After listening to two rounds of The Memoirs of Billy Shears: The Nine After 9-09 Edition by Thomas E. Uharriet, Billy Shears and narrated by Gregory Paul Martin, there is something that was said that has stayed with me.
The basis of the work being a "tell-all" of the Paul Is Dead theory notwithstanding, there are passages in the book where there are explanations of "throaty" singing versus "diaphragm" singing.
Allegedly Paul sang with his throat, so he was more hoarse by the end of what they were doing (concert, album recording), where as Billy sang with his gut and could go on to do more recordings in one night, rather than need to take a break to relax the vocal chords.
It was also said that the smoking didn't help the cause, as Paul's throat would have been a scratchy scene after a while. Sure, Billy smoked in the beginning to keep the illusion up, however, the throat singing was something he couldn't get behind. It was not something he was trained to do, as a professional studio musician / backup musician. If you want a gig, you have to expand your repertoire and being able to carry on with hours of recording, you'd need to be able to not wear out the one thing you needed to record with.
There some audio manipulation that happened when Billy entered the picture because he didn't want to risk harming his own voice for the sake of this new deal. Subsequently, there are works out in the world where you can tell the difference between the real Paul (aka James Paul in some PID circles) and the imposter Paul (William / Billy... aka "Faul" - Fake Paul in circles). Billy also states that he wishes there were better clues for people to recognize the difference, but due to the way interviews, songs, etc. were recorded back in the 60s, he knows some conversations that existed no longer are around.
He specifically calls out a few behind the scenes discussions that happened with John and James Paul where there were no instruments, no background sounds, nothing. It was just the two men having a chat, and this would have been one of the last recordings of the real Paul before Billy joined the band. Using that recording to compare Paul's speaking voice to Billy's, it would have been one of the things to knock any theory out of the park that James Paul is still around. The unfortunate thing for anything being sung, is that they recorded everything with the instruments. Most tracks have some sort of sound embedded below the vocal track, so there was no way to snip out Paul's throat singing to compare it to Billy's diaphragm singing. You'd still get some sort of instrument bleed and it wouldn't be as well defined as a source.
I remember when I was in junior high and attempted to take chorus for a semester before dropping out after a month. The music director spoke often about how to properly sing and what the ways were that made everything worse. We tend to speak from our heads and throat on a normal basis, so it's "only natural" we attempt to sing that way too. But those who speak from their belly tend to sing from there too.
It's also a thought process behind the lecture circuit. You can't project your words from your throat. You need to push it up from your intestines in order to speak loudly and clearly; the way to be heard is from your toes, literally.
When Billy suggests to try singing along to one of the Beatles songs (or any song, really), with your throat, see how you feel. Then try to sing along with your diaphragm. You may be winded at first, but which version makes you sound more clear? It doesn't matter if you're the world's worst singer. We all make the attempt to be a rock star. But there is a point to it and it's a valid one. The difference is totally noticeable and for me to say it, must be good since I'm hard of hearing (yet I do a lot of audio work. Go figure).
It's so weird how once things are pointed out, you start thinking of other things.
For example, Roy Orbison barely opened his mouth when he sang, yet his octave range is crazy. What started this whole idea of a post was my singing along (in the car) to "You Got It" (track 01 off 1989's Mystery Girl, the last album made, as Orbi died the month before. It was a posthumous release). If you try to sing along with your head, you're going to not hit the notes Roy could. Try to sing with your stomach, you may reach it all, but then again, not a lot of people hit his notes all the time. Again, if you ever watch any video recordings of him, all through his life, he barely opened his mouth. So to hit those notes is purely amazing.
Yet, conversely, there's a need for sub genres of music where people are having guttural voices heard. Screamer, growler, hardcore, post punk, metal, hair banging, aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!! gets you mosh pitting anywhere your feet land. However, they have to be doing something every day to keep their voice from cracking and going bad because you're not going to be able to talk the same if you do this type of music day in and day out.
Surely? Possibly? I don't listen to a lot of that music. I know of it because I've heard bits and pieces of thumping bass mixed with electric guitars and the lead singing something so incoherent, you need closed captions to go with the song.
There's an indie hip hop artist named Knothead and he is out of Washington State. He dives into hardcore metal but lists his genres as:
- acid
- rap
- hip-hop/rap
- horrorcore rap
- hip hop alternative
- hip-hop industrial
- industrial rock
- alternative
- insanity
- noisecore rap
- rap alternative
- rap metal
- rapcore
- underground hip hop
- Spokane
When I was active on Twitter, I was actually following him because I tend to find randomly obscure music only and if the person is new to online scene, I would do the "Follow Friday" tag to help them get more listeners.
Much like an independent artist out of New York (by way of Australia) named Joe Var Veri, he is the opposite end of a throat singer. Mr. V is one of those artists I've been following for over a decade. If you watch any of Joe's Youtube videos, he totally knows how to use his abilities. Yes, he digs Elvis (a lot), but he's enthusiastic and clear - just watch his facial expressions... he enjoys what he does. It feels like he sings from his guitar some days because he resonates with you. But he sings from below, not from above. It is why he can cover artists like Elvis and Roy Orbison, as well produce his own music - he's not letting his neck sounds get in the way.
Sure, you can say "Knothead sounded like he sings from his diaphragm too", and I could say "you're right, since you need some push of air to get that "grrr" out", but there's a difference in how the sounds finally reach the world. Throat singing is dark and scratchy while diaphragm singing is happy and clean. Both are equal in what they accomplish as they get the job done. It's a matter of what the intention is and how you can swing it to be beneficial for yourself and for others.
I'm not a fanboy for Apple products, but if you want a movie to watch, download the Apple TV app on your streaming device(s) if you don't have the app already (or the streaming box itself). After the trial, it's $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year (price has gone up since I started subscribing). It's worth the purchase for the original content, and I've utilized the hell out of it. There are plenty of shows I recommend to people who are new to the fruit life and want something to watch. The sci-fi kids get "For All Mankind" recommendation while in this case, the movie "CODA" fits in with what I'm talking about. Unfortunately, it's not available on Amazon to link to, nor is it on any other site or DVD.
CODA is an Apple Original movie and the basic synopsis (pulled from Apple TV site) is: "As a CODA (child of deaf adults), Ruby is the only hearing person in her home. When she discovers a passion for singing, Ruby must choose between family obligations and her dreams". Ruby is the only hearing person in her family of 4 and they are a fishing family in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Her dreams are to become a singer, so we see the trials and tribulations of a teenager in high school, trying to do right by her parents yet have a need to succeed for a future life. The music scenes where the teacher is trying to get the students to warm up and sing rather than stand there like lumps on a log are why I think this movie relates to the theme of this post. The teacher actively tries to get the students to contribute to the overall goodness of what they can achieve in his class and Ruby particularly, can go on to get out from the family business.
I've completely turned in circles with this, so I think I'm going to stop here before I go on about other examples in music history.
Take care of yourselves, drink lots of tea with honey, and don't over reach in telling others your story.
Cheers;
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Thanks for sharing!