“Permanent damage”: The strange way Bonnie Tyler acquired her raspy vocal tones
While there’s something undeniably familiar and trustworthy about more directly generic vocal talent, some of the best voices in music history are ones that aren’t as easily describable. Bonnie Tyler, for instance, accrued the same kind of Stevie Nicks-esque appeal with a voice as gentle and tender as a bed of knives. However, this wasn’t always the case.
That said, this kind of vocal grit doesn’t always feel entirely cold; in fact, it’s the way it feels effortlessly and innately warm despite the cracks at the edges that draw you in. Take ‘It’s a Heartache’ as an example: the first notes are soft and inviting, and Tyler’s first line comes with a rawness that adds additional layers of emotional intent that the arrangements could never reach.
Throughout history, few musicians have been able to achieve the same feat. While most voices in rock naturally lend themselves to the more commanding aggression inherent in the genre, Tyler’s disposition felt more akin to the dark, complex emotionality found within the soul, like it emerged more from within than a force of surface-level pretence.
However, Tyler’s voice didn’t always have this edge, as some assume. It didn’t always feel like the natural rasp of an antiqued instrument weathered by years of use. In early recordings, Tyler’s voice seemed smoother by youth and more oiled by the years yet to come, until vocal chord surgery gave it more of a husky feel that became her signature style.
Still, it wasn’t just the surgery that caused her voice to take on this new texture, she also unintentionally went against the doctor’s orders one day when she was supposed to be on vocal rest. On the way to the hospital to see her brother who had suffered a leg injury, she realised she had forgot to take strawberries, causing her to scream out in frustration.
Writing in her book, Straight from the Heart, she said: “I was so frustrated that I’d have to drive all the way back home, I let out an ‘Oh no!’ scream.”
Adding: “When I went for a check-up with the specialist, he looked at me and said, ‘You could have done permanent damage.” When she was back to singing, she realised she liked her new tone, even though it sounded slightly different.
She even joked with her producer David Mackay about sounding like “a female Rod Stewart”, which unknowingly also serviced her music, especially the ones taking on a slightly darker or more melancholy tone, making it feel more inherently authentic and charming in her ability to oscillate between elements of light and dark.
Tyler knew it was a blessing and not a curse. After all, it’s difficult to imagine enjoying songs like ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ without her underlying emotional power enhanced by the intensity of her voice. Though an unexpected way of achieving such a tone, her slipup worked out for the best, paving the way for her to become one of the most defining voices in music.
