This playlist features the artists and various musical acts Edie Baskin captured while photographing the legendary genesis of the first 25 years of Saturday Night Live: not the polished mythology of television history, but the strange and dangerous side of New York City that wandered through Studio 8H after midnight. The voices and artistry of David Bowie, Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, Frank Zappa, George Harrison, Blondie, Ray Charles and Paul Simon, just to name a few, represent the culture of the original SNL era. They’re artists who blurred boundaries between rock, comedy, performance art and counterculture, just as early SNL blurred television, music, satire, and downtown New York energy.

WORDS & PLAYLIST Nina Tarr

FEATURED PORTRAIT Ray Charles, 1977. Photograph by Edie Baskin