Questlove has been very busy of late. Just this month, he has released not one, but two major music documentaries. In addition to his in-depth portrait of Sly Stone – Sly Lives! (aka the Myth of Black Genius) – his film about the music of Saturday Night Live, also premiered. Ladies and Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music was created as part of a comprehensive gala celebration which included a live concert and a three-and-a-half hour live comedy program featuring hordes of entertainers who have helped make up the show’s rich history.
Questlove’s contribution to the celebration came in the form of a 128-minute documentary tracing the musical guests who have appeared on the program. But it is more than a mere compilation of legendary performances. Questlove goes far deeper, using archival footage and new interviews, along with plenty of clips from the show, to examine the relationship between live comedy and live music.
There may not be a film director better suited to this particular task. Questlove has not simply been one of the driving forces behind the Roots, a major music act, for more than thirty years. His work in television has given him a unique perspective behind the scenes of the production.
Questlove's Saturday Night Live production is simply perfect
He doesn’t merely know performance. He knows what goes into the planning, booking, execution, and potential fallout of each musical element on a show. That insight comes through in the way he puts his SNL tribute together.
Sly Lives! opened with a query – “What is Black genius?” Various talking heads fumbled over an answer to the open-ended, conceptual question. He uses a similar device to open up a window on the music of SNL but in a very different manner. This time, he asks various cast members to hum the SNL theme song.
These comedians have heard this song hundreds of times. But none can hum even a few bars. No one can. The closest anyone can come is to remember it has something to do with a sax solo.
This is not the overt underlying premise of the movie as it was in Sly Lives! But the point it makes is just as intriguing. Everyone knows SNL has music. Some of it has become legendary. But no one really pays all that much attention to just how integral music has been to the show from the very beginning.
Several performers note the similarities between live comedy and live music. No matter how much you rehearse, when you perform without a net, things will change. Audience reaction becomes crucial. Technical problems will occur. Unscripted moments add an element of excitement and, at times, even danger. Questlove provides examples of all that and more.
Most of the famous and infamous performances are on screen, complete with behind-the-scenes stories of how they came to be. John Belushi leveraged his star power in 1981 to get a personal favorite – the punk band Fear – a gig on the show. A couple dozen of their fans invaded Studio 8H and slam danced during the gig, sending shock waves through the decidedly non-punk crowd. The band’s frontman, Lee Ving, almost breaks into tears when recalling how Belushi helped put the band on the map.
That same year, Debbie Harry of Blondie encouraged the producers to put the Funky Four + 1 on stage. It was the first time a hip-hop group appeared live on national television. A hip-hop group with a female MC, no less. Very few members of the audience, either in-studio or on television, had any clue what scratching was before seeing it on SNL. In the movie, that female rapper, Sha-Rock, remembers what a game-changer that moment was.
Questlove also provides extended sequences on the controversies that occurred when Ashlee Simpson was caught lip-synching in 2004, the 1996 show when Rage Against the Machine was prohibited from doing their second song and subsequently stormed guest host Steve Forbes’ dressing room, and multiple Kanye West imbroglios.
Rage’s Tom Morello uncovers a bit of producer Lorne Michaels’ sneaky genius when he asks, “What did they think would happen?” when the show booked a radical band like Rage on the same show with a conservative politician like Forbes.
There has never been the suggestion that SNL stages controversy, but they do help foster it. They put performers on the cutting edge of pop culture on stage and turn them loose live. No one knows what will happen.
That’s what we see in the famous Elvis Costello performance from 1977 when the young rocker stopped after a few bars of his rehearsed song and launched into something completely different. Costello and Michaels both laugh off what was at the time considered career suicide. As Michaels admits, no one is ever completely “banned” from SNL.
If they remain relevant enough, they will probably be asked back regardless of earlier issues. We see that played out in Costello’s multiple subsequent appearances, most famously when he stormed a Beastie Boys performance in 1999 to recreate his iconic 1977 moment.
The show’s most infamous musical moment gets a lot of attention. We hear members of the production team recall the rehearsals and preproduction for Sinead O’Connor’s 1992 appearance when she requested the camera stay in close on her during her final a cappella performance. In rehearsal, she held up a picture of a child at the end of the song.
No one was prepared for what she did during the live show when she substituted a photo of Pope John Paul II for the child and ripped it to shreds while proclaiming, “Fight the real enemy” to a stunned audience.
There is a certain level of reckless bravery that is required for any live performer and more than anything, Questlove’s movie lays that bare. The producers are justifiably proud of introducing acts like Nirvana and Dua Lipa to a national audience. Seeing behind-the-scenes footage from rehearsals and promos is fascinating. I mean, I knew Krist Novoselic was tall, but seeing the Nirvana bassist dwarf NBA star Charles Barkley in a promo was still mind-blowing.
Of course, not all the performances were home runs. When Captain Beefheart finished “Ashtray Heart” and “Hot Head” during a 1980 show, the bewildered audience did not make a sound. (There was one sound, but our standards prevent me from using the word in this column.)
Still, there was enough glorious music to fill several documentaries. Consider just a partial list of the archival performances. Prince, James Brown, Frank Zappa, the Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, David Bowie, the Talking Heads, Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Ray Charles, Lady Gaga, Jay Z, A Tribe Called Quest, Kendrick Lamar, the Band, Public Enemy. The list goes on and on.
We see a bit of a recurring gag from the early days when Lorne Michaels appears on camera to offer the Beatles a whopping three thousand dollars if they would agree to stage a reunion on the SNL stage. Three songs was all it would take for the three grand. Michaels did not succeed in reuniting the Fab Four, but Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr all appeared individually.
In the show's second episode, he did manage to get Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel to sing together for just the second time since their breakup five years earlier.
Questlove doesn’t confine his film to archival musicians. The list of live interview subjects is almost as impressive. Jack White tells how he was called in with two days' notice to replace Morgan Wallen when the country star had been seen violating COVID protocols shortly before the show. Mick Jagger and Dane Grohl have their own stories to tell. So do Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo. And Justin Timberlake and Miley Cyrus. Again, the list seems endless.
Cast members also share stories. Eddie Murphy talks about meeting Stevie Wonder after doing his impression of the star. Joe Piscopo tells of his genuine fear of mimicking Frank Sinatra. Jimmy Fallon recalls playing Mick Jagger with the man himself. Seeing Mike Myers, Madonna, and Roseanne going positively verklempt over the surprise appearance of Barbra Streisand during their Coffee Talk skit is worth the price of admission by itself.
The cast members who had particular musical talent – John Belushi, Fred Armisen, Adam Sandler, and especially the Lonely Island boys, all get a little extra time.
Questlove wisely goes behind the scenes to interview four different music directors, along with other key members of the music operation like Paul Shaffer and Hal Willner. They offer a fascinating insight into how music has functioned on the show over the years. And of course, he has the man himself – Lorne Michaels – commenting on everything.
With such a vast history, there are bound to be some personal favorites that are left on the cutting room floor. For me, I missed seeing Leon Redbone, a staple in the early years, and my own favorite catastrophe, when the Replacements were so drunk they could barely stand during the second song of their 1986 appearance. I’m not even a Faith No More fan, but their 1990 performance of “Epic” is one of the best I’ve ever seen on live TV. So you can quibble around the edges.
But if you get a chance to watch the movie, you’ll barely notice those things. There’s too much great music and too much intriguing talk about music to worry about what isn’t there.