Before I comment on the possibility of Paul playing to synched tracks, let me say that I felt like his halftime show was PERFECT. Not a lot of dancers with ribbons and magic tricks and falling from the ceiling. No causes or head trips. No wardrobe malfunctions. NO MEDLEYS CHOPPING UP SONGS!!!!!!!

That's what it should always be....a concert.

Now:

Paul was playing the bass, no doubt. But his sound wasn't coming through my TV screen. The licks were right, but not always in perfect time. Most importantly, there was one big punch at the end of a tune, with a big loud bass note, but Paul was pointing in the air at the time.

Then, the cymbals looks suspiciously plastic in the way they responded to crashes. (I have a friend who knows someone that played on Letterman. He said that they played along with tracks, but he had plastic cymbals and paper drums that LOOKED like the real thing, but made little sound.)

I think Paul was singing, at least, his phrasing was varied and never seemed out of synch.

So: did it look real or fake to you?

I noticed that point when he hit the note with a hand in the air. I thought he might have been hitting an open string with the other hand.

There was a keyboard player playing on the first two songs, he disappeared when Paul switched to piano. Maybe he hit the note.

For bass content, the drummer was Abe LaBoriel, Jr., the son of the great bassist. He looked like he was playing to me, he looked great.

I don't know who the other guys were.

Yeah Jeremy i saw that hand in the air bit and i too figured that he was just hitting an open note, but it was half past one in the morning where i was so i may have been seeing things

Can anyone tell me who won? i fell asleep just before the start of the second half, i was supporting New England but i have no idea why.

Much Love
Dave

New England won - they're a dynasty! :rolleyes:

I was completely unimpressed. It seeems as though I could have heard that set from ANY bar band in the country. That having been said, I don't know what I was expecting, maybe a great, new song???

One thing that I can offer as a television professional is that some of the cameras covering the event may have been out of sync with the audio. It does happen, and the way the signal was getting back to the production truck from the various cameras on field does vary. Some camera feeds are run over cables while others are sent via wireless devices. Occassionally during a football game you'll see one of these along the sidelines and they'll break up. One or more of these cameras could be responsible for the sync issues you saw.

There's been debate of this topic over on SSS. I'm supporting the "Paul singing live, instruments via recording" theory. That doesn't mean Abe Laboriel Jr. wasn't actually beating the living daylights out of his kit. It just wasn't in the mix.

40 years ago, a twentysomething Paul sang live in a Shea Stadium full of screaming fans (2/9 is the 40th Anniv. of the 1st Ed Sullivan appearance). He's capable of singing live at a Super Bowl.

The difference is that you were seeing the songs performed by the guy that wrote them.

He didn't disappear. He was playing a stack of keyboards throughout the show.
I watched the performance closely, on a high-definition big screen. The drum fills matched up visually/sonically, the singing matched up, the guitar playing matched up.... my band does both GetBack and Live&LetDie, and they ain't that tough to play. Assuming pre-game soundchecks went well, there's really no reason for that band to have used prerecorded tracks.

Over in Craigs Forum they are saying that its impossible to beat the crowd noise at the superbowl, with a live setup. These guys seem to know what they are talking about and think that Paul's vocals were live, and thats it. I dunno, that Drummer looked real to me. The whole performance rocked. IMO. Even if was tracked and pauls vocals were the only live thing. His vocals were outstanding.

kad said Yeah, that's the first time anyone has seen that.

I don't know if this has any significance in anyones thinking, but when Sir Paul switched to piano, the bass tone clearly changed. Paul was playing his trademark Hoffner with a pick and the bass player after the switch was playing a Les Paul bass with his fingers. The tone each of them had, to my ears (I was listening through a loud Hi-fi system), corresponded to what and how they were playing. Even my non musician wife noticed the change in bass tone.

Abe Jr. also seemed to me to be in perfect sync and the whole thing sounded live to me, although possibly a recording of a previous live show.

Bottom line: IMHO, I think either the band was live or they are incredibly good fakers. I thoroughly enjoyed the showed regardless.

I'm still thinkin' vocals live, instruments pre-recorded.

You can whack the livin' daylights outta plastic cymbals and not bleed through vocal mics.

Remember, U2 did say that they sang live to tracks at their appearance.

There are too many clues that tell me the band was playing accurately, live, but to tracks that were mixed and the mixed tracks came out the speaker.

That may well be right.

There's the further question of why it matters.

As some have pointed out, in this case it's obviously not a musical ability issue. If anything, I'd think it's a logistical issue. Did you see all that staging--and did you notice how quickly they were back playing football where a huge stage had been? Within a few minutes. What army of technicians would you need to put up & tear down not just all that stage, but all of that sound equipment, in that teeny little window?

Given those factors, the real question is how much good, real music an artist can deliver within such parameters. The question isn't whether you compromise, it's where & how much. And I think Paul got that EXACTLY right.

I think this was the best half-time show ever. It didn't push any envelopes, but it sure felt good. It's something that just about everybody can appreciate & enjoy. It ain't supposed to be Carnegie Hall. It's supposed to be a good time. And it was the best.

Thanks, Paul!

Paul gave the fans just what they wanted: A solid presentation of musical entertainment, delivered by a veteran professional who doesn't need to fake anything, musically.

However, I am siding with the "backing tracks" camp. The logistics of the stage setup/teardown, the crowd/pyro noise, and the financial pressures of the networks and sponsors pretty much demanded it, I'm sure.

However, while not especially surprising, I thought it was well done.
More enjoyable than the game.

Peace,

wraub

I dunno guys, I still think it could have been live music.

Hell, I can tear down my gear in under 5 minutes, and I don't have an army of roadies.

does anyone know if there's a recording of the half-time show online somewhere? i've been looking for it, but i can't find it. it's the only part of the game i wanted to see, and i missed it.

you can bet i would have found last year's half-time show online by now...

Yes, Maury, but that's because you rock.

Look at it this way: The broadcaster has millions of dollars invested, and plans everything down to fractions of seconds (have you seen time code? ) They, in turn, sell those fractions of seconds to advertisers for millions of dollars, and the advertisers want to be assured that their dollars will not be mis-spent.

The entertainer in this case needs to be able to work within very narrow parameters of time, with no room at all for mistakes, flubs, miscues, etc.
Everything must go off without a hitch, down to the fraction of a second, or mucho money is lost.
And the networks and advertisers hate that.

Sir Paul (and band), in this case, presented a medley of songs (with pyro yet), without a hitch, in front of thousands of people with a good sound mix (and additional instruments), down to the fraction of a second. IMO, the band was actually playing, but they were doing so to backing tracks.
But they sounded good, looked like they might be enjoying themselves, and actually performed like, well, actual performers.

And much money was made by all.
Isn't that what the Super Bowl is really all about, anyway?


Peace,

wraub

I thought Homer and Ned's halftime show was pretty entertaining, too.

What?!?!?!? It's not all about The Luv?!?!?!?

Oh my.

I missed the halftime show. I was busy trying to get one of my kids to bed during halftime. Perhaps I'm a rarity, but I actually watch the game to watch people playing football. Crazy? Me? Perhaps...

Peace.
--Dub $$

i'm glad to see i wasn't the only one with a query about sir paul's performance.
IMHO, whether or not he used tracks, and to what percent, etc. is irrelevent. i'm just thankful to not see his boobies...

I liked the show - was watching the Super Bowl despite not knowing what the hell was going on - I enjoyed Pauls set but I must admit Hey Jude makes me ill these days. It's like he can't end a show with anything else these days.

As for being synched - not sure - wasn't watching that closely. But I'm always aware that an event with that many viewers and that much hype will always have a lot of failsafes built into it.

Loves Live and Let Die and i thought the stage layout was ingenious.

I didn't really notice the out of sync thing but one thing i did notice....

Paul played one note the entire time.....not really the coolest thing to watch.

I will get flamed for this but i can say that i don't like Paul McCartney, i think he is a good musician, but a lousy bassist.

He even said that none of them wanted to be the bass player, to them the bassist was the "fat guy who stood in the back", so Paul i guess lost the bet or something, lol.


Ahh yes, the un named, un rewarded, un noticed musicians playing on the part of the stage, that is technically the stage, but not really lit up.....they're the true magicians.

I don't know whether the music was live or not, but I definately think the vocals were. Man, Sir. Paul puts on a great show!

1) I saw a bass player playing when Paul was doing "Hey, Jude". Despite the effin' A Hofner, I am sure the bassist in the shadows was probably doing a fair amount of playing.

2) If he was lip synching, he did a damned sight better job of it than Ashlee Simpson.

3) It was the Super Bowl, not Ozzfest. There would have to be a slight amount of "preproduction" to get everyone on and off in time for McNabb to embarass himself (don't flame me, I'm an Eagles fan!)

4) It was nice to see something classy for a change, and whether boring and old, or talented and nostalgic, Sir Paul, if nothing, is class.

Now get on with it!

Maybe you whould watch the tape again. If you think that he was playing "one note the entire time," you have ears made of cow doo doo...which makes me doubt your "bass god" status.

That's a very tender sentiment. It's also a very democratic notion. And it's also flatly false.

They're clearly very talented & do their jobs well. They may well have the potential to make great individual contributions to popular music some day. And I hope they do. For now, they're interesting only because of the guy they're playing behind. (And I'll bet they all realize that.)

I saw the show, looked for tell-tale signs, and didn't see or hear any.

So, what somebody has said is that because of the tight schedule, the powers-that-be couldn't trust a guy who's been doing concerts like this longer than the super bowl's been around?

At an Elton John/Billy Joel concert in Wembley Stadium (Billy couldn't be there because he was having a pulip removed from his throat ) I noticed that the sound crew was having a time syncing up the sound system. Think of the "Pride of the Yankees" speech and out of time with the performance. Big stadiums have those problems.

And Dave, you're saying that Will Lee plays along with tracks? Shame.

My two cents worth.



ATM

Didn't say anything at all about Will Lee. The Letterman band is live.

I'm talking about guest artists who play on the show, behind the curtain.

Bass God Offspring: from which loins did you spring?

Paul McCartney, along with Jamerson, Babbitt, Entwhistle, Chuck Rainey and Carol Kaye defined pop bass playing. His playing is melodic, yet powerfully rhythmic. He goes unique places.

Yep, lookin' at McCartney right NOW compared to the rest of the bass world might be blase', simply because millions of recorded notes pay homage to what he did. But look at McCartney in the 60's, comparing him to virtually any other recording of the time...he is definitely a pace setter.

By the way....the riff to "Drive My Car" is harder than you think it is.

I saw Paul with Wings back in the day and he was using a lot of backing tapes. Having said that, it was before technology would have enabled keyboard players in particular to replicate horn sounds/string sounds etc and play these sounds "live" so it would have been impossible to get close to the arrangements on the records without backing tapes. He used to use Alan Gorrie to play most of the bass while he played guitar or piano and sang.

Having said that I've seen broadcasts of Paul's recent performances and he had a smoking band, great drummer, the band was obviously playing live and Macca was mainly playing bass (superbly, I might add). His voice is maybe only 95% of what it was but he had a back catalogue of songs so great that it stretches credibility that they were composed by the same person.

Bass God Offspring, don't despair, a couple of years ago I read an interview with Jeff Berlin where he confessed that it had taken him many years before he realised what an awesome bassplayer Macca was. He admitted he'd been so obsessed with technique he couldn't appreciate the imaginativeness and creativity of Macca's note choices. The penny dropped for Jeff eventually and it probably will for you too.

BGO,

Go purchase all the Beatles albums and learn every bass line. Believe me, it's worth it.