Lana Del Rey on "SNL" wasn't so bad

[TMC]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/20/lana-del-rey-sinead-o-connor-more-worst-snl-performances-videos.html

Here are eight "Saturday Night Live" musical acts who were worse than
her.

Jan 20, 2012 4:45 AM EST
Fledgling indie chanteuse Lana Del Rey has been slammed by music
critics, listeners, and certain NBC news anchors for her abysmal
performance on Saturday Night Live. Some have even gone so far as to
call Del Rey the worst performer in SNL history. But The Daily Beast
puts things in perspective. From Ashlee Simpson’s lip-synced hoedown
to punk band Fear’s on-stage riot, watch clips of SNL music guests
that make Lana Del Rey look like a pro.

Ashlee Simpson

The mother of all SNL musical gaffes, Ashlee Simpson’s now-infamous
October 2004 appearance turned her into a national joke for months. As
she was set to perform her second song, “Autobiography,” a pre-
recorded version of her hit “Pieces of Me” began playing instead,
while Simpson’s microphone was still at her side and her mouth was
shut. Her band gamely played on but Simpson abandoned ship and
wandered offstage—but not before subjecting the audience to 30 seconds
of a bizarre, awkward jig and a sheepish smile. While she initially
placed the blame on her band (“I feel so bad,” she said at the end of
the show. “My band started playing the wrong song. And I didn’t know
what to do, so I thought I’d do a hoedown.”), she later changed her
tune and blamed a case of “severe” acid reflux. However shaky Lana Del
Rey’s vocals were on Saturday, they at least guarantee that she sang
her own song.

Fear

Lana Del Rey also can be credited with not destroying the set she was
given, the way that punk band Fear did on Halloween, 1981. Surrounded
by fans clad in tight jeans, chains, spiked boots and leather jackets,
Fear sang “Beef Bologna” and incited a near-riot. As John Joseph, who
was in the audience at the time, recalled, “We were just f--king
kicking cameras over, screens, anything that look like it cost money.
We were just like, ‘Bam! Next!’ ” Gory details of the night include
much more than just the standard slam-dancing typical at punk shows,
according to Joseph (who also was the lead singer of hardcore punk
band Cro-Mags in the 1980s). Noses were broken, brawls broke out
between New York and Washington, D.C., natives, pumpkins were launched
at security guards’ heads and a NYPD-versus-punks chase out of
Rockefeller Center spilled into the streets outside. All told, it was
a punk’s dream show, but an SNL producer’s worst nightmare. Total
property damages caused that night by Fear and their fans are rumored
to be around $250,000—needless to say, they were promptly banned from
ever performing on SNL again.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/20/lana-del-rey-sinead-o-connor-more-worst-snl-performances-videos.html#

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Kanye West

Before Lana Del Rey was even known as Lana Del Rey (she used to sing
under her birth name, Lizzy Grant), Kanye West was the pariah of the
SNL stage. His 2008 rendition of “Love Lockdown” was regarded as
generally terrible, without the aid of the vocoder that usually
smooths his voice into its trademark robotic croon. Despite the
zealous dancing and fancy background screens, Kanye’s singing remained
mostly flat, prompting Gawker to quip that West “sounded disturbingly
like a quiet man doing bad karaoke.” To his credit, however, West did
have the good sense to spare the audience his non-machine-aided high
notes—he turned away from the microphone and let a disembodied female
voice take over for those.

Ke$ha

Two years later, in 2010, Ke$ha was the one branded the worst act in
SNL history. Her pitchy performance of “Tik Tok” in particular seemed
to attract the ire of SNL audiences. The unflattering space suits,
robotic dance moves and bizarre laser harp (which she played while
asking her audience what is surely the most enduring question of our
generation: “Does anyone ever stop to think that maybe we are the
aliens?”) probably didn’t help either. The second half of her
performance, during which she played the song “Your Love Is My Drug”
featured better visuals (glow-in-the-dark paint!) but vocals that
somehow seemed to deteriorate even further.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/20/lana-del-rey-sinead-o-connor-more-worst-snl-performances-videos.html

(Page 3 of 4)

Eminem

Though he didn’t have the misfortune of having his backing track start
without him, the way Ashlee Simpson’s did a week before, it was clear
from Eminem’s 2004 SNL performance of “Just Lose It” that the vocals
booming out into the audience weren’t coming from his mouth. No matter
how talented a rapper Eminem is, after all, he doesn’t have the
ability to spit lyrics while licking his lips (see 1:15). He also
seemed to have difficulty keeping up with the recording, often
bringing the microphone to his lips half a beat after the rapping had
already begun.

Spice Girls

Back when platform boots and blonde highlights were all the rage, the
Spice Girls’ SNL performance was the underwhelming act worth griping
about. The disparity between their live vocals on “Wannabe” (which
were more shouting than singing) and the abruptly perfect melody of
the chorus drew speculation that the girls used a backing track to
save the act. Regardless of the weak performance, Earth remained a
Spiceworld for another three years until the group broke up in 2000—so
there is hope for Lana yet!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/20/lana-del-rey-sinead-o-connor-more-worst-snl-performances-videos.html

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En Vogue

If Destiny’s Child had ever shown up to a performance without Beyonce,
most will admit that a certain degree of oomph would be lacking.
Likewise, when En Vogue took the SNL stage in 1997 without their lead
singer Dawn Robinson (who abruptly quit the group a few weeks before),
the resulting performance, though still quite good, lacked the
dynamism that the group’s previous gigs could boast. This translates
into another point for Lana: she at least showed up for her
performance.

Sinead O’Connor

If there’s one thing you don’t want to do on the SNL stage, it’s get
political. Rage Against the Machine were allegedly thrown out of the
building after just one song for attempting to hang upside-down
American flags around the set (a statement against that episode’s
host, billionaire and ex-Republican presidential candidate Steve
Forbes). But in RATM’s case at least, none of the controversy was
caught on camera—woefully, the same can’t be said about Sinead
O’Connor’s 1992 guest spot. After sing-talking her way through a cover
of Bob Marley’s “War,” O’Connor produced a photo of former Pope John
Paul II and ripped it to shreds, declaring, “Fight the real enemy!”
The stunt earned her zero applause at the end of the performance,
making her exit from the stage all the more uncomfortable.

Chris Gaines for Creepiest Act.

With the onstage performer sporting an emo haircut, glued-on chin hair
and hints of eyeliner, you may or may not have guessed that Chris
Gaines was simply country star Garth Brooks’s bizarre alter ego, who
performed on the same episode that Brooks hosted in 1999—though you
won’t hear Brooks confirm that. While under the guise of “rocker”
Chris Gaines, Brooks stubbornly refused to acknowledge any connection
between his two selves. Props to Lana again for, if nothing else, at
least being herself.

[Bedlam]

On Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:45:17 -0800 (PST), TMC <tmc...@gmail.com>
puked:

>If there’s one thing you don’t want to do on the SNL stage, it’s get
>political.

What?

--
Bedlam

The less you care, the more it doesn't matter.