songs where singers pronounce words incorrectly

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1. Urban Dance Squad - "Downer" ("Icarus" pronounced "EYE-ca-rus)
2. Blackalicious - "Alphabet Aerobics" ("Zealots" pronounced "ZEE-LOTS")

jjjdoom (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 21:16 (8 months ago) Permalink

in the context of the song, is Morrissey intentionally mispronouncing plagiarise?

Jamie_ATP, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 21:19 (8 months ago) Permalink

or ironically, did he actually not know how to pronounce it?

Jamie_ATP, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 21:20 (8 months ago) Permalink

he says "ek-cetera" in "sweet and tender hooligan" too

goole, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 21:20 (8 months ago) Permalink

Gronlandic Edit by of Montreal - gro-sha-rees for groceries

mr.raffles, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 21:24 (8 months ago) Permalink

XTC "Season Cycle" - umbil-eye-cal

chicago rap twitter luminary (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 21:26 (8 months ago) Permalink

I find the way the guy sings "recognize" in M83's "Steve McQueen" utterly charming.

the girl from spirea x (f. hazel), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 21:29 (8 months ago) Permalink

any Phoenix songs i've heard are a mindfield of insane pronunciation.

Jamie_ATP, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 21:35 (8 months ago) Permalink

Natasha Bedingfield singing 'no hyper-bowl to hide behind' in "These Words"

if, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 21:36 (8 months ago) Permalink

does McCartney's mangling of French in Michelle count

chicago rap twitter luminary (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 21:46 (8 months ago) Permalink

Chuck Berry's deliberate mispronunciation of "a la carte" in 'Promised Land'

wise men farting over you (snoball), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 21:49 (8 months ago) Permalink

does McCartney's mangling of French in Michelle count

Huh?

Ogni tanto mi piace un'occhiata del Tevere (Michael White), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 21:56 (8 months ago) Permalink

michael stipe mangles "cuyahoga"

these albatrosses have no fear of man (La Lechera), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 22:32 (8 months ago) Permalink

lemonade pronounced limonade in underground lovers 'promenade' (perhaps obvious why)

the dilettante escape plan (electricsound), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 22:59 (8 months ago) Permalink

Not mispronunciation, but Kate Bush's "Sex-you-ull Healing" cracks me up. Xp

nedless summer (Ówen P.), Wednesday, 29 August 2012 22:59 (8 months ago) Permalink

Does it have to be unintentional? This morning I was listening to Lush's "Untogether" where she pronounces "behave" as "behavey" (for a slant rhyme with "happy").

how's life, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 23:00 (8 months ago) Permalink

Apparently Sting mispronounces Nabokov's name in "Don't Stand So Close to Me." I wouldn't know.

Mr. Snrub, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 23:16 (8 months ago) Permalink

Regarding the pronunciation of his last name, in the BBC Guide it notes-- "Although the author's surname is often pronounced nab-uh-kof, he told the BBC that this [nuh-boe-kof] was his preferred English pronunciation, with the middle syllable stressed, and rhyming with 'smoke'."

how's life, Wednesday, 29 August 2012 23:24 (8 months ago) Permalink

La Lechara: http://www.wksu.org/news/story/23610

kate78, Thursday, 30 August 2012 00:29 (8 months ago) Permalink

Lechera, ahem.

kate78, Thursday, 30 August 2012 00:30 (8 months ago) Permalink

Doesn't Jay Z mispronounce Kanye's name on some of Kanye's earlier productions that he produced for him?

MarkoP, Thursday, 30 August 2012 00:44 (8 months ago) Permalink

sorry, commenters otm
you have several choices (pardon my lack of proper IPA)

ky-a-HOE-ga
ca-HOG-ah
cauga
or even ky-OG-ah or ky-OH-ga

but none of them rhyme with /coy/ and having grown up in the valley i claim folk linguistics on this one

these albatrosses have no fear of man (La Lechera), Thursday, 30 August 2012 01:54 (8 months ago) Permalink

I say caya-HOG-a. HOE-ga is ok, too, and does not rankle me.

kate78, Thursday, 30 August 2012 03:03 (8 months ago) Permalink

Apparently Sting mispronounces Nabokov's name in "Don't Stand So Close to Me." I wouldn't know.

― Mr. Snrub, Wednesday, August 29, 2012 7:16 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

i think that line is just ridiculed because he rhymes the name w/ "shake and cough"?

some dude, Thursday, 30 August 2012 03:08 (8 months ago) Permalink

ramones "chainsaw" : texas chainsaw mass-a-cree

fit and working again, Thursday, 30 August 2012 03:11 (8 months ago) Permalink

Elton John
Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me - "Don't dizgard me"
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - "Huntin' the horny-backed taaaOO-oad" and "It'll take you a couple of vodker and tonics"

Hideous Lump, Thursday, 30 August 2012 03:29 (8 months ago) Permalink

john cale - "the man who couldn't afford to orgy"

i know your nuts hurt! who's laughing? (contenderizer), Thursday, 30 August 2012 03:33 (8 months ago) Permalink

When I read Lolita I kept expecting "shake and cough" to describe Humbert Humbert but there's nothing of the sort. Sting saw the movie.

A shout out to Stereolab for deliberately mispronouncing numerous words throughout their career.

Elton John in "Harmony" as understood by a ten year old: "looking for an island in a bloated pharmacy"

Vic Perry, Thursday, 30 August 2012 03:37 (8 months ago) Permalink

beyonce "1+1": algebra is pronounced algerba

teledyldonix, Thursday, 30 August 2012 06:41 (8 months ago) Permalink

Wasn't there a song on Stankonia where Andre Benjamin pronounces "Robin" like it's a French word ("raw-ban") so he can get it to rhyme with "Batman"?

Tuomas, Thursday, 30 August 2012 07:06 (8 months ago) Permalink

haha tori amos to thread

"va - neee - llyuuuhhh"

(it's meant to be "vanilla")

lex pretend, Thursday, 30 August 2012 07:59 (8 months ago) Permalink

Hey Midnight Dancer by Arabesque manages to rhyme "Venezuela" with "tequila".

Temporarily Famous In The Czech Republic (ShariVari), Thursday, 30 August 2012 08:14 (8 months ago) Permalink

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - "Huntin' the horny-backed taaaOO-oad" and "It'll take you a couple of vodker and tonics"

Vodka sounds OK in that line to me - although couple sounds oddly like caaple.

AlanSmithee, Thursday, 30 August 2012 11:14 (8 months ago) Permalink

I YAM AN AN-AR-KYST!

Old Lunch, Thursday, 30 August 2012 11:48 (8 months ago) Permalink

I don't think he's pronouncing in incorrectly there so much as he's over enunciating?

(✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Thursday, 30 August 2012 13:51 (8 months ago) Permalink

he's mispronouncing so it will rhyme

Poliopolice, Thursday, 30 August 2012 14:31 (8 months ago) Permalink

Oh yeah nm I just sang it in my head - he definitely does.

(✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Thursday, 30 August 2012 14:34 (8 months ago) Permalink

lady marmalard?

second only to popcorn (or something), Thursday, 30 August 2012 15:06 (8 months ago) Permalink

Springsteen: My Hometown
They're closing down the textile mill....

It's correctly pronounced like next aisle, not next ill.

kornrulez6969, Thursday, 30 August 2012 15:13 (8 months ago) Permalink

i wanna live in los an-ga-liss
i wanna live in los an-ga-liss

TOP FEMALE LAWYER & CARTOONIST FOR 2011: (donna rouge), Thursday, 30 August 2012 15:15 (8 months ago) Permalink

probably a nod to people pronouncing it that way in early 20th c.

how's life, Thursday, 30 August 2012 15:21 (8 months ago) Permalink

XTC "Season Cycle" - umbil-eye-cal

I thought of this first too. Such a tortured rhyme but he gets points for trying, no?

I can think of a lot of foreign-language singers who do this but those are kind of cheap shots. Though Cornelius does have a song which (I think) kind of riffs on his inability to distinguish "clash" and "crash"

frogbs, Thursday, 30 August 2012 15:25 (8 months ago) Permalink

Peter Hammill, "A Chronic Catalepsy":

"like some automaton..."

He pronounces it OR-to-mayton whereas afaik it should be or-TOM-a-ton

my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Thursday, 30 August 2012 15:25 (8 months ago) Permalink

Any time Pete Hammill pronounces something in an unusual way, I assume I'm the one who had it wrong

frogbs, Thursday, 30 August 2012 15:30 (8 months ago) Permalink

Silver Jews, "Seventeen doctors couldn't decide whether I should be allowed in the gime."

Sufjan Grafton, Thursday, 30 August 2012 15:33 (8 months ago) Permalink

For now I say with sorrow until this time tomorrow
We'll bid you all a find adieu

ROLLING STONES - ON WITH THE SHOW

Basically, pronouncing "Tomorrow" to rhyme with "Adieu" is very difficult.

Unless you say it like "tomorrowwooooooo"

Mark G, Thursday, 30 August 2012 15:36 (8 months ago) Permalink

big one for me is always "venus de meelo" in "venus" by television

congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 30 August 2012 15:44 (8 months ago) Permalink

i dunno if that's incorrect

"mass-a-cree" is old timey legit!

goole, Thursday, 30 August 2012 17:05 (8 months ago) Permalink

I think that's just how UK ppl say it.

(✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Thursday, 30 August 2012 17:05 (8 months ago) Permalink

meelo, i mean

(✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Thursday, 30 August 2012 17:05 (8 months ago) Permalink

this has "my-lo" for both UK and US ... LOOK I CHECKED BEFORE POSTING

http://www.forvo.com/word/venus_de_milo/

congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 30 August 2012 17:08 (8 months ago) Permalink

SORRY!

(✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Thursday, 30 August 2012 17:09 (8 months ago) Permalink

or the greeks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milos

goole, Thursday, 30 August 2012 17:09 (8 months ago) Permalink

Springsteen: My Hometown
They're closing down the textile mill....

It's correctly pronounced like next aisle, not next ill.

Both pronunciations are "correct," although the former is more common.

Silver Jews, "Seventeen doctors couldn't decide whether I should be allowed in the gime."

That's gotta be a Simpsons nod.

Darren Robocopsky (Phil D.), Thursday, 30 August 2012 17:31 (8 months ago) Permalink

Naked Raygun - Metastasis ("metatastasize")

i know your nuts hurt! who's laughing? (contenderizer), Thursday, 30 August 2012 17:41 (8 months ago) Permalink

Silver Jews, "Seventeen doctors couldn't decide whether I should be allowed in the gime."

That's gotta be a Simpsons nod.

I believe someone dared him to sing that line like Mick Jagger.

cwkiii, Thursday, 30 August 2012 17:55 (8 months ago) Permalink

piscesx, Thursday, 30 August 2012 18:01 (8 months ago) Permalink

lady marmalard?

― second only to popcorn (or something), jeudi 30 août 2012 15:06 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Makes sense because that's how you pronouce it in French (she's Creole).

LeRooLeRoo, Thursday, 30 August 2012 18:27 (8 months ago) Permalink

I always wondered why Neil Tennant pronouces years as "yours" in "This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave".
Is that an accent from northern England?

LeRooLeRoo, Thursday, 30 August 2012 18:30 (8 months ago) Permalink

Will you just take a look over there? / Is she tryin' to get outta that clit-AR-is?

(The Stranglers, Peaches)

Vast Halo, Thursday, 30 August 2012 18:59 (8 months ago) Permalink

xpost

His pronounciation of it is closer to "ye-ahs", I think, which to my ears is a posh RP take on the word. Tennant, by force of will I think, doesn't speak with a particularly northern accent.

Vast Halo, Thursday, 30 August 2012 19:06 (8 months ago) Permalink

"whispered in my ear that she's celivent"

Cappadonna in "Camay"

A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Thursday, 30 August 2012 21:42 (8 months ago) Permalink

Doesn't Jay Z mispronounce Kanye's name on some of Kanye's earlier productions that he produced for him?

― MarkoP, Thursday, August 30, 2012 12:44 AM (21 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also Lil B, surely(?) on purpose, in the song "Myspace": Send money through the wire like KAI-yon West / I bounce back, double up, that was all I get?

when you put it like that nickelback saved rock (bernard snowy), Thursday, 30 August 2012 22:23 (8 months ago) Permalink

Tennant does so speak with a Northern accent, btw. Rendered, yes, but

Mark G, Thursday, 30 August 2012 22:58 (8 months ago) Permalink

lady marmalard?

― second only to popcorn (or something), jeudi 30 août 2012 15:06 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Makes sense because that's how you pronouce it in French (she's Creole).

― LeRooLeRoo, Thursday, 30 August 2012 19:27 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I always wondered why Neil Tennant pronouces years as "yours" in "This Must Be The Place I Waited Years To Leave".
Is that an accent from northern England?

― LeRooLeRoo, Thursday, 30 August 2012 19:30 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is exactly how it should work. thank you for your info, that has annoyed me for years but now i'm at peace with it. and yes neil tennant is from the north east of england and that is a credible shout for how "years" could possibly be heard to be pronounced from somebody up that way. i'm struggling to bring it to mind tho and can't be buggered to youtube as in the middle of something.

second only to popcorn (or something), Thursday, 30 August 2012 23:42 (8 months ago) Permalink

what is the scientific term for mark e. smith's diction

mookieproof, Thursday, 30 August 2012 23:47 (8 months ago) Permalink

'venus de my-low' just sounds kinda stupid

thomp, Thursday, 30 August 2012 23:51 (8 months ago) Permalink

now i am putting off doing things by reading about greek vowel sounds

thomp, Thursday, 30 August 2012 23:56 (8 months ago) Permalink

Ivor Cutler had a song called "I Got No Common Sense" on his album Velvet Donkey, where he sings the line "I got no common sense, and neither has nobody else" a few times. But one time he sings "and neither has nobody esle" - he was probably just singing what he wrote and had misspelled it!

zappi, Friday, 31 August 2012 00:03 (8 months ago) Permalink

randy newman, "louisiana 1927" -- "river has busted through clear down to plaquemines." he rhymes it with "line." but it should rhyme with "lin," as in jeremy lin, right?

fact checking cuz, Friday, 31 August 2012 00:16 (8 months ago) Permalink


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