Yeah, to Hades with that mess. It's paying through the nose just to be in the vicinity of a band, to lay eyes on their physical presence as they mime. None for me, thanks.
If you can't hit the notes, change the key or stay home. Charging $200+ for tickets so the audience can watch you gyrate around to your CD is shameful.
Changing key can change the colour and texture (not always, but often can), and the sort of songs that these rock artists perform just don't sound right in a lower register vocal as emphasis is often on these high notes. I just think they should stop it.
But that's what averege audience wants and gets. They don't go to such concerts for listening for the music. They go there for celebrating their idols.
i agree, i saw Megadeth and Slayer and GBH at the same 200 person club in Denver as a kid. The bands playing today hardly know how to play live, it isn't the same experience. Dweezil Zappa and a few people are out there putting on great shows at small/medium size venues, while Motley Crue and other geriatric bands who were never great to begin with are fleecing ticket buyers. People need to have some perspective, most of the bands on this list are not even worth going to see in the first place.
Yes! As one who has been both performer and patron in smaller, less formal venues, the magic happens with intimate crowds, not massive populations packed into enormous arenas.
@@David-mg1yj well i saw all those bands at Clash of the Titans at Red Rocks in 1990 or whatever, so there can be some good shows at decent venues, and watched the crowd throw every cooler and other piece of furniture they brought on stage while Alice in Chains played before they were well known ... but these days ... no one is really worth the effort
As an enormous Pink Floyd fan, the last Roger Waters tour was the worst concert I've ever been to. Unimaginably horrible. Political BS surrounded by a dazzling light show and a good band just going through the motions. His new music was absolute shit and yes he was faking the old stuff. I wanted to leave but needed to stick around for my ride.
Know wot u mean,interestingly not that long ago a few years b4 the plandemic roger was really good at Hyde Park apart from his hatred for Trump.I also was very close to him when he sang wish you were here for Julian Assange outside one of the spy agencies and he sang really well even though he was very nervous
@@Nrustica I'm glad you enjoyed it, I'm sure a lot of people did. The band, stage and sound were excellent. Having seen Floyd play when Roger was great, I found the whole experience deeply depressing.
Thank you for putting Roger Waters at #1. He has the nerve to hit his audience over the head with heavy-handed politics, rudely tells them to F*CK OFF if they don't like his message, but never bothers to tell them that he mimes his live shows. Roger is the greediest man in rock and roll because he blathers on about how much he hates greed while engaging in so much of it himself.
@@alandesgrange9703 Roger Waters isn't just a liberal, he a full-blown, anti-western socialist. He talks down on any person or enterprise who purely looks out for their bottom line while doing the exact same thing himself. Just like a good little Marxist, Roger accuses others of doing the very things he's guilty of.
Frankie Valli is the undisputed master of the blatant lip sync and he's been doing it for something like 20 years. The man is a few days away from 90 and is "singing" with the ringing falsetto of himself recorded when he was decades younger, all while barely moving onstage. It's so egregious that it almost goes all the way around the dial back to awesome again, like some kind of weird performance art.
Well put. To be honest, how weird would it be if 90 year old Frankie was actually singing Marianne & the other classics for real in the original key? Would almost be terrifying, lol.
They used to do this all the time on TV music shows. It's easy to tell who was doing it live, and who was miming to the studio recording. This is the same technique movie musicals have used almost since the dawn of sound. They record the singing voice first and then they have the actor lip sync to the voice while shooting. It was common for years. It was even the plot of *Singin' in the Rain,* yet it didn't become controversial until they brought in Marni Nixon to dub Audrey Hepburn in *My Fair Lady.* After that, Hollywood gambled on casting undubbed non-singers as leads in musicals by surrounding them with people who actually had musical talent.
I did a gig years ago at a private party being held by a bunch of school teachers. One particular table near the stage didn't seem terribly overwhelmed by our performance and I could see them passing a sheet of paper between themselves, pointing at us and laughing. After they'd all gone, I was packing away my gear and noticed the sheet of paper was still there, so I went and read it. It said that we were too accurate in our playing of songs so we must have been miming. I took that as an unintentional compliment, but what really made me and the rest of the band laugh was the fact that whichever teacher wrote it had spelt miming, 'mimming'.
@@SaintKimbo Of course, no one ever carries a pen around with them and menus printed on sheets of paper are never seen in any room where food is served and no band ever plays at a volume where conversation is difficult.
@@AXE668 You.apparently, were playing cover songs that were so true to the original that you fooled Teachers into thinking you were miming? You must have a Singer with a fantastic range and the amazing ability to make the appropriate tonal changes, and you must have had a comprehensive range of instruments, to pull off those incredibly realistic recreations, just saying.
@@SaintKimbo He was an excellent singer, but I think it says more about the teacher who made the comment and their perception of live music than our actual abilities. Just saying.
Queen would leave the stage when the recorded (unreproducable live) middle section of Bohemian Rhapsody was played. The band had too much integrity to even be seen on stage if they weren't playing what was being heard.
I saw them at Madison Square Garden in the early 80's and that's exactly what they did. The stage went dark, that section played at arena volume, and when they came back in the lights blared, the guitar wailed, and Mercury burst back with his amazing vocals to sing the rest of the song. The audience on their feet.
When I saw Queen in the late 70s in Houston, Freddie explained before playing it that they could not reproduce all of Bohemian Rhapsody live, so there would be holes in it. There were, and we loved it anyway.
Pretty ironic how Milli Vanilli was slammed, names dragged through the mud and publicly humiliated to the point of one member dying even. Now it’s the “new normal” and people don’t mind. Pathetic.
True but to be fair there is a difference. The artists in this video are all lip-syncing to vocals they themselves actually recorded (in other words they are lip-syncing to their own pre-recorded voices) whereas Milli Vanilli were miming to parts recorded by other singers.
It wasn't them singing in the first place. At least with the artists featured in this video, they did actually sing their own songs as recorded. They even performed them live for years. It's only recently, when they're way passed their prime and can't hit the notes required, have they resorted to miming, 'live', on stage.
Yes, a very fine ideal to aspire to, but unfortunately the absolute truckloads of money that both past and present mainstream music acts can earn sort of influences them to keep returning to the well long after their prime has past. However, their longevity may be a good thing if it reduces the number of cover bands that turn up at clubs and pubs to play the “hits” of the past.
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee Yes, and even if you’re not a fan or hers, she should still be admired for realising when enough is enough and retiring gracefully (no pun intended). Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for those other “classic rock” performers who have seen better days, who it seems will never ever have enough and continue to perform even if they have to “cheat” in the live arena by miming, using auto tune, adding pre-recorded backing music etc.
So much easier said than done. As that old saying goes. Too much easy busloads of $$$. And when you get caught or called out ...nothing happens or nothing is lost. Well unless you value your credibility. And credibility is under fire at all times now due to Al Gore's invention (the Internet lol) Move on with the show.
A great list Barry & as a huge Genesis fan myself watching Phil Collins sat on his rocking chair half crippled with absolutely no voice left was hurtful but at least he tried to sing live instead of these chancers you listed here!!
This is intolerable to me. At least Ian Anderson is adjusting older works to fit his voice. In 1977 Jon Anderson was having an off night (at the start anyway) and couldn’t sing the “ing” in Going For The One, so he sang Go For The One. Fine. In 1981, Peter Gabriel apologized in advance for no longer being able to sing Games Without Frontiers as he had previously as he could no longer hit the high notes. Wonderful. Keep it real.
@@nsbd90now I thought that was a negative comment, but I didn't know who Ian Anderson was, but think it was Jon you meant (don't know him either). I check out that song and you're right, he sucks. I couldn't get through 20 seconds listening to him.
@@floridaredneck I saw Jon Anderson (from Yes) close up in a small hall just a couple of years ago and he sounded terrific. My understanding is Ian Anderson-- a chain-smoker-- was told by physicians in the early 80s to rest he voice. He ignored them, continued on tour and totally wrecked it. People must have different levels of sensitivity because I've not been able to listen to him live since then, but he still tours and people still pay for it.
@@nsbd90now I used to like Yes, along with the other famous bands of that era; BTO was around the same time I think. I didn't know the band members by name, so Jon was not familiar to me then or even now. It really is time for those 70s bands to quit. I say, don't let the young folks hear you now and ruin it. Do they really want to be heard when they are not at their best? I smoked also (I don't now) and as a performer went from a tenor to a baritone over time, like Elton did also. Difference is, I knew it and acted on it. I'll play one of my older recordings and people will say, "I'd love to hear you sing that". I just smile and wait for the subject to change. "Maybe sometime", is my response and sometime isn't coming. I can't compete with my younger voice and I'm not going to try.
Who's got a big red cherry nose ? Who's got a really big bad cold ? Cherry nose, big bad cold Must be Krusty, must be Krusty Must be Krusty, Krusty the clown !
sad to hear this of Joan Jett - Frankly - none of the others surprise me - The Eagles who're known for their singing - are also known for their sterility - so this makes sense to me. Roger lost me a long time ago. The others are just cartoon characters anyway
I agree. Bands like The Eagles, with prohibitively expensive tickets, should be doing it live. And if they are incapable of getting it up, vocally speaking, should just retire and lies on a bed of their millions.
I was under the impression some " acts" do. The difference between ..in concert....a performance by.....appearing live...was, I assumed, a legal technicality to protect from the artist from charges of fraud. Is that the fix ; a legal definition of a show being live vs.partially live ? Or something like food labels where all the ingredients must be listed.. IDK how shit works...does the soundboard push everything the live and the tracks ? Could you have a public view of the soundboard with certified accurate source labels ? ( Not that it would be hard to cheat, but accompanying hefty fines to discourage fraud.)
When the place is so big that you have to look at a screen to see the show, that's when I don't bother. Smaller gigs with connection between the musicians and the audience, that's the point of a concert. Of, course, this is just my opinion...
I agree. I went to see Simon & Garfunkel in Hyde Park, along with 50,000 other people. I was watching one of the big screens when I realised I could do the same at home without paying £75. I then tried to watch what was happening on stage, which was a very long way away. I bought the DVD of the tour so I could see what I’d missed. They might just as well put the DVD on the screen and given S&G the evening off. Never again!
Thats why you have to give props to the likes David Coverdale and Ian Gillan, they haven't sounded great for a good few years now but they've never resorted to this. They have always given it their all. Then there are Paul Rodgers and Glenn Hughes who defy age. But I totally agree. This cannot be normalised.
Well lip syncing should be completely abandoned and not allowed. If they cannot perform to their usual and past glory then simply make adjustments so that you can do your best as is.
Backing tapes are simply wrong. If you want to add extra sound use extra musicians. Waters is a disgrace, the more so given all his anti-corporate posturing
Depends on whether the performer / band are being honest about it. Wayne Coyne was honest about there being a backing tape for the orchestration on the Flaming Lips Yoshimi tour and it's one of the best live shows I've ever been to.
That could be the difference between a profitable tour and a loss for many artists. I don't mind a band playing alongside a click to sync up with extra production elements or to allow patch/EQ/effects automation, as long as the whole band are there playing live.
@@harrynewiss4630 I'm not sure it's an obsession, and sometimes the production elements are pretty important to the song. But you do you. If you need that level of authenticy then that's a perfectly cromulent opinion to hold, I'm just a bit less fussy myself. I draw the line at miming and 99% of autotune use.
@@harrynewiss4630 I honestly don't mean this as a troll question, I'm just curious to your opinion on something. How do you feel about the band playing to a click track, and then having software handle all of the patch changes on the synths and guitar setups (which used to be the musicians 'job'), changing effects and EQ for the vocals, lightening the workload for the soundy? This is audience-invisible 'cheating' - does it bother you at all, is it even on your radar, or does it count as acceptable technical assistance?
Part of the problem with rock music right now is these bands are still touring at all. I grew up in the 70's and 80's and these bands were great. Now they are 60, 70, 80 years old. Rock and Roll is supposed to be young, vital, rebellious, not geriatric. As you age, your vocal folds thicken and become less flexible. These bands are lip syncing because they can't sing anymore, period. They are too old to be doing this and are taking up venues that up and coming bands should be playing. I never understood going to see these bands play live in the 2020's. If I want to see a fat old man that can't sing, I can look in the mirror.
There was a time when these guys doing this would help young bands, they could open for them, but now you get The Band for three hours and that's it. And the reason they can tour at 70 - 80 is they are not really touring, they fly to a new city, go to a sound check, show up for the show, and then fly to the next city. Roadies and arrangers do everything for them. They are traveling more than touring. They earned it, but (and it may not matter in 20 or 30 years) this is what they will be remembered for by their generation, greed, and for not having the pride in their legacy to go out on top. Someone did not see Maiden in the 80's or 90's too bad, seeing them at 70 is not seeing Maiden.
I don't have a problem with anyone performing as they get older but it irks me when they don't mature a little bit as they get older. Most of them have fake hair, dress the way they did 40 years ago and use prerecorded music. I have way more respect for those who let their hair grey or fall out naturally and write new music from their current perspective or reinterpret older songs.
I have seen The Cure play live every few years over the past 35 years and they are still performing all live. Robert Smith still sounds like he did in 1992. That is what I want in a concert - live, solid, but we can still hear the mistakes.
Yes. I saw them last year. They still sound incredible. I do sort of wish he’d give up the hair do and makeup because he looks like an old woman on a bender, but I’ll let it slide 😂
@@aimeedouglas1584 he’ll never give it up. I think he meant it when he said he’ll stop touring when he loses his hair. :) But his voice… he has maintained a lot of clarity in his voice - he still sounds very young (despite the looks).
When I was a teen, early 20’s in the 70’s, most concerts I went to were in smaller venues, the largest an ice arena. These concerts were about the music and often how they played the song different from studio recordings. The music is the show. Now it is all about the dancing and props. The music is secondary.
Roger Waters has been miming to a tape since Pink Floyd was doing the Wall in 80-81. Dude burned out trying to sing the album the first few shows and after that it was on tape. So much of the Pros and Cons tour was on tape as well. Every Stranger's Eyes has never been sang live ever. It's just been what he's done for 40 years. I'm not surprised he's #1
@@gwimbly519 My bad, I knew the first couple nights was live but I wasn't sure if it was just The Trail or the full show. I do know that every tour after that had fake vocals all over the show. The high vocals on the Pros and Cons tour had Running Shoes, Go Fishing and Every Strangers Eyes. The version of Every Strangers Eyes on In The Flesh in 2000 is clearly the same vocal from the studio album. Later on the higher part of When We Were Young is the same studio vocal take every time live too.
@@nathanaelpeace9550 Yeah. He does mime in all his solo tours but to different degrees. His singing has an extreme range and he used to scream a lot. Even with some miming in the pros and cons tour he destroyed his voice by the time radio kaos rolled around. I think he shines when he sings live even today.
@@nathanaelpeace9550 If what you say is true then maybe he feels he has little choice. Quite possible his voice just can't handle all the singing so he either has to use aids or can't really tour.
I don't understand the appeal of going to a Rock concert were the band is in thier 60s 70s and probably some in thier 80s. For me there is nothing sader in the entertainment world then old men trying to make a living by reliving and performing the songs of thier youth on stage. Sometimes it's okay to just enjoy the memories without going to a lame old folks show.
Probably already happening "This is Fred. He's been the roadie for Roger Waters since the 70s and this is Eddie, Freds roadie who does all the $%^& Fred cannot do anymore."🤣
Can't fake it with classical music - no microphones, no speakers - you just have to do it. I've been to an opera where a singer has actually lost his voice before the end of the opera - it was embarrassing but he had to own up to it - no where to hide. The problem with popular music (and don't get me wrong - I love it - mostly) is that technology has been allowed to overwhelm the making of music - both live and recorded. It has managed to get in between the art and the artist. And it's a bit like a drug habit - once you start down that road . . . Don't know how we are going to fix this. Just have to keep calling it out.
They may not be everyone's cup of tea, but you can still always trust Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam when it comes to live shows. Saw them both nights Hyde park 2022 and it was a great live experience.
@@dewiwilliams4821 I think it was Boston. The audience sang along loudly every word, so I was hearing them as much as the band. I don't remember it being like that when I saw them in the nineties.
@danaaronmusic yes bro 100% a lot of the audiences can be like football/soccer fans. It's a sing along for all the usual suspect songs. That's why it's good when they do the newer songs, because no one knows the words!
First off, I'm not surprised by any of the "artists" mentioned to be guilty of this. Secondly, I can only blame the public for paying to see all of the idiots mentioned. As long as there are fools willing to part with their cash, these "musicians " will only continue to pretend to play for them.
@@gevansmdit’s not that he had his vocals raised in pitch, the tempo of the song was changed. At the time the only way to do this was to speed up the tape which results in the pitch changing. So the entire track is slightly higher than recorded. This was very common up until digital recording tools became more common.
As the years go by, fronting a rock band is one of the toughest jobs around. There is an argument that some fans honestly think someone around 60 or older should still be hitting the notes they hit at 20. Impossible in most cases but it leads to this kind of scenario, or at least encourages it. Either restructure the song to match the voice and key or get another singer!
I'd rather suffer through a full live show of Sir Paul's aged efforts than to be insulted by this or chronic auto tune. To be honest, I wouldn't pay current car payment ticket prices for either. All that said, I've been hoping that Sir Paul will voluntarily step down and acknowledge......life and age. You've got nothing left to prove man. Roger Waters and Don Henley should go on a long world tour together in a very small micro-bus. They deserve one another.
Sir Paul proved to everyone back in the 60s that he needs the live shows more than we do(When he tried to drag his three bandmates to Tunisia for a live show and Lennon told him he was warming more to the idea of playing an asylum or when he wanted Wings to be a house band on a Cruise Ship). The tours will get smaller and smaller, but he will still be wheeled out on stage for the cheers.
No doubt. I saw a lot of those bands in the 90s, and even then, it felt largely like a nostalgia event. I can't imagine taking the trouble to see these bands as geriatrics and thinking it has any semblance of what they were like in their prime.
Absolutely Alice Cooper is the best old rocker going he has aged into his part better than any other old rocker his band is great he sounds great the show is great and it's below a hundred bucks
It probably helps that he cleaned up his act many years ago, when he still had a chance to save his voice. I've been singing/recording off and on for over 30 years. My voice is not what is was, but it isn't bad, either. The more I take care of it the better it is. A healthier lifestyle most likely saved his life, but certainly helped his singing voice.
Francis Rossi is still belting it our live with the mighty Quo at the ripe old age of 74. They always hated having to mime on shows like TOTP etc. RIP Rick - badly missed fella.
I saw the zombies live in concert last November, sometimes they did sound like 70-year-olds singing, but it was genuine and quite moving for what it was. I give them all the credit in the world.
I have to say this on the subject at hand; I have so much more respect and true love for Florence Foster Jenkins than for these greedy fake bastards! At least she wasn’t fake!!!
I was at The Eagles last night on Saturday at the co op Live Manchester. i took my camera in with me as it said on their website cameras are allowed except professional ones. I zoomed in on Don Henley singing hotel California . When I watched my vid at home the next day on my laptop I was shocked to see he was miming it. A friend of mine who was nearer to the stage told me her friends with her said Joe Walsh mimed parts too. The dishonesty of them is sad.
Milli Vanilli weren't just lip syncing, it was never their voices on the recordings. Other artists voices were recorded and they were just paid actors pretending to perform. The same was true for Bobby Farrell from Boney M who never actually sang anything. It was Frank Farian's voice and everything was lip sync'd. Milli Vanilli was Frank Farian's idea as well.
Noticing your shirt, I remembered a little story about Miles. My husband and I were sitting at a bar in Cancun in the mid '80s drinking tequila and we noticed someone sitting at the bar. It was dark in the bar and probably about 3-4 in the afternoon. So my husband asked this guy to come sit with us. He obliged and pretty soon he asked if we'd like to get high at his apartment. We said sure and followed him there. As we walked in we noticed instruments everywhere. My husband, being a musician said he played guitar and asked the man what he played. We were calling him Mr. Davis at this point. Finally I noticed a record on the floor and it had Miles Davis on the cover. I said I really enjoyed his music and Mr. Davis said "Thanks"....it only took us 2 hours to recognize we were partying with Miles Davis. Nothing like being STUPID!!
When you said we don't care about integrity it suddenly hit me that I don't think these kind of character issues and principles have been explained or taught or reinforced for a very long time in all areas of our culture and society.
It naturally happens to the voice as you get older, CSN had to tune down to D in order for them to be able to sing the Falsetto harmonies in things like "Suite Judy Blue Eyes", I used to play in bands back when I was a teen, until my 40s, and today at 60, there are plenty of background vocal parts I can't reach anymore, because my voice won't go that high anymore If anything, the bands should LOWER THE PITCH OF THE SONG and learn it in a lower key so that they can still sing it. You don't see Robert Plant belting out his 1970s stuff like "Immigration SOng" at his age today, I bet he can't even reach those notes anymore, just like Geddy Lee too, when Rush used to perform their older stuff, Geddy would change the melody to something lower he could still reach in pitch, because he can't reach those notes he was able to when he was young. That's the result of getting older.
And you can always have a couple of backing singers hit those high notes for you. Seen a couple of bands do that. At least they are being honest about it.
I’ve been performing live for a really long time. I’ve always said if you can’t play it live, you have no business being on stage. To this day, I still refuse to play with anyone who uses backing tracks.
I am not on board paying £150+ to see some washed up band from a mile away anyway. The more mugs go along and pay these prices, the more they'll charge
You are spot on, here. Take a band like Radiohead. They rework all albums thoroughly for the live shows and so put on a heck of a performance. Live play is less about accuracy and more about spirit. I remember watching Bowie in Chicago about 1990 or so. He had pre-recorded backup vocals and videos, but not main vocals. I never considered this a cheat, and his concert that night was exceptional. The outdoor venue was only half full, but the energy he put out was amazing.
If you can't trust them to perform live vote with your feet. Unless you don't care and want to see them regardless as I suspect many fans do. I prefer to remember my favourite bands in their prime and now look out for new talent in small venues.
These cats can claim to be singing “live” and probably are. But the vocal the audience actually hears was prerecorded so the singer just sings along “live” with a mic that might not even be plugged in. Singing live...yes. Audience hears...prerecorded.
Do we think this may have actually been happening for years but the ubiquity of smart phones and social media has meant that more artists are being caught doing it?
At a show, it is easy to tell if something isn't being performed live: it sounds too accurate. In a live setting, instruments including vocals will sound slightly off from the record version.
I think it's a generational thing. When I see current concert footage online,it seems most in the audience are watching the stage through their phones. That's their experience of the show. Can I also safely assume that they want to hear their favourite song as it was put together in the studio? Some of my favourite bands would improvise in a live setting and would go where the spirit takes them. We now live in a world, thanks to social media,of hype and bs, and the audience wants to see this live, they aren't paying big bucks to hear improvised versions of their favourite songs. It's now a spectacle as opposed to an experience.
Shame, I was really looking forward to seeing Roger Water’s last tour - the staging looked amazing - but there’s no way I’m paying all that money to see someone lip-sync to a live band. Sadly, when pop artists started to concentrate more on the choreography than the music, the lip syncing thing became acceptable.
What rock n roll "has become", IS NOT rock n roll ! Rock N Roll is Chuck Berry showing up for a gig, (probably a little late) guitar & amp in hand (usually out of tune) a high school or local three or four piece band waiting for him. He plugs in, apologizes for being late, then starts Rock'N that audience out of their seats, one song after the other until the sweat is pouring down his body, and on to his strings and the audience is exhausted and rung out ! THAT IS TRUE ROCK N ROLL MY FRIENDS !
You might as well save a lot of money and just buy the blu-ray or 4K disc, then put that money you saved toward a big screen TV, and voilla! You will have a similar fake performance but with better and more comfortable seating, and bathroom breaks anytime at the press of a button.
A "couple" of years ago I had the privilage to see Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Chuck Berry in Budapest. Oldies, but for sure abslutely no lip sync!
I’ve just seen a video on CZcams (Wings of Pegasus) where Fil has taken two recordings made six months apart of Don Henley singing ‘live’, and put them through voice recognition software (I know…). That shows that both recordings are identical. Assuming the software is working properly, and that it analyses two different recordings (rather than the same one twice!), that does rather make the point. Another point, simpler to prove, is that when DH sang Desperado live for Howard Stern, it was in the key of F. But in concert it’s in the key of G, higher and more difficult to sing - unless it’s on a computer…
I don't know how much lip sync Roger has used in more recent years, but I've heard about half of the concerts of his Wall solo tour in bootleg quality and still they all sound the same. Which is technically impossible with the live vocals. I remember some other evidences. The 2006 videos display it well and honestly, you can't just sing "Every stranger's eyes" at the same level every night (he played it in 1999-2002).
Makes me appreciate a guy like Gordon Lightfoot, who, right up til the end, sang his stuff live as best he could, despite having lost a huge amount of his former vocal power. The audiences didn't mind. They appreciated his dedication and held him in such high regard.
Great video, perhaps these bands should adopt the advice Mark Twain provided in the following quote, “Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
I know I've never been the sharpest crayon in the box, but I have been wondering for quite a few years now how so many bands of seventy year olds could still be touring. I think we have our answer.
It's especially surprising and hurtful when warm and kind-hearted people like Don Henley and Roger Waters get caught doing this type of thing. Can we trust no one anymore?
To be fair he uses it to hide a mutilated ear he's self conscious about. I'm rarely one to defend Kiss but costumes are kind of their thing. Their only thing, really.
Nobody ever tried to pass those off as live performances though. TV shows didn't want the expense and hassle of having to use music sound mixing teams etc, that's all that was.
The best performer now is Steven Wilson saw him a couple yrs ago.The day before his voice was giving out on him.When I saw him the next day he said he's going to try and hit the notes but it will be live and if I can't hit the notes I apologize
Have to say, Glenn sounds amazing on the new BCC songs. If he can still do that live at 73, then there can be no doubt he is still "The Voice of Rock".
Hello there...or, as Scot Lade would say (well, shout), greetings and salutations! Thanks to Spinning Prog and The Prog Corner, I discovered your channel. Although I am old enough to have been aware of the original progressive groups of the 1970s, I only discovered them in 2002. Prior to that I only listened to classical music, mainly baroque and 20th century. As an inveterate snob, I assumed 'pop music' was far too shallow and insubstantial for me to waste my valuable time upon. However, our group (UNIT) had Cheung Yiu Munn in it, an 18 year old Hong Kong Chinese lad who was our flute and guitar player from 2002 to 2011. He found my musical snobbery deplorable and insisted I take notice of these ancient groups he loved (primarily Jethro Tull, ELP, Yes, Genesis and Dream Theatre). To cut a long story short, while I found some of that music interesting, even inspiring (especially Tull), I investigated further and managed to discover Colosseum, The Family, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Curved Air, The Family and Gentle Giant by myself. The Family and Gentle Giant are, to date, the only groups for which I have in my collection every studio tracks they ever recorded. There are few tracks from Bandstand that only barely make the grade and most (but not all) of the tracks from the final 3 Giant albums are definitely below par yet still good enough (but only just) for me to retain in my collection. The advantage for me here is that my introduction to this music is devoid of any hint of nostalgia so it was all totally new to me. (As an aside, it's faintly ironic it took a Chinese teenager to introduce me to music from my own culture. I wonder though...how did an 18 year old Chinese lad become acquainted with numerous progressive rock groups from the 1970s?) Anyway, when I heard Octopus and Glass House for the first time (in 2003), I could not believe what I heard. I spent 3 or 4 days listening to those 2 albums in order to try to comprehend all the different, disparate musical strands. Like The Family they utilised all manner of varied instruments but unlike The Family they mastered harmony, counterpoint and rhythmic complexity that forced me to admit not only classical musicians know how to compose and perform music that merited my attention - groovy! The progressive rock influence is apparent on a fair number of our own pieces although we do not possess the astonishing technical proficiency of any of these groups, especially not Gentle Giant, but I don't want this to appear as a thinkly disguised attempt to advertise our own group, so I'll stop here. I'm also a qualified youth worker and, over 3 decades working in clubs, I've noticed that as I approached the 21st century, more and more teenagers took a greater interest in older music. When I was their age, my peers would never be caught listening to the kind of stuff their mums and dads liked - the shame of it! However, by 2006 I found 14 year olds with i-pods listening to Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple and Genesis...among others. I was shocked, pleased even but also slightly disturbed...because does that suggest contemporary pop music failed to fulfil their desires for a soundtrack to their own lives? Anyway, I suspect I'm babbling so I'll leave you alone now.
It stands to reason that people who are too busy recording a concert on their phones to actually enjoy it, probably do not give a crap whether it is an authentic performance or not. They're not there for the music they're just there for an experience that they can show off
When paying £150 for a lip synced show you should be able to use forged bank notes
I like this a lot.
Lol agreed!
Yeah, to Hades with that mess.
It's paying through the nose just to be in the vicinity of a band, to lay eyes on their physical presence as they mime.
None for me, thanks.
Same with utility bills
I think that's the real problem. The crazy ticket prices mean crazy pressure to justify that expense with the ' perfect' performance.
If you can't hit the notes, change the key or stay home.
Charging $200+ for tickets so the audience can watch you gyrate around to your CD is shameful.
Changing key can change the colour and texture (not always, but often can), and the sort of songs that these rock artists perform just don't sound right in a lower register vocal as emphasis is often on these high notes.
I just think they should stop it.
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee I wouldn't be going to see them anyway so no biggie.
But that's what averege audience wants and gets. They don't go to such concerts for listening for the music. They go there for celebrating their idols.
@@giles7662 I've been playing live for over 30 years, it's not that bad unless you are burned out
$200.00 is cheap if its a good seat. These bands are asking for thousands,,,no thanks.
My attitude has always been: If you can't do it live, you can't really do it, can you?
I don't like big arena gigs, I would rather go to a local pub and see a band, have a drink and not have to get another mortgage.
Me too,so true.
i agree, i saw Megadeth and Slayer and GBH at the same 200 person club in Denver as a kid. The bands playing today hardly know how to play live, it isn't the same experience. Dweezil Zappa and a few people are out there putting on great shows at small/medium size venues, while Motley Crue and other geriatric bands who were never great to begin with are fleecing ticket buyers. People need to have some perspective, most of the bands on this list are not even worth going to see in the first place.
Yes! As one who has been both performer and patron in smaller, less formal venues, the magic happens with intimate crowds, not massive populations packed into enormous arenas.
And actually being able to see the band without the use of binoculars.
@@David-mg1yj well i saw all those bands at Clash of the Titans at Red Rocks in 1990 or whatever, so there can be some good shows at decent venues, and watched the crowd throw every cooler and other piece of furniture they brought on stage while Alice in Chains played before they were well known ... but these days ... no one is really worth the effort
As an enormous Pink Floyd fan, the last Roger Waters tour was the worst concert I've ever been to. Unimaginably horrible. Political BS surrounded by a dazzling light show and a good band just going through the motions. His new music was absolute shit and yes he was faking the old stuff. I wanted to leave but needed to stick around for my ride.
Know wot u mean,interestingly not that long ago a few years b4 the plandemic roger was really good at Hyde Park apart from his hatred for Trump.I also was very close to him when he sang wish you were here for Julian Assange outside one of the spy agencies and he sang really well even though he was very nervous
Well I guess I don't need to feel upset anymore about missing his last tour then.
I disagree, I loved every minute of it
@@Nrustica I'm glad you enjoyed it, I'm sure a lot of people did. The band, stage and sound were excellent. Having seen Floyd play when Roger was great, I found the whole experience deeply depressing.
I thought it was great.
Madonna must be the most infamous lip-syncer.
At least, she has dance routines.
@@michaeladkins6 Are you serious lmfao.
@@michaeladkins6 Assuming you are prepared to wait three hours for her to turn up
Milli Vanilli and Ashlee Simpson would beg to differ! 😂
Not that Madonna deserves any defending… she is an embarrassing spectacle these days!
Thank you for putting Roger Waters at #1. He has the nerve to hit his audience over the head with heavy-handed politics, rudely tells them to F*CK OFF if they don't like his message, but never bothers to tell them that he mimes his live shows. Roger is the greediest man in rock and roll because he blathers on about how much he hates greed while engaging in so much of it himself.
Hmmm…makes me wonder if he and Don Henley were twins separated at birth.
Agreed.
Aren't all liberals, hypocrites?
He not only lip syncs, his bass is pre-recorded. There is a video of him, you clearly hear the bass, but his fingers are not on the bass.
@@alandesgrange9703 Roger Waters isn't just a liberal, he a full-blown, anti-western socialist. He talks down on any person or enterprise who purely looks out for their bottom line while doing the exact same thing himself. Just like a good little Marxist, Roger accuses others of doing the very things he's guilty of.
I saw Chuck E. Cheese live in 1989 and they weren't even playing their own instruments!!
Hey I was a kid at the original location at Tully and hwy 101 in San Jose in ‘77, and let me tell you it was a kickass performance! 😂🐭🍕
I gots day autographed cd.
@@kevbob Ditto; I was there on Tully... It was mayhem on the floor. Singular performance(s)! 😝
My kids went to chunky cheese back in the 80’s
After the second time there . They even said what a rip ! Crap food , ridiculous furry band !
I always suspected that! Thanks, for confirming!
Frankie Valli is the undisputed master of the blatant lip sync and he's been doing it for something like 20 years. The man is a few days away from 90 and is "singing" with the ringing falsetto of himself recorded when he was decades younger, all while barely moving onstage. It's so egregious that it almost goes all the way around the dial back to awesome again, like some kind of weird performance art.
Well put. To be honest, how weird would it be if 90 year old Frankie was actually singing Marianne & the other classics for real in the original key? Would almost be terrifying, lol.
He's not lip syncing. It's just his lips are moving too fast for anyone to notice.
Paid big money to watch. Him lip sync. Don’t dare mention it because they will roast you. Sad
@@Mr.RobsSmartCookies2 If he changed the band name to Mime Geezer he would still sell some tickets
They used to do this all the time on TV music shows. It's easy to tell who was doing it live, and who was miming to the studio recording. This is the same technique movie musicals have used almost since the dawn of sound. They record the singing voice first and then they have the actor lip sync to the voice while shooting. It was common for years. It was even the plot of *Singin' in the Rain,* yet it didn't become controversial until they brought in Marni Nixon to dub Audrey Hepburn in *My Fair Lady.* After that, Hollywood gambled on casting undubbed non-singers as leads in musicals by surrounding them with people who actually had musical talent.
I did a gig years ago at a private party being held by a bunch of school teachers. One particular table near the stage didn't seem terribly overwhelmed by our performance and I could see them passing a sheet of paper between themselves, pointing at us and laughing. After they'd all gone, I was packing away my gear and noticed the sheet of paper was still there, so I went and read it. It said that we were too accurate in our playing of songs so we must have been miming. I took that as an unintentional compliment, but what really made me and the rest of the band laugh was the fact that whichever teacher wrote it had spelt miming, 'mimming'.
Why would a table of Teachers have paper and pens at a party, and be writing messages to each other?
I smell BS.
@@SaintKimbo Of course, no one ever carries a pen around with them and menus printed on sheets of paper are never seen in any room where food is served and no band ever plays at a volume where conversation is difficult.
@@AXE668
You.apparently, were playing cover songs that were so true to the original that you fooled Teachers into thinking you were miming?
You must have a Singer with a fantastic range and the amazing ability to make the appropriate tonal changes, and you must have had a comprehensive range of instruments, to pull off those incredibly realistic recreations, just saying.
@@SaintKimbo He was an excellent singer, but I think it says more about the teacher who made the comment and their perception of live music than our actual abilities. Just saying.
@@SaintKimbo Women never have pens or pencils in their pocketbooks?
Therefore: praise to Paul McCartney.
And Roger Daltrey.
@@lib556 and Bob Dylan
& Alice Cooper blows all the other old rockers away.
They all lip sync
@DaddyWarbucksunlimited Everyone? Not a soul that doesn't? OK Mr Cynical! 🤔
Queen would leave the stage when the recorded (unreproducable live) middle section of Bohemian Rhapsody was played. The band had too much integrity to even be seen on stage if they weren't playing what was being heard.
I saw them at Madison Square Garden in the early 80's and that's exactly what they did. The stage went dark, that section played at arena volume, and when they came back in the lights blared, the guitar wailed, and Mercury burst back with his amazing vocals to sing the rest of the song. The audience on their feet.
thats rad
When I saw Queen in the late 70s in Houston, Freddie explained before playing it that they could not reproduce all of Bohemian Rhapsody live, so there would be holes in it. There were, and we loved it anyway.
Pretty ironic how Milli Vanilli was slammed, names dragged through the mud and publicly humiliated to the point of one member dying even. Now it’s the “new normal” and people don’t mind. Pathetic.
True but to be fair there is a difference. The artists in this video are all lip-syncing to vocals they themselves actually recorded (in other words they are lip-syncing to their own pre-recorded voices) whereas Milli Vanilli were miming to parts recorded by other singers.
@@xrandy11 that is a good point which I missed out on. Was more focusing on the lip syncing and the mess they went through.
To be fair, they didn’t even sing on their own records, never mind live.
That's a terrible analogy. Milli Vanilli never sang any of their own songs. You're not comparing apples with apples.
It wasn't them singing in the first place. At least with the artists featured in this video, they did actually sing their own songs as recorded. They even performed them live for years. It's only recently, when they're way passed their prime and can't hit the notes required, have they resorted to miming, 'live', on stage.
Some musicians (probably more than that) should follow Grace Slick's example and retire from rock music at the age of 50.
Especially when your Grace SlicK. 😊
Yes, a very fine ideal to aspire to, but unfortunately the absolute truckloads of money that both past and present mainstream music acts can earn sort of influences them to keep returning to the well long after their prime has past. However, their longevity may be a good thing if it reduces the number of cover bands that turn up at clubs and pubs to play the “hits” of the past.
@@Spo-Dee-O-Dee Yes, and even if you’re not a fan or hers, she should still be admired for realising when enough is enough and retiring gracefully (no pun intended). Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for those other “classic rock” performers who have seen better days, who it seems will never ever have enough and continue to perform even if they have to “cheat” in the live arena by miming, using auto tune, adding pre-recorded backing music etc.
So much easier said than done. As that old saying goes. Too much easy busloads of $$$. And when you get caught or called out ...nothing happens or nothing is lost. Well unless you value your credibility. And credibility is under fire at all times now due to Al Gore's invention (the Internet lol) Move on with the show.
Mick Jagger once said he and other rockers should retire by 30. Mick thinks we believe him when he says he’s 29.
A great list Barry & as a huge Genesis fan myself watching Phil Collins sat on his rocking chair half crippled with absolutely no voice left was hurtful but at least he tried to sing live instead of these chancers you listed here!!
I feel sorry for the younger generations. Exorbitant prices for lip-synching! We didn't know how fortunate we were back in the day!
Kiss, Crue and Wasp were all shit BEFORE they started cheating!
Spot on Sir!
Come on not true WASP and The Headless Children is a masterpiece.
Mick Mars was always AWESOME… and he never cheated, while the rest of the band did…. that’s part of the lawsuit!
@@joen8529of course he did - there were two guitars playing most of the time but only Mick on stage.
Well said 👏
I saw Kraftwerk a few years ago and they had a bunch of robots singing for them. They weren’t even hiding it.
I dont think Kraftwerk have actually played anything live since 1981, but I think this is part of their schtick.
Were they in tune??? 🤖
@@phillipsothern8163 They were optimally calibrated and well oiled.
This is intolerable to me. At least Ian Anderson is adjusting older works to fit his voice. In 1977 Jon Anderson was having an off night (at the start anyway) and couldn’t sing the “ing” in Going For The One, so he sang Go For The One. Fine. In 1981, Peter Gabriel apologized in advance for no longer being able to sing Games Without Frontiers as he had previously as he could no longer hit the high notes. Wonderful. Keep it real.
Ian Anderson's vocals are a wreck no "adjusting" is able to fix.
@@nsbd90now I thought that was a negative comment, but I didn't know who Ian Anderson was, but think it was Jon you meant (don't know him either). I check out that song and you're right, he sucks. I couldn't get through 20 seconds listening to him.
@@floridaredneck I saw Jon Anderson (from Yes) close up in a small hall just a couple of years ago and he sounded terrific. My understanding is Ian Anderson-- a chain-smoker-- was told by physicians in the early 80s to rest he voice. He ignored them, continued on tour and totally wrecked it. People must have different levels of sensitivity because I've not been able to listen to him live since then, but he still tours and people still pay for it.
@@nsbd90now I used to like Yes, along with the other famous bands of that era; BTO was around the same time I think. I didn't know the band members by name, so Jon was not familiar to me then or even now. It really is time for those 70s bands to quit. I say, don't let the young folks hear you now and ruin it.
Do they really want to be heard when they are not at their best? I smoked also (I don't now) and as a performer went from a tenor to a baritone over time, like Elton did also. Difference is, I knew it and acted on it. I'll play one of my older recordings and people will say, "I'd love to hear you sing that". I just smile and wait for the subject to change. "Maybe sometime", is my response and sometime isn't coming. I can't compete with my younger voice and I'm not going to try.
@@floridaredneck Yeah. Especially when there are so few original members it basically becomes a tribute band.
I went to see Bob Dylan about 15 years ago and it was clear that he was singing live. He sounded like Krusty the clown with a really bad cold.
That could just have easily been a CD, this IS Dylan we're talking about here.
Who's got a big red cherry nose ?
Who's got a really big bad cold ?
Cherry nose, big bad cold
Must be Krusty, must be Krusty
Must be Krusty, Krusty the clown !
Yes I have had the honour of seeing him live as well. Yawn
@@sirbaronvoncount4147 I agree, I didn't understand a word and he could have been a mannequin . total yawn!
That was hilarious. I'm going to use that!
sad to hear this of Joan Jett - Frankly - none of the others surprise me - The Eagles who're known for their singing - are also known for their sterility - so this makes sense to me. Roger lost me a long time ago. The others are just cartoon characters anyway
Roger Waters blames Israel for him not being able to sing anymore.
I agree. Bands like The Eagles, with prohibitively expensive tickets, should be doing it live. And if they are incapable of getting it up, vocally speaking, should just retire and lies on a bed of their millions.
To a lot of people, theres never enough money to be had. Sad.
I think people should be notified if performers are using recordings before they buy a ticket
*The Partridge Family* had such a credit in every episode. These shows can't even manage that!
I was under the impression some " acts" do. The difference between ..in concert....a performance by.....appearing live...was, I assumed, a legal technicality to protect from the artist from charges of fraud.
Is that the fix ; a legal definition of a show being live vs.partially live ?
Or something like food labels where all the ingredients must be listed.. IDK how shit works...does the soundboard push everything the live and the tracks ?
Could you have a public view of the soundboard with certified accurate source labels ? ( Not that it would be hard to cheat, but accompanying hefty fines to discourage fraud.)
When the place is so big that you have to look at a screen to see the show, that's when I don't bother.
Smaller gigs with connection between the musicians and the audience, that's the point of a concert.
Of, course, this is just my opinion...
I agree. I went to see Simon & Garfunkel in Hyde Park, along with 50,000 other people. I was watching one of the big screens when I realised I could do the same at home without paying £75. I then tried to watch what was happening on stage, which was a very long way away. I bought the DVD of the tour so I could see what I’d missed. They might just as well put the DVD on the screen and given S&G the evening off. Never again!
I guess they wouldn't mind if we use counterfeit money to buy our tickets then. Seems fair.
Thats why you have to give props to the likes David Coverdale and Ian Gillan, they haven't sounded great for a good few years now but they've never resorted to this. They have always given it their all. Then there are Paul Rodgers and Glenn Hughes who defy age. But I totally agree. This cannot be normalised.
Roger Daltry sounds pretty good also.
Well lip syncing should be completely abandoned and not allowed. If they cannot perform to their usual and past glory then simply make adjustments so that you can do your best as is.
I'd like to thank these artists for keeping the forgotten art of mime alive.
Except when the forget to mime, of course! 🤣
Marcel Marceau would have been proud 😁.
Backing tapes are simply wrong. If you want to add extra sound use extra musicians.
Waters is a disgrace, the more so given all his anti-corporate posturing
Depends on whether the performer / band are being honest about it. Wayne Coyne was honest about there being a backing tape for the orchestration on the Flaming Lips Yoshimi tour and it's one of the best live shows I've ever been to.
That could be the difference between a profitable tour and a loss for many artists. I don't mind a band playing alongside a click to sync up with extra production elements or to allow patch/EQ/effects automation, as long as the whole band are there playing live.
@@chelfyn why the obsession with reproducing songs exactly as on the records? I can't help feeling that's an excuse
@@harrynewiss4630 I'm not sure it's an obsession, and sometimes the production elements are pretty important to the song.
But you do you. If you need that level of authenticy then that's a perfectly cromulent opinion to hold, I'm just a bit less fussy myself.
I draw the line at miming and 99% of autotune use.
@@harrynewiss4630 I honestly don't mean this as a troll question, I'm just curious to your opinion on something.
How do you feel about the band playing to a click track, and then having software handle all of the patch changes on the synths and guitar setups (which used to be the musicians 'job'), changing effects and EQ for the vocals, lightening the workload for the soundy?
This is audience-invisible 'cheating' - does it bother you at all, is it even on your radar, or does it count as acceptable technical assistance?
I got caught lip syncing in the shower, my wife wasn't happy....
I hope she took out on you immediately 😮
😂🤣😅
Weird. She doesn't mind when I sing in your shower.
Part of the problem with rock music right now is these bands are still touring at all. I grew up in the 70's and 80's and these bands were great. Now they are 60, 70, 80 years old. Rock and Roll is supposed to be young, vital, rebellious, not geriatric. As you age, your vocal folds thicken and become less flexible. These bands are lip syncing because they can't sing anymore, period. They are too old to be doing this and are taking up venues that up and coming bands should be playing. I never understood going to see these bands play live in the 2020's. If I want to see a fat old man that can't sing, I can look in the mirror.
😂👍
There was a time when these guys doing this would help young bands, they could open for them, but now you get The Band for three hours and that's it.
And the reason they can tour at 70 - 80 is they are not really touring, they fly to a new city, go to a sound check, show up for the show, and then fly to the next city. Roadies and arrangers do everything for them. They are traveling more than touring. They earned it, but (and it may not matter in 20 or 30 years) this is what they will be remembered for by their generation, greed, and for not having the pride in their legacy to go out on top.
Someone did not see Maiden in the 80's or 90's too bad, seeing them at 70 is not seeing Maiden.
Agree but the other problem is that a lot of bands today are not "vital, rebellious"
I don't have a problem with anyone performing as they get older but it irks me when they don't mature a little bit as they get older. Most of them have fake hair, dress the way they did 40 years ago and use prerecorded music. I have way more respect for those who let their hair grey or fall out naturally and write new music from their current perspective or reinterpret older songs.
@@davidlynds9483Yes, And Tears for Fears are wonderful examples 🎸
Lip sync is for pop bands, and has no place in rock, if you can't do it live, then stop......
I have seen The Cure play live every few years over the past 35 years and they are still performing all live. Robert Smith still sounds like he did in 1992. That is what I want in a concert - live, solid, but we can still hear the mistakes.
Yes. I saw them last year. They still sound incredible. I do sort of wish he’d give up the hair do and makeup because he looks like an old woman on a bender, but I’ll let it slide 😂
@@aimeedouglas1584 Let grandpa goth do his thing. It has looped around to being adorable at this point.
@@aimeedouglas1584 he’ll never give it up. I think he meant it when he said he’ll stop touring when he loses his hair. :)
But his voice… he has maintained a lot of clarity in his voice - he still sounds very young (despite the looks).
When I was a teen, early 20’s in the 70’s, most concerts I went to were in smaller venues, the largest an ice arena. These concerts were about the music and often how they played the song different from studio recordings. The music is the show. Now it is all about the dancing and props. The music is secondary.
Exactly. If I want a Broadway style performance I'll go to NYC, I don't need it from a 70's classic rock band.
I can assure you the Bay City Rollers never played anything live.
Roger Waters has been miming to a tape since Pink Floyd was doing the Wall in 80-81. Dude burned out trying to sing the album the first few shows and after that it was on tape. So much of the Pros and Cons tour was on tape as well. Every Stranger's Eyes has never been sang live ever. It's just been what he's done for 40 years. I'm not surprised he's #1
you talk as if all of the wall was done on tape when it was just the trial for obvious reasons
@@gwimbly519 My bad, I knew the first couple nights was live but I wasn't sure if it was just The Trail or the full show. I do know that every tour after that had fake vocals all over the show. The high vocals on the Pros and Cons tour had Running Shoes, Go Fishing and Every Strangers Eyes. The version of Every Strangers Eyes on In The Flesh in 2000 is clearly the same vocal from the studio album. Later on the higher part of When We Were Young is the same studio vocal take every time live too.
@@nathanaelpeace9550 Yeah. He does mime in all his solo tours but to different degrees. His singing has an extreme range and he used to scream a lot. Even with some miming in the pros and cons tour he destroyed his voice by the time radio kaos rolled around.
I think he shines when he sings live even today.
@@nathanaelpeace9550 If what you say is true then maybe he feels he has little choice. Quite possible his voice just can't handle all the singing so he either has to use aids or can't really tour.
I don't understand the appeal of going to a Rock concert were the band is in thier 60s 70s and probably some in thier 80s. For me there is nothing sader in the entertainment world then old men trying to make a living by reliving and performing the songs of thier youth on stage. Sometimes it's okay to just enjoy the memories without going to a lame old folks show.
Maybe sadder is adults who can't spell.
As an "old folk" I absolutely agree with you!
It really depends on the band.
Iron maiden still have it
@@JosesAmazingWorlds They really do.
The point that it will have gone too far is when the roadies have someone else carrying the equipment for them😂
Probably already happening "This is Fred. He's been the roadie for Roger Waters since the 70s and this is Eddie, Freds roadie who does all the $%^& Fred cannot do anymore."🤣
@@comicsrcool5483 😂
Can't fake it with classical music - no microphones, no speakers - you just have to do it. I've been to an opera where a singer has actually lost his voice before the end of the opera - it was embarrassing but he had to own up to it - no where to hide. The problem with popular music (and don't get me wrong - I love it - mostly) is that technology has been allowed to overwhelm the making of music - both live and recorded. It has managed to get in between the art and the artist. And it's a bit like a drug habit - once you start down that road . . . Don't know how we are going to fix this. Just have to keep calling it out.
I won't support it, but it is leaving me with fewer and fewer alternatives that are of the present.
I think it’s a disgrace. They charge us a fortune and then fake it? It’s taking money under false pretences. How have they not been sued?
I was 5th row when Roger did the Wall. More than close enough to watch him miss the cue on Waiting for the Worms in particular
They may not be everyone's cup of tea, but you can still always trust Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam when it comes to live shows. Saw them both nights Hyde park 2022 and it was a great live experience.
I've seen them many, many times. There have been shows where Eddie hasn't sounded his best, but he's never pulled this crap. He just gets on with it.
@@gwts1171 Last time I saw Pearl Jam was in 2006. Band was great. Audience ruined it.
@danaaronmusic I saw them at Reading that year too, what show are you talking about?
@@dewiwilliams4821 I think it was Boston. The audience sang along loudly every word, so I was hearing them as much as the band. I don't remember it being like that when I saw them in the nineties.
@danaaronmusic yes bro 100% a lot of the audiences can be like football/soccer fans. It's a sing along for all the usual suspect songs. That's why it's good when they do the newer songs, because no one knows the words!
First off, I'm not surprised by any of the "artists" mentioned to be guilty of this. Secondly, I can only blame the public for paying to see all of the idiots mentioned. As long as there are fools willing to part with their cash, these "musicians " will only continue to pretend to play for them.
Gotta defend Mick Mars… he always performed live, while the rest of his band couldn’t handle it!
Agreed, and him with horrible back pain and the oldest! It shows a lot of character to play through all that pain. 🍻
Rather than lip sync, Elton John was singing his hits in a lower key for the past 10 years or more. In my opinion, that’s the way to do it.
At the time Yellow Brick Road was released the story was he had his vocals artificially raised in pitch for the album.
And then he butchered 'I'm still standing' during Lockdown,so bad it was hilarious!
@@gevansmdit’s not that he had his vocals raised in pitch, the tempo of the song was changed. At the time the only way to do this was to speed up the tape which results in the pitch changing. So the entire track is slightly higher than recorded. This was very common up until digital recording tools became more common.
I saw the Elton John at dodgers stadium show on tv and he sounded pretty bad to be honest. Don't know if he was just having an off night.
Elton increases the tempo of his tunes live... they are all still played in then same key... his voice is just deeper and he lost his falsetto.
How Joan Jett got into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was beyond me.
Diversity
I can only think of a couple of songs of hers.😂. Maybe I'm being unfair and her catalogue is full of bangers but you never hear any of them.
Desperate politics.
I love rock and roll is a cover song . One of her biggest hits.
She is a liberal politician
As the years go by, fronting a rock band is one of the toughest jobs around. There is an argument that some fans honestly think someone around 60 or older should still be hitting the notes they hit at 20. Impossible in most cases but it leads to this kind of scenario, or at least encourages it. Either restructure the song to match the voice and key or get another singer!
I'd rather suffer through a full live show of Sir Paul's aged efforts than to be insulted by this or chronic auto tune. To be honest, I wouldn't pay current car payment ticket prices for either.
All that said, I've been hoping that Sir Paul will voluntarily step down and acknowledge......life and age. You've got nothing left to prove man. Roger Waters and Don Henley should go on a long world tour together in a very small micro-bus. They deserve one another.
Great comment! LOL!!
They could call the Band, the Don Henley and Roger Waters Bad Experience.
Sir Paul proved to everyone back in the 60s that he needs the live shows more than we do(When he tried to drag his three bandmates to Tunisia for a live show and Lennon told him he was warming more to the idea of playing an asylum or when he wanted Wings to be a house band on a Cruise Ship). The tours will get smaller and smaller, but he will still be wheeled out on stage for the cheers.
Attending a modern Boomer Rock gig has become like watching a badly dubbed 1970s Kung Fu movie.
😅🤣😂
Whenever they have a 'classic' rock band coming to a local casino, I look at the faces on the ad to see if any of the originals are still there.
No doubt. I saw a lot of those bands in the 90s, and even then, it felt largely like a nostalgia event. I can't imagine taking the trouble to see these bands as geriatrics and thinking it has any semblance of what they were like in their prime.
If only. If they would lip sync OUT of Sync that would at LEAST be funny and entertaining!
Many of these guys aren’t Boomers. They’re from the previous generation. The oldest boomer turns 78 this year. Beatles, Who, etc. all older.
And then there's Alice Cooper at 76, who, not only "pre-dates" these make-up metal artists, but has and does nothing of the sort.
Absolutely!!!! Good one
Absolutely Alice Cooper is the best old rocker going he has aged into his part better than any other old rocker his band is great he sounds great the show is great and it's below a hundred bucks
On top of that, I always thought he has one of the greatest Rock and Roll voices of all time.
@@booifojoe Agreed, very underrated as a singer.
It probably helps that he cleaned up his act many years ago, when he still had a chance to save his voice. I've been singing/recording off and on for over 30 years. My voice is not what is was, but it isn't bad, either. The more I take care of it the better it is. A healthier lifestyle most likely saved his life, but certainly helped his singing voice.
The wrestlers of the rock n roll world. Shame on them.
and the sad thing is, Fozzys lead singer Chris Jericho IS a Wrestler....so, double whammy?
Francis Rossi is still belting it our live with the mighty Quo at the ripe old age of 74. They always hated having to mime on shows like TOTP etc. RIP Rick - badly missed fella.
hah they mimed plenty
I saw the zombies live in concert last November, sometimes they did sound like 70-year-olds singing, but it was genuine and quite moving for what it was. I give them all the credit in the world.
I have to say this on the subject at hand; I have so much more respect and true love for Florence Foster Jenkins than for these greedy fake bastards! At least she wasn’t fake!!!
I was at The Eagles last night on Saturday at the co op Live Manchester. i took my camera in with me as it said on their website cameras are allowed except professional ones. I zoomed in on Don Henley singing hotel California . When I watched my vid at home the next day on my laptop I was shocked to see he was miming it. A friend of mine who was nearer to the stage told me her friends with her said Joe Walsh mimed parts too. The dishonesty of them is sad.
Top comment about Don Henley. Waters should just quit gigs full stop.
Apparently Milli Vanilli did inspire bands after all....
Hahahaha!
Milli Vanilli weren't just lip syncing, it was never their voices on the recordings. Other artists voices were recorded and they were just paid actors pretending to perform. The same was true for Bobby Farrell from Boney M who never actually sang anything. It was Frank Farian's voice and everything was lip sync'd. Milli Vanilli was Frank Farian's idea as well.
I don't go to live shows, price, live but not live and, the screamers in the back that thinks they can carry a tune !
Noticing your shirt, I remembered a little story about Miles. My husband and I were sitting at a bar in Cancun in the mid '80s drinking tequila and we noticed someone sitting at the bar. It was dark in the bar and probably about 3-4 in the afternoon. So my husband asked this guy to come sit with us. He obliged and pretty soon he asked if we'd like to get high at his apartment. We said sure and followed him there. As we walked in we noticed instruments everywhere. My husband, being a musician said he played guitar and asked the man what he played. We were calling him Mr. Davis at this point. Finally I noticed a record on the floor and it had Miles Davis on the cover. I said I really enjoyed his music and Mr. Davis said "Thanks"....it only took us 2 hours to recognize we were partying with Miles Davis. Nothing like being STUPID!!
When you said we don't care about integrity it suddenly hit me that I don't think these kind of character issues and principles have been explained or taught or reinforced for a very long time in all areas of our culture and society.
It naturally happens to the voice as you get older, CSN had to tune down to D in order for them to be able to sing the Falsetto harmonies in things like "Suite Judy Blue Eyes", I used to play in bands back when I was a teen, until my 40s, and today at 60, there are plenty of background vocal parts I can't reach anymore, because my voice won't go that high anymore
If anything, the bands should LOWER THE PITCH OF THE SONG and learn it in a lower key so that they can still sing it. You don't see Robert Plant belting out his 1970s stuff like "Immigration SOng" at his age today, I bet he can't even reach those notes anymore, just like Geddy Lee too, when Rush used to perform their older stuff, Geddy would change the melody to something lower he could still reach in pitch, because he can't reach those notes he was able to when he was young. That's the result of getting older.
... and the there's Jon Anderson from YEs, still going strong!
And you can always have a couple of backing singers hit those high notes for you. Seen a couple of bands do that. At least they are being honest about it.
@@glenchapman3899 Much better approach if you have the budget.
At least CSNY didn't try to redub the shitty singing on their live album.
@@chelfyn The Eagles DEFINITELY have the budget, they sue everybody and their Grandma for even posting a "Fair Use" 10 second clip of their music.
It’s a feckin disgrace that they are allowed to rip people off !!! Keep up the good work 👏
I’ve been performing live for a really long time. I’ve always said if you can’t play it live, you have no business being on stage. To this day, I still refuse to play with anyone who uses backing tracks.
You're spot on. It's an embarrassing era tarnishing the legacies of these bands. No integrity left, just greed.
I am not on board paying £150+ to see some washed up band from a mile away anyway. The more mugs go along and pay these prices, the more they'll charge
The channel seems to have doubled-down on acerbic rants and I'm here for it! Highly entertaining and sometimes LOL funny...
You are spot on, here. Take a band like Radiohead. They rework all albums thoroughly for the live shows and so put on a heck of a performance. Live play is less about accuracy and more about spirit. I remember watching Bowie in Chicago about 1990 or so. He had pre-recorded backup vocals and videos, but not main vocals. I never considered this a cheat, and his concert that night was exceptional. The outdoor venue was only half full, but the energy he put out was amazing.
If you can't trust them to perform live vote with your feet. Unless you don't care and want to see them regardless as I suspect many fans do. I prefer to remember my favourite bands in their prime and now look out for new talent in small venues.
These cats can claim to be singing “live” and probably are. But the vocal the audience actually hears was prerecorded so the singer just sings along “live” with a mic that might not even be plugged in. Singing live...yes. Audience hears...prerecorded.
Agreed but giving us a longer clip for each band would have helped us
Copyright law probably only allows him to show a few seconds of footage or risk getting sued.
@@brad4511 Not when it's a commentary or parody. How many reaction channels are there?
I looked through all of these comments to finally find someone mention what I was thinking!!
Do we think this may have actually been happening for years but the ubiquity of smart phones and social media has meant that more artists are being caught doing it?
At a show, it is easy to tell if something isn't being performed live: it sounds too accurate. In a live setting, instruments including vocals will sound slightly off from the record version.
I think it's a generational thing. When I see current concert footage online,it seems most in the audience are watching the stage through their phones. That's their experience of the show. Can I also safely assume that they want to hear their favourite song as it was put together in the studio? Some of my favourite bands would improvise in a live setting and would go where the spirit takes them.
We now live in a world, thanks to social media,of hype and bs, and the audience wants to see this live, they aren't paying big bucks to hear improvised versions of their favourite songs. It's now a spectacle as opposed to an experience.
Amazing how Jon Bon Jovi can still project his voice for five seconds after his mouth is closed.
That’s called TALENT! 😜
Maybe it's the sheer size of the arena and the fact that sound travels more slowly than light😂
He should retire and become a ventriloquist.
@@mikestanislaus1107- “Bon Jovi, with very special guest, Howdy Doody!”
Shame, I was really looking forward to seeing Roger Water’s last tour - the staging looked amazing - but there’s no way I’m paying all that money to see someone lip-sync to a live band. Sadly, when pop artists started to concentrate more on the choreography than the music, the lip syncing thing became acceptable.
Bands used to lip sync on tv all the time in the 60s. It's nothing new.
Kraftwerk had the right idea decades ago - they would walk offstage and leave the dummies and the machines played themselves.
The clue is in the term "Live Music". If it isn't genuinely live you might as well just listen to the record and save the money.
What rock n roll "has become", IS NOT rock n roll ! Rock N Roll is Chuck Berry showing up for a gig, (probably a little late) guitar & amp in hand (usually out of tune) a high school or local three or four piece band waiting for him. He plugs in, apologizes for being late, then starts Rock'N that audience out of their seats, one song after the other until the sweat is pouring down his body, and on to his strings and the audience is exhausted and rung out ! THAT IS TRUE ROCK N ROLL MY FRIENDS !
You might as well save a lot of money and just buy the blu-ray or 4K disc, then put that money you saved toward a big screen TV, and voilla! You will have a similar fake performance but with better and more comfortable seating, and bathroom breaks anytime at the press of a button.
A "couple" of years ago I had the privilage to see Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Chuck Berry in Budapest. Oldies, but for sure abslutely no lip sync!
I’ve just seen a video on CZcams (Wings of Pegasus) where Fil has taken two recordings made six months apart of Don Henley singing ‘live’, and put them through voice recognition software (I know…). That shows that both recordings are identical. Assuming the software is working properly, and that it analyses two different recordings (rather than the same one twice!), that does rather make the point.
Another point, simpler to prove, is that when DH sang Desperado live for Howard Stern, it was in the key of F. But in concert it’s in the key of G, higher and more difficult to sing - unless it’s on a computer…
Even some actual mimes fake it nowadays
LOL
Mime is money!
Any excuse to shoehorn in a Spinal Tap joke gets a from me .
A mime is a terrible thing to waste.
These bands just don't seem capable of just stopping.
The almighty dollar...
When you sell your soul there is no quitting
It's all they know. None of them picked up a second trade like plumbing or electrician. Trades people we need. Lip synching old rockers, not so much.
I don't know how much lip sync Roger has used in more recent years, but I've heard about half of the concerts of his Wall solo tour in bootleg quality and still they all sound the same. Which is technically impossible with the live vocals. I remember some other evidences. The 2006 videos display it well and honestly, you can't just sing "Every stranger's eyes" at the same level every night (he played it in 1999-2002).
I’d prefer to hear pitch inconsistencies and an artist forgetting their own lyrics because it’s authentic.
As far as I know Todd Rundgren is still singing live...and that's enough for me. 🙂
Makes me appreciate a guy like Gordon Lightfoot, who, right up til the end, sang his stuff live as best he could, despite having lost a huge amount of his former vocal power. The audiences didn't mind. They appreciated his dedication and held him in such high regard.
Great video, perhaps these bands should adopt the advice Mark Twain provided in the following quote, “Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
I know I've never been the sharpest crayon in the box, but I have been wondering for quite a few years now how so many bands of seventy year olds could still be touring. I think we have our answer.
The next time I go to a concert, I’m pre-recording my audience reaction.😼
These fails are happening because these older guys are deaf and aren’t hearing the backing track in their ear phones.
Long live deep purple!
Ian Gillan wouldn't do lip syncing. But let's be real... he probably couldn't pull off lip syncing.😅
It's especially surprising and hurtful when warm and kind-hearted people like Don Henley and Roger Waters get caught doing this type of thing. Can we trust no one anymore?
I understand that Paul Stanley wears a wig onstage for his KISS shows. A wig, and lip syncing, how pathetic.
It actually doesn't get much more pitiful than that; how fake does one need to be?
There was/ is a video on CZcams where Stanley loses his wig during a concert.
To be fair he uses it to hide a mutilated ear he's self conscious about. I'm rarely one to defend Kiss but costumes are kind of their thing. Their only thing, really.
They can't give up the adulation of the fans, they can't just go away with some dignity.
@@jefffuller9918that is not kiss. A club kiss tribute band
You ignore the 75 year history of R&R. Tv producers would never let a band perform live. This continues today...
Nobody ever tried to pass those off as live performances though. TV shows didn't want the expense and hassle of having to use music sound mixing teams etc, that's all that was.
The Midnight Special was live not sure about most of Ed Sullivan.
The best performer now is Steven Wilson saw him a couple yrs ago.The day before his voice was giving out on him.When I saw him the next day he said he's going to try and hit the notes but it will be live and if I can't hit the notes I apologize
I’d much rather see a decent cover band singing live for 1/10 of the price rather than go to a lip-sync for $400.
For every Glenn Hughes there’s the rest
Jon Anderson and Paul Rodgers also....
Have to say, Glenn sounds amazing on the new BCC songs. If he can still do that live at 73, then there can be no doubt he is still "The Voice of Rock".
Hello there...or, as Scot Lade would say (well, shout), greetings and salutations! Thanks to Spinning Prog and The Prog Corner, I discovered your channel.
Although I am old enough to have been aware of the original progressive groups of the 1970s, I only discovered them in 2002. Prior to that I only listened to classical music, mainly baroque and 20th century. As an inveterate snob, I assumed 'pop music' was far too shallow and insubstantial for me to waste my valuable time upon. However, our group (UNIT) had Cheung Yiu Munn in it, an 18 year old Hong Kong Chinese lad who was our flute and guitar player from 2002 to 2011. He found my musical snobbery deplorable and insisted I take notice of these ancient groups he loved (primarily Jethro Tull, ELP, Yes, Genesis and Dream Theatre). To cut a long story short, while I found some of that music interesting, even inspiring (especially Tull), I investigated further and managed to discover Colosseum, The Family, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Curved Air, The Family and Gentle Giant by myself. The Family and Gentle Giant are, to date, the only groups for which I have in my collection every studio tracks they ever recorded. There are few tracks from Bandstand that only barely make the grade and most (but not all) of the tracks from the final 3 Giant albums are definitely below par yet still good enough (but only just) for me to retain in my collection.
The advantage for me here is that my introduction to this music is devoid of any hint of nostalgia so it was all totally new to me. (As an aside, it's faintly ironic it took a Chinese teenager to introduce me to music from my own culture. I wonder though...how did an 18 year old Chinese lad become acquainted with numerous progressive rock groups from the 1970s?) Anyway, when I heard Octopus and Glass House for the first time (in 2003), I could not believe what I heard. I spent 3 or 4 days listening to those 2 albums in order to try to comprehend all the different, disparate musical strands. Like The Family they utilised all manner of varied instruments but unlike The Family they mastered harmony, counterpoint and rhythmic complexity that forced me to admit not only classical musicians know how to compose and perform music that merited my attention - groovy! The progressive rock influence is apparent on a fair number of our own pieces although we do not possess the astonishing technical proficiency of any of these groups, especially not Gentle Giant, but I don't want this to appear as a thinkly disguised attempt to advertise our own group, so I'll stop here.
I'm also a qualified youth worker and, over 3 decades working in clubs, I've noticed that as I approached the 21st century, more and more teenagers took a greater interest in older music. When I was their age, my peers would never be caught listening to the kind of stuff their mums and dads liked - the shame of it! However, by 2006 I found 14 year olds with i-pods listening to Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple and Genesis...among others. I was shocked, pleased even but also slightly disturbed...because does that suggest contemporary pop music failed to fulfil their desires for a soundtrack to their own lives? Anyway, I suspect I'm babbling so I'll leave you alone now.
It stands to reason that people who are too busy recording a concert on their phones to actually enjoy it, probably do not give a crap whether it is an authentic performance or not. They're not there for the music they're just there for an experience that they can show off
Thank You for exposing Joan Jett.....Uncle Ted is blackballed by the rock and roll.hall of shame but joan jett is in....??...what a joke...