Re: American phrases

On 25 Apr, 13:19, RockNRo...@xxxxxxxxx (Manfred Noland) wrote:
Here's one:
" Yeah, yeah, yeah " in SHE LOVES YOU.
I read an interview with Paul, I believe in some magazine for the
retired oddly enough. Paul said his own father complained about it being
a Yank expression,
As for Paul putting on an American accent in ROCKY RACCOON, true but....
I think he was going for a " Western " or " Mid-Western "
accent...considering the song lyrics mirroring Robert W. Service's poem
of DANGEROUS DAN McGREW ( about a gun fighter named Dan coincidently -
check it out ). Raccoons are also an indigenous American varmint.
I think Paul thought it might sound appropriate to use when
singing-talking about saloons and Old West gun fights..thus the Honky
Tonk piano for atmosphere.
I was never surprised to hear American accents on Beatle records. I
always heard them as American and thought the rarity was hearing them
use the British-English accent. I imagine the Beatles like a lot of
British acts of the Rock era put on American accents to sound more like
their American rocker heroes and be authentic.
With the rare exception of Peter Noon singing, " I'm 'Enery the eighth I
am " in an obvious English accent, I didn't really hear British bands
sing with native accents until the Punk Rock movement with bands like
the Sex Pistols, Clash, Jam , Buzzcocks etc.

I think Paul certainly copied American singers and adopted some of
their phrases and pronunciation, but I think John's voice was more
authentically English/Liverpudlian, especially on ballads, and George
never lost his Scouse.

As for English accents before punk, there were many. Ray Davies was
the most obvious (and early) outside the cod-music hall stuff, but
later on the Move, the Troggs and the Small Faces, and many more,
opted for their own voices rather than borrowed American ones. In the
original wave of Merseybeat, Gerry Marsden never really lost the
Scouse twang either.

I don't suppose it's very likely, but in the wake of the British
invasion of 1964, did any American bands adopt fake British accents?

An aside: when I visited two pen friends in Massachusetts about 20
years ago, the subject of regional accents came up. I tried to
demonstrate the difference between some British accents and my
American frinds could tell little difference - they all just sounded
"British". Mind you, I suppose most British folk would find it hard
to pick out regional American accents other than a general "southern"
and "elsewhere".

.

Loading