What accents did The Beatles sing in?
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- A look at the accents the Beatles sang in with a bit of humour and some groovy graphics from polyglot and phonetician Dave Huxtable. Which songs are in Scouse, which in Northern RP and which in the Rock 'n' Roll accent? We look in detail at the phonetics of each of these accents, with examples from the Fab Four's songs.
By the end of this video, you'll know exactly how The Beatles sang in each of their different accents! This is a fun video that will help you learn about the phonetics of the English language.
Great video! A little disappointing you didn't mention Polythene Pam, the best example of them intentionally exagerrating their Liverpool accents in song
Thank you I wasn’t aware of that Polythene Pam. I reckon I might need to do a follow up based on what I learn from the comments on this one.
Same for Maggie Mae on Let it Be, which is also exaggerated Liverpudlian
@@krombopulos_michaelAbsolutely. It's an old folk song thrown in as a filler, I think.
"The judge she guilty founded, robben' the homeward bounded...that derty no good robbn' Maggie May" 😊
She's the kind of a gEL dat makes the News of the WELd
Yes, you could say she was attrhactively bilt!
Also George's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps' - no one a-lert-ed you, etc.
I like your “With the Huxtables” album cover. I could tell you were posing for the camera in a rock’n’roll accent.
Definitely.
For Maggie Mae, they turn up the Liverpool accents all the way
Polythene Pam too.
Loved it, thank you! And what do you think of Paul's Americanised accent in the introduction of Rocky Racoon? It's such a hoot to listen to.
Ah, those Beatles lyrics! I’ve gotta go’un listen to some of these songs now. Thanks!
Enjoy!
Interesting, I note that George Harrison still sang in aspects of his Scouse accent, i.e, "take care", rhymes with her, and in "Magical mystery tour, John sings in a Scouse accent, although he probably did that on purpose.
I’ll have a listen. I might have to do a part 2 based on what I learn from the comments.
I agree, George was the one who seemed to find it hardest to "smooth out" those Scouse vowel sounds, at least up until 67/68. But I have always thought that both his singing voice and to a lesser extent his singing accent seemed to change later in the Beatles' career, noticeably so by the time of the Abbey Road sessions. Thus I think his voice sounds qualitatively different on "Here Comes The Sun" (lighter in tone and feel) than "Think for Yourself" (darker). Not sure how *much* his vowels changed over that period, would be an interesting analysis! @@DaveHuxtableLanguages
To hear George's "care" and "beware" -- try his 1970 song "Beware of Darkness."@@DaveHuxtableLanguages
@@jardbinkley3144 Yes, I have just heard an acoustic or a demo version of "Beware of Darkness", it is a bit raw compared to the remastered version, but "beware", "take care", to my ears sounds like take kerr, bewurr.
@@glennfolau6959That's how he spoke!
I reckon the 'r' in saw you mention could be an aural pun about birds. I never saw/I never soar, and that's why he's emphasising the 'r' sound.
I doubt it. It's a common thing in many English accents.
It's called "the intrusive R ".
You'll often hear many of them pronounce, "law and order" as "Laura Nawdah".
You also hear it in "A Day In The Life" when John sings, "I sawr a film today, oh boy."
Mr. Huxtable, you failed to refer to the way the Beatles pronounce the word "customer" in the song "Penny Lane" ("The barber shaves another customer")
Thank you for this video, very interesting! I’m not an English speaker, but I’m a Beatles fan, and I believe that the accent you named 'rock'n'roll' was not *that* dominant in their singing. Many Beatles songs sound much more British than American. Lovely Rita, Martha My Dear, Taxman, Getting Better, Rain, I’m the Walrus for example come to my mind. None is from their early years.
Paul’s ‘better’ in Getting Better is with true T all the way. I’ve seen a video of him in a concert switching instantly back and forth between that and the American ‘better’ (as in Hey Jude).
Though the Beatles' singing accents were very different from their speech accents, I've read English Beatles fans who point to many occurrences of Northern features in their singing. I was able to come up with a short video with 8 examples where they Beatles use a “strong” R (I wasn’t sure about the exact phonetic term). Ok, one of them is “Maggie Mae" but two are covers of American rock’n’roll, which is surprising. ruclips.net/user/shorts0MkGczkSZHw
Btw, regarding “I never saw(r) them at all”, could it be influenced by the intrusive R, as in “I saw(r) a film today oh boy”?
Hi. Many thanks for this - some great points. I’ll have a listen. I might have to do a part 2 based on what I learn from the comments.
As to intrusive /r/, it only happens before vowels. It is quite common for English people imitating American speech to put in Rs where Americans wouldn’t , in the same places where intrusive /r/ would appear.
Thank you! I'd really love to see a part 2.
I know that intrusive /r/ is between vowels, I was just trying to guess a reason :)@@DaveHuxtableLanguages
Edit: Ah, ok, now I understand your explanation. Wow, very strange.
@@DaveHuxtableLanguages I may be spamming... but since I've made a list of all these 23 songs I'm pasting them here:
1. A Day In The Life- I’ve read the NEWS (X3)
2. Another Girl - Somebody that’s NEW (X3)
3. Back In The USSR - Hardly KNEW the place
4. Because - love is NEW
5. Dear Prudence - Meet the brand NEW day (X2)
6. Doctor Robert - Your’e a NEW and better man (X2)
7. For No One - long ago she KNEW someone
8. Got To Get You Into My Life - you KNEW I wanted just to hold you, you KNEW in time
9. How Do You Do It - KNEW - 9/9 appearances!
10. I Want To Tell You - sometimes I wish I KNEW you well
11. I'm Looking Through You - I thought I KNEW you
12. If I Fell - if our NEW love (X2)
13. In My Life - love as something NEW
14. Love You To - a NEW one can’t be bought
15. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - NEWspaper taxis
16. Matchbox- I got NEWS for you baby
17. Polythene Pam - NEWS of the world
18. Rocky Raccoon - everyone KNEW her as Nancy
19. Savoy Truffle - you know it's good NEWS
20. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window - I KNEW (X2)
21. The Ballad of John and Yoko - The NEWS people said, The NEWSpapers said
22. Within You Without You - if they only KNEW
23. You Won't See Me - If I KNEW what I was missing (X2)
@@OrlyYahalom Good list!
It's a bit lopsided since you seem to have analyzed mostly Paul's lead vocals and not so many of John's. Also would be interesting whether George and Ringo sound any different given their less middle class social backgrounds.
You make a valid point. I mostly use the Album 1. I’ll have a listen. I might have to do a part 2 based on what I learn from the comments
George had the strongest Scouse accent.
This goes the other way in a lot of punk and emo rooted music. Lots of punk bands sing with an English accent even if they're American. Emo is kind of a weird hybrid.
I'm glad you did this follow up - I liked the original video, but the Beatles felt like an inapt example because as an American they sound distinguishably English to me. This explanation makes sense: the band was very much influenced by US music but also very original, so it follows that they would sing in accents influenced by, but not fully aping, US English.
Ooh, if you're considering a part 2 to this video, maybe look into the Beatles' solo careers too! I feel like the Scouse accent pops up a lot in George's songs, especially the later ones - maybe not so much with the other three.
George had the strongest Scouse accent in the group!
Interesting subject. I might add that some of these vowel shifts and consonant "softenings" are common among singers in general, and not just in english. Certain things that are fine in speech are not conducive to singing, especially on high or sustained notes. Not to negate what you've said, but it's just one more influence at play here. (And also, please note that George always maintained his Scouse accent more than the others, in both speech and song).
Generally speaking, it seems to me that Paul and George put on the rock 'n' roll accent much more than John, who's singing always sounds at least a little bit Scouse
Interesting video!
Hearing Paul's hypercorrective R insertions on _Till There Was You_ I'm glad they stuck to non rhoticity for the rest of their catalogue! A tad jarring...
Another feature of Scouse English that is absent from the Beatles' _rock-and-roll English_ is the STRUT-FOOT merger. In everyday speach, from what I hear in interviews, the Beatles realised both vowels as /ʊ/ whereas throughout their songs the STRUT vowel is realised as /ə/ (noticeably distinct from RP /ʌ/ and coincidentally similar to its realisation in General American). It's remarkable that they managed to apply the split consistently, which is not the case for the SQUARE-NURSE distinction, as you rightly point out.
Well observed. I wrote a section on STRUT-FOOT but didn’t end up filming it.
Love the AI hallucinatory backdrops, you've clearly figured out the skill of prompting the image generators much better than I have. And your "With Dave Huxtable" was a nice touch. 👍
Glad you like them!
George and John had very clear British accents from revolver on, songs like a day in the life, getting better and while my guitar gently weep don't sound American at all for example. I think Pauls witch from a faux America to a general semi posh British in his ballad type songs.
I always find it really odd when people reproduce Beatles records - as distinct from covering them - but for some reason sing with broad Liverpool accents. It happens more often than you might imagine.
Incidentally, I think the most jarring use of a misplaced R by British singer doing in American accent, is Rod Stewart in The Faces cover of "Memphis Tenner-see". I can barely listen to it
Have you heard that The Bee Gees are not black?
That’s an unsubstantiated rumour.
Stevie Wonder says they are.
I really enjoy this channel in these videos,-- even though personally, I am incapable of hearing a lot of the subtleties and accents that David perceives and masters so well.
It all comes with practice. So glad you enjoy these.
2:16 one comment: even if an accent has t-flapping, whiter might not sound like wider, or title with tidal. it can, but in accents with canadian raising, the vowel in whiter is [ɐj] while the vowel in "wider" is [aj] or [äj].
Yeah, some New York accents will do that (source: I talk like that, my accent is mainly of an Oswego type).
Indeed. Thanks for pointing that out.
I wasn't expecting to see/hear a chingy reference in this video! I don't know about Memphis but I normally associate his accent with St. Louis.
You’re right - he’s from St Louis. Wikipedia says the feature occurs in Memphis and then mentions him so I put 2 and 2 together and made 5.
I find Penny Lane one of the most fascinating songs to listen to (by any artist) to try and piece together the way in which it is sung - glad to see it get a quick mention! I think the accent swings around quite a lot, they are clearly just having fun playing with it - my favourite and most memorable line is "the barber shaves another customer". Americans must find it very odd!
Most Beatles songs are slightly odd to us. That's part of what we love about them.
"Penny Lane, the barber shaves another customer." That "customer" sounds fairly Scouse.
Agreed
Least sounding British accents or more American sounding accents singers would be Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, Rod Stewart, Mic Jagger and Elton John.
Because they're older and they grew up on the original rock and roll which came from American 50s artists
Lot, want, father, and palm DO NOT have the same vowel in standard American English. Just LISTEN closely to plenty of American movie dialogue and use the rewind button generously.
Websters dictionary says they do. Though it gives wət as an alternative for what.
Yet North America has so many accents, even within states, provinces, etc., still point made with good observations.
England has more accents every half mile
I love the live transcription, maybe I will finally learn to read phonetics.
Nice job redefining the American accent as the “Rock n’ Roll” accent! 😂
Thanks! 😃
Love your work, mate
Glad you enjoy it!
I think George and Ringo sang more scouse. My favourite example is Only A Northern Song:
It doesn’t really matter what clothes I were
Or how I fur
Or if my her is brown
I’ll have to check that out. I’ll have a listen. I might have to do a part 2 based on what I learn from the comments
George had an extremely Scouse version of that vowel. It's in all his interviews, especially early on.
please edit the pauses out of your speech, dave. it's really holding your channel back; they're unburrably awkward
Please don't! I hate it with a passion when all sentences are glued together without any chance for me to take in what is said.
I always thought Paul was comically overcorrecting "I never sawr them at all" because that song was composed by an American
Probably, though also possible he just thought he was doing an American accent, and was a bit naive about it.
And you got just the vocals how?
Interesting and complicated.
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Aaaaarh! I fink itsa damn shime they dint sing in London Pirate.
Aaaarh!!!
(The other day I heard that only bots use two !! Humans use either one or !!! So sorry about their being so many !!! but I'm trying to simulate being human.)
(I fink I gotta sign up for a proper course in Pirate if I want to be credible.)
(But why be credible when you can be incredible? Without even putting in the kind of work it normally takes to be incredible.)
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From rock'n'roll accent to a rock'n'roll accident at the end of the video. 😄
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@@DaveHuxtableLanguages
It's alright/all part of my rock and roll fantasy 😂🎙🎶🎼🎸🎹🥁
Ok, so I'm early into the video. But as a singer/song writer from West Yorks, I can with 100% certainty, that we most definitely manipulate and use accents to our advantage. Kadence is probably the biggest reason why. Singing a line consisting of 10's of words, usually in one breath, requires the release of as little air possible. Therefore having to smooth everything out. I'm not educated in anyway with regards to English language, but having wrote songs, and sung a bunch of times, Its easy to see why singing 100% in a scouse accent could be problematic. It kinda stops too aggressively after certain words, making a super smooth flow kinda impossible if you're wanting fame in the English speaking world. I don't think it's a UK or US thing. I think its a result of following the laws of the Music language. Tones and notes matter. And just like grammar, they're rules in terms of order and structure. And the more proficient at the language you are, the it flows. If that makes sense. Robert Plant couldn't possibly sing in a Brummie accent. Alex Turner from Artic Monkeys is very interesting tho. I actually got into him because of his distinct South Yorks accent. Being able is rhyme "something" & "Stomach" is proper Yorkshire... Stomach - Summat. I know this isn't go down too well, but in my opinion, singing in your regional accent, unless top tier artist, can be detrimental to their career. You've got to have that region behind you massively, or it often doesn't work. The most prominent Scottish act, in terms of singing in their OG accent are they proclaimers. And no offence to them, but one of the shittest ; / If "I could walk 100 miles" was sung in a generic singing accent, It wouldn't have any relevance today whatsoever. I love accents my guy. Thanks for the content
You literally said what I meant to say 10 seconds in after pausing and writing the last comment lol
I so should've watched til the end haha Oh well, you got my brain working for a change haha
Very cool. I've wondered about the use of American (or in your case "Rock and Roll) in so much British rock. I've tried to pay attention to examples of singers using actual British accents. One example is Phil Collins who gets downright cockney in the b side song "Pigeons." Thanks.
Ray Davies of the Kinks. And Colin Blunstone of the Zombies.
Great examples. Also, above I should have mentioned the a-side as well - "Match of the Day."@@premanadi
Apologize to hair
I enjoyed this video. However, as a Scotsman, I never thought that the Beatles sounded anything other than English and I was always bemused when people said that they sang in American accents.
To my ears they didn't just sound English but I could often hear the Liverpool accent very clearly in songs where John sang the lead such as "Thank You Girl", "Not A Second Time", "If I Fell", "Girl", "In My Life", "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", "All You Need Is Love", "A Day In The Life" and "And Your Bird Can Sing" to name but a few.
It's even more apparent when Ringo sings lead. "With A Little Help From My Friends", "Yellow Submarine" and "Octopus's Garden" seem quintessentially English to me. The same applies to George singing, "It's Only A Northern Song", "Piggies", "It's All Too Much", "You Like Me Too Much", "I Want To Tell You"...
I can hear a bit more of a mid-Atlantic twang from Paul, to be fair, but even then, surely only an Englishman would rhyme "woman" with "coming" as he sings in "Get Back"?
What about Paul's accent in 'serious' songs like Yesterday or Eleanor Rigby ? Any comments please.
Some songs surely have different accents then others, but I don't think it can be boiled down to 'serious' vs others.
Anyway, there were 4 different Beatles and their singing combined features of Liverpool's accent, Southern or "standard" British features and American features. I don't think they had 3 distinct types of accents. They merged accents and influences.
There was more than one Paul
@@OrlyYahalom No, you missed the point of my question. I was not talking about all four Beatles or all their accents. I was talking about Paul specifically and the difference between his different voices. The Rock'n'Roll harshness of for instance Helter Skelter or the whimsy of Rocky Racoon are a world away from what I think of as his 'serious' songs, like Let It Be or Long and Winding Road. I was just wondering how this accent could be described. It is sonorous and soulful in these songs, more plain in Eleanor Rigby or Yesterday. Just wondering.
@@MeTheRob I believe that "accent" and "voice" both affect each other, but accent features are not necessarily linked to a particular genre. Dave mentioned several features of the "rock'n'roll" accent (and I can't say I understood all of them), but they don't all occur in every song, and there are many more features of one's accent (like vowels that vary significantly between British and American accents). I think that Let It Be and Hey Jude are similar both in accent and in the way they flow. So you have "better" sounding like "bedder", "let it be" sounding like "led it be". Similarly you have "Look ad_all the lonely people". All these are t's between two vowels. I couldn't find a t between vowels in Yesterday, but also couldn't find anything that doesn't comply with Dave's definitions.
In Rocky Raccoon Paul does a phony Southern American accent in the beginning, but later I think it's pretty standard.
Is this a companion piece to Abigail Devo's recent vid on 'Yellow Submarine'?
Probably just a coincidence - happens all the time with RUclips Recommends!
No. I haven’t seen that. I’ll check it out. The worst thing with RUclips recommendations is when you watch something on unblocking a drain and RUclips suddenly thinks it’s discovered your life’s passion!
@@DaveHuxtableLanguages
True that!
But I have several accounts, broadly devoted to different topics, because the recommends were so poor - they have improved a lot - and Abigail's video was recommended to a different account.
She's a young US girl, but she loves vinyl LPs from the late 60s - Cream, Hendrix, all that stuff. I think most of her subscribers are old blokes like me - pushing or just over 70. And since she deals with British Invasion era music, most of us are from the UK!
"Such fun" This explains why it's so jarring listening to the band chatter in Scouse before a song, say in outtakes or the BBC sessions, and then launch into the song using their R&R accents.
I did not hear a flapped "T" here. In my Inland Southern accent flaps are always distinct from "d's". Maybe we just have nuanced ears and can feel the difference even if the Beatles could not.
"Because" is sung in a scouse accent. Then you've got "Sun King" that follows in a mock spanish. Great video as usual.
Nice video, sir. You should listen to John Lennon's "Serve Yourself" -- it's as Scouse as it gets!
The 3rd wall (3rd? 2nd?) break at the end brought me a lot of joy!
Glad to hear it.
It would be great to analyse Alex Turner’s accent evolution
Why does "Penny lane" sound "Penny laned" ?
Probably because it’s often followed by ’there’ or ‘the’.
@@DaveHuxtableLanguagesI was referring to the chorus. Actually it's: "penny lane-dis in my ears"
I love the accent of Herman's hermits.
Till there was you .Was written to he sung as Paul sang it.
Listen to Shirley Jones sing the song in The Music Man.
Just listened to it. Yes, she is strongly rhotic - but there isn't even a hint of "I never sore them at all." No American speaks or sings that way. There are a couple of dialects where you might hear a lower class person add an R onto the end of a word like that, but only when there is a silence after it. My father did that on some words - he would say "bananar" instead of "banana." We always thought it was hilarious.
"Maggie Mae" shows a very noticeable Liverpool accent.
I’ll have a listen. Maybe I’ll have to do a part 2 based on suggestions from the comments.
Cool!
Also, in A Day In The Life, John sings “I Sar a film today, oh boy”
The difference is, "saw" is followed by a vowel, so it's very useful to add a bit of an "r" while singing it. When Paul did it in the previous example, it was followed by "them," so Paul's example was much more eccentric.
Ironically, Americans wouldn't so that. That kind of linking R is more of a British thing.
What a fun video!
So glad you think so!
Great video!
Thank you!
Why does your 'rock'n'roll' accent sound like a New York conman and your Scouser sound slightly drunk? And why can't you admit the Beatles, and the Stones and most British acts of the 60s and 70s were singing in their version of an African-american blues accent?
The Beatles sounded nothing like the Stones. Stones were way more Blues oriented.
@@OrlyYahalom Yeah; but the Beatles and the Stones and the Yardbirds were all listening to African American Blues like Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy and Brownie McGhee And Sonny Terry - although the lightweight Beatles were more influenced by white men playing the Blues than the real thing.
As far as I know the Beatles were mostly influenced by rock'n'roll rather than blues. Surely they were huge fans of Chuck Berry and Little Richard. Or do you consider this rock'n'roll a version of blues?
@@OrlyYahalom Are you saying Johnny and Paul didn't listen to Howlin' Wolf?
Frankly, I have no idea. He is not one of their influences that I've heard of. @@caloricphlogistonandthelum4008
4:26 this sounds closer to "there" than "ther" to me, so i'd transcribe this as [ðɛ̠ː] instead because it sounds closer to "there". i can kinda see how it sounds like "ther" though
Relistening I can hear what you mean.
What?! Sar in stead of saw!!? World's going to the dogs.
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