TubeNet

Okay,

Aretha Franklin is a top flight singer. I absolutely loved her version of the Star Spangled Banner.

HOWEVER...

Why is it okay for vocalists to tape their version of a performance, and then lip sync to it at the live event?

Can you imagine if the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and their illustrious maestro Barenboim came out and shadow bowed and mimed playing instruments?

I used to work for Disney and I can tell you, it goes on alot there. But these ladies and gentlemen are jumping around and dancing. That I can kind of understand. I would rather hear a track then out of breath jumpy singing...but when the Lord of the Dance came down for the summer a couple of times, I was amazed until I noticed there were no taps on their shoes, and no mics on the stage. We were hearing a (pun intended) click track...!

Sorry I just wanted to vent. Ms. Franklin is awesome, but she needs to take lip-sync lessons from Britney Spears...

I would guess that it was probably out of her control, and that rather than lip syncing she was just singing along without a mic.. that's what I'd do.

At the MLB All-Star Game last year, the girl singing the US anthem was lip syncing (I can't remember her name, but she's some sort of pop sensation or something). The singer on the Canadian anthem, however, performed it entirely live, and frankly, did better than her recording.

However,

I can understand taking every precaution to avoid performance disasters. But, still, it would be nice to know that it's being performed right at that very moment.

Frank Zappa once did a concert that was entirely prerecorded, but it wasn't the original plan. He brought music for the ensemble to play, they tried their darndest to make it performance-ready, but the musicians eventually gave up, saying that it was too difficult. He says, "Okay, fine, I'll program it into the Synclavier, it'll be correct, it'll sound like you guys, and we'll run it through speakers on stage while you mime the performance."

They got away with it, too, fooling the critics in attendance (which demonstrated THEIR so-called expertise) and everything, until some of the musicians finally broke the news to the music press.

Anyway...

I would have rather had a canned Roseanne Barr anthem performance than the stunt that she pulled. Well, I'd rather have Roseanne canned from performing -- better yet, canned and on some shelves at the Kwik-E-Mart.

Veering of to the "Lord of the Dance" comment...

I saw it last year here in Atlanta. All excited, you know, had seen the special of PBS and shelled out $50+/ticket to see it live. By the end of the show, I couldn't speak. I had paid that much to see a bunch of guys miming to a track!!! Like you noticed, no taps on the shoes, no mikes on stage. I could have bought the DVD for ten buck and had the same experience, except without the baby crying, the kid yelling, and the cell phone going off.

I use much more discretion now when it comes to live shows, after that. I'm still mad.

Doug@GT wrote:I use much more discretion now when it comes to live shows, after that. I'm still mad.

Was the pic in your avatar taken right after that show?

Back in 1984 when they celebrated the centennial of the Statue of Liberty and they had a big gala at the Meadowlands in NJ, the Garden State sym was playing along with a recording. I had gotten tickets for the dress rehearsal the evening before and I got to hear many artsists such as Manhattan Transfer, Liza Minelli, Willie Nelson and others and they were basically singing along with their recordings. They were actually singing but the recording is what was going out over the air waves. I guess they also don't have to worry about good balance etc. with miking outdoors. It was sort of funny, one of the artists, which one I can't remember now, was not at the dress rehearsal but they played the recording anyway and rehearsed it without him/her!

Have you ever seen the Macy's Parade on Thanksgiving talk about lip syncing, the singers don't even have back up bands to air play it.

ken k

Leland wrote:

Doug@GT wrote:I use much more discretion now when it comes to live shows, after that. I'm still mad.

Was the pic in your avatar taken right after that show?

If I were a girl and Bush had been there, I could definitely pass it off as such Screw Michael Flatley . There, I said it

I recall a critique about Mr. Flatley, maybe it was in a Sunday magazine section years ago.....

Anyway, according to the author, Mr. Flatley apparently also considers himself intellectually gifted.

The author then went on to suggest some name changes for the dance troupe (this was before he left Riverdance to form his own group). I loved them, they were:

SmartieDance

And

The Step Dancers of Mensa.

They still bring a chuckle to me. Whenever I hear his name, I think, "Yeah, SmartieDance!"

Philip "Hmmm, maybe I ought to rip open my shirt and pant exaggeratively after a particulary fine phrase" Jensen