Songdog Music

Vocal Love

This I think is the core of the performance and I’d like to orient you a bit. A lot is being thought, written, recorded here in 2026 about synthesized vocals, AI vocals, about modern singers not being up to the old standards, and sort of an overall ‘omg music is dead’ vibe.

Andrew Hozier-Byrne and Rachel Price take that drivel, and they swish and spit it like sommeliers at a wine tasting. Each in their own way applies truly stunning vocal skill with inventiveness, sensitivity, and grace in the most wonderful way.

This “With a Little Help from My Friends” is overall a chance for them to shine together and bring this song once more to center stage. They are joined in Verse 3 and the following chorus by Akie Bermiss, also of Lake Street Dive, who adds his own soaring vocals to the call & response.

Behind these three fantastic soloists, you should note, pretty much everyone on that stage is belting out the backup vocals. Tutti! (means “everybody”) Great Big Joy Machine, indeed.

Let’s hear your ‘music app’ come up with this shit

At about 4:30 into the song is a magic moment.
Bridget Kearney, bassist of Lake Street Dive wants to let you know that the chorus of “With a Little Help from My Friends” uses the same chords as “I Dig a Pony” from the Beatles’ “Let It Be” album.

At 4:30 she morphs her bassline into the riff from “I Dig a Pony” and starts jamming on it. A few seconds later the horns of the Great Big Joy Machine join in. And the song ends in a tidy perfect mashup as they do.

• How to know this was thought out beforehand? Because if she’d improvised it, ALL the horns couldn’t have come in with it precisely.
• How to know it was Bridget’s idea? I don’t, but it’s likely because she starts it, because bassists are intimate with chord changes, because I have heard her do this sort of thing before—and because Bridget is the mf bomb!

All of which means?

Depth of human expression.

No less than that very shishi sounding phrase. One musician in this very large group noticed an opportunity to plug in a bit more meaning, context, relevance, circular reference. Call it what you will, this interpolation of another Beatles song ads a big dose of “Whoa” to the performance.

It happened because the relationship between the two songs just “popped into her head”.

It was non-linear, it relied on memory and associations and real creativity. Similarly the connection with the currently-rampant discussion of AI music just “popped into my head” as I was writing.

Does AI itself do that? Do topics “Pop into its head”?

I think not.

Volition is human. Drawing non-linear connections is human. Creativity is human. Do not make the mistake of thinking “generative” is the same as “creative”.

Ain’t nothin’ but a

The Late Show Performance feels like a party, a celebration of music and commeraderie. It just happens to be enacted by a brilliant group who has invited us to join them.

I think the emotional reaction I originally had to it was simply me picking up on that. Joy and inclusiveness are things that make life worth all the effort. That’s what this is all about. And I think that getting a few tidbits of information, some points to focus on, some insight into how such feats are pulled off, should help you share more deeply in the expression of it.

At the end, during the applause and the going-around-hugging, Colbert says “I love my job!”

Amen, brother.

There was power in this performance.

This was art, real communication.

P.S. As I prepare this article for publication, I notice: That photo just above? All the way on the right is a cut-off Bridget Kearney. See that bass she's holding? It's a Höfner. Who else famously played a Höfner?

Sir Paul McCartney.

I love my job!