Music icons still performing, even though they surely don't need the money.

bobcat

Well-known Member
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Frankie Avalon (81) still performing with Fabian as The Golden Boys.
Also Frankie Vali just booked in Vegas for 2025 at the age of 91.

Some entertainers could have retired years ago, but they still enjoy their fans and touring, so they just keep on going. They may not have the pipes they used to have, but you have to admire their stamina and dedication.

I saw Frankie in a concert once, and he joked that he couldn't quit performing because he had 8 children. He's been married to the same woman for 61 years.

I'm sure there are many others who keep on going because it's their life and they just love what they do.
 

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Frankie Avalon (81) still performing with Fabian and Bobby Rydell as The Golden Boys.
Also Frankie Vali just booked in Vegas for 2025 at the age of 91.

Some entertainers could have retired years ago, but they still enjoy their fans and touring, so they just keep on going. They may not have the pipes they used to have, but you have to admire their stamina and dedication.

I saw Frankie in a concert once, and he joked that he couldn't quit performing because he had 8 children. He's been married to the same woman for 61 years.

I'm sure there are many others who keep on going because it's their life and they just love what they do.
The fact that they make a huge amount of money from those concerts probably doesn't hurt, either.

It used to be that singers and bands made most of their money from album sales. Now they barely make anything from CD or vinyl album sales since most music can be streamed for free. They make their money now from playing concerts, and for someone like Frankie Avalon, that means a huge amount of money.
 
I'm sure there are many others who keep on going because it's their life and they just love what they do.
Exactly so, retirement is fine if you have an interest and for musicians, music is their interest.
Born 81years ago on the 26th July 1943, Sir Michael Philip Jagger.
The Rolling Stones Tour 2024 Hackney Diamonds, kicking off April 28th in Houston and wraps on 17th July in Santa Clara.
 
I have seen plenty of oldie singers, but mostly from the Doo Wop era. I did fly out to Las Vegas once to see Celine Dion for our anniversary. I had planned my flight so I would get paid for going there and my wife flew with me, but she sat back in coach and I was at the controls. I asked her how was the flight. She said her food wasn't hot enough. (What's that got to do with the flight itself?)
 
I haven't seen any of the 60's bands in concert, but I have seen Stevie Nicks in concert twice. She is now 76 and can still rock it. As long as she performs and can still sing I will attend her concerts.
 
Chances are that someone offers them good money to perform. Paul McCartney performs Beatles songs even still. He once said that the Beatles were offered huge sums to get together for concerts. That has to be the same case today.
His concerts keep the music alive and has to help album sales.
 
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I'm not too sure some of the 50s-80s groups "don't need the money". They made the big bucks way back when- and it was 50s-80s money.
Well, I haven't really looked into many, but Frankie Avalon's net worth is around 20 million, and Frankie Valli's net worth is around 80 million, so I'm pretty sure they could retire if they had the urge. I think they just enjoy it, so they keep on going.
 
Frankie Avalon (81) still performing with Fabian as The Golden Boys.
Also Frankie Vali just booked in Vegas for 2025 at the age of 91.

Some entertainers could have retired years ago, but they still enjoy their fans and touring, so they just keep on going. They may not have the pipes they used to have, but you have to admire their stamina and dedication.

I saw Frankie in a concert once, and he joked that he couldn't quit performing because he had 8 children. He's been married to the same woman for 61 years.

I'm sure there are many others who keep on going because it's their life and they just love what they do.

This reminds me of a couple things. There's a guy on Youtube who analyses music, and I mean at the bit level, not just opinion. As an example, he analyzed The Eagles last tour. None of the vocals were live. They were all pre-recorded, and mimed. He's exposed a lot of older musicians, and most of them seem to be miming, using backing tracks rather than singing live. So, live isn't really live these days. From Mariah Carey to new releases of Queen albums, digital magic is used to make it sounds as though they can still do it.
 
This reminds me of a couple things. There's a guy on Youtube who analyses music, and I mean at the bit level, not just opinion. As an example, he analyzed The Eagles last tour. None of the vocals were live. They were all pre-recorded, and mimed. He's exposed a lot of older musicians, and most of them seem to be miming, using backing tracks rather than singing live. So, live isn't really live these days. From Mariah Carey to new releases of Queen albums, digital magic is used to make it sounds as though they can still do it.
You have a point, especially if one's expectation is a raw live performance. However, I think a lot of what we hear from almost any musician, even in live concerts, is enhanced. If it weren't, they wouldn't need sound engineers in the studio and even at live concerts. What's coming through the speakers is shaped and enhanced by the unsung heroes of audio working their magic behind the scenes.

I get what you're saying about some degree of lip syncing, but to me, if it's still their song, and their voice, I can overlook any age-related discrepancies. I have to ask myself, that if given the opportunity, and knowing that there is some degree of sound enhancement going on, would I still go see them, and for some artists, yes, I would.
 
As someone that stopped ever reading music magazines after the 1980s, I had never read of this miming controversy. So just researched that some. Apparently it is mostly a thing in pop music and even some post 1990s era newer rock bands. However rarely with older rock bands except with recent touring background vocals where main vocals are 100% live.

As someone that has always attended much live Classic Rock, songs are almost never played and sung exactly like on album records, usually with plenty of obvious variations. Supposedly some of this in newer big money pop concerts is due to all the fancy techno lights, fog machines, and explosions that requires exact synchronization.

Classic Rock concerts always had some of those stage effects that were by art types doing such live manually and often received billing as say "light show by ..." instead of what is apparently done today by computer automation with show fixed programmed timing.
 

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