Paul's "natural" voice vs. his "forced" voice | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Illgetyou said

Sea Belt said

I’ve noticed this about Paul.  There are so many songs where, when he’s called on to improvise vocalisms (including screams, but also other creative things he does to amplify portions of the song) and he does so in an effortlessly inspired manner.  Then there are songs where it seems clearly forced and doesn’t quite work.

One example for now:

With a Little Luck — natural vocalisms that work

That Was Me — at certain key points, it sounds forced and kind of doesn’t work for me

  

Don’t get the point of this at all.

First, nobody ever “called him on to improvise vocalisms”. When he feels like it, he just does it, like on Hey Jude . That’s natural to him.

He has one of the or maybe even THE most diverse rock voice of all time – on “You Never Give Me Your Money “, “Uncle Albert ” etc. he used more different voices in a single song than John Lennon did in his whole career.

He could do it all, from soft crooning to hard rocking, and he could improvise in any style he chose to – check out that fantastic “trumpet” solo on one of the Anthology outtakes.

Are you a singer? Because if you wonder why “That was me”, which I just listened to three days ago, sounds “forced” – try singing it!!

Paul is just belting that last verse out, totally screams his head off, WANTING a dirty, raw sound. His voice is even a bit distorted by some effect. And of course there are some parts where he doesn’t hit the right note perfectly, but since that is exactly the raw sound that he wanted he left it that way. This is VERY hard to do!

And I just LOVE the pure and raw emotion and fun he radiates in songs like these – and of course the very next song is a change to the soft “Head in the clouds”, proving his diversity again.

Oh, and you forgot about that tiny little detail: Between “With a little luck” and “That was me” there are about 30 years – so of course it was easier for him back then to do stuff like “Maybe I’m amazed”.

It’s sad that he lost his voice years ago and STILL attemps “Maybe I’m amazed” or freaking “She’s A Woman ” live. THOSE are some “forced” vocals if you’re looking for any!

But then: Try singing those songs yourself with 80 years for three hours – so many people are so happy he’s still doing it so we can’t hardly blame him.

  

My phrase “when he’s called on to improvise vocalisms” could have been worded better. I didn’t mean other people called on him; I meant the music in his mind moved him to do whatever vocalisms he chooses.

I agree he’s a great & versatile singer — he’s my favorite singer of all time in fact.  Hence my occasional disappointment when he does this “forced” thing.

With “That Was Me” it’s kind of subtle.  90% of that song he’s singing perfectly.  At about 1:48 he takes the energy up a notch to get into semi-screaming mode.  This is where at certain points imo he falters. When I think of how effortlessly he wielded his vocalisms (including screaming) in songs like the end of Back Seat of My Car or Get On the Right Thing or the long ending of Tomorrow, I know he can do better.  I suspect with That Was Me, it’s the lyrics that might be holding him back (just a theory).

Perhaps it has to do with age, but I tend to think in 2007 he still should have been capable.  That would be an interesting interview question:  Do you still scream like you used to?  If not, when did your screaming capability begin to wane?

How could I forget “Angry” (from the album Press To Play )???

That’s the first song in fact that made me think of this whole topic (years ago, before I was on Beatles Bible). 

It’s like there are key moments in this song where Paul seems to be pulling his vocal punches — a curious thing for the undisputed master of screaming creatively.  And ironic, given the title and lyrics of the song.

Only about 10 years earlier, in his song for example “Get On The Right Thing” Paul unleashes a variety of creative frenzy in terms of vocals.  If only he had tapped into that mindset when singing “Angry”.