It’s usually forgivable when a musical artist makes a mistake or two while performing live but when the mistake is due to a technical malfunction of the pre-programmed music and voice track used because no musical group today seems capable of actually performing without a crutch, forgiveness is just not in the vocabulary. This was the unfortunate position Ashlee Simpson found herself in last night during her “musical performance” on Saturday Night Live. The music and voice track started before she was ready leaving Simpson and the band looking like fools onstage while engineers turned the vocal track down rather than have Simpson try to synch up with it again. What’s worse was the song that started playing was the song she had already sung earlier in the show.
In an extremely awkward situation, Simpson, dumbfounded, gyrated in a lame, lanky manner while her musicians switched tunes and began playing to cover the still audible vocals (as corrected in comments. In what is sure to be the most embarrassing moment of her life, Simpson, after pondering for a bit, walked meekly, and likely horrified, off stage as the band continued to play. Finally, a merciful engineer cut to commercial. It’s a priceless television moment and one that is, unfortunately, sure to haunt her for the rest of her life.
One wonders what is so wrong with singing live. Do artists and producers feel the public is too stupid to realize a live performance will sound different than a studio performance? That the public expects this pre-produced fakery? Have pop stars become so produced that they are helpless outside the studio? We have nothing against the girl but it’s well know she’s no singer without the help of a thirty track sound board. Media Drop has more including the fact Simpson is blames the screw up on her band whom she claims played the wrong song. This spoof is funny and, at the same time, very sad.
UPDATE: Father Joe makes excuses.
