Dolly Parton " lip sync" performance at Glastonbury*

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jun/30/dolly-parton-glastonbury-miming-kay-burley-sky-news

The same paper is carrying a miming story as well.

I'm sure one could find rave reviews from the MJ tours where 90% was lipsync'ed.

 

Bono used it for two songs on ZooTV, and it was a nice change of pace. But if he did it for a whole show...

Never saw video of that Bowie tour. I actually had the VHS at one point, bought for nothing at a used shop, and then never got around to watching it before I no longer had a VHS player.

Has Dolly always done the weird headset thing? Or is this a recent development?

 

You're right! — and yet so very very wrong.

I stand with Stephen Fry and Boy George against the forces of darkness.

 

Boy George isn't even denying the miming. Maybe he'll use it on the Culture Club reunion tour later this year. Fry is using a lame excuse already refuted by tiny clip reels reposted on youtube.

Here are my 2 questions:

-Why do some artist get a "pass" on miming and others get ripped for it - where is the line drawn?
-If you give Dolly a pass, are you hypocrite if you go after young acts who do the same?

Opry clips show that Dolly can sing just fine and won't mime on that stage, yet has no problem doing it at the most festival in world that spend YEARS trying to book her.

 

I saw an unplugged session by Dolly from just a couple of years ago, and her vocals were amazing. I have no idea if she lip syncd at Glastonbury, but she's still perfectly capable of hitting all of her high notes.

 

With live vocals, a live band is playing together as a unit (unless they are inebriated)...and the singer sings along. With canned vocals, you have a "click track" which is difficult enough for a group to maneuver through. But it also comes with other baggage in the way of programmed embellishments, which negates the need for anyone to play onstage at all...except for those obligatory lead guitar and sax solos.

 

I saw Christina in New Orleans recently and was pretty sure the singing was live. It was less of a pop show though, with more jazz and R&B to suit the occasion.

 

Leave dolly alone!!!

 

My wife saw Dolly here in Knoxville TN (basically a hometown show for Dolly) and was convinced that she wasn't singing live for at least portions of the show. I wasn't there so I can't confirm nor deny it, but she insists she was.

 

I'm surprised that most of you are concentrating on Dollys lips.

 

Never mind the lip synching! How does she play guitar with those long nails??!!

I'm watching the whole set. She probably is lip synching on a few of the songs. This is a big gig. They're in the middle of a a tour. Perhaps her voice is not as consistent as it was when she was younger, so they took no chances and cheated a little. All I know is that she is a wonderful, engaging performer who is an American treasure and icon! I find myself smiling and cheering her on!

 

I like Dolly as much as it sounds like you do, but don't you think she would have gone over just as well if she had played a set with just a few accompanists and sang her songs naturally? It seems to me she's decided to go the miming route because she's also decided to stick with the big stage show format, where the support of canned vocal tracks is standard. This is why everyone in the thread is is bringing up Gaga and Xtina, which would otherwise seem like bizarre comparisons to Dolly Parton. So yeah, I'm not "shocked, SHOCKED" that she's miming part of the time, but I see it as the result of other artistic decisions which are themselves debatable.

 

you can find recent clips where her guitar playing is taped and her singing is live...

 

SON OF A...!

 

Still got that Jolene song stuck in my head. Thanks a bunch OP....

 

The Grand Ol Opry clip is live; the o.p.'s clip is lip-synced. There are performers who use "guide vocal" tracks where what the audience hears is a combination of live and pre-recorded vocals, but I think in this case, it's Memorex.

 

She was the only performer at the festival?

 

When you start getting to the arena level lots of stuff attached to click track for lighting cues. Everyone with ear monitors and light shows that can't be done on the fly are giveaway that there is a click track in the equation. Audience will only hear the stuff they are supposed to hear. There's a tiny few arena acts that do lights shows on the fly like Pearl Jam and Phish with several nerds at the soundboard playing with converted Nintento 64 joysticks.

Certain guitar effects(especially anyone like The Edge) and gated drums also need click tracks. Ditto any pyro.

 

More from The Guardian here
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jul/01/dolly-parton-not-miming-glastonbury
Parton's spokesman... "It's ridiculous to suggest Dolly was miming. She's been performing for more than 60 years – she doesn't need to.

Is there a difference between 'miming' and singing along to a click track? I remember, a long time ago, Debbie Harry refuting that Blondie mimed in their videos - she said, something along the lines of, 'we play/sing along to the track at a low volume.'

 

I imagine the legal statement is technically correct... ie Dolly was not miming, she was singing, but to me it seemed clear that her vocals were augmented in some way, and that the degree of augmentation was different for different songs.

I love Dolly, saw her on Parkinson years ago when with solo guitar, long nails and all, she performed exquisitely at the drop of a hat. I am sure she can still do that any time she wants...but i suspect this time there is a greater truth underneath the legal phrases used.

 

Speaking of lip-syncing, doesn't everyone do it nowadays? More and more, if you watch a singer on television or in concert, I get the impression that not only are the musicians playing over playback, but the singer is singing over her recorded voice. Pardon my naivete, but it would seem that this practice has been going on since the early days of talkies. Even in the fifties, on Ed Sullivan or any other show all the artists performed to playback. What strikes me today is the perfectionism in this habit. That is, you pretty much can't tell if it's playback or not. Meaning, that artists have perfected the craft of lip syncing to a degree never before seen. I am amazed.

 

I'm going to say that was 100% Dolly singing her heart out.

 

Everyone's voice goes when they get older as it has happened to every singer I have really enjoyed over the years. Sinatra, Andy Williams and many others who made a decision to keep on singing into their 60's and 70's has it happen to them, but their fans get it and get over it. Tony Bennett is the one that keeps on totally surprising me as to how great he has sounded as he as gotten older. Doing a live show is very hard, demanding work. Performers who can do it I consider to be the best musicians...there is no safety net the studio can provide. There is not a take "2".

I have been singing for over 55 years and now I know my voice is going so I practice for solos at church much more than I ever did, but what really affects it is a small cold or allergies and so singers will be worried right before a singing date are these respiratory issues going to rear they ugly head on performance day? I even found out that from a blood pressure med I was taking, it has a side effect of making me hoarse, so that was changed right away. For years I just thought it was my voice going.

Most athletes lose their talents before they are 40, singers are actually lucky.

 

I saw that too and was pretty impressed. I never valued her as a songwriter or performer before then; it could be it was always the jokes about her appearance that a lot of comedians (quite possibly almost exclusively over here) in the 70s that made her seem to be something less than a serious artist which I later found to be a shame. The Parky appearance changed my mind.

I looked at the video in the OP and thought 'This is NOT mimed' until I saw this post...

...and once I looked at that part I thought 'Hmm- there is something not right there!'

But whatever the case it's got me interested in listening to her again (I don't watch tv and haven't followed Glasto for years - last time I found it enjoyable was the year that The Stooges and the Arctic Monkeys played; that was untoppable, IMO - the two best performances I've seen on there. That was a long time ago though. I used to record it on the hard drive of a DVD recorder and cut the presenters out...) I think I'll look out for a compilation CD or LP, whatever I see first. I'll get round to watching the full concert of he show too in the next few days.

So, when they said 'All publicity is good publicity' they were right, in my case.

 

I think she plays with an open tuning on her guitar which allows her to play with super long nails. I'm not sure about this particular show or whatever, but I know that I've seen her explain this in the past on some interview show or something.