Fred says: A Singers Dream As a singer and a somewhat musician today I realize that music has always been a part of my life. I’ve always loved music. If I could go back that far and remember I probably liked it right from my mother’s womb. I often wonder if I developed my taste for music while my mother was carrying me. When I look back to the songs of 1958 many of them would easily make a list of my favorite songs of all time. As a young child I would often be found sitting by the radio listening and waiting for my favorite songs. We had a big cabinet radio that was hooked to a big square battery. I don’t know what happened to it but after a while we were without a radio. One day this man came to visit my parents and he had a white transistor radio that was about the same size as a regular hard covered book. It had a dim round circle of dots in front which was really the front of the speaker. He camped that night and let his radio play all night as he slept. I listened from my bed till late at night just laying there. I remember it was a moonlit night and the full moon shone brightly through the bedroom window and across the floor as the song “Marie” by “The Bachelors” played on the radio. It was followed by “I’ll Never find another You” by “The Seekers” and so on. After that night I could not do without music in my life. As I grew up I began to desire to be a singer and be in a band. When I was a boy about ten in Badgerville Sask. I tried to form a little band with a couple of my friends. We tried to make our own instruments. Of course we failed but the desire was strong in my heart. I began to make up songs and sing them to my friends and close relatives. I still remember all my little songs from way back then and I cringe at how ridiculous they were worded but I was just a child. I have this one devious Auntie today who still sings my little songs back to me and laughs. They must have been hits if she still remembers the words today more than forty years after I made them up. Sadly I never learned to play an instrument while I was a child. My love of music, however, never wavered. I became obsessed with listening to the radio and trying to buy the latest hit records. I bought the magazine “Song Hits” every month. It had a lot of the lyrics to a lot of the latest hits on the radio. I would find the song in the magazine and sing along with the radio or record player. I was never complimented on my singing but that didn’t matter. I sang my heart out and I even made little boom box sounds with my mouth in place of the music. When I didn’t have access to a radio or record player I would sing with my little boom box mouth music to entertain myself. I sang like this for many years. I remember going for a drive from Yorkton to Regina while part of a drinking party. I sang along to the radio all the way to Regina and back. I thought I sounded pretty good as I sang along to Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder and others. Next morning we were all sitting around a table at my mother’s place recovering from our hangovers when my cousin spoke up. “Boy, I was so glad to get home last night. Freddy tortured us all the way to Regina and back with his horrible singing!” That put my singing career on hold for a while after. A couple years later I thought no one else was home so I began to sing out loud in our basement. Suddenly the basement door opened and one of my siblings shouted “Is there a sick cow down there?” Needless to say my singing career took another downturn. A few years later I became a Christian and began to attend Church on a regular basis. I still loved music and had a large collection of records. I also kept up with the music charts of the top favorite songs in Canada, the USA and even Great Britain. I also began to make charts with my own favorite songs. It’s a practice I still do today. My desire to sing and play had still not left me. As a church goer I got to sing hymns and chorus’s every service. I felt in my heart that I was improving in my singing but was still too self-conscious to take a chance singing solo again. I attended a youth camp in fort Qu’Appelle Sask. and one afternoon all the kids were taking turns going up behind the pulpit and singing solos. Some were actually pretty good but most were really bad. I began to think to myself that even if I wasn’t a good singer I was surely better than these really bad singers. I decided to give my solo singing career one more chance and went up and sang a hymn called “When He Reached Down His Hand For Me”. I surprised myself with the passion I put into that song and was complimented by a few people. It encouraged me to no end. This made me determined to sing out loud and in front of people. A few years later our only musician was moving away in a month and leaving our little praise and worship group. This meant that we would have no one to play music for us as we sang our hymns and chorus’s. I determined in my heart that I would learn to play guitar before our song leader left town and moved away. I bought an ugly old guitar for cheap at a pawn shop and got the song leader to write down the main chords so I could practice holding and moving my hands around on the guitar. I broke a lot of strings but eventually my lifelong dream came true. I could finally play and sing. I was so happy. I would spend whole days and just sing and play till my fingertips were so blue and sore I couldn’t play anymore. The day finally came when I pulled out my little Lloyds of London Cassette recorder and placed it in front of me and recorded my first recording of a list of songs. It was just me and my guitar in front of a little cassette player but to me it was a full scale recording studio. I had recorded my first album. I remember I made about 5 copies just in case somebody actually wanted one. I was totally surprised at my first service after my recording when everybody wanted my tape. I ran out right away. My big hits were “I would not be denied” and “The Lily of the Valley’. I later made more cassettes of my singing which people actually began to buy from me. They kept asking for more. I may have been only selling 30 or 40 cassettes but to me it felt like I was selling millions. I even began to have a base player play with me in my later recordings. After much coaxing I finally went into a genuine bonified studio. It had tons of controls, sound proofing, professional studio man and everything. I had drums, base, guitars and multiple takes on each song. I had desired this all my life and now it had come to pass. The recording has since sold many copies over the years and I have been invited to sing and preach in many places since. I have even heard my songs and recordings played on the radio! Many people come up to me and tell me how my songs and recordings have really encouraged them in their day to day lives. I still have many people encouraging me to make a new recording and I have just finished my second recording. I may not be famous, a million seller or living a glamorous lifestyle but that was never really my ambition. My ambition was to make music like the music I listened to all my life. A little boys dream has come to pass. I got to do what I had always dreamed of all my life. I get to play and sing just like my favorite music stars did and people actually enjoy it. It gives me such a good feeling whenever I think about it.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 03:05:47 +0000
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