After seeing the hardcore punk band Fear at the New Wave Theatre in Los Angeles, John Belushi asked the band’s frontman, Lee Ving, to help him write a song for Neighbors, a dark comedy he was working on with his Blues Brothers partner Dan Ackroyd. The three-minute-long “Neighbors” turned into a punk blitz slapped by the band’s “1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4” intro, and straight into Belushi’s retelling of the film.
“I was quite militant on the punk-rock issue of being punk-correct in that I wasn’t looking forward to singing lyrics that I had written for someone else to sing that were based on a movie that didn’t touch my life,” Ving said. “The lyrics weren’t authentic enough for me to sing them.”
Meant to play during the end credits, the song never made it onto the soundtrack of the film, which marked Belushi’s final role before he died in 1982. By ’81, Belushi, who was no longer a cast member after leaving Saturday Night Live in 1979, and then show writer Michael O’Donoghue, another Fear fan, pulled some strings to get the band on the show. On Halloween night, 1981, Fear performed on Saturday Night Live for the first and last time.
At the time, Fear had already appeared in the 1981 Penelope Spheeris documentary of the LA punk scene, The Decline of Western Civilization, and jumped at their chance to perform on one of the biggest television stages at the time.
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‘SNL’ Mosh Pit
As soon as Fear hit the stage, chaos ensued. “Thank you very much, it’s great to be here in New Jersey,” said Ving to a backlash of boos from the audience. Surrounded by a swarm of fans, most bussed in from Washington, DC, including of Harley Flanagan of the Cro-Mags, Negative Approach’s John Brannon, and Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat, Fugazi), moshing in front of the stage, the band made it through three songs, “I Don’t Care About You,” “Beef Bologna,” and “New York’s Alright If You Like Saxophones.”
Ving dedicated the band’s fourth song, “Let’s Have a War,” to everyone who voted, “democrats and republicans,” then a member of the mosh pit grabbed the microphone and yelled, “New York Sucks.” Before the band could get into the song, director Dave Wilson cut the audio and video of the broadcast, which moved into a pre-recorded sketch featuring Eddie Murphy.
When all was over, the band caused $200,000 in damages to the Saturday Night Live studio after moshers destroyed production equipment. Following their SNL performance, Fear was also banned from some New York City clubs, and Belushi’s other favorite band, Black Flag, was soon cancelled after being booked for a performance on SNL.
“They swore that night they’d never rebroadcast our footage,” said Ving in 2015. “As a result, I have become one of the esteemed members of the permanently banned.”
Though Fear was never invited back to the show since 1981, they left behind one of the most unforgettable punk rock performances in SNL history.
Photo: John Belushi performs on March 25, 1978 (NBCU Photo Bank/Getty)
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