Was Paul McCartney’s ‘SNL50’ Performance a Subtle Tribute to Chris Farley?
SNL50 wasn’t just about honoring five decades of sketch comedy of varying quality — it was also a celebration of music. In addition to an opening number by Paul Simon and not-Garfunkel, we also got a performance by Lil Wayne, who, somewhat surprisingly, was the only “Wayne” that showed up during the three-hour-plus special.
Prior to that, Miley Cyrus and Alabama Shakes’ Brittany Howard covered Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U,” honoring the late singer’s SNL bravery, despite the fact that Lorne Michaels has repeatedly criticized her so-called “inappropriate” actions.
The evening ultimately concluded with none other than Sir Paul McCartney, who dusted off his psychedelic piano to belt out the climactic medley from The Beatles’ final studio effort Abbey Road: “Golden Slumbers,” followed by “Carry That Weight” and “The End.”
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It was hard not to notice that McCartney’s voice sounded a little rough, which perhaps shouldn’t be that shocking, considering that the music legend is 82 years old. And “Golden Slumbers,” which McCartney first wrote and performed when he was in his 20s, is a challenging song for anybody, of any age, to sing.
But this does beg the question: Why did McCartney pick that song in particular? After all, he could have just played “Hey Jude” for the billionth time and brought the house down. He could have cranked out “Let It Be” in his sleep. Should this song choice be read as a meta-commentary on the state of Saturday Night Live? Because we could be nearing “The End” of the long-running series? Not so fast. There’s another potential explanation for Sir Paul’s song choice.
Arguably McCartney’s most famous SNL moment was when he appeared on the third and final installment of “The Chris Farley Show,” the sketch in which Farley awkwardly, but endearingly, fawned over celebrity guests.
At one point, Farley asks McCartney about the end of Abbey Road, specifically the lyrics “in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make,” earnestly questioning, “Is that true?”
“Yes Chris, in my experience, the more you give, the more you get,” McCartney responded.
McCartney choosing to wrap up SNL with that exact same song sure seemed like a low-key tribute to the late Farley who, incidentally, would have turned 61 on Saturday.
Clearly McCartney had an admiration for Farley and his comedy. “That was like my favorite SNL thing,” he said of the sketch during an episode of Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Fly on the Wall podcast. And, as Farley’s high school friend Jim Roach once told Cracked, the former Beatle proclaimed that he was going to lift Farley into the air during the same show, and actually made good on that promise as the episode’s credits rolled.
So really, the “Abbey Road” medley was probably the most appropriate, and touching song to pick after all.
