How Clarence Pune Missed That Lovin' Feelin' Dept.

Clarence Pune wires screed from the horse shop in back of the pool room!

I’d heard of him, of course.

Legendary British blues singer.

Worked with Elton John, the Stones, Rod Stewart.

I’d heard, too, that he had semi-retired to Vancouver. (This was the late 70‘s.)

But it was a surprise to meet him in a neighborhood Kitsilano pub and to start talking. (Not that he was hard to miss at 6‘7“)

He told me he was doing voice acting for animations.

I told him that I wrote and produced commercials.

“Keep me in mind,” he said.

We exchanged phone numbers.

We often met at the same bus stop for the short hop across the bridge to downtown.

A month later I was writing some radio commercials for holidays in Jamaica. I wanted a deep resonant voice. I called him and asked if he could do a Jamaican accent.

“Give me a day or two,” he said, and next day this deep baritone called me back with the full patois.

We recorded together several times.

One day he invited my wife and I to a recording session. He’d found this girl he adored - no, not that way, he was openly gay - for her voice.

He saw a duet for them.

She was an unknown  session singer from Anacortes, just south of the US/Canada border.

For reasons I regret we didn’t get to the recording session.

This is what we missed: