Worst singing accent.

Subject: Worst singing accent.
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 05:38 AM

Got to be Elton John! Everytime I hear him, I want to burst out laughing. Interestingly, the first time I heard Elton sing, I said to myself, "This guy's been listening to Jose Feliciano", which makes Elton a copy of a copy because Jose, himself, wasn't singing in his natural accent i.e. when he spoke - back in the late 60s - he had a pronounced latin accent.

p.s. the similarity in their voices becomes very apparent when Jose sings an Elton John composition.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 09:28 AM

Robert Zimmerman.   Uhh, I think he goes by some other name.....

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 09:44 AM

Sans doubt... Madonna. I cringe when I hear her put-on English accent (both speaking AND singing...)

Beccy
P.S. Why do retailers think we'd rather hear schlock pop than oh, say, Beethoven or some classical Christmas music??? I'd wager you that there'd be less hostility in the stores if people were hearing a little less "Like a Virgin" and a little more "Virgin Holy, Virgin Lowly"...

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: GUEST,KB
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 09:48 AM

Robbie Williams: perpertrator of "We were there for summer tree men"

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Folkiedave
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 12:10 PM

Douglas Oates.

Dave
www.collectorsfolk.co.uk

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: GUEST,Martin Gibson
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 12:25 PM

Anything Cockney sounding like Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Joybell
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 05:00 PM

1. Any male singer, who doesn't come from the UK, who puts his hand over one ear and does A L Lloyd/Ewan McColl. Singers who actually have a similiar normal accent or a sore ear excepted.
2. Female singers who sing with fake "soul" very, very slowly.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Strupag
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 08:18 PM

Funny that you mention Ewan McColl, Joybell, because he had quite an English accent in normal life but his Scots accent, used when he was singing, was pretty awful.
Not that I would say anything against his songs!

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: mooman
Date: 24 Dec 03 - 08:29 PM

...almost certainly me!

Peace

moo

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Bernard
Date: 25 Dec 03 - 09:27 AM

Yup - Reg Dwight (Elton John!) and Robert Zimmerman (Dylan) are top of my list, too...

I also have an intense dislike for the 'traditional english folk voice' - very nasal, with heavily distorted vowels! I'd better not cite any examples, though...!!

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Dec 03 - 11:43 AM

Is Madonna supposed to be talking in some kind of English accent?

I imagine all the English pop singers who put on "American" when they sing are about as authentic.

Ewan MacColl's speaking accent was pretty similar to his singing accent. Sort of hovering in between Lacashire and Lanarkshire.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Little Robyn
Date: 25 Dec 03 - 06:52 PM

The Proclaimers, especially when they sang "Arm on ma wee"!!!
Robyn

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: GUEST,M'Grath of Altcar
Date: 25 Dec 03 - 09:11 PM

On "Fields of Gold" Sting sings in an obnoxious Geordie / Jamaican / Irish accent. Nice song though.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Dec 03 - 09:27 PM

Many of the modern Country & Western singers that use that drawn out fake southern accent.

Just one example is Reba McIntire.

I have a deep like for older country music but a deep dislike for the "new" singers like the Tobi Kieth, Tim McGraw, "Deewhite yokum" etc. just about all of them.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Maryrrf
Date: 26 Dec 03 - 08:34 AM

I was completely agree with Guest above about modern Country and Western and Reba McIntire in particular. It really grates on me the way she deliberately draws those vowels out.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 26 Dec 03 - 01:48 PM

I think that I just dislike any accent that isn't honest to the singer. Just sing like you are supposed to. Although, I do like trained opera singers.

W.E.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Joybell
Date: 26 Dec 03 - 04:57 PM

I agree. Opera is part of theatre. So is a music hall turn or an item within a musical play. The difference is, I think, that if you are performing AS YOURSELF and telling a story or making a comment -AS YOURSELF, then it is inappropriate to use a fake accent.

Of course your choice of material may influence the way you present a song. There may be words within a song that are not part of your usual speech. You can still use your normal accent though.
I sing with my husband whose accent is very different from mine and we have an unspoken rule that if I'm singing harmony I do alter my accent slightly on some words so as to blend in. He does the same if he's doing the harmony. Otherwise we both sing true to our normal accents.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: PoppaGator
Date: 26 Dec 03 - 05:47 PM

An hour or two ago, I posted a comment to the "Best Singing Accent" thread that included responses to several aguments put forth here in the "Worst Singing Accent" thread.

Sorry that I can't seem to keep the distinction straight -- must be a result of coming to work dead tired on the day after Christmas, with little else to do except surf the net and hang out at Mudcat.

I have no objection to a certain degree of consciously put-on accent, appropriate to the genre of song one is singing. As a New Jersey-born white blues singer (who can now usually pass for a native New Orleanian), I have to believe that! Of course, some do a better job than others of finding an appropriate vocal personna for their efforts.

Another half hour or so I can go home and go to sleep. Bye!

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Cllr
Date: 26 Dec 03 - 06:12 PM

Sting is originally from up north anyway and the beatles sang with an american accent to make themselves sound more hip.
Worst accent is not so much when an accent is faked but when it is either faked badly or they move around during the song. IMHO Cllr

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Mary Humphreys
Date: 26 Dec 03 - 06:13 PM

What makes me cringe are people who speak in broad regional English accents when introducing songs - I love that - then they go into 'Mid-atlantic' accents to sing the songs. Yuk!
Naming no names of course.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Maryrrf
Date: 26 Dec 03 - 06:20 PM

What is "mid atlantic"?

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Cllr
Date: 26 Dec 03 - 06:23 PM

He he he, MH I think I know who you mean if not I know someone exactly like you describe. Cllr

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: GUEST,yum yum
Date: 27 Dec 03 - 03:52 PM

sorry, it has to be Johnny Cash!
BUT in his favour I will say...
he makes flat notes sound,    ok!

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 Dec 03 - 03:56 PM

No-one, but no-one will ever beat Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins I'm afraid. Just no contest.

Not my opinion. Simple fact of life;-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: GUEST,Frank
Date: 27 Dec 03 - 05:03 PM

"Funny that you mention Ewan McColl, Joybell, because he had quite an English accent in normal life but his Scots accent, used when he was singing, was pretty awful.
Not that I would say anything against his songs!"

As I understand it, Ewan McColl (nee Jimmy Miller)isn't Scottish.
When you hear many Eastern American singers affect an American Southern country accent, that's not convincing either but many do put the songs across in an effective manner.

Yesterday I heard the three Italian tenors, Pavarotti, Domingo and ? (can't remember his name) sing in English some American pop Christmas songs. The quality of their voices overrode the
peculiar accents for me.

Sometimes a bad accent doesn't get in the way of a good performance.

Frank

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Joybell
Date: 27 Dec 03 - 06:03 PM

I rather think that it's not singers with a distictive accent that's the problem, nor singers who are not using their usual launguage. For me it's the fact that when a stlye gets popular so many other singers suddenly take it up with variable results. Some get away with it but many don't.
Just had a wonderful thought. Wouldn't it be something if the funny accents of the Three Tenors singing in English became popular. We could all do it in the folk clubs. Make a nice change. Three Tenors wouldn't mind. They're famous enough to take it. Going off to practice right now. Joy

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Janice in NJ
Date: 27 Dec 03 - 10:14 PM

In the USA "Mid-Atlantic" means the states on the Eastern Seaboard that are south of New England, but north of Washington, DC. In other words, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Does "Mid-Atlantic" also mean something in the UK?

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Snuffy
Date: 28 Dec 03 - 06:04 AM

Janice,
In UK it meads from the middle of the Atlantic - i.e a Brit trying (badly)to sound American.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: GUEST,DD
Date: 28 Dec 03 - 12:44 PM

While I find it annoying, I would not say that Reba has a "fake drawn out southern accent{". I don't believe there is ANYTHING fake about it. Have you EVER heard her speak?

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Cruiser
Date: 28 Dec 03 - 04:34 PM

Yes, I have heard Reba speak. I think she cultivates that southern accent in her speech and song, with some exaggeration, for effect.

I was 'borned', as they sometimes say, in the great South. I have deliberately made an attempt to 'shed' myself of the accent I learned as a child. People still recognize the vestiges of that dialect with some of the words I use. Some of my dialect is ingrained and probably can not be completely eliminated. I could cultivate my southern pronunciations to make a song like "Y'all Come", for effect, by drawling the "Yaw", but chose not to do so. I must admit that the following phraseology "don't" quite have the same effect as Y'all:

"You all come, you all come, you all come to see us now and then…"

I don't 'sang' it that way neither. That reminds me of another 'sanger' that I can't listen to: John Anderson and his song "Swingin'" where he sangs "and we wuz swangin', swangin'"

I admit to liking, and sometimes using, nonstandard English such as the stuff my grandfather (and some Mudcatters have) used. Examples like: Yourn, hisn, hern, ourn, and theirn. These substandard vulgar forms of pronouns are humorous when used as parodies or in written style reflecting hillbilly dialects documented in books like the Foxfire series. Shucks, sum of muh kinfok cum frum dem deep dark hollers down yunner in Tennossay.   

I also like the many novelty songs where nonstandard English and accent are used to great effect.

'Life Gits Tee-Jus Don't It' and 'Down On The Farm' by Walter Brennan (and more of his tunes).

'Wildwood Weed' by Jim Stafford

I spent tuh rayst of that day an most of that nite a'tryin' ta find my brother Bill,
Caught up with em 'bout sex o'clock tuh nayxt mornin', naykid, swangin' on the windmill
He sayed he flew up 'air,
I had tah fly up an git em down,
He wuz 'bout haff crazy

Y'all come back now, hear?


'Mr. Custer' by Larry Verne.

Look at them bushes out there
They's a'movin' and they's a injun behint ever one
They's a redskin a'waitin' out there, a'fixin' to take my hair

Most of the mainstream (not novelty) modern country music, with its exaggerated, fake-accented enunciation, is just not what I care to listen to. I usually turn the radio dial when I happen on it. C&W music before the mid- 1970's is some of my favorite.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Morticia
Date: 29 Dec 03 - 07:04 AM

Loreena McKennit doing a Scots/Irish accent....why she feels she needs to is beyond me but it is awful beyond words

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Peg
Date: 29 Dec 03 - 10:17 AM

thanks for reminding me that Jim Stafford was one of my favorite entertainers for a long time.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: The O'Meara
Date: 29 Dec 03 - 01:06 PM

Jim Stafford, yes! "Blackwater Hattie lived back in the swamp..." Great!

Worst accent was any number of groups, South Korean, Cambodian, Phillipino, touring Vietnam during the war courtesy of the USO. Memorable tunes were "Lollin' onna Liver", "We Gotta Git Otta dis Prace", and the unforgettable "Come on Baby Righrt my Fire". (They were appreciated, though.)

O'Meara

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Cruiser
Date: 29 Dec 03 - 01:30 PM

Another Gem from that great crazyman Stafford about a phone number he got from a phone booth wall:

"Lucille! me and you gotta' altogether different idea 'bout A Real Good Time"

From the Album: Jim Stafford 1974 PolyGram Records, Inc.

I'm a'lisnun' tah tuh record rite now.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Compton
Date: 29 Dec 03 - 07:47 PM

Totally but totally agree with Dave the Gnome ...and the winner Must be Dick Van Dyke...Mary Poppins..No Contest!!!!

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: CraigS
Date: 29 Dec 03 - 10:49 PM

I can't help thinking of Mick Jagger and Ian Matthews sounding South American! OTOH, PJ Proby (the Halifax UK answer to Johnny Burnette) was 'orribly American. Bob Dylan doesn't have an accent, he is accentuated - and entitled to be so. The Proclaimers are singing with their honest Edinburgh (where sex are for trash) accents, which I find simultaneously endearing and irritating. Me myself I get up peoples' noses in seconds if I'm not trying ...

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Roberto
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 11:16 AM

Guest Frank (27.12.03) writes that Ewan MacColl had an awful Scottish accent (and was not Scottish, again this prejudice). This verdict amazes me. Is such an opinion widespread? I'm Italian, and I can't judge very well Scottish accents, but Ewan MacColl's seems to me appropriate, and his voice and singing of the highest quality. I'd really like to read other Mudcatters' views. Roberto

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: PageOfCups
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 05:33 PM

Second place: Pavarotti singing "O Holy Night" in English. He sounds like 1930's stage Eye-tal-yun. [shudder]

First place: Dick van Dyke in "Mary Poppins." Thanks *so* much for reminding me, guys. I'd managed to block it out of my memory - 'til now.

PoC
(who likes Reba's accent, FWIW)

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Sam L
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 10:03 PM

"Transatlantic" is a stylized pseudo-British/American that many actors and performers trained in, less common now.

   Pop music is theatrical, and a song is theatrical in the basic sense of mixing arts. I don't mind a singer singing in the accent of a barnyard animal if it sounds good. It's a non-issue to me. Just bcause you learned an accent where you grew up doesn't make it real or natural, just handy--it just disposes you to be convincing with it, and you don't need to explain why you use it, to most people.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 30 Dec 03 - 11:13 PM

In UK it meads from the middle of the Atlantic - i.e a Brit trying (badly)to sound American.

Or vice-versa...

It can also refer to the accent that results when a Yank transplants to England (or vice-versa).

As a friend of mine (English fellow now a US resident) put it:
"Americans think I sound English; English people think I sound American."

In my own case, my American friends/family tell me I've picked up an English accent; my (English) husband assures me that this is most definitely NOT the case (although he does say that my Yank accent becomes much more pronounced when I'm talking on the phone to someone in the US).

I'd love to be able to "pass"... say more than a sentence or two without prompting the question "Where are you from?" (I keep practising the phrase "I'm a Yorkshire lass, me," but so far, it's a sure-fire way to get a laugh...!)

Cheers,

YY

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Strupag
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 12:58 PM

It was me that said that Euan MacColl had an awful Scot's singing accent and I'll stand by that.
Jim MacLean, in an other thread agrees with me.
This is taking nothing away from the fact that I admire the man greatly.
When singing an old Scots ballad the man had an accent which reminded me of Scotty in Startrek.
Can't say any more as I am heading off to try and catch a ferry to Raasay for New Year. With the current gale here I have my doubts if it will be running but I'm off to join the queue

Happy new Year


Andy Mitchell

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Roberto
Date: 31 Dec 03 - 01:18 PM

Still not satisfied. Is Ewan MacColl's an awful Scots' singing accent in Geordie (Will ye gang tae the Hielands my bonny bonny love), Sir Patrick Spens, Friendless Mary, Jamie Raeburn, etc? As I admitted before, it may be difficult for me to judge being Italian, but I've listened to many Scots singers, from John Strachan to Jeannie Robertson, from McEwen to Jimmy MacBeath, etc, and I just can't hear this awful accent in Ewan MacColl's singing. Andy, I wish somebody, expert in Scots' accents, would say something clear against your verdict, but in the meantime I hope you could catch your ferry, reach your destination, have a happy new year and don't lay half ower, half ower frae Aberdour. Best wishes. Roberto

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: GUEST,Jimmy Hill
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 03:53 PM

I have some sympathy for fake accents, being from Yorkshire. In my native tongue, the vowels are so short that there's nothing to build the notes around. You cannot really sing consonants because almost by definition they are stopping the flow of air, so all depends on lengthening the vowels to form the notes. We dont have long vowels where I come from, so there's little choice but to fake it. Imagine Geoff Boycott singing and you get the picture. My observation is that people tend to sing the song as they heard it: if it was Gaughan they copy Gaughan's nasal, aggressive sound; but would (try to) sing Marvin Gaye like Marvin Gaye.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: *Laura*
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 04:03 PM

Folkiedave - sorry - I think I gotta agree with you on that one!

xLx

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Teresa
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 04:14 PM

Hmmm, I don't want to get into a judgmental thing here, so I'm going to say carefully that the accent that surprised me most was the difference in Iris DeMent's speaking and singing voice. I expected her to have a high, nasal, heavily accented speaking voice, and she doesn't. At least, her speaking "accent" is flatter than her singing one.

It's interesting how some singers sound the same when they are singing or speaking, and others sound totally different in each case.

Teresa

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Once Famous
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 04:30 PM

Anything warbling and Celtic.

yecchhhhhh.

I'll take hillbilly any day over that.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: GUEST,Hull on earth
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 06:46 PM

I know this will sound awful to traddies, but,as a true traddy for many years, can I now admit that I have never been a fan of Mike Waterson's voice. There I've finally said it. Sorry.

Lal, Norma, Liza, however I will always love.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Teresa
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 06:58 PM

I'll admit, too, that my friend and I, though we both adore the Watersons, we call them the Bleatersons. :)

Teresa

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 08:27 PM

Reba McEntire's vocal style, not accent, is what irritates me. She came by her Oklahoma accent honestly. But those vocal curlicues..! Raht tarring to the ear.

Subject: RE: Worst singing accent.
From: Once Famous
Date: 07 Feb 05 - 08:52 PM

Don't knock Reba. She is enjoyed in trailer courts all over this great land.