Top Pop Music Recorded Live Performances

SORRY FOR THIS STUPIDITY. I started this a few years ago, and then gave up on everything internet. I’m just doing my own music on this site at least until the summer, so this is just some stupid junk, I think! But, I’ll not delete it…

If that’s not a contradiction in terms…

1st. Beatles, Hey Jude, David Frost Show…

I love this…

In case you don’t know, it’s not immediately obvious when you look at it. What they did back then was neither lip-syncing, nor live performance.

It’s funny - that piano is obviously a real one - and they’ve got the front off, so it’s obviously making some noise, which must be picked up by the vocal mic -

But, what they actually did back then was make a backing track - presumably, though I’m not sure, from the tapes for the actual record.

The backing track - and I actually heard some of it once - actually has - I forget, but at least part of a lead vocal track. So, Paul McCartney is, I think just some of the time, doubling his lead vocal, and at other times, actually just purely singing live.

(secret Beatles recordings and more stuff beneath the ad!

Obviously, there are not mics on the drums. Ringo is up there, playing along at the beginning with his tambourine, but you don’t actually hear it, except a little bit through the vocal mics, until it comes up on the pre-recorded backing track. (more below…!)

But, so what - what’s so incredibly about this, and you just kind of forget it, in all the hype and over-production that is music in this day and age - these were actually just four guys, who played really well together. Sure, there’s an orchestra overdub at the end, and it seems like a tambourine overdub along with the drums at one point, and the background vocals are probably doubled or something - but, in essence, it was four guys, who just played together really really well…

What’s really amazing is, back then, it wasn’t all punch-ins and computer editing - there were actual takes - built upon, and edited, sure, but - takes! And, I once heard the take just before the final one - and all the notes, all the parts - are correct, right - but it just sounds HORRIBLE. Because it just wasn’t “the” take. They just weren’t playing together.

And then, one magic take - and that was the record (with overdubs and I’m sure a few corrections, inevitably…)

What’s also kind of funny is how shy and awkward - and working class! - it all seems.

Velvet jackets! Were velvet jackets ever “in”?! Austin Powers time…

And Ringo looks so Northern, and working class, and kind of aiming to please…

And people - kids -actually dressed up in coats and ties - some of them, at least - to go to a taping of a TV show (this was the David Frost Show…)

The other thing I find amusing is the girl who sits down RIGHT NEXT to Paul Mc, and just…glares…

But, of course, being English, everyone in the audience seems a bit uncomfortable and awkward - not just John Lennon and George Harrison, and even Ringo, a bit, but…there are some guys who just seem to…I dunno - it’s just all so DATED looking, and so funny…

And yet, the song remains such a classic…