One of the most interesting channels on YouTube is Wings of Pegasus, hosted by Fil Henley, a British musician who, among other things, is analysing and breaking down vocal performances, as well as exposing artists who use autotune and even lip-sync (mime) their performances. In recent years he has exposed the current version of The Eagles who have been lip-syncing to some of their greatest hits on their never ending farewell tour. With ticket prices for the band’s Vegas dates this autumn starting at nearly $400, Fil Henley is performing a vital public service in exposing his namesake Don.
Lip-syncing is hardly new. Those of us who grew up watching Top of the Pops on the BBC saw pretty well every artist miming. and ‘playing’ instruments that weren’t even plugged in. It still happens today on most TV shows – check out the guests on Strictly Come Dancing, for example, and none of them are singing live. It’s when it happens at a live show when I feel that things have gone a bit too far.
Many of the artists who appear to lip-sync these days are, understandably, knocking on a bit. The Eagles are all approaching their eighties and it would be a surprise if most of the band weren’t singing in a lower key than they once did, but it appears they aren’t. But when you watch the Wings of Pegasus video, it quickly becomes clear, particularly on Desperado, that actually Don Henley isn’t singing live at all.
It isn’t as if The Eagles are the only act to not play live through all their concerts. It has been suggested that the likes of Kiss, Roger Waters, Britney Spears, Frankie Valli, Madonna and many, many others lip sync at least parts of their sets. If I went to a gig where I was listening to pre-recorded music, I reckon I’d feel seriously ripped-off.
I go back to the issue of age. There is plenty of on-line comment and indeed criticism of Paul McCartney because of his weathered and worn vocals these days. Well, what do people expect? Macca has been singing at full tilt all his life and he’s nearly 84. Frankly, I couldn’t care less that he can’t sing like he used to. I find the current version rather lovely and emotionally affecting. And he’s a Beatle so he can do what he likes. For all that, Macca does not lip-sync and he still sings in the same key as he did when the Beatles were playing in Hamburg. Others, like Elton John, have simply and honestly, lowered the key in which they sing because they can’t reach the old high notes.
Doubtless, the development of AI will simply make things worse as the years go by. Fil Henley, again, draws our attention to a YouTube channel called Lost Tapes of Legends, where you can get access to previously undiscovered music by the likes of Jimi Hendrix together with Tina Turner, Janis Joplin performing with David Gilmour, Carlos Santana’s guitar solo at Woodstock in 1969 and, inevitably, some Beatles live performances. They all have one thing in common: they are AI slop. They are performances which never happened. Yet, I have seen AI music shared on social media because, if you are not paying full attention, it is quite easy to be deceived by it.
Some of you may be familiar with the Velvet Sundown, an amiable new country act from the USA. They have become quite popular on streaming sites despite the fact that they don’t exist and their music is every bit as AI generated as their videos, like this one. I cannot claim to be the sharpest tool in the box, but even I can see the AI aspects but in a world where people believe in Chem Trails, that there is a deep state controlling the world and that vaccines give you cancer (spoiler alert: they don’t) then there will be plenty of folk desperate to see Velvet Sundown if they ever decide to tour.
It’s becoming harder to tell what is real and what is make believe and that is why these things really matter. It is why I don’t do God, why I don’t believe what I see in the gutter press and why I rely on actual experts to inform me on which drugs and vaccines I should take in order to maintain and hopefully extend my life. And I want the music to which I listen to be authentic. Sure, there is room for computer and synthesised assistance but when it comes down to it, I want singers singing and musicians playing or honesty when I am being told who is playing what and how. I love The Avalanches, an Australian group, who make astonishing music, often by way of complex sampling. Their 2000 album Since I Left You apparently contains 3500 different samples which they use to make ‘new’ music. The title track is one of my favourite songs ever. And because I know how they made it, I am content that it is real. It is when I am not being told what’s real and what’s true that I cannot accept it.
AI is spreading like wildfire. Just look at social media where people share often grotesque AI-generated images of themselves, presenting themselves, perhaps, as they would want to be seen and not as they are. And because the images can look so real, it is easy to be fooled. We are still in the stone age of AI discovery, so imagine what it will look like maybe even next year. Will we be routinely buying music and attending gigs by artists who aren’t there, perhaps by way of their deaths, playing AI generated music that sounds just like they did? My guess is that ‘we’ – the royal we – will be doing just that and the gap between fact and fiction will be blurred, perhaps permanently.
Whether it’s musicians lip-syncing at so called live concerts or the world being swamped by artificial music, I’d like to think most of us would prefer the real thing. Judging by what I see and hear these days, and learning of bands embarking on sell-out tours when they aren’t singing live for some of the time, I’m not confident we do. That, I’m afraid, is the modern world. It’s up to us to decide which version of it that we want.
