David Letterman’s show is over after thirty plus years. If you want to read more about that, you can try this article about Letterman’s beginnings, this article about his career, and, for the sake of balance if nothing else, this one about his lechery. This though isn’t about any of that.
This is about the show’s music, which has been quite good, and features of two of my favorite performances ever: Mute Math doing “Typical” (as seen above) and Earl Scruggs and damned near everybody else doing “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” (as seen below).
Neither requires much in the way of contextualization which I’m now going to provide anyway. Say what you will about Mute Math’s relative popularity but there’s no denying the band’s having blown the damn doors off the theater. They’re lead particularly by the drummer’s all-out assault on his kit, a performance earning Letterman’s enthusiastic affirmation. “He’s a monster,” mutters somebody on mic, presumably a taken aback and/or impressed Paul Shaffer. The crowd loses it.
That crowd is just as impressed by bluegrass godfather Earl Scruggs standing in the middle of what can only be described as some major league heavy hitters: Marty Stuart on mandolin, Jerry Douglas on steel guitar, Glen Duncan on fiddle… Actually, let’s try hyping that supergroup again. Two of its lesser members are Vince Gill (who has sold 26 million records) and Steve Martin (who is Steve Martin) and that’s not a knock against either of those two. Even performing something that everybody’s heard a million times before – something that Earl Scruggs had been playing for almost 50 years when this was recorded, this performance is still so thoroughly energetic, almost as if it was being debuted by excited newbies.
So, think of Letterman what you will, but the music’s worth remembering too.
Update: Holy guacamole! Check out Fiona Apple doing “Criminal” – it’s like a damned bomb going off!
Steve Martin & his banjo…Report
R.E.M.’s first national TV appearance ever, 1983; they briefly discuss Athens, and why their debut LP Murmur is cheaper than other bands’ records; “So. Central Rain” is so new it doesn’t yet have a name:
Dinosaur Jr. (dig that longbox!)- the Letterman house guitarist takes the first “solo” (under the verse still); then J takes the second (I guess real “solo”) and just goes to TOWN.
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Wow look at how young Michael Stipe is!!! And he has hair!! I didn’t know about R.E.M. until Automatic for the People (I was 12 or 13 when Automatic for the People came out).
X appeared on Letterman as well. I guess being on that late allowed for more freedom. Or maybe people were more experimental and liberal with what music got on TV and Radio in the 1980s.Report
I would have been about twelve when that performance aired, and no way was I listening to R.E.M. (or staying up to watch Letterman, or any other way to hear of them) at that time. Probably I was rockin’ to Journey. Heck, I was still a year away from Van Halen’s 1984!
I wouldn’t cotton on to R.E.M. until 1987, when Document was just inescapable in my neck of the woods.
And about that hair, all I have to say is: They Airbrushed My Face!Report
And why didn’t you embed the X? They aren’t my favorite songs, but the band sounds good.
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Also, I enjoyed this rundown of “unreleased” Letterman bits:
http://www.vulture.com/2015/05/23-lost-laughs-of-letterman.htmlReport
A couple more recent:
View on YouTube
And
View on YouTubeReport
M.I.A. is pretty blatant with her sampling, isn’t she? I like her a lot actually, I just think it’s funny how she grabs pretty well-known riffs and doesn’t bother much to disguise them.
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Oh yeah. When that album came out, she got a bunch of heat for it, but she clearly doesn’t care.Report
Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs were in the habit of kicking ass on Letterman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBLsMAvO7YsReport
I have no way of picking a favorite, but I love this clip of Lenny Kravitz jamming with Paul Schaffer and company playing “Always on the Run”.
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Letterman’s band was the band Ace Frehley used on his first solo album, minus Paul Schafer.
I’d say it was pretty good without any keyboards.Report
How about the time XTC came out of hibernation? Oh, what might have been!
https://youtu.be/Amx5CK7vdocReport