" Singing "
In my opinion some things you just have to do . I have sung a lot of songs in many styles . I was singing harmony with my mother publicly before I was five . Maybe I was cuter then and solicited more pity . I never asked for it . I also didn't ask for critique though I have occasionally received derogatory remarks though not a lot . I chose what I wanted and didn't do what I didn't relate to . All in all , I can't regret a song or the action of singing . Songs come and go in my heart and I find new songs that mean more to me all the time and keep on moving . I haven't sung very much professionally for the last five years . I could almost mark the time from my friend and drummer ,Lenny's death , when , for some reason ,I didn't feel like singing for people in live situations anymore .When Marsha died the same year I guess it put a nail in the coffin . All of my recordings of recent times are done at home and not in a studio under the watchful eye of a producer who might make me do retakes . Actually , my old friend and producer - publisher of material from as far back as the sixties , Dan Elliot did request that I re-do a folk song I wrote that he liked with many time signatures . I still haven't re-done it . I don't look back but forward and that song is past and another is in my heart . I merely do it .
In the last two months I have started sharing what I have been doing at home . It never occurred to me to critique my own work further than my own personal listening pleasure . I am aware of the "whatever happens, happens" attitude I have about it . I feel that out of these experiments come bigger ideas and better playing and singing in the objective nature of being able to listen to myself without being involved . Incidentally , in all my recordings I am involved playing the piano, guitar , or playing the organ and left hand bass while I sing . I have found that this does affect my voice and my intonation yet there is a truthfulness in my recordings that isn't in the over produced music that pretends to be improvised . What I play is improvised and most are first takes and then I move on to something else . Fortunately , I still sing for the joy of singing . I can't see any reason to change my position at this time . I am fortunate that I am able to find and sing and play songs , still being affected by material from a distance and sometimes having the opportunity of passing that emotional content of laughter and tears on to other human beings . I once asked a girl singer to sing a song that she had in her heart and she didn't have a clue as to what I was asking her to do . I think she called "High High the Moon". The session songs , the overplayed , over done songs , are songs that say , "Look what I can do ," not " Do you feel what I feel , Can you hear what I have heard ?"
I am once again in touch with a good old friend ,a partner who is a great writer and singer , Gary White . Gary has a wonderful way with his words and poetry . In this song by Gary called "Has Been" , he shows how we all procrastinate and we all can relate to the closing lyric though we are thinking it is speaking of the character he is illustrating , "The Has Been" who is eventually going to do something ,eventually ,... someday ,...soon .
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/5/31/1938785/Latter%20Circae/Gary%20White/11-The%20Has%20been.mp3
Some things just have to be done or they will never be done . Doesn't Gary hit the nail right on the head !
