From Singing to Screaming

From Singing to Screaming ©
By
Michael Casey

I was struggling to think of a title for tonight’s talk when the pain monster descended, I may need to stop and scream and slap on the Movelat as I’m in lots of pain right now. My left shoulder as usual being the main culprit, it’s 6 years since my major pains started by the way. Anyway I’m going to talk a bit about Freddie Mercury, I saw a documentary called The King of Queen. The new docu/drama  2018 film is also doing great at the cinema.

When I saw the documentary today I was struck by many things, one fact I learnt was that AIDS could incubate for 10years. Also with retrovirals you can live almost as long as somebody with out HIV/Aids. Not something I’d talk about, but because of Freddie I have to mention it. What I really want to talk about was his talent, his enunciation, or how he spoke so very posh. He was a fan of Sinatra, aren’t we all? Sinatra enunciates so clearly, you can understand what he’s saying, he isn’t mumbling into his beard or anything like that.

So enunciation is so very important, it is this clarity that gives power to the words, in actual fact it magnifies them. When we had that MP speak in favour of Theresa May’s Brexit for the first time, the Press said it was like having Oliver or some other famous actor speak on her behalf. And it was so true. However when he tried it a 2^nd time he did not sound as powerful. The Magic wasn’t there the 2^nd time around.

So there is Magic and Performance, when you get it right then you really do get Power and Majesty. I have my own Teacher’s voice, just as my sister-in-law has her Lawyer’s voice. When I recorded 200 or so of my stories www.michaelgcasey.typepad.com as usual I did everything in one take, just as I write in one take, usually in one hour for the writing.

But reading aloud is a different skill to writing them down, creating them in the first place. So I hope the recordings got better as I gained more practice. It did take me a year to learn how to write in the first place and that was after 20 years of radio4 listening. So 200 5 min or so recordings may not be enough practice.


You may be relieved to know I don’t plan on recording any more of my 2000 pieces, why, because it is so tiring, it is a performance after all. But back to Freddie Mercury, his skill was not just the enunciation but the crowd control, no I don’t mean he dressed up as a Policeman with a stick to control people. What he did was Magic, It’s a Kind of Magic, you will no doubt agree. On the documentary it said he knew Music as a conductor knows music, it was in his brain, just as God enjoys Nature, first let there be a gentle breeze, then a dawn chorus, followed by a flight of birds, followed by oranges changing into blues across the morning skies.

So with Freddie his innate love of music and sound, led to wonderful meals of music. Theatre was big in him too, hence the videos, one person on the documentary stated that Bohemian Rhapsody created
MTV before it even existed. They couldn’t do the song live on Top Of The Pops so they made the video, and the rest is History.

Freddie’s love of Opera and Sinatra made him a much more rounded person, he wasn’t just one dimensional. The band Queen were also made of of very clever people, Brain May did you know is now a real Phd in Astrophysics. The point is if you are open to new things and don’t look down in your own ditch, then you have a greater understanding of your own field, don’t just plant potatoes because you only ever plant potatoes. Plant a few vegetables, and have an apple tree and roses around your cottage door, have a goose as a burglar alarm too. Yes these are metaphors, but you could be equally as happy by being literal too.

Sing clearly in your life, and then your voice, your skill, your love will scream out to high heavens. Things do Transcend, Freddie singing with an Opera Dive, that is an obvious one. But a friendship with the janitor and you are a barrister, the bus driver and the police inspector. The deli owner and everybody. Just as Music screams out and demands attention and leads to Love, so quality Music touches all our souls. That’s what Freddie did with his voice, he touched us, he moved us he inspired us.

We can’t copy his voice, or even his life, but we can all in some small way create a little bit of Magic as we go about our daily life. Maybe we should lead singing on the Friday night bus after we’ve been clubbing. Or just enunciate clearly our daily life, let there be no confusion, no risk of not saying. I Love You, I Love You, I Love you, then we’ll all go to bed happy. Whether the bed is a loving bed, or the bed of roses that grows on all our graves. Rest in Peace Freddie.