Posted on 06/12/2015 6:25:46 PM PDT by Skooz
Hows about we take a little break from the seriousness of the day and enjoy a few minutes of musical awesomeness. The 1980s suffered more than its share of insufferable musical bilge. Hair band excess, witless Madonnas and wannabees, and on and on. But, there were some bright spots. This is one of the brightest. Two songs here, "Shelter," and an amazing version of "I Found Love." Little of the music of that decade came close to this. Maria McKee is a national treasure.
Elvis Costello - Less Than Zero & Radio Radio - Saturday Night Live 1977
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8caBUVjWvA
Stop !!!!
I wish I could find the actual video of this.
That song is about Maria McKee? I never would have guessed.
It's often quite difficult to find any SNL music performance online. I was frankly surprised to find this one. It happens to be one of my favorites.
Maria McKee was really pretty, but Lone Justice wasn’t very good.
This clip is pretty representative of the blandness.
Here is the song that turned me on to harmony, and eventually to the most “Harmonic” instrument, the pedal steel guitar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIivzJ90M0s
Nice. Harmony, the great western contribution to music.
What was interesting to me was that there where a handful of artists that recognized very early that the explosion of media was having a serious impact on how the world see and hear their music.
The lyrics of Costello’s Radio Radio and the first song MTV ever played, “Video killed the radio star” tell the same story.
I always enjoyed Maria Mckee, both in Lone Justice and as a solo artist. I saw her in a San Diego nightclub back in ‘86, I think. I never understood her inability to break through as a commercial success, and it must’ve got to her as well.
Yup! Right now I’m listening to John Lee and Ry Cooder. I played a few times with Robert Jr Lockwood. He couldn’t believe I was White. I play pedal steel for a living, but I’m a deep Delta Blues guy at heart.
John Lee and Ry;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRCnLb4A4QM
High praise!
Yes! The best compliment I’ve ever had! Shoulda quit the Country band and played with him! But I was playing 6 nights a week, and doing studio calls on pedal steel and guitar. Robert Jr. was playing two nights a week. The money wasn’t there. Still,,, I very much regret not playing with him!
This is kinda fun and as good as we’re going to get with the SNL vaults closed up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E6fvVaVgOQ
The first Lone Justice Album was fantastic. So many great songs, especially “Don’t Toss Us Away,” and “You Are The Light.” Maria McKee was musical lightning. But she - and the band - peaked early.
It was a classic case of a label signing an act and then having no idea what to do with it.
Lone Justice was a quintessential cow-punk band with a roots sound and a country appeal (the just released “This Is Lone Justice: The Vaught Tapes, 1983” give a good indication of who they were before Geffen screwed them up).
Geffen signed them and proceeded to take them apart to make them into a radio-friendly pop band, which they would never be. The band fell apart, with McKee the last one standing.
It’s a case of what could have been; or what should have been. And by then, it was over.
I thought Maria McKee was gonna be the hottest thrush since Linda Ronstadt. Oh what might have been!
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