Did 'SNL' Gaffe Expose Simpson Vocal Aid?

October 24, 2004
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Singer Ashlee Simpson (news)'s "extra help" may have been exposed when a "Saturday Night Live" audience heard her voice — singing the wrong song — while she held a microphone at her waist.

Her record company blamed a computer glitch and she blamed her band for Sunday morning's incident, which cut off her planned performance of the song "Autobiography" on the network comedy show.

Simpson had performed her hit single "Pieces of Me" without incident earlier in the show. When she came back a second time, her band started playing and the first lines of her singing "Pieces of Me" could be heard again.

She looked momentarily confused as the band plowed ahead with the song and the vocal was quickly silenced.

Simpson made some exaggerated hopping dance moves, then walked off the stage 35 seconds into the performance. NBC quickly cut to a commercial.

"What can I say?" guest host Jude Law said with Simpson standing next to him at the end of the show. "Live TV."

"Exactly," Simpson said. "I feel so bad. My band started playing the wrong song. I didn't know what to do so I thought I'd do a hoe-down."

Her record company, Geffen Records, said there was a computer glitch. Instead of some pretaped electronic percussion, the recording of "Pieces of Me" started mistakenly performing, the record company said in a statement.

But it sounded suspiciously like a guide vocal that's a common — although almost always unspoken — concert aid. Either the singer "lip synchs" by mouthing words to a backing tape or has a live microphone and sings along to the tape, making the voice sound more powerful than it is.

Such vocal tricks have been used before on the show, making "Saturday Night Live" not entirely live, said a show insider who spoke on condition of anonymity.

A Geffen spokeswoman did not immediately return a call for comment.

Simpson's walk-off joins the lore of other unexpected music moments on "SNL": Elvis Costello (news) stopping and changing songs on live TV, and Sinead O'Connor (news) tearing up a picture of the pope.


Scott

I suppose many of you didn't CATCH Ashlee Simpson's onstage blunder on Saturday Night Live (10/24) so I went ahead & posted a video clip (recorded from TV) of it here:

PLAY CLIP!

This created quite an embarassment for Ashlee to hear herself singing while the the microphone was held at her waist, revealing to the audience that she had only intended to lip sync her performance. The disappointing reality of this is that its become an all too commonplace practice these days for even the top concert performers these days to merely lip sync (ala Milli Vanilli) their songs, robbing the audience of the 100% live musical performance they thought they were getting. And they call this: Saturday Night 'LIVE'?

Scott

Scott, sadly it's not about the music anymore. With stars such as her it's really more looks and image. B. Spears is a good example.. The girl is a terrible singer, but she's damn hot, and that sells. Pop idols don't seem to have the musical and lyrical talent they used to have.

Squeak

Please don't make me laugh

'But I had to sing it the first time,' she said unconvincingly.

Talent means you can sing it every time!

This thread & video clip demonstrate the point I've tried to make for years here, that making $ as a pro musician (and eventual stardom) does NOT necessarily mean one's a talented musician. The widely varying range of musical ability among even the pro gigging members here is a case in point.

In fact there are MANY here who may not be making $ performing music, but who I'm sure are as musicially talented and perhaps with better chops, than some of those pro performers out there today.

As a musician, it's frustrating to realize that both the media & general audiences appear more enamoured with the glamour, glitz, and hype of stardom, than the actual music. MTV has certainly changed the face of music. Was I born in the wrong generation?

Scott

Check 1..2, mic check...
Hey...is this thing on??

------------------
...L

Record companies can make a lot more money promoting eye candy as pop talent. Real talent will want a bigger piece of the pie and creative control, etc.

"You know I'd go back there tomorrow
But for the work I've taken on
Stoking the star maker machinery
Behind the popular song.", ....


[This message has been edited by Jon Doe (edited 10-25-2004).]

Bottom line...Sex Sells

Donny, time to lose a few pounds and be the next sex icon!