I’m a sing along singer,
especially the falsetto parts. I am a
natural baritone but love to hit those high sweet notes. I rarely know all the words, just the hooks
and maybe the chorus. I often get the
words wrong. Isn’t there a name for
that? You know where the lyric says this
but you sing that!
- The Bee Gees "More than a Woman" becomes bald-headed woman.
- The Rolling Stones "I'll never be your beast of burden" becomes I’ll never be your pizza burning.
Driving in the car with the windows up, or dancing around
the house with the stereo blasting, those were my studios. That’s when my inner superstar came to life.
Smokey went missing nearly two years ago
Treatments for throat cancer ravaged my body. The damage caused by radiation being shot
through my throat for 17 minutes a day over 35 days resulted in completely
losing my voice for a while. I could
barely make a squeak. When it came back,
my range was virtually non-existent. My
voice was raspy and weak. I couldn’t
sing, not even a little bit. This has
been my recent reality.
Friends and family have never said, I want your CD
In my mind’s ear, I have always been this close to a Motown contract. On the street corners of the Bronx or
Philadelphia back in the 50’s, I’d have been a doo-wop singer. The Beach Boys would’ve
been real superstars had they only found me, and The Beatles could have been
the Fab Five.
Sam Cooke was right
And so was my oncologist, "a
change is gonna come, oh yes it will".
Learning to be patient - ha!
Me giving me permission to heal has been hard. Even though the doctors have said that my
recovery has been faster than most, I struggled because I want it now. Change has been slow and often subtle. You don’t recognize the improvements but
others do.
Friend - "Ted, you’re sounding great."
Me - "Really!"
Friend - "I can hear it in your voice."
Then it happened! Ooh Baby Baby
My ipod has been out of service due to static issues with my
old computer, so, I bought a new computer. Go
figure that the optical drive would fail just as I was loading up our favourite
music. It took weeks to get it back.
The first new playlist, the ipod parked on the playback unit
and hit shuffle. There he was, Smokey Robinson with Ooh
Baby Baby. I started to sing along, my inner Smokey, falsetto and all.
There wasn’t any permanent damage from the radiation, just
like they said. But, the inflammation
around the vocal chords was severe enough that Smokey went bye-bye for most of
two years.
My voice will get stronger
with use. So "Hold on, I’m coming".
