If you knew what was good for you, you just called him Mr. Moses.
It sounds like “Doc Milsap” in this 1973 clip.
That might be the most convincing evidence yet. I had started watching it earlier, but didn’t bother finishing because it clearly seemed dubbed. But it has good shots of his lips around the 2-minute mark, and it looks like a “p” as well as sounding like one.
The father’s name is also ad-libbed at the end, and sounds like Milsap.
Just for the record, sheet music is often not a very reliable source when it comes to lyrics. I’ve seen many, many songs that have incorrect lyrics, to the point where it’s almost like the transcriptionist was just happy to be done with the music portion of the job, and typed in whatever syllables would fit the melody.
Doing so is a common technique in songs, where the meter doesn’t always allow putting the emphasis where it normally goes.
I’m stumped, then. Where would you go to get the correct lyrics?
I second that observation.
When I first started writing lead sheets for Hollywood publishers, I often couldn’t hear the lyrics from a recording, so I made up what I could. The writer was often not available for consultation and the pubs were in a hurry. So what I wrote became the “official” version in the files and that explains much sheet music.
Then I found out that the publishers who handed me the recordings sometimes had lyric sheets written out already, but didn’t give them to me. “I didn’t know you needed them – can’t you get the lyrics from the tape?” So I started charging more for songs with no lyrics supplied.
But that sometimes resulted in a secretary writing down what she thought was on the record, and I used that.
My favorite story is when I protested I couldn’t understand some of Barry White’s singing (speaking, actually) and I really needed to get lyrics direct from the Barry. What I meant (but didn’t specify) was written lyrics, but a few days later I got a cassette tape from Mr. White to satisfy my request.
Barry had put his new record on the hifi, pressed record on his portable cassette recorder, and as the song played in the background, he repeated the lyrics himself.
“Ba_y, oh ba_y, I wan_a d_ it t_ you…” from the record
“Ba_y, oh ba_y, I wan_a d_ it t_ you…” from the Barry
Not much help. Barry White garbled sounds like Barry White garbled no matter what recorder you are using. It was after that that I changed my submission requirements to not just require lyrics to be supplied, but typewritten lyrics to be supplied.
I guess we live and learn.
I’d say that in this world, you’re on your own. There are composer/singers who deliberately make the lyrics hard to understand; it’s unlikely they would eliminate the ambiguity they created by providing a legitimate lyrics transcription.
So you see threads like this one.
I’m inclined to accept the lyric sheets included with CDs or vinyl albums, but even then there are occasional discrepancies.