I Was The Walrus, But Now I Am...Paul?! - by Darin

All are aware who know me even remotely that I'm a big fan of the Beatles (to a fault if you're my spouse), but I never thought they'd ever be a part of my life story. One of the biggest thrills of my life was playing the role of John Lennon on Broadway and working with Yoko Ono in NYC. That all happened because of some homemade tapes I'd made years ago recreating early Beatles hits from scratch all by my lonesome. So It seemed like I had this sort of Lennon connection 'cause I did this dead-on impression of his voice yap yap. But that was yesterday. Today I learned that it's actually Paul.

This story begins in late fall 2004, when Austin rocker Billy Harvey called me about doing some voice overs for his new website. He had this idear of having celebrity guests appear on the site by dialing some phone numbers, and asked me to be the Beatles. So I went upstairs to my loft studio and laid down the best improvised impressions of John, Paul, George and Ringo that I could muster up, and I sent them off (to see and hear them on billyharveymusic.com, find the black phone and dial 999-9091, then click on the Beatles when they appear).

Flash forward to fall 2007. I get a phone call from Ken Scott, a well-known recording engineer who began his career at Abbey Road Studios during the Beatles era. Ken was preparing a multi-media presentation documenting his adventures recording the likes of Bowie, Elton, Supertramp, and of course the Beatles. The show included an anecdote of a session he had done with Paul during the making of the White Album, and to illustrate it he needed someone who could provide Paul's speaking voice. He found me, he said, after a mutual acquaintance sent him to Billy Harvey's website. So, giddy as a 1st grader I sprinted back up to the loft and spent a couple of hours throwing down my best candid McCartney quips and pinged them over to Ken. I didn't hear from him for another six months and wondered if he'd even liked what I'd done enough to consider using any of it. And then today I got this email:

Hi Darin,
I just wanted to drop you a quick line to once again thank you for the McCartney asides you did for me. I've now used them several times and the audiences really seem to like that section of the presentation. I even gave one at a Beatles festival in Amsterdam and the fans really thought it was Paul, so that was wonderful.

Thanks and cheers,
Ken

Well you're quite welcome, Ken. Say, you don't still have a key to Abbey Road, do you?