The Darling of the Guards

I've been working on my lower range (inspired by Geoff Castellucci -- although not by any of the techniques he describes using, which I did play around with but produced no results, but more by various things vocal coaches suggested when listening to him!) and managed to discover an extra three or four chest notes I literally didn't know I had, which can come out quite strongly if I just manage to arrange my larynx into the proper place. Likewise the bottom two or three notes that I nominally had before, but were never very reliable: as a result, my 'practice range' has suddenly expanded by almost an octave and I can feel my ribcage vibrating! ( Read more... )

I have to say I was rather surprised by the degree of suggestiveness in the lyrics for Horatio Nicholls' The Darling of the Guards, which I picked up at random during these experiments: given that the contemporary Dancing on the Ceiling was censored for lines like "At night I creep in bed/But never sleep in bed" and describing the singer as being underneath the counterpane with "my love/Up above", I'm more than a little amazed that lyrics which distinctly appear to suggest that the titular 'Darling' is having it off with all and sundry every night made it into print! (Presumably the difference between what you could broadcast on the BBC and what you could publish as printed music... but I can certainly picture Mae West or Marie Lloyd having a field day with the implications in this one.)

( lyrics )