Lip-Synching on TV to the Record

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by beatlematt, Apr 19, 2010.

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  1. Dan C

    Dan C Forum Fotographer

    Location:
    The West
    Back when these "teen" shows were churned out week after week, live performances would've been financially and logistically impractical. You've got gobs of gear to unload and setup, soundchecks, etc. All that time and staff for 3 minutes of disposable television! Yeah right.

    I kinda like it when the band clearly knows that the viewer knows it's a put on. This Squeeze "Top Of The Pops" clips is enormously charming to me...


    dan c
     
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  2. izgoblin

    izgoblin Forum Resident

    I think a lot of the players were deliberately trying not to hit the snare or cymbals. I've often noticed that the cymbals aren't moving at all, for example. There are a couple of appearances by The Who where you'll see that Keith Moon is basically playing the "air".

    But there are a couple of oddities (one on the recent Pink Floyd box set) where live sound is being recorded while they're miming, and you hear loudly over the mimed track Nick Mason beating on his kit without much concern for matching the track. He must have assumed that no one could hear what he was doing.
     
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  3. MLutthans

    MLutthans That's my spaghetti, Chewbacca! Staff

    IIRC, this whole thing came a weird sort-of "full circle" when Dick Clark Production reissued some classic American Bandstand clips in (IIRC) VHS Hi-Fi and Beta Hi-Fi in "pristine sound" by going back and synching the original, stereo recordings with the old videos, essentially re-synching in the lip-sync performances for better sound.
     
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  4. halfjapanese

    halfjapanese Gifs moider!

    I posted this when Jimmy Dean died.

    "One of my favorite childhood memories of Jimmy Dean comes from an appearance of his on American Bandstand. He was supposed to lip sync his latest hit but instead sang something like The Yellow Rose of Texas live while Dick Clark spun his 45!"
     
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  5. Bill Larson

    Bill Larson Forum Resident

    This one is legendary. It begins with 1981 Brian lip-syncing to a 1967 vocal by his brother Carl, who is absent. And it goes downhill from there.

     
  6. ianuaditis

    ianuaditis Matthew 21:17

    Location:
    Long River Place
    The Grateful Dead on TV, sometime in 1966 or 1967.
    [​IMG]
    Note that in protest of the band being asked to lip sync, bass player Phil Lesh (back left) seems to be 'playing' some combination of broom/feather duster.
     
  7. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    Along similar lines here are bassist Chris Ethridge on drums and drummer Michael Clarke on bass



    BTW can anyone tell me what program this is? IIRC I once read it was local Philly TV, but who knows if that's right...
     
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  8. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    By the time this was shot Gerry Rafferty was gone, so Joe Egan mimed to GR's vocal

     
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  9. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    Betty Weiss sang this in the studio, but she took some time off from live appearances (allegedly she was unmarried and pregnant) so Mary Weiss mimed here.

     
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  10. showtaper

    showtaper Concert Hoarding Bastard

    And it looks like Soupy Sales is standing in for Jerry Garcia.........:D
     
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  11. chicofishhead

    chicofishhead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chico, California
    I don't know how often they are used, but there is some kind of pad that you put on the drum skins to muffle the sound. When the Jefferson Starship mimed "Jane" on American Bandstand (3-19-83) you could see one of them pop out of place.
     
  12. OldSoul

    OldSoul Don't you hear the wind blowin'?

    Location:
    NYC
    1:14, 1:44 :D
     
  13. Suncola

    Suncola Possibilities

    Location:
    NW Indiana U.S.A.
    Best air drums ever:



    And when he picks up that trumpet he's multi-taskin' like a mofo.

    American Breed - "Bend Me Shape Me"
     
  14. misterjones

    misterjones Smarter than the average bear.

    Location:
    New York, NY
    You were ahead of me. I don't think I noticed it when I was 10 or 11 (in the late 1960s). I think I caught on about the time the general public seems to have . . . or at least when things started to change.

    The worst lip-synching I ever saw was an appearance by Bing Crosby on either Mike Douglas or Merv Griffin. Bing was so off the director had to pull back for a long shot where you couldn't see him flubbing the words as much. It was pretty sad.
     
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  15. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI
    I don't remember which show it would have been on (some sort of awards show I think), and Alan Jackson was going to be on with his full band: The show wanted them to "play" to an already recorded backing track of the song they were going to perform and Alan was to sing it live... He and his band didn't like that arrangement at all but went along with it... But, during the song, his drummer acted/played like he was drumming the song, but he wasn't holding any drum-sticks. He was air-playing.
     
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  16. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI
    There's a clip out there of Creedence Clearwater Revival miming "Down on the Corner" and the band is "playing" makeshift instruments (a wash-tub with a broomhandle w/a string on it, a washboard, and I forget what the other two were) and I was watching it one day and my sister came into the room and didn't realize they were lip-synching: She was like "They're getting that good of sound out of those? (the makeshift instruments). I had to tell her they were lip-synching and were pretending to be like the band "down on the corner".
     
  17. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    It's amazing how much audiences want to believe, and they'll accept all kinds of ridiculous stuff as long as they're being entertained.
     
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  18. andrewskyDE

    andrewskyDE Island Owner

    Location:
    Europe
    Pink Floyd's "lip-sync" performance of 'A Saucerful Of Secrets' on French TV is very weird.
    What should they do with their guitars and drums while there's only sound effects (and some keyboard stuff) to hear?...

     
  19. andrewskyDE

    andrewskyDE Island Owner

    Location:
    Europe
    I remember an interview of Queen's Roger Taylor complaining about what Top Of The Pops did with his drum kit in those TV performances.
     
  20. john hp

    john hp Forum Resident

    Location:
    Warwickshire, UK
    Another live performance from the Beechnut Show - The Champs
     
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  21. What is he singing into?
    In the instrumental break the drummer is doing what?
    The other guitarist is just .....



    Nope, they're not lip syncing, are they? :unhunh:
     
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  22. I like The Beach Boys. It was great to listen to. But that was oh-so-PAINFUL to watch! :wtf:
     
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  23. GroovyGuy

    GroovyGuy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Halifax, NS Canada
    Yeah - that's a bad one. That said, I'll bet Ed Sullivan wished The Doors were playing to a pre-recorded track when they played "Light My Fire" on his show lol ;)
     
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  24. Holy Diver

    Holy Diver Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I don't know. I guess we're just lucky to have any old footage from all those great acts.
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2017
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  25. blutiga

    blutiga Forum Resident

    This may not be the worst lip syncing - but it's certainly the funniest and the most entertaining. Presented here for your amusement :D with love from Down Under ;)
     
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