Richard Walters, "Elephant in the Room"

The old adage is to write what you know.  If so, somebody needs to give this post’s featured artist, Richard Walters, a hug. Or arrest him. Or at least do some serious investigating of his family and friends.  For the level of first-person dysfunction on display in some of Walters’ best tunes is remarkable. 

But if Law & Order SVU (not to be confused with the ill-conceived Subaru sponsorship driven Law & Order SUV) taught us anything, it's that dysfunction can be fascinating. As long as it's not our own.

Drug abuse, spousal abuse, inappropriate sexual encounters and self-loathing are all on display in Richard Walters' work, rendered in an unforgettable falsetto voice. It’s gloriously disturbing and beautiful at the same time.

I first heard Richard Walters and this post’s featured tune “Elephant in the Room” in the audition round of So You Think You Can Dance a few seasons back (a program whose over-40 male heterosexual audience undoubtedly numbers in the tens, if you count me) and was blown away. But sometime it’s hard to separate one’s feelings about a song from the performance (the same holds for videos). I have rushed off to download a few tunes in the past only to discover that the music alone didn’t really do it. “Bleeding Love” comes to mind from SYTYCD.  And going way back, “Voices Carry” just ain’t the same without the video. 

But when a subsequent chance restaurant encounter had me literally scrambling to the nearest speaker to shazam “Elephant in the Room” (see our past homage to Shazam), I knew I was on to something special. Later, I went YouTube questing for the song but found no official video (I don’t think it was ever intended to be a single). I did find two fan lyric videos but the imagery and fonts were all wrong.  Nothing ruins a song faster than incongruous imagery.  Billy Squier fans, you know what I'm talking about.

So reluctantly I moved on to look for a live performance of “Elephant in the Room”. I say reluctantly because it’s a major downer to hear how crappy your favorite songs often sound live. I find it amazing how popular live music is and how much people are willing to shill out to see a show given how terrible many acts sound live. Pitch correction is the Wonder Bra (or front enhancing brief*) of the music business.  Only in this case, the big surprise comes when you leave the privacy of your home (& your auto-tuned digital tracks), rather than when you get there.

As the performance of "Elephant in the Room" below appears to be recorded in somebody’s living room, I was expecting the worst. But wow, was I wrong. This guy can sing. Richard Walters is the real deal.

My faith in humanity restored, I vowed then and there to stuff no more.

 *Glamour claims that 8% of men admit to stuffing.

Photo: Daniel Oines, Flickr (CC by 2.0)