PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic The Songs We Should Retire

Eddie, it's nothing new.

Many years ago I went to a big rock fest. I wanted to see Dr. John (who didn't show up) and during the Alice Cooper part of the show, he went to the gallows to be hanged, and the tape broke (it was pre-digital so it must have been tape). The band continued to march around the stage, pretending to play their instruments. The only sound was from the parade drum the drummer was marching with and Vince/Alice was eventually hanged. Then the stage went dark for about 20 seconds and the show started again.

That must have been in the 1970s.

When I worked on the cruise ships in the 1980s, the main show was all taped, except for the lead singer who was live. The band played from charts accompanying the click track, the background dancers lip-synced the backing parts and the lead male dancer lip synced the duet parts with the live production singer.

I wasn't in the band, Leilani and I were the duo in one of the small lounges.

Later, probably in the 1990s the music store/recording studio I used to patronize and get sax session work got some new Korg sampling keyboards from a Madonna tour, and if you pressed the keys of one in chromatic order you got Madonna saying "Are you ready boys" (up a half step) "Let's hit it" and so on.

I'm also old enough to remember American Bandstand where the guest singer would come and lip-sync to his/her record.

When I was on the road, monitors were non-existent so the background singers always shared a mic so we could hear each other, and watch each other's lips so we could articulate at the same time. After years of doing that, it's pretty easy for me to see if someone is lip-syncing and believe me there is a lot of that going on.

I suppose a good number of the major shows are prerecorded now. The venues are huge, and if anyone important enough to be a show-stopper gets sick, the promoters are out a lot of money. Cancelling the show, paying the venue anyway, refunding the tickets, and so on. Not that I agree, it's just what it is.

And there has also been a lot of fraud in the business. At one time there were 4 groups called "The Platters" touring the country. None of them had Tony Williams, the lead singer on their records in the group.

The Kingston Trio is still touring with no original or recording members. How can you have Earth Wind And Fire without Maurice White? That would be like the Rolling Stones touring without Mick Jagger.

The groups touring with no original members or no original lead singer are nothing more than tribute bands but getting premium ticket prices.

When I was young I saw The Ink Spots. They were all in their 20s and the front man mentioned that his uncle was one of the original Ink Spots.

But at least the Ink Spots were live.

Even Leilani and I are not 100% live. We'd love to be in a bigger band, but we like to eat and pay the mortgage too. Before the duo we were in a 5 piece band. The price we get for the duo is $100 less than what they paid for all 5 pieces.

But I do make my own backing tracks, sometimes with the help of BiaB, sometimes from scratch playing live into a sequencer/DAW. And we play guitars, keyboard synths, wind synths, sax, flute, and voice over the top. I save all the fun parts to be played live, so it's kind of like playing with a band that reads charts.

There is still a lot of good, live music being played but good live bands, there are half and half bands like Leilani and I, and there are entertainment shows like the lip-sync kings and queens. I guess it's all show-biz.

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