Video: Broken Bells Go Big on 'Conan,' Joanna Newsom Confounds Letterman

Tuesday night on Conan, Broken Bells expanded its usual two-man lineup of Danger Mouse and singer/guitarist James Mercer to seven, with the addition of performers on guitars, bass, keyboards, trumpet and percussion. Meanwhile, Joanna Newsom brought some cruel humor out of David Letterman on the Late Show — and was accompanied onstage only by a pair of stuffed peacocks.

Broken Bells (watch above) performed the Grammy-nominated album's "Ghost Inside" flawlessly. But Newsom didn't fare as well; Letterman cracked that the stage "looks like Sarah Palin's den" and asked if Newsom did her own taxidermy. Nonetheless, the singer managed to pull off a lovely version of "On a Good Day" from her latest, Have One on Me (see the clip from the show below).

Watch: Broken Bells take "The Ghost Inside" to Conan [Consequence of Sound]

Joanna Newsom — "On a Good Day" 12/14 Letterman [The Audio Perv via Prefix]

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Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

More Song Stories entries »

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