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With the long-running US comedy show Saturday Night Live celebrating its 50th anniversary with a weekend of shows that included a Nirvana reunion of sorts, fans might be forgiven for wondering why Aerosmith weren't at the celebrations.
After all, Aerosmith appeared on SNL four times, most recently in 2001, during the show's 500th episode, when they played Jaded and Big Ten Inch Record before Jimmy Fallon – pretending to be Van Morrison – sang a St. Patrick's Day message while drinking a pint of Guinness.
Prior to that, it was Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees) and Nine Lives in 1997, a mere four years after Cryin' and Sweet Emotion enlivened the running order during episode 349.
Aerosmith's greatest SNL appearance was probably their first, hosted by Tom Hanks. It opens with a sketch about the pre-nuptial agreement between Donald Trump (whatever happened to him?) and his soon-to-be-former wife Ivana. Then it's Hanks' monologue and a skit about the recently opened branch of McDonald's in Moscow's Red Square.
The recurring Waynes World segment follows, with Wayne and Garth (Mike Myers and Dana Carvey) interviewing Aerosmith's roadie (Garth's cousin Barry, played by an enthusiastic Hanks), before the band descend into the pair's infamous basement.
After answering fan questions about their consumption of drugs and alcohol and the size of Steven Tyler's lips, things turn to more weighty matters.
"With the recent developments in Eastern Europe, do you think that communism is on the decline?" asks Wayne. "Or is this just a temporary setback?"
"Well, man, that's a hard question," responds Tyler. "But I would have to respond with a qualified 'yes'. Although it seems that socialism is in repose until you remove the Stalinist-era apparatchiks, there will be no real change in the Soviet Union."
"Nah, I disagree, man," says bassist Tom Hamilton. "There's never been a blueprint for the dictatorship of the proletariat, so there's bound to be mistakes. However, if you study history you'll see that since the rise of the nation-state socialism has been a historical inevitability, dude."
Politics lesson over, Aerosmith join Wayne and Garth for a lively romp through the Wayne's World theme, with drummer Joey Kramer reduced to tambourine as Garth sits behind the kit. Later, Kramer returns to his regular seat as Aerosmith take to the SNL stage to play Janie's Got A Gun and Monkey On My Back.
Party time. Excellent.
