Readers recommend: songs sung with accents - results
I’m both acutely and gravely aware of the sheer breadth of this topic, even if I’d not quite appreciated it beforehand. I’m sure this pan-galactic theme could be supplemented by future gurus being specific about the accent they want to choose - I could have chosen an A-list from Scottish voices alone.
As was remarked, sometimes dismissively, everyone sings with an accent. Of course they do, that’s the point. I’m writing this in the pub, a solid four-piece playing electric Americana and southern boogie, voiced accordingly. They’re Pontypridd born and bred.
Readers recommend: songs sung with accents
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Accents are slippery things, but essential to our sense of identity, universal, and probably the most easily faked or exaggerated of all our natural features. So what I’ve tried to look for here is where the voice and the accent, exaggerated or natural, complement each other. We’ll begin with a tour of the British Isles then a whistle-stop (and capricious) tour far and wide.
I love the Geordie accent, and its near cousin from Teesside. In my view it’s the English accent with the strongest vocabulary all its own, setting it aside from other urban (or rural) English accents, not least in its continuing vitality. And of all the nominations, this most shivers my timbres. Rachel Unthank & the Winterset, Fareweel Regality.
The accents in the Welsh regions are much influenced by the prevalence and cadence of the Welsh language. Most of my friends have a hint (or more) of the Valleys in their voices, but it’s the accents from Welsh-speaking areas that most appeal to me ... And whilst the north Walian accent leaves me delightfully agog, it’s the west Walian accent that most beguiles. Cate Le Bon, I Can’t Help You.
Of the English accents, the nominations ran the gamut from Ashby to Zouch. The standout nomination of the urban English voice, though, for its use of vernacular and vocabulary: Ian Dury, Billericay Dickie.
From rural English, a voice that carries the Hampshire burr a la John Arlott, on a song that is the kind of commentary I can imagine him delivering: Maggie Holland, A Place Called England.
Ian Dury delivers at the Shepherds Bush Empire, London, 1999. Photograph: Redferns/Stevoff
Bands, without a dominant vocal lead didn’t stand much of a whisper this week, but from Scotland a feral growl that would make “I love you” sound like a death threat: Alex Harvey, Framed From Ireland, and Damien Dempsey with It’s All Good.
Jamaica? Once contributors had mentioned reggae I was hoping for a dub-fest; it didn’t really materialise. Before reggae, the accents of the Caribbean tended to be diluted, and the patois diminished, in popular music. So I chose from the menu Lee Perry’s Favourite Dish.
Now for Australia. The drawl emphasises the accent, and the accent emphasises the drawl, both complementing the slacker’s slacker it’s Courtney Barnett with History Eraser.
Over to North America. Folk or rock, country or blues? Listening to your nominations from all over the world I became even more aware than ever how often the style of music aligns with or influences the accent of its delivery. So I’m going to go for the blues: St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Broken Bones & Pocket Change.
And singing in a language that’s not your own first language? Pronunciation off-kilter, emphasis out-of-sync. I love it! Would the song have sounded quite so wonderful sung by its writer? Well, as the cover almost said, peal slowly (and hark) to Nico’s iconic phrasing on the Velvet Underground’s Femme Fatale. And for sheer gusto, let’s hear it for Anglo-Japanese Hyper Kinako, Tokyo Invention Registration Office.
And so to the final choice. So many nominations used emphasised or faked accents for comedic effect. Most were good, if of their time, but for timeless and innocent laugh-a-couplet it’s Alan Sherman’s Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah.
The playlist
A-list for songs sung with accents
Rachel Unthank & The Winterset - Fareweel Regality
Cate Le Bon - I Can’t Help You
Ian Dury - Billericay Dickie
Maggie Holland - A Place Called England
Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Framed
Damien Dempsey - It’s All Good
Lee Perry - Favourite Dish
Courtney Barnett - History Eraser
St Paul & the Broken Bones, Broken Bones & Pocket Change
Velvet Underground - Femme Fatale
Hyper Kinako - Tokyo Invention Registration Office
Alan Sherman -Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah