MINNEAPOLIS — In honor of “Saturday Night Live” celebrating its 50th anniversary this fall, list-loving Rolling Stone has ranked the top 50 musical performances on “SNL” and, faster than you can say “Al Franken and Tom Davis were original SNL writers,” Minnesota acts grabbed two of the top four spots.
The Replacements rated No. 2 with “Bastards of Young,” and Prince posted No. 4 with “Partyup” — relatively early career performances from two revered Minneapolis acts.
On Jan. 18, 1986, the ‘Mats were “just the right amount of drunk,” writes Gavin Edwards. Bassist Tommy Stinson jumped around, off camera. Singer Paul Westerberg implored guitarist Bob Stinson to kick off his solo by shouting, “Come on, [expletive].”
“SNL” pooh-bah Lorne Michaels was outraged by the vulgarity over the air and vowed that the ‘Mats would never appear on TV again. However, later that night, the Minneapolis quartet delivered its scheduled second “SNL” song, “Kiss Me on the Bus.”
