The Lowdown on Lipsynch at the Super Bowl

Perry Hansen · Post by **Perry Hansen** » 29 Jan 2003 6:02 am

Donny, you hit the nail right on the head.

Eric Myers · Post by **Eric Myers** » 29 Jan 2003 6:59 am

One mans "parody" is anothers "interpretation" - personally to me the Hendrix version is the greatest version ever performed, painting with musical virtuosity, intuition and respect to the musical "vision" what the usual staid and stoical reading of the National Anthem can only hint at - it was born from the heat of battle, and Jimi was able to reproduce that - but I can understand how its a thouroughly unique and artistic reading and a lot of people may have a hard time "getting" it - he definitely wasn't "air-guitaring" to a background track! =)

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 29 Jan 2003 7:15 am

i am of those that consider Jimi's version to be a deserving emotive masterpiece.
Some might not have considered Jimi as a Patriot
i did !
Play On Bro'.....Play On

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 29 Jan 2003 10:12 am

Well, this does bring back memories. I saw Hendrix do his piece on the 4th of July at the Atlanta Pop Festival (1968?). It definetly had the planes and bombs and machine guns in there. But I don't think anyone there thought of it as the National Anthem being done in a bizaar way. Instead it was a whole art performance that included parts of the National Anthem. In other words, it was not a scheduled traditional performance of the Anthem as part of the ritual of the occassion.

But for scheduled performances of the Anthem as part of an opening ritual ceremony, I tend to agree with Donny, even though I was a peacenik (at least for the Vietnam War - these latest ones are self defense, and are different). It's a military song about real military events. I prefer that it be done to a drum roll with a military band. Even a recording of that is better than to have a pop singer get up there and do a strained pop rendition, and a cappello at that. I cringe. I am more tolerant of a political statement like Hendrix made. To butcher the Anthem musically, for no good reason bothers me. The Dixie Chicks were okay. They had backup music and harmony - it was actually beautiful.

Mike Weirauch · Post by **Mike Weirauch** » 29 Jan 2003 1:18 pm

I'm riding in Donny Hinson's boat on this one!

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 29 Jan 2003 10:59 pm

An article on the source of The National Anthem. http://www.colonialmusic.org/Resource/Anacreon.htm [This message was edited by chas smith on 29 January 2003 at 10:59 PM.]

Bob Shilling · Post by **Bob Shilling** » 30 Jan 2003 11:56 am

I saw Jimi do the Anthem live in '69 at Bear's Stadium in Denver. There had been riots outside earlier in the evening, and a lot of tear gas had wafted inside. By the time Jimi came out things had mellowed a lot. Jimi's intro was great. He said, "I smell something really nice here." (refering to the herbal cigarette smoke) "But earlier I smelled something not so nice. It smelled like...world war three." And then he began the Anthem. I'm pretty sure Jimi was a patriot, but one not afraid to say when the emperor had no clothes.

In one game of the '86 Series, Smokey Robinson did a beautiful job singing it. Most memorable version for me (aside from Hendrix) was when Chuck Mangione played it at an A's game. Late '80s I think. Hmm...looks like I prefer instrumentals.

Personally, I wish our Anthem were less martial. "America the Beautiful" would get my vote. Nothing against martial music. I still stand for the "Marine Corps Hymn." But I don't think that's what America is all about.

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Bob Shilling, Berkeley, CA--MSA S10, "Classic"

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 30 Jan 2003 12:40 pm

Someone in radio sent this to me today...

Shania Twain: Live or Memorex?

ABC producers promised
<http://espn.go.com/magazine/flemfile_20030123.html> that the pop stars
they recruited for this year's Super Bowl halftime show would do their
singing liveâ€”no lip-syncing allowed. But what about country star Shania
Twain, who seemed to hop around the stage without missing a note?

Paul Liszewski, who produced the sound for the show, says Shania's mic
was hot and her vocals were live. (Other audio engineers who watched the
broadcast agreed.) Twain's accompaniment, however, was what's called a
"band in a box," which means the back-up vocals and instrumentals we
heard were prerecorded. So while the diva was belting out show-stoppers
like "Man, I Feel Like a Woman," her onstage drummer was thrashing away
merely for effect.

Other bands use a different mix of taped and live elements, depending on
the nature of the show. At a dance-heavy concert where the lead singer
does exhausting choreography, we might hear a tape of the lead vocal
track. At an event like the Super Bowl, where sound engineers have five
minutesâ€”rather than the usual six or eight hoursâ€”to set up, bands are
more likely to rely on tape. During No Doubt and Sting's halftime sets,
we were also hearing live vocals and canned instrumentals. Last year,
when U2 played, we heard both Bono's voice and the Edge's guitar live,
though the rhythm section was prerecorded.

For big events, even totally "live" bands have tapes standing by in case
of emergency. If, say, Bono's microphone had suddenly failed last year,
an engineer in a broadcast truck equipped with an audio mixer would have
quickly brought up the sound on a prerecorded version of Bono's vocal
track. If the person doing the blend did the job right, the audience
would never even notice the glitch. (That explains the moment when
Shania ran back to the stage after mingling with the crowd and didn't
appear to be singing, even though her vocals came through loud and
clear. When Twain took too long getting back to the stage, the mixing
engineer likely brought up the prerecorded vocal track, and then took it
back down it as Shania started to sing.)

How do performers keep time when they're faking it? Musicians are almost
always listening to a recording of the song on a monitor as they
perform. (Most often, that recording is a mix of all the song's tracks,
but drummers sometimes prefer to hear a "click track," which just goes
tick-tick-tick like a metronome.) Traditionally, the monitors were
speakers placed on stage. But that meant that the performers couldn't
move around freely and that their microphones might pick up the tape
track. These days, many musicians opt for a wireless in-ear monitor,
which allows them to strut through a song without losing the beat or
tripping on a wire. Each one is custom-molded to the ear canal, looks a
little bit like a hearing aid, and can run somewhere in the neighborhood
of $2,100.

Next question?

Explainer thanks Gary Bongiovanni of Pollstar magazine, Albert Leccese
of Audio Analysts, and Paul Liszewski of AudioTek Corp.

Riiiiiiiiiight.....

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 30 Jan 2003 1:27 pm

Personally, I wish our Anthem were less martial....... But I don't think that's what America is all about.

We're planning a first strike on a sovereign nation who we've accused of being the most dangerous country in the world and with having weapons of mass desctruction and we've openly discussed a limited nuclear engagement.

"What if China or Russia decided that we were the most dangerous country in the world because we have weapons of mass destruction and are prepared to use them?

What if they offered to the U.N. Security Council, as smoking guns, Hiroshima and Nagasaki?"---Thomas J. Cottle

CrowBear Schmitt · Post by **CrowBear Schmitt** » 31 Jan 2003 1:10 am

i'll raise my glass to that Chas

Achtung ! this is Topic Drift

Theresa Galbraith · Post by **Theresa Galbraith** » 31 Jan 2003 4:51 am

John,
Thanks for the information! I think this is the way it's done on award shows too!

Theresa[This message was edited by Theresa Galbraith on 31 January 2003 at 04:53 AM.]

Tony Harris · Post by **Tony Harris** » 31 Jan 2003 5:33 am

Someone mentioned Reba a while back. A couple of years ago I saw her and the band do a short 'personal appearance' inside a record store here in London. Eight-piece band, no amps onstage, no monitor speakers (in-ear monitors?)- and they sounded pretty near perfect! And despite it being in the lunch-hour, in the corner of the store, they gave a fabulous full-on performance. Their professionalism just choked me up. And I'm convinced they were all totally live - just SUPERB players! (Was that Terry Crisp on steel?)

Ron Page · Post by **Ron Page** » 31 Jan 2003 7:21 am

I'm not buying it that Shania's mic was hot. How do they explain a distinct difference in the background crowd noise levels during Shania's performance and those that followed (No Doubt, Sting)? I guess then they had to switch to the track when she was wildly waving her arms to the crowd.

I'm no expert, but it doesn't make sense to go to all the trouble they've described to have perhaps a few bars sung live. Unless they just want to avoid any "truth in labeling" issues.

------------------
HagFan

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 31 Jan 2003 8:50 am

Well, I read and enjoy everything John Macy posts. And so, in this case, considering that John is merely relaying what someone else said, I must go with Ron on this. I wasn't watching Sting closely, but Shania's singing as well as Santana's playing sure looked "canned" to me. When the performer stops, but their sounds don't, well...

Anyhow, I guess we shouldn't pay much attention to this. Just about every music video ever produced has that same "pantomime" quality. The producers, sound men, and performers might fool the teen-agers, but they can't fool real singers and musicians!

Ron Page · Post by **Ron Page** » 31 Jan 2003 10:25 am

Right, Donny, I mean no disrespect whatsoever towards John.

Truthfully, if one of my favorites was playing to a national audience of that magnitude, I would mind if it was lip-synched. It really was intended to entertain an audience much broader than musicians. Judging from the commercial success of those artists I'd say it worked, however they pulled it off.

Often we get hung up on such technicalities because of other personal tastes and feelings. I'll admint to being among the worst offenders at this.

Having said that, many casual music fans seem to be somewhat putoff by lip-synching. They feel like someone is trying to pull something over on them.

Take care and vote Republican!

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HagFan

[This message was edited by Ron Page on 31 January 2003 at 10:25 AM.]

Roger Miller · Post by **Roger Miller** » 31 Jan 2003 1:47 pm

It seems to me that through the years, American Bandstand, Ed Sullivan, and many other musical shows Lip synced, why the gripes now. By the way imagine the terror look everyone would have had, had the ear buds didn't work at the last minute.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 31 Jan 2003 2:14 pm

I do believe almost all (95%) of the music and singing on Sullivan was live, but there's no way I can prove it.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 1 Feb 2003 7:11 am

We're planning a first strike on a sovereign nation who...

Oh yes, let's not hit them first!

Let's allow them to kill a few thousand (more?) Americans before we go in and kick their ass.

Sheeesh.

Hook Moore · Post by **Hook Moore** » 1 Feb 2003 10:15 am

The most entertaining part of "most" of that music is watching the Lipsynch!

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HookMoore.com

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 1 Feb 2003 11:58 am

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Oh yes, let's not hit them first! Let's allow them to kill a few thousand (more?) Americans before we go in and kick
their ass.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I thought it was Osama bin Laden, Mulla Omar and al Qaeda who took out the towers. Maybe if they were sitting on huge oil reserves, we'd still be after them. If we're determined to kill Hussein as payback for the Towers, why are there negotiations for his stepping down and going into exile taking place? As I understand it it, bin Laden is a fundamentalist, Hussein is a secularist, they're from different tribes and they don't like each other, the al Qaeda funding most likely came from Saudi Arabian (our buddies) sources.

Personally, I don't care whether we kill him or not, but let's be aware of what we're doing. If people hate me, I at least want to know why.[This message was edited by chas smith on 01 February 2003 at 12:05 PM.]

Rich Weiss · Post by **Rich Weiss** » 1 Feb 2003 4:07 pm

"During No Doubt and Sting's halftime sets,
we were also hearing live vocals and canned instrumentals".

Thanks. I feel vindicated now. Theresa really made me feel stupid.

Jussi Huhtakangas · Post by **Jussi Huhtakangas** » 3 Feb 2003 3:23 am

A real class A pro live act:

"...in the middle of his hot solo, the steel player broke the high G# string, but without missing a beat, the soundman changed over to prerecorded tape and the steelplayer faked away the rest of the solo..."

Or:

"...in the middle of his hot solo, the steel player broke a string, but without missing a beat, switched on to the other neck, and played the rest of the solo on C6..."

Lipsynching might be sometimes necessary, but it's always a cheesy and a lame way to make a musical performance