by Tracey Thorn
Because I of all people, with my love of privacy and my lifelong adherence to quietness, should be able to admit that there are times when singing can exist for its own sake, with no goal in mind, not even any listener to please. As I’ve said before, sometimes the best moment during the making of a record is the point when you are just beginning to write the songs, and they exist solely inside your head; you have tunes and bits of lyrics that only you have heard. You sing them, aloud and to yourself, and it’s a completely private activity. Equally, sometimes it can be enough to sing for the sake of making a lovely sound, pure and simple, no need for any instrument, just your own body producing a noise. I’ve always found this pleasurable. Having started out making music in solitude, preferring not to be witnessed, sealing myself off wherever possible from any listener, I would find satisfaction in the creation of sound that only I experienced. And I still enjoy doing this. One of my daughters shares this impulse with me. She goes down into our soundproofed basement studio, plays the piano and sings to herself, and no one is allowed to listen. She doesn’t like performing, doesn’t like being watched, doesn’t much need or want anyone else’s opinion or approval. She’s not trying to entertain, or prove a point, or achieve anything. They are her own private moments of self-expression.
This is the opposite of what I have said about the communal aspect of singing. It might seem at odds with it; too insular – selfish, even – almost a waste, to create something and not share it. But it doesn’t feel like that to me. Solitary activity is sometimes devalued in our gregarious, extrovert-friendly culture. We admire those who are confident and social, and worry about or even patronise those who are introverted or shy. You can be labelled a loser for spending too much time in your bedroom, playing computer games or having online friends, as though experiences which take place outside the home, in the ‘real world’, are inherently richer, more rewarding, more valuable. And is the same true of music? Do we assume that making music in public is a more worthwhile thing to do than singing at home, in private, to ourselves? If I write a song, or sing someone else’s, does it only count if I then record it and sell it to you, or get on a stage and sing it to you from up there?
Maybe, after all, this is the epiphany of my book. Not a change of heart, or an uplifting moment when I overcome the barriers that have stood in my way, shoving them aside as I stride back onto the stage, a new woman. But instead a moment when I stop beating myself up. When I acknowledge, as I have since reading Susan Cain’s book Quiet, that I am a classic introvert, who just happened to be born with a singing voice, but for whom the stage has always been more or less a scene of torment; and, most importantly, that this need not be a source of guilt or shame.
For when I say I ‘don’t sing’, that isn’t really what I mean. In actual fact, I do sing, it’s just that quite often, like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, there is no one there to hear me. But I hear me. I feel the breath go in and out of my body, I relish the sensation of doing something I know how to do, I feel in possession and in control of an ability that’s long been there for me. I’ve spent a lot of time singing for others, and much of the time I’ve enjoyed it; I value the moments when I have music to share, new songs to record, and I’m certainly not going to stop doing that. And as much as I agonise over whether or not I should go on tour again, or appear on telly, or sing live on the radio, much of the time I simply don’t think about it at all, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether or not I ever do any of those things again. Sometimes, I sing just for the sake of it; because I can, and because I want to.
I just sing.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to give huge thanks:
to my agent Kirsty McLachlan, who read the book in its very early stages and made extremely useful comments
to Ben Watt, who also read it at an early stage, putting ‘HAHA’ in the margin at intervals, which was encouraging, and who pointed out that I needed a snappy title
to Rowan Cope, my editor at Virago, who read it in the later stages, and whose invaluable help and suggestions enabled me to finish
to Zoë Hood and Emily Burns at Virago for all their unstinting work on the publicity side of things
to Romy Madley Croft, Green Gartside, Alison Moyet, Kristin Hersh and Linda Thompson for agreeing to answer my questions about singing
and to Amber Burlinson, who copy-edited the whole thing with an eye for detail which I take my hat off to. To which I take my hat off? Oh, I’m not sure – that’s why I needed her.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I’m indebted to several books for inspiration and extraordinary insights into singing, in particular:
Ian Bostridge A Singer’s Notebook (Faber & Faber, 2011) Simon Frith Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music (Oxford University Press, 1998)
Clinton Heylin No More Sad Refrains: The Life and Times of Sandy Denny (Helter Skelter, 2000)
Lenny Kaye You Call It Madness: The Sensuous Song of the Croon (Villard Books, 2004)
Wayne Koestenbaum The Queen’s Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire (Da Capo Press, 2001)
Lucy O’Brien Dusty (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1988)
John Potter Vocal Authority: Singing Style and Ideology (Cambridge University Press, 1998)
Randy L. Schmidt Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter (Omnibus Press, 2012)
Others that have been useful include:
Margaret Atwood ‘Siren Song’ Selected Poems 1965–75 (Virago Press, 1976)
Charlotte Brontë Shirley (1849)
Willa Cather The Song of the Lark (Virago Press, 1982)
John Cheever The Wapshot Scandal (Vintage Classics, 2010)
George du Maurier Trilby (1895)
Bob Dylan Chronicles Volume One (Simon & Schuster, 2004)
George Eliot Daniel Deronda (1876)
Lavinia Greenlaw The Importance of Music to Girls (Faber & Faber, 2007)
Kristin Hersh Paradoxical Undressing (Penguin, 2010; Atlantic Books 2011)
Will Hodgkinson The Ballad of Britain: How Music Captured the Soul of a Nation (Portico, 2009)
James Joyce Ulysses (1922)
Franz Kafka ‘The Silence of the Sirens’ The Complete Short Stories (Vintage Classics, 1992)
Gareth Malone Choir (Collins, 2012)
Greg Milner Perfecting Sound Forever: The Story of Recorded Music (Granta Books, 2009)
Ann Patchett Bel Canto (Fourth Estate, 2001)
Arthur Phillips The Song Is You (Duckworth Overlook, 2009)
Oliver Sacks Musicophilia (Vintage, 2008)
Siegfried Sassoon ‘Everyone Sang’ Collected Poems 1908–56 (Faber & Faber, 1961)
Donna Soto-Morettini Popular Singing (A&C Black, 2006)
Anne Tyler A Slipping-Down Life (Hamlyn, 1983)
Rob Young Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music (Faber & Faber, 2010)
Edited by Rob Young No Regrets: Writings on Scott Walker (Orion, 2012)
Interviews and features:
Jonathan Amos ‘Girls also have angelic voices’ ([http://news.bbc.co.uk], 8 September 2003)
Simon Hattenstone ‘Scott Walker: Brother Beyond’ (Guardian, 23 November 2012)
Rob Jones ‘8 Voices of Bob Dylan’ ([http://thedeletebin.com], 24 May 2010)
Jonathan Law ‘Disappearing Acts: Shelagh McDonald’ ([http://thedabbler.co.uk], 6 March 2013)
Rebecca Morelle ‘Choir boys’ and girls’ distinctive voices studied’ ([http://www.bbc.co.uk], 6 January 2011)
Alexis Petridis ‘Gone but not forgotten’, interview with Anne Briggs (Guardian, 3 August 2007)
Jude Rogers ‘You want no sheen, just the song’, interview with Shirley Collins (Guardian, 21 March 2008)
Graeme Thomson ‘Anne Briggs at 65’ ([http://ishotamaninrenobook.blogspot.com], 15 August 2008)
SONG CREDITS
‘Gloria’: Part I ‘In Excelsis Deo’ by Patti Smith; Part II ‘Gloria’ by Van Morrison. Arista Records. © Sony BMG Music Ente
rtainment.
‘Supersonic’ by Noel Gallagher. Creation Ltd. © Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
‘We’ve Only Just Begun’ by Paul Williams, Roger Nichols. A&M Records. © Universal Music Publishing.
‘Goodbye to Love’ by Richard Carpenter, John Bettis. A&M Records. © Universal Music Publishing.
‘Weak Become Heroes’ by Michael Skinner. 679 Recordings. © Universal Music Publishing.
‘D.O.A. (Death of Auto-tune)’ by Shawn Carter, Ernest Wilson, Garrett LeCarlo, Dale Frashner & Paul Leka, Janko Nilovic, Dave Sucky. Roc Nation/Atlantic. © EMI Music Publishing, Chrysalis Music Group, Warner/Chappell Music Inc.
Every effort has been made to provide correct copyright information. If notified, the publisher will be pleased to rectify any errors or omissions at the earliest opportunity.
PLAYLIST
This is a playlist containing most of the singers mentioned in this book, plus a few I missed. Some of these performances are only included because of their relevance to a particular chapter, but many of them are my favourite vocals of all time. I’ve listed them in the order in which they appear, and then added more – and quite frankly, I could have gone on for ever.
Patti Smith ‘Gloria’, ‘Kimberly’
Bob Dylan ‘Corrina, Corrina’
Elvis Costello ‘Alison’
Nico ‘The Fairest of the Seasons’
Bridget St John ‘Autumn Lullaby’
Oasis ‘Supersonic’
Randy Newman ‘In Germany Before the War’
Björk ‘Human Behaviour’
Elvis Costello ‘I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself’
Dusty Springfield ‘I Don’t Want to Hear it Any More’, ‘Nothing Has Been Proved’, ‘Easy Evil’
Aretha Franklin ‘I Say a Little Prayer’
Whitney Houston ‘Saving All My Love for You’
Kristin Hersh ‘Your Ghost’
Tom Waits ‘Martha’
Lou Reed ‘Coney Island Baby’
Sex Pistols ‘Pretty Vacant’
X-Ray Spex ‘The Day the World Turned Day-Glo’
The Fall ‘The Container Drivers’
Siouxsie and the Banshees ‘Love in a Void’
Marianne Faithfull ‘The Ballad of Lucy Jordan’
Au Pairs ‘Repetition’, ‘Headache for Michelle’
Billie Holiday ‘I Cover the Waterfront’
The Carpenters ‘We’ve Only Just Begun’, ‘Goodbye to Love’, ‘Rainy Days and Mondays’
Elvis Costello ‘She’, ‘(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes’
Felt ‘Penelope Tree’
Tammy Wynette ‘I Don’t Wanna Play House’
Massive Attack ‘Karmacoma’
Molly Drake ‘How Wild the Wind Blows’
The Rolling Stones ‘Angie’
Ray Charles ‘You Don’t Know Me’
Nat King Cole ‘Stardust’
Elton John ‘Tiny Dancer’
David Bowie ‘The Jean Genie’, ‘Letter to Hermione’
Roxy Music ‘Virginia Plain’
Scritti Politti ‘Confidence’, ‘The Sweetest Girl’
The Beach Boys ‘The Warmth of the Sun’
Robert Wyatt ‘Born Again Cretin’
Captain Beefheart ‘Observatory Crest’
Joni Mitchell ‘The Last Time I Saw Richard’
Simon and Garfunkel ‘The 59th Street Bridge Song’
Colin Blunstone ‘I Don’t Believe in Miracles’
Bob Dylan ‘Talkin’ New York’
Nick Drake ‘Poor Boy’
John Martyn ‘Go Down Easy’
Rachel Unthank and The Winterset ‘Felton Lonnin’
Anne Briggs ‘Standing on the Shore’
Aretha Franklin ‘I’m In Love’
Luther Vandross ‘A House Is Not a Home’
Sade ‘By Your Side’
The Pretenders ‘Talk of the Town’
Blossom Dearie ‘May I Come In?’
Björk ‘Hyperballad’
Adele ‘Make You Feel My Love’
Loleatta Holloway ‘Love Sensation’
Beyoncé ‘If I Were a Boy’
Marni Nixon ‘I Feel Pretty’
Daft Punk ‘One More Time’
Poliça ‘Dark Star’
Rufus Wainwright ‘Memphis Skyline’
Ben Watt ‘Matthew Arnold’s Field’
Barbra Streisand ‘Stoney End’
Frank Sinatra ‘Love Is Here to Stay’
Velvet Underground ‘Sunday Morning’
The xx ‘Night Time’
Fleetwood Mac ‘Dreams’
Wings ‘My Love’
Jessie Ware ‘Running’
This Mortal Coil ‘Song to the Siren’
Vashti Bunyan ‘Diamond Day’
Shelagh McDonald ‘Let No Man Steal Your Thyme’
Linda Thompson ‘Dimming of the Day’
Anne Briggs ‘Sovay’
The Mamas and the Papas ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me’
Michael Jackson ‘Got to Be There’ (acapella)
Fairport Convention ‘Who Knows Where the Time Goes?’, ‘Autopsy’
Sandy Denny ‘Next Time Around’
Fotheringay ‘Silver Threads and Golden Needles’
Joni Mitchell ‘Don’t Interrupt the Sorrow’
Frank Sinatra ‘In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning’
Rod Stewart ‘You Wear it Well’
Rufus Wainwright ‘Dinner at Eight’
Rudy Vallée ‘The Way You Look Tonight’
Chet Baker ‘I Get Along Without You Very Well’
American Music Club ‘Why Won’t You Stay’
Paul Buchanan ‘My True Country’
David Sylvian ‘Orpheus’
Elbow ‘The Night Will Always Win’
Radiohead ‘House of Cards’
Scott Walker ‘Only Myself to Blame’, ‘The World’s Strongest Man’, ‘Angels of Ashes’
Ella Fitzgerald ‘Every Time We Say Goodbye’
James Taylor ‘You’ve Got a Friend’
The Streets ‘Weak Become Heroes’
Cher ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)’
Jeff Buckley ‘Everybody Here Wants You’
Cocteau Twins ‘Musette and Drums’
Mary Margaret O’Hara ‘Year in Song’
The Ronettes ‘Walking in the Rain’
The Shangri-Las ‘I Can Never Go Home Any More’
Judee Sill ‘The Kiss’
Donny Hathaway ‘Love, Love, Love’
Sam Cooke ‘You Send Me’
Michael McDonald ‘I Can Let Go Now’
Stevie Wonder ‘Think of Me as Your Soldier’
A Girl Called Eddy ‘Somebody Hurt You’
Elastica ‘Waking Up’
Feist ‘Inside and Out’
Beth Gibbons ‘Mysteries’
Judy Collins ‘Both Sides Now’
Dolly Parton ‘Here You Come Again’
Judy Garland ‘Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries’
Peggy Lee ‘The Folks Who Live on the Hill’
