Question about Tom Petty live vocals

I saw Tom Petty last night at the Comcast Center and the show was incredible! We had killer seats, about 30 feet from center stage so I could see everything that was going on. There was one thing that puzzled me. When they did "I Won't Back Down" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance" there was a very obvious three-part harmony in the chorus yet only Tom and Scott Thurston were singing. There were a couple of other songs where I also noticed this same thing. Do they have someone backstage singing the third part? When I got home I watched a 2003 Tom Petty concert On Demand and when they did "I Won't Back Down" the three-part harmony was even more obvious and it was only the two of them singing. The weird thing is that Benmont Tench and Ron Blair sang harmonies in a bunch of other songs but they definitely were not singing on those songs.

 

A lotta groups use a type of device that samples your own voice while it's happening and repeats it in harmony to whatever range you specify, I guess...
I'm not sure what the device is called but Robert Plant used one on Zep's last European tour, specifically on Achillie's Last Stand...dig the boots up and listen--it sounds like someone is singing along with him....

I'll ask my wife, as she was there too.........in the cheap seats!

 

in the studio groups use a harmonizer don't know if groups use this onstage though.

 

They were playing to a click, it's more likely the vocals were sampled.

 

I've seen people use harmonizers onstage, don't know if Petty does.

 

I just received the Live Anthology box. I haven't gotten very far into (really only about 5 songs). As I understand, they did not put any overdubs into this box. I realize Stan Lynch used to sing harmony, as did Howie Epstein among the others on occasion. But that first listen to "Nightwatchman" definitely has some effect on Petty's vocal (like the harmonizer we are speaking of). I believe this is from 1982... so if Petty was using something like this that early on, I would imagine he still does. And I'm sure this kind of practice can be used on stage. It's not 1966.

 

One reason Howie was so invaluable to the band was his ability to "ape" Petty's singing style (Stan did it in the early days). So on 'Free Fallin'," for example, Petty was already unable to hit the high notes - Howie did it. They were both singing so no one could tell the difference.

Re: "Nightwatchman" on the live set. Just because Petty says there were "no overdubs" doesn't mean he's telling the truth.

 

I doubt Petty was going to sing a song like "Nightwatchman" and perfectly try to match it 27 years later. Another example is "It Ain't Nothin' to Me" from Pack Up the Plantation. There's effects on that for certain that had to be done live. I have no doubts that Petty uses some sort of machine. I find this easier to imagine than have some hidden being not on stage or a sample to a clicktrack. That is less likely Petty's style.

Howie was great. There's no telling who is who on a track like "Something In the Air."

 

Tough call , it could be a simple harmonizer , very easy to use these days ...
Does the Drummer sing at all ? i don't remember if he samg or not on the last tour .....
will be seeing tom tonight , we broek & got some tix

 

On the live video of the Great Wide Open tour, its pretty obvious that petty is not singing the chorus of FF live. Since Howie isn't shows, I always assumed it was a taped vocal.

 

Since Ron isn't a singer, Stan and Ben always did the harmonies in the early days. Stan can sound exactly like Petty when he wants to.

Howie, no one in the band will argue, was an incredible singer. The change - 'Long After Dark' time - is obvious when you listen for it. It made the live shows stronger vocally, too.

Cameron Crowe's "Heartbreakers Beach Party" is a great film from this era. Wonder if that will ever get legitimately released?

 

I thought that it might be something like a Digitech Vocalist, which I use on my smaller acoustic gigs, but I figured Tom Petty was too much into the vintage/retro/analog vibe to use something "digital" like that!

 

My bet is that Petty uses pre-recorded vocals. As the years have gone on, I have started to suspect some sort of funny business going on with Petty's vocals.

On a side note, this may not be a popular thought, as this goes against Petty's "no studio trickery" image, but I can't help but think there was some auto-tune used on Highway Companion. Listening to the verses of "Flirting with Time", the vocals just don't sound natural to me.

If auto-tune was indeed used, this is a tasteful use of the tool, and it doesn't affect my enjoyment of the album one iota.

 

Not sure if I've seen this. When did it come out?

 

I don't want to believe it -- but my ears tend to agree with yours.

I blame Jeff Lynne!

 

Steve doesn't do any vocals, but Ron does some. Mostly it is just Benmont and Scott. I would like to hear something from Mike but I guess he is too busy with the badass guitar. I am sure Tom uses something because I noticed some harmony oddities at the KC show as well. The main vocals were absolutely live, but there may have been some prerecorded backing vocals or some other digital wizardry.

 

Sadly, just about every "live" performance going on these days is using combinations of pre-recorded vocals, an Eventide Harmonizer, or sampled vocals, at least for backups. This has been going on for decades. I can remember seeing ELO live at the LA Forum around 1981, and when they performed "Sweet Talkin' Woman," the live performance had the same bad edit at 1:29 ("don't know what I'm gonna do...") right before the chorus. I burst out laughing when I heard it. No question, 50% of the backing tracks were all pre-recorded -- but it was still a great show.

Naaaa, I think that's just been Pro Tool'ed to death, where they comped and edited and tweaked and spliced pieces of every vocal from multiple takes, and also used a doubler (like ADT) to punch up the choruses. I prefer that to Auto Tune, even though it's still not exactly an authentic performance. That album also has some aggressive EQ in spots, though I think it's OK overall. The sound has the same overly-compressed sound of Lynne's Zoom album, at least to me -- but I understand why Lynne felt this made it sound more contemporary.

 

'Heartbreakers Beach Party' was done in '82-83 by Cameron Crowe and aired on MTV, which nobody in Gainesville, Florida (where I'm from) could get at the time. Someone gave us a VHS tape from the MTV broadcast.

It's a great 'Behind the Scenes' doc from what I think was the Euro leg of the 'Long After Dark' tour. "I'm Stupid" comes from Heartbreakers Beach Party, as does the official video for 'Change of Heart.' I think there was a lot of 'making-of' footage from the video for 'You Got Lucky.'

'Southern Accents' is another great and long-lost MTV special, from 1985.

 

I was at the Comcast Center show the other night, but I was pretty far back so I would not have been able to differentiate that clearly whether the vocals were being auto-tuned or not.

It sounded good, and it was a hell of a show. Tom really is a master showman, in his understated way. Also, you would have to search long and hard to find better sounding guitar mixes. He is a stickler for good sound, so it wouldn't surprise me to find that auto-tune might be employed, especially if no one in the band was capable of hitting those high notes on pitch.

Having said that, it was never overused, if at all. The sound was natural and rich.

 

I recently transfered my "HEARTBREAKERS BEACH PARTY" VHS tape over to DVDR...never heard of the "SOUTHERN ACCENTS" special but sure would like to see that!

 

Lots of sleight of hand for Petty's appearance on the Superbowl.

 

\If it's the one I have in mind, it has some terrific footage of a rooftop concert. They do Dogs on the Run, Petty about as cool as he's ever been. Eventually the cops come and pull the plug.

 

ok here we go - link to southern accents documentary. Enjoy.

http://vimeo.com/2469760

 

Great, I was going to watch the Tom Petty Soundstage Blu-ray soon, now if I did, I would sit there and try to find times when Tom was faking it.

 

Another album from recent years that I think has got some AutoTune on the background vocals - and of which you would not expect that, is Ry Cooder's "I Flathead". If it was used, it was also done in a very tasteful fashion.
Now I don't expect any Rylanders on this thread whatsoever, but I'd sure enough like to find out if somebody agrees with this observation of mine.
Thanks for having a listen.