I was too young to understand all this but late at night the TV would be on and my older brothers would be watching SNL. I laughed I guess because they were, not fully knowing exactly what they were laughing at. But some things I didn't even have to try to understand. Like when Chevy would take a fall in the beginning of each show. I'd have to say that the time when I really began watching SNL was about the time when Charles Rocket was in the show. It was also a time when there used to be a show called Fridays. That's when we first got a taste of Michael Richard's comedy. And if that wasn't enough late night comedy, there was also SCTV with Eugene Levy, John Candy, Martin Short, Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin, etc. Lots of funny stuff going on during that time. Smart, goofy comedy. Add to that Midnight Special and the British Kenny Everett Show, Monty Python and you'd wonder when TV went so bad? So I got the first season of SNL in order to watch all this stuff that have not had their re-runs recently. But don't be too surprised if you didn't find it as funny as it was back then. Just they way some things go. Chevy Chase saying "I'm Chevy Chase and you're not" seemed a lot funnier back then. But not to worry as there are still plenty of timeless funnies here. I've only been through two of the eight discs in this set. I'm waiting for the one season to come out when Blondie made their appearance. The whole thing reminds me of Junior High and subway cars covered in that wonderful graffiti. I thought they were great works of art.So I had this transistor radio that I would place by the window and I think it was during Saturdays that Kasey Kassem had that top 10 radio show. I just wanted to find out which number in the top 10 Blondie's Rapture or The Tide is High made it to. Somewhere between Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 and John Lennon's Imagine. This was 1980 and rap music was mostly an underground movement at the time. But a band from the CBGB's punk scene brought it to the top 10. I certainly had never heard anything like it. When I first heard Rapture (it made it's debut on Solid Gold when Debbie was hosting it), I was wondering why she was talking throughout the song.
Here's a movie I can't live without Life of Brian, I think is one of Monty's best made film. Poke fun at religion, and you can't go wrong. I bought this for $20 at Borders the other day. It's a great value for a 2 disc set (The Immaculate Edition). It's tempting to watch it now, but would like to save it for a more appropriate time. It's almost here.
3 comments:
Great post V. I can somewhat relate to this myself, though I never really got into Monty Python. i do need to watch more of it again sometime. Maybe I can appreciate it more now. As for rap, gotta give props to Blondie for taking it to the mainstream, and how strange, a pale, blonde white girl. The "scene" was an exciting time I'm sore, with punks mixing it up with new wavers and rappers with not much concern for who fit in where. people were just out to make some noise, a new noise, whatever it may have been. The mainstream rap is and has been utterly awful for so long. It's gotten so far from where it began. Yet, there is so much good and varied underground rap out there now, taking influences from new wave, electronica, punk, industrial, etc. I was fortunate to find a cd ep at a great local independent shop out here called the CD Cellar. It's by a collective of rappers and hip hop artists called "Death Comet Crew" and it's a document straight from the early eighties. You hear guys getting creative with samples and beats and rhymes, and the sound is so dark, industrial almost--it's great! I listen to that, then listen to what constitutes the mainstream scene now and get nostalgic. What always fascinated me about the early hip hop was how Kraftwerk had such a big, almost direct influence, especially on the more "electro" end of the hip hop spectrum--the stuff that got people break dancing, poppin' an lockin', and of course, doing "the robot".
Wow - can you imagine how much it will cost to buy ALL of the SNL seasons. Not that you'd want to, but...
Anyway, when I was little I talked about the Sam-orey Bakery. heh heh!
So true Steve- Kraftwerk sure was a huge influence to those early hip-hopers back then, as well as underground Detroit house. It keeps re-surfacing. Even Madonna sampled "Trans Europe Express" as early as a couple of years ago. Sad thing is, those that listen think it's original to the artist. Trans Europe Express was widely used as well as Home Computer. Thanks for your comment.
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