Patrick, thanks for the hysterical story. Boy, I wish there was a video tape of that performance. I laughed until tears came down my cheeks.

What a wonderful thread. I grew up in a singing household. We sang at church, and once a month or so a group of adults would all get together and sing hymns and spiritual songs. All acapella - just four part harmony with some occassional warbles and "in betweeen" parts. Great stuff. I didn't know it then, but I was being taught in some small way just what it means to be human and to share in a common spirit.

Way back up yonder in the thread a comment was made that you cannot tell what is singing anymore when you buy a commercially produced cd. (I would argue that the same is true with many instrument sounds, as well). That is what is so sad about how "we" as a commercial conglomerate view singing. Can't find a good actor? Who cares? George Lucas can build you one on his computer. Can't find a good guitar player? Who Cares? Some super computer gizmo will create one for you that never misses a beat or hits the wrong fret. Can't sing with picture perfect tone and pitch? Who cares, we'll just tell the computer what we want to hear and out it comes.

But, thankfully, there will always be Bogey and Bacall, there will always be Hitchcock, and there will always be a group of folks on the street corner or in some corner of the basement crooning away. Some will be on key, some will be off key, and some will invent a key of their own. Sometimes there will be an instrument, often times there will not be. But they will be wonderfully happy. And in that brief time there will be the creation of genuine music, the language of the heart.

Freightdawg