watch Paul Simon play 'Saturday Night Live' with yMusic

October 14, 2018

A few weeks after wrapping up his farewell tour in Queens, Paul Simon made another high profile NYC appearance: he was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live last night (10/13). It was his ninth SNL appearance as a musical guest (which was a record) and 15th time on the show. Saturday was also his 77th birthday! Like he did on that tour and on his new album In the Blue Light, Paul performed his new orchestral reworks of older songs with NYC ensemble yMusic backing him. They did the version of “Can’t Run But” from the new album (which was arranged with The National’s Bryce Dessner), as well as his new yMusic-assisted version of the Simon & Garfunkel classic “Bridge Over Troubled Water” that didn’t appear on that album but that Paul did on his farewell tour (which was arranged by Gabriel Kahane). You can watch both below, and see the full episode over at NBC.com.

Also on last night’s episode: Alec Baldwin reprised his role as Trump for the cold open, which parodied Trump’s meeting with Kanye West (who performed on this season’s premiere). And former Weekend Update host Seth Meyers returned to host the episode… as well as to join Colin Jost and Michael Che on Weekend Update for a revival of “Really?!?” Watch below.

Also announced: Jonah Hill (who’s making his directorial debut with the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross-scored Mid90s and who co-stars in Netflix’s great Maniac) is hosting the November 3 episode, with musical guest Maggie Rogers (who just announced her debut album and who will soon be touring with Mumford & Sons).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8cd1h6UWj8