Peter Tork, Tongue Cancer, Singing Issues

[joko]

Just curious about this, just a random pondering.

Apparently Peter wasnt happy about not being allowed to sing more often on Monkees songs, because his voice was considered the least good of the group, & he had tone, pitch, & power problems.
A few songs suited his voice for lead, but he mostly did backing vocals.

in later life he developed a rarer version of an already rare cancer (adenoid cystic carcinoma) at the base of his tongue (so deep that it required his jawbone to be split open to cut it out)

i wondered if this could be the reason someone with such amazing & varied musical abilites had issues of control with his singing? (he could write & read music & play almost any instrument extremely well. he also wrote & played classical music)

The cancer was discovered in 2009, when he started swallowing strangely, many years after the monkees first started, but perhaps the original cause was still there somehow when he was younger?
is that possible?

any thoughts?
thanks :)

[Sqad]

No, very unlikely indeed.
What you are asking is does a pre existing condition become cancerous.
Indeed there are many instances in which this does occur, but the tongue is ot one of them.

[andy-hughes]

joko - // i wondered if this could be the reason someone with such amazing & varied musical abilites had issues of control with his singing? (he could write & read music & play almost any instrument extremely well. he also wrote & played classical music) //

The ability to write and play music, and the ability to sing, are not connected.

The world is full of musicians at the highest level in their field, including pop and rock, who couldn't carry a tune in a bucket.

Similarly, some of the world's top pop and rock vocalist would not know one end of a guitar or piano from the other.

I can tell you the difference between a Fender Stratcoaster and Gibson Les Paul just by listening to them, but I cant play a note on a guitar.

I interview musicians for a variety of technical websites, and I know masses of technical information about drums, basses, acoustic, and electric guitars, and I interview rock and pop singers for magazines as well, but i can't sing or play a note.

As I say, skill in one area, doesn't give you skill in another.

Something the BBC should learn when it takes ex-footballers with God-given skills on the field, and puts them in a studio as a 'pundit' when they can barely say their own name.

[jennyjoan]

Ah. Are you saying with all that musical knowledge you cant play one instrument

[andy-hughes]

Yup, that's what I'm saying.

[jennyjoan]

Andy - I mean this I can't get over that. As you know I'm deaf and just turned 70 now - all my life my wish was to play an instrument but since coming from a very poor family - not a chance in hell would I have had that opportunity and also would have not have been given the chance either as I would have very much been put down as nah - too deaf. However at 12 in secondary school I learned to play and read music of the recorder and won an award - I still have the award to this day - a book called "Heidi" - awarded to jennyjoan for Music. I also played the wee scittery drums too. I was so so so interested in learning to play. After I retired I bought a keyboard and with great difficulty went to a fantastic wee girl (teacher) who had great patience with me and taught me how to play and read music with the right hand (couldn't master left hand) altho played a chord or two to blend with the right hand.

If I were to name two things in my life that made me extremely happy is my mother and learning to play that keyboard - it was those two. The day I played "Oh Holy Night" my teacher (in her house) brought me into play for her mum and dad in their living room and it was the most glorious feeling I ever had in my entire life that I cried.

I am so envious of the children who today have that great opportunity of learning music and playing instruments because I know in my heart I would have accomplished it with great fortitude.

I gave it up when two things happened within 2 weeks of each other. My teacher's father dropped dead at her wedding giving a speech and my nephew died the week before so I never got around to resuming lessons again. But the desire is still in me.

Sorry Andy for being so long-winded.

[andy-hughes]

joko - Please escuse me going off topic on the thread you started -

Jennyjoan - thank you for sharing that with me, and us, I was very moved by your post.

I can only sympathise withe dreadful circumstances that caused you to give up learning to play.

I can only hope that the desire still in you is strong enough for you to pick up your lessons again, and hopefully recapture some of the magic you enjoyed before.

I consider myself deeply privileged to meet and talk to some of the finest musicians and singers in the world of popular music, and discuss the magic they create, and how it is done.

Music is too wonderful to be without - if you have the ability and time, you should pick up where you left off.

[andy-hughes]

Actually JJ, I say I 'can't play' - that's not the same as saying that I haven't played.

I had piano lessons from seven to fourteen, and got to Grade Four.

I was OK - I entered a load of music festivals and won a couple and came second in a lot more.

I did it to please my mother - as I did everything in those days - I really didn't enjoy it very much, the pressure of festivals was horrible, and I never played for enjoyment at all.

As soon as I plucked up courage to tell my mother I wanted to stop lessons, she went mad about all the money she had spent on me, but fortunately I was allowed to stop, and have never re-started, unlik yourself, no urge at all.

But I do really appreciate skill in any instrument, but the keyboard has a special place, and I love interviewing keyboard players.

Different paths and ambitions you and I - but I am where I want to be, and I'd love you to get there as well, if you can.

[joko]

sqad - it was apparently a very unusual cancer, they were surprised to see it on his tongue.

andy - i wasnt suggesting that anyone that can play an instrument should be able to sing, obviously thats not the case at all, i was more asking if having something wrong with his tongue could have affected his ability to control his vocals and maybe even his hearing as its all connected.
because i have heard him sing well a few times, & then other times, for some reason hes just not pulling it off.
he was very into his music so i can believe he spent along time practising his singing too, so just wondering if there may have been a reason that was out of his control.

[andy-hughes]

joko - // andy - i wasnt suggesting that anyone that can play an instrument should be able to sing, obviously thats not the case at all, i was more asking if having something wrong with his tongue could have affected his ability to control his vocals and maybe even his hearing as its all connected. //

Having re-read your OP, I can see that I misunderstood the point you were making joko - my apologies.

[joko]

andy, no worries, i was just clarifying.
i sing myself so i've noticed myself how even fairly small changes in the throat & mouth can change the sound of your voice but also your ability to control it.
Freddie mercury apparently refused to get his teeth straightened because he was scared itd affect his voice.