It seems like just seven months ago we were blogging about Pearl Jam playing “Get Some” on the very first Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien. Now the deals have been brokered, the lawyers have been lawyered, and the good times, which is to say the Not Jay Leno times, come to an end. Coco’s last stand as host of his beloved, (misguided) dream job is tonight. He’ll be fine financially: there will be offers, perhaps more fitting for his brand of comedy-your-parents-don’t-like, and NBC is pushing him off the ledge with a $32MM golden parachute (with $12MM for his staff’s severance, and remaining needs will be met by Conan himself). His art, on the other hand, is getting screwed by the ‘Cock: R.I.P. Triumph, and lots of other intellectual property developed by the O’Brien team over the years. But while the Masturbating Bear may have pawed his nuts for the last time, both his theme song and that of the Pimpbot 5000 are apparently safe: Max Weinberg and Jimmy Vivino had the foresight (read: financial sense) to copyright those compositions themselves. Very prescient/greedy! Those guys get it.
Last time Conan had a “final music guest,” it was the White Stripes. This time, it’s Neil Young. Bears relation to the first music artist Conan invited to Universal City: Start on Pearl Jam, end with their progenitor. Full circle-ish. What’ll Neil play? “Tonight’s The Night” sounds about right, but we’ll just see. When that video pops, we’ll add it. For now, enjoy Conan’s attempt to cost NBC as much as possible, by purchasing a Bugatti Veyron (the most expensive car in the world) and showing it while playing the original master recording of the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” Total cost in car and licensing: $1.5MM. But you know, no hard feelings.
Don’t forget to tune in tonight, and bring liquor. Here’s a $1.5MM investment in your LOLk.
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UPDATE:
Neil Young – “Long May You Run”
The finale…
Will Ferrell, Conan O’Brien, Ben Harper, Billy Gibbons & Beck – “Freebird”
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Yes!!!!!
The Bugatti was borrowed, but still a great bit.
http://jalopnik.com/5453816/update-petersen-museum-loaned-bugatti-veyron-to-conan?skyline=true&s=i
Ironically, after that taping of the first ever Tonight Show w/ CoCo Pearl Jam covered “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World” for the studio audience.
RIP, CoCo.
It’s like rain on your wedding day!
I would have much rather liked the White Stripes.
All my dreams of seeing Conan live while I still live in LA have been crushed. I’ll take a few shots for him… but he’ll go on to greater things. Who wants that kind of talent on a network that values the waning comedic masturbatory ramblings of Jay Leno?
Exactly
I hope he wears a SJ Sharks shirt.
pants on the ground…. pants on the ground….
PAAAANTS!..
I pray to the Lord above he plays that song
He’s going out with a bang. Tom Hanks as the guest. I think Tom was his first guest on the tonight show as well.
Will Ferrell was the first guest. Tom Hanks was on night 2.
Jay Leno loses whatever cred he may have had. If he’d had any class, he would have told the network to shove it.
Ok music buffs. Is that Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top?
Yessir.
Long May You Run…Sometimes I think of what that Human Highway album was supposed to be and it’s the best of them all…On the Beach meets Smile or something…
Beck is there too! I thought it was an incredible goodbye.
The last number was pretty nice. I laughed a lot when Will Ferrell brought out the cowbell!
Godspeed to Conan. Hopefully he’ll end up in a network that will allow him to do anything he wants. I don’t think he needs to go to a major network, like Fox, most people have at least basic cable now. Just saying.
Will Ferrell ruined it. Seriously, I may have been a joke but it was torture to my ears when he sang. Though thumbs up for the awesome backing band and major props to Conan for his guitar playing.
That was one of the best goodbyes ever. My dad doesn’t even care for Conan and when I showed that to him he was laughing his ass off. Also, the little bit Conan said before Freebird was really heart wrenching. Until next time Conan. *tip of the hat*
I thought that guitarist looked like Beck. He kinda looked like he didn’t want to be there. It was still awesome though! I can’t wait to see what Conan does next!
FUCK YOU NBC FOR REMOVING THESE VIDEOS. ADDING INSULT TO INJURY!
it’s all back up now…i’m not sure how long it was down for
Seeing Beck play was nice, but it would have been better if he’d played with Charlotte Gainsbourg in NYC. Heaven Can Wait would have been so much better than Trick Pony.
This is good. Conan needs motivation and there it is in spades.
Anyone know who the dancing “preggers” woman was? Will Ferrell’s wife?
yup, “[Viveca] Paulin appeared with husband Will Ferrell on the last televised episode of the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. Paulin played the character wife of Will Ferrell’s rock ‘n’ roll character, Dawn.” -wiki (i know it’s not a ‘credible’ source, but i compared a few photos and it’s her)
Another “full circle” direction they could have gone… they could’ve brought back Conan’s first ever musical guest on NBC — from back on the Late Night show in 1993. A band currently kicking it in LA (and one who played a gig there this weekend, if ya’ haven’t heard): Radiohead.
Beck looked confused.
Neil Young’s still got it. I hope he tours soon — I’ve got to see him before he gets too old.
isn’t anybody gonna mention how awesome ben harper was?
Will Ferrel tried to hard to make it about him during the finale, the neil young performance was much better and I also agree that beck looked very confused.