Creativity - Celebrate the "Yaargh"

The late Irish tenor John McCormack was once asked about what was needed to become a great singer. His reply was that a great singer needed to have the "yaargh" in their voice. What is the "yaargh"? It is the ability, in any art form, to be able to convey a thought or emotion in a way that moves the audience. It represents imagination, passion, intelligence, integrity and maybe, a little bit of madness. It represents the ability to communicate, in every sense of the word. The ability to invite others into your reality and make them see something of themselves in it, or the ability to conjure up an alternate reality so imaginative, that it might as well be real.

The great Irish rock singer Van Morrison has the "yaargh" in his voice. His songs are about wild romanticism (listen to "Wild Night" or "Jackie Wilson Said - I'm In Heaven When You Smile"). The latter song is one of my favorites and is about a man who lives to see the smile on the face of his lover. It is a reason to be alive. I remember the feeling. He writes about the special chemistry between lovers and friends, as well as the chemistry between a performer and his audience.

He also writes about independence for Northern Ireland, as well as the longing for a return to a mythical homeland - Caledonia. Caledonia exists only in Van Morrison's mind, but when he sings about it, you can almost see a distant land with green shores and purple oceans, under a swift sunrise. This is the magic of the "yaargh". Morrison has used his imagination and songwriting to make you believe that a place like this exists - a place where you will be forever redeemed, where the smiles are for real and where you hear the foghorn whistle blow through the mist every morning as you wake up next to the one you love.

Other singers have the "yaargh" too. John Lennon had the "yaargh" especially in the late 1960s and early 1970s. When Roger Daltrey of the Who bellows at the end of the song "Won't Get Fooled Again", it is the very essence of the "yaargh". The late Sandy Denny of the folk-rock band Fairport Convention had the "yaargh" in her voice. She could sing the contents of the telephone directory and still move you to tears. Jimi Hendrix was possessed by the "yaargh" on "Voodoo Chile" as well as "All Along the Watchtower". The brief guitar solo at the end of "All Along the Watchtower".....well, you haven't lived if you haven't heard it.

Bhimsen Joshi has it. Mozart and Beethoven had it. Beethoven wrote the beautiful, delicate "Moonlight Sonata" as well as the dark, brooding "Symphony No. 9" after going deaf. How could a man without the benefit of hearing write music so complex yet moving? The "yaargh" is applicable to other art forms as well. Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese's "Taxidriver" has the "yaargh". Helen Hunt (and her character) in "As Good As It Gets" has the "yaargh", as do characters in many other movies.

I know very little about art. One painting that I would love to see is Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers". Ironically, Vincent Van Gogh was a penniless, unknown alcoholic artist when he was alive. He lived in squalor, and was alone and depressed. Nobody bought his paintings, except for his brother, who did so out of pity. But in the "Sunflowers" painting, Van Gogh invites you into the garden of his mind where an alternate reality exists. He has transcended his physical existence and his pain to show you something that is sublime and divine. The "Sunflowers" painting sold for US $ 40 million a few years ago, a century after his death. Van Gogh had the "yaargh".

The "yaargh" doesn't always have to come from a dark place in the soul. P.G. Wodehouse had the "yaargh" as did Graham Chapman in those absurd Monty Python movies. The comedian Lenny Bruce had it, as does writer V.S. Naipaul.

So - celebrate the "yaargh", though it often threatens to consume the people who possess it (or are possessed by it). It is a rare gift that can bring you immense pleasure and satisfaction, or terrible distress and sadness. If you have it, nurture it, protect it and use it wisely. If you don't, learn to recognize it and nourish it in those you love and care for - your efforts will be repaid a thousand times over.