Questlove’s Fantastic Video Mix of 50 Years of SNL Music
Oh this is just delightful: for the opening of his documentary film on the history of music on SNL he co-directed with Oz Rodriguez, Questlove produced what the NY Times calls “a high-speed, six-minute DJ mix of SNL music highlights”. So. Good.
From the same piece in the Times, Questlove explains how it came about:
It’s impossible for me to phone anything in, even if I wanted to. I just wanted to throw the ultimate D.J. gig and hook you in from the gate. It started off small, and it couldn’t stop.
In the beginning, I was just going in five-year intervals — what’s the three strongest moments between ‘75 and ‘80? — and do it that way. But I’m so programmed as a D.J. it’s physically impossible for me to gather a group of songs together and not start — that’s my version of improvisation. And once you put, like, 17 songs together, you have a conversation with yourself: “OK, are we really doing this?”
My producers said: “It’ll never happen! The clearance, the clearance!” This is the first time that I realized my diplomatic position in music. People say, “Ahmir, you might be the next Quincy Jones, because your whole thing is more social than creative, knowing the right people, knowing who’s who.” There were at least 19 situations in which I had to come hat in hand to said person, and mind you, this is for two seconds — Michael Bolton singing “Love Is a Wonderful Thing” just once.
He got every clearance except for Luciano Pavarotti:
The only outright no that I couldn’t fix was that Luciano Pavarotti was going to be part of the Bobby McFerrin-Busta Rhymes mash-up. But it was too much to explain to his estate, and I couldn’t go to Italy and whatever. It could have been brilliant, Bobby McFerrin and Pavarotti going toe to toe.
The film premieres tonight on NBC and will be available on Peacock starting tomorrow.
Update: According to Questlove’s Instagram post, the musical montage was edited by John MacDonald, Coordinating Producer of The Tonight Show. (via @solace.bsky.social)
Comments 8
thread
latest
popular
That was delightful!
This is 50 Years of SNL Music so, so, so excellent. (My only mild criticism is not having any footage of the time Fear played and SNL called Ian MacKaye to bring "real" punks to dance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AumYnYlG9fg)
So good! A video version of the old Girl Talk albums. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKgKmMLH8yk
Awesome. Did anyone see Devo? Just had time to watch once and Devo’s debut was an SNL triumph…Didn't catch it on first pass.
Juxtaposition is commentary: that mash of Bye Bye Bye and Survivor, two strains of pop, the boy and the girl group, and the launching pad for two of the most consequential artists of the 2000s, Justin and Beyoncé. Both of them bouncing/stomping. I couldn't help but think about power and representation, and authenticity vs. artificiality, and consumption, and how TV (SNL!) mediates and generates all of that for us (at us? with us?). Anyway, genius work.
Okay but also: I'm almost positive that the section starting at about 00:58, right after Sabrina Carpenter, featuring Eminem and Gwen Stefani, was a genuine mashup yesterday (1/27); today (1/28) it's got an inelegant overlay of Neffex's 'Statement'. Licensing snafu?
Did they lose clearances overnight? The audio mix at 57 seconds is substantially different for 20 seconds than it was last night...
It now features a snippet of the track Statement by NEFFEX who, I don't think, was ever on SNL.
What gives?
Ok, the documentary is now streaming on Peacock.
I watched the opening segment of the actual movie and Joshua & Bob above are correct: in the YouTube version, that part of the audio has been replaced. I suspect they cleared the rights for it to air on TV & streaming but not online. and someone complained so they had to dub over it. 🤷♂️
Hello! In order to comment or fave, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!
In order to comment or fave, you need to be a current kottke.org member. Check out your options for renewal.
This is the name that'll be displayed next to comments you make on kottke.org; your email will not be displayed publicly. I'd encourage you to use your real name (or at least your first name and last initial) but you can also pick something that you go by when you participate in communities online. Choose something durable and reasonably unique (not "Me" or "anon"). Please don't change this often. No impersonation.
Note: I'm letting folks change their display names because the membership service that kottke.org uses collects full names and I thought some people might not want their names displayed publicly here. If it gets abused, I might disable this feature.
If you feel like this comment goes against the grain of the community guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate, please let me know and I will take a look at it.
Hello! In order to leave a comment, you need to be a current kottke.org member. If you'd like to sign up for a membership to support the site and join the conversation, you can explore your options here.
Existing members can sign in here. If you're a former member, you can renew your membership.
Note: If you are a member and tried to log in, it didn't work, and now you're stuck in a neverending login loop of death, try disabling any ad blockers or extensions that you have installed on your browser...sometimes they can interfere with the Memberful links. Still having trouble? Email me!