ll lay to rest
And visit their graves on holidays at best
The ones who love us least are the ones we’ll die to please
If it’s any consolation, I don’t begin to understand them
Jesus! For that alone Westerberg belongs in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.