Name: Paul Shaffer On James Brown & Bob Dylan | David Letterman
Uploaded: 2025-06-18T15:01:40.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Paul Shaffer On James Brown & Bob Dylan | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-06-18. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Paul Shaffer On James Brown & Bob Dylan | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-06-18. Transcript available.

thank you for coming over here for a few minutes uh we should have done this
more often over the
years uh you're a musical genius uh you've worked with everybody important in
music for geez 40
years at least maybe longer i've had a great run and who who stands out that's
a hard question and
answer i know as musical artists that we have accompanied and we have
accompanied with the
band always go for the same answer every time james brown and the first time
yes because
he truly was he invented the the music that we're still dancing to even today
and he invented it
back in the early 60s late 50s when that first time he came on our show in 1982
i'll never forget it it
was so exciting uh he asked to come on and he asked the band what song would
you guys like to play with
me so we had two of our favorite songs sex machine and there was a time we had
them all ready to go
he was a knockout i remember steve jordan was in the band on drums at that time
we both had our
first vcrs we watched that appearance over and over again on the vhs tab and
not only did we memorize
the music we memorized the dialogue and he you know this is when he could do
two songs and the the format
of the show wasn't locked down and he said you're not allowed to do right now
he said to you right on
the panel before you close can we can we close with i got the feeling and he
named a third one of his
one of his songs you said yeah we'll take a commercial we'll come back and he
did totally
spontaneously did a third number i was actually 10 feet off the ground couldn't
believe it couldn't
believe it and then afterwards he summoned me would you like to come james
brown wants to see you in his
dressing room well my heart starts pounding and i go into the dressing room and
he is under the hair
dryer this is absolutely true carries a hairdryer and he's there and he's
talking to me but the hair
dryer is going and i'm trying to listen you know you can't hear him and i'm
down here and i'm listening
and i realize i'm supplicating myself in front of the master james brown and
that's the way it should
be because he was truly the godfather he had me down i was thrilled about it i
i saw uh uh the movie
about uh fantastic and they pointed out and because i don't know much about
music that they pointed out
that every instrument in his band should be played as a percussion instrument
see that and that made a
big difference that was because everybody hit the god every instrument exactly
as you say and uh i can
remember in the early days of that show uh or of the nbc our show on nbc uh bob
dylan oh yeah would
come on uh that first time he came very surprising all of a sudden oh my god we
got bob dylan is here
and i was just as excited and i remember he i went to i knocked on his door i
wanted to say hello to
him and i go in there and i see you know he's got a we've all been reading in
the gossip columns he's
going with uh i think it was clyde king the famous background singer and i
quoted his song i think i'm so
glib i said hey bob what's a nice what's a sweetheart like her doing in a place
like this i think i'm so
absolutely nothing no reaction and he it's dead quiet and there finally it kind
of sidles up to
me and i think he's going to like lay on me the secret of the universe and he
says can you introduce
me to larry bud melvin and i'm telling you i thought he was kidding but he wasn't
kidding
he wasn't kidding and and uh more than uh as a pretty big job being the musical
director
and and producing tremendous music thank you experience each and every night
thank you all
thank you you don't have to say it but i love when you do but you you've also
uh we've been partners in
you'll excuse the expression comedy uh some kind of a form of it yeah anything
come to mind in that
category you and i well i mean i just remember that we were doing a sketch
where uh i always seem to
get hit we showed that thing the other day best of real and i'm gonna calves
are hitting me and things
and we would replace me with a dummy and that time we were gonna you replace me
with a dummy and then
whacked me over the head with a bag over my head and whacked me over the head
and i'm just sitting
there resting in between takes with the bag over my head and you're just
warming up i didn't know
this you thought it was a dummy i was confused you warmed up and it would have
been i very yes all
over very close to killing you i would be calling your wife once a year find
out how you are this is
in a sort of a vegetative state and that would have been it oh my goodness well
it's a dangerous
business when you do your own stunts we have uh now we have a is this a music
video this is a music
video okay before we show it i want to just take a minute to thank the best
band in the land who night
after night turn it out it's aaron hight frank green carl malone melisha collins
there's our
special guest gene corner she doesn't count today the three guys who are with
us at nbc
it's syd mcginnis it's anton fig and since show number one the great will lee
on the base thank you
guys you guys are terrific every night they save my ass delightful they are i
made you called me up a
while ago and you said is there anything musically you'd like to do before we
close it out and i had
this idea because i had met gary sherman who and i named a character on this
show after him the the
guy who runs the office in washington you always say your friend who is as a gary
sherman turns out
he's the guy who arranged the original on broadway the actual gary sherman i
called on and i said well
i'd like to make a note it was so significant when you put my name on the
marquee a couple of years ago
there was my name in lights and i thought i'm living that song on broadway and
so i said you
know i had this idea for a video and you said go ahead and make it jerry foley
went nuts with it
he conceptualized it are we going to show it i i haven't seen the whole thing
yet here we go
paul shaffer on broadway everybody
say the neon lights are bright
on broadway
they say there's always magic in the air
when you're walking down that street
and you ain't had enough to eat
the glitter always off and you're nowhere
they say the girls are something else
on broadway
on broadway
but looking at them just gives me the blue
on broadway
the blue on broadway
on broadway
on broadway
oh can't you
or catch a greyhound bus
from home they all see
on broadway
oh but they're dead wrong i know they are
they are this piano should have taken me far
and i won't quit till i'm a star
on broadway
on broadway
oh but they're dead wrong i know they are this piano should have taken me far
oh but they're dead wrong i know they are this piano should have taken me far
i'm a star on broadway
i'm gonna make it yeah
have my name in the lies
everybody everybody everybody gonna know me yeah
down on
old broadway
i'm gonna make it yeah
fall shaper ladies and gentlemen that was wonderful thanks for letting me do it
i'll never be able to repay you for everything
thank you david same goes for me