Singers with a speech impediment

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Does Donald Fagan have a slight lisp or is it my imagination?

colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 23:14 (twenty years ago) link

Does being British count as a speech impediment?

No, but pretending you are might.

On a separate note, my friend Alex is convinced Stuart Murdoch has a lisp. "I wath imprethed, I wath happy for a day in nineteen-thickthty five". I do not concur - he's just got a weedy and occasionally flat voice, and that's fine by me.

CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 23:18 (twenty years ago) link

Stuttering John from the Howard Stern show had/has a band. I'm fairly sure he loses the stutter when singing.

PeterALopez, Thursday, 28 August 2003 16:24 (twenty years ago) link

Tom Waits has several, doesn't he?

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 29 August 2003 00:14 (twenty years ago) link

John Wetton always sounded like he had dentures that weren't glued in properly

anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 29 August 2003 00:37 (twenty years ago) link

Lionel Riche definitely has a lisp anyway.

Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 29 August 2003 01:23 (twenty years ago) link

Beth Gibbonsh - I want to shlap her every time she pronouncesh 's' as 'sh'. Or just not lishten to her mushic.

Mark C (Mark C), Friday, 29 August 2003 11:45 (twenty years ago) link

Ian Svenonius

Born on the floor, Friday, 29 August 2003 17:54 (twenty years ago) link

How does Tom Waits have a speech impediment?

nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 29 August 2003 18:11 (twenty years ago) link

I mean he generally speaks and sings with emaculate enunciation and delivery. He's like one of the least mumbly singer/songwriters ever.

nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 29 August 2003 18:13 (twenty years ago) link

Mark E. Smith-ah!

K, bad joke.

Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Friday, 29 August 2003 18:18 (twenty years ago) link

Mel Tillis, Walter Lure, Brett Smiley.

Does Cerys from Catatonia have a speech impediment? She seems to add a "sh" sound to everything.

Losht Cat on Arthur Shtreet (Arthur), Saturday, 30 August 2003 03:04 (twenty years ago) link

Does Cerys from Catatonia have a speech impediment? She seems to add a "sh" sound to everything.

That's not an impediment that's an affectation.

I was just this minute listening to Leon Thomas (on a Pharoah Sanders album), sounds like he might have one (and no, I don'y mean just because of the African throat-yodelling schtick).

Dadaismus (Dada), Sunday, 31 August 2003 12:46 (twenty years ago) link

early readings show
no one has mentioned my man
S(h)ir Erick S(h)ermon

Haikunym (Haikunym), Sunday, 31 August 2003 14:04 (twenty years ago) link

nine years pass...

Having just heard his album, add Oliver, of "Good Morning Starshine" fame, to this list - he actually sounds a lot like Tom Rapp on several tracks

Tommy McTommy (Tom D.), Thursday, 8 August 2013 10:02 (ten years ago) link

Dr. Wobert from the Blow Monkeys

mr.raffles, Thursday, 8 August 2013 13:47 (ten years ago) link

Judy Garland had a bit of a lisp, and Liza seems to have developed her own

Sir Lord Baltimora (Myonga Vön Bontee), Thursday, 8 August 2013 15:41 (ten years ago) link

Grimes has a fairly prominent lisp

Treeship, Thursday, 8 August 2013 15:41 (ten years ago) link

alvin lucier

Ward Fowler, Thursday, 8 August 2013 20:15 (ten years ago) link

John Hammond Jr. stuttered. Sometime in the early '80s, I accompanied a friend who was interviewing him. Somehow--I was doing whatever I could to be unpleasant, but how we broached the subject, I don't know--he and I got into a disagreement about whether or not the Jefferson Airplane's audience in 1967 consisted primarily of young teenagers. He got more and more exasperated, the stuttering added to the tension, and he finally snapped at me that if I'd just listen, I'd realize he was right. Still remember it vividly.

clemenza, Thursday, 8 August 2013 20:27 (ten years ago) link

That's amazing.

Esperanto, why don't you come to your senses? (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 8 August 2013 20:30 (ten years ago) link

Very unpleasant memory, and, needless to say, my friend wasn't very happy. (The interviewed proceeded after I shut up.) I had this thing at the time about the self-righteousness that went along with a certain mindset--blues music is pure, and rock/pop is kid's stuff--and that's what was behind it. The joke of it is that I was six years old in 1967, and didn't know who the Jefferson Airplane were. What he said still doesn't make intuitive sense to me, but I should have had enough sense to defer to someone who was actually there.

clemenza, Thursday, 8 August 2013 20:36 (ten years ago) link

alvin lucier

― Ward Fowler, Thursday, August 8, 2013 8:15 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

came here to post this! robert ashley, too.

69, Thursday, 8 August 2013 20:47 (ten years ago) link

the girl who sings the first verse of 3lw's "no more (baby i'ma do right)" has a lisp. i think it's kiely williams? if so, i guess she lost it later on.

dyl, Saturday, 10 August 2013 02:04 (ten years ago) link

six months pass...

Steven Malkmus has a slight buzz, like a partial lisp, to his "s"s...I don't know what that's called, but the FMU DJ Tom Scharpling also has it.

Iago Galdston, Thursday, 6 March 2014 01:13 (ten years ago) link

The lead singer of the Showstoppers has a strong lisp.

Check their one big hit "It ain't nothin but a Houthparty"

Mark G, Thursday, 6 March 2014 06:40 (ten years ago) link

two years pass...

Chris Brown had the most pronounced lisp in the world on his debut album

Neanderthal, Saturday, 7 January 2017 20:58 (seven years ago) link

Dominic Appleton out of Breathless and This Mortal Coil has a lisp.

heaven parker (anagram), Saturday, 7 January 2017 21:11 (seven years ago) link

Tom Hingley from Inthspiral Carpetsth

Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Saturday, 7 January 2017 21:12 (seven years ago) link

Wayne Newton

Josefa, Sunday, 8 January 2017 00:45 (seven years ago) link

Roger Daltrey. The stutter in 'My Generation' is put on but he said in an interview that both he and Pete Townshend stutter.

2017, how bad could it be? (snoball), Sunday, 8 January 2017 12:12 (seven years ago) link

Wayne Newton's thing is that a terminal "s" becomes "sh," which is more apparent when speaking than when singing. Garland & Minnelli have a similar thing

Josefa, Sunday, 8 January 2017 15:32 (seven years ago) link

One of the guys in The Clash?

Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 8 January 2017 18:08 (seven years ago) link

Most English singers to american ears

F♯ A♯ (∞), Sunday, 8 January 2017 18:10 (seven years ago) link

Charming.

Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Sunday, 8 January 2017 18:33 (seven years ago) link

Roger Daltrey. The stutter in 'My Generation' is put on but he said in an interview that both he and Pete Townshend stutter.

― 2017, how bad could it be? (snoball), Sunday, January 8, 2017 6:12 AM (seven hours ago)

I don't doubt Daltrey said it, but I've seen several Townshend interviews and he seems like the most un-stuttering person ever. I don't even remember hearing any vocalized pauses like "um" and "uh."

aaaaaaaauuuuuuuuu (melting robot) (WilliamC), Sunday, 8 January 2017 19:31 (seven years ago) link

One of the Wolfgramm sisters (maybe both) who does the predominant vocal on The Jets' "Crush on You" has an adorable lisp.

A.C. Newman has one too, and once I noticed it, all those New Pornographers songs seem sweeter.

Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Sunday, 8 January 2017 19:37 (seven years ago) link

Wow, can't believe no one has yet mentioned Scatman John, who even had a Top 10 hit about his stuttering.

Tuomas, Monday, 9 January 2017 10:17 (seven years ago) link

Everybody stutters one way or the other
So check out my message to you
As a matter of fact, don't let nothin' hold you back
If the Scatman can do it, so can you

Everybody's sayin' that the Scatman stutters
But doesn't ever stutter when he sings
But what you don't know I'm gonna tell you right now
That the stutter and the scat is the same thing to you

I've never had a speech impediment, but I always find this super inspiring, brings a tear to my eye.

Tuomas, Monday, 9 January 2017 10:19 (seven years ago) link

Does Henry Rollins lisp?

Stevolende, Monday, 9 January 2017 11:24 (seven years ago) link

JUst watching the Birthday Party Minneapolis and Nick doesn't seem to be able to get through a song without falling over. Then writhing around on his back.
Inner ear problem?

Stevolende, Monday, 9 January 2017 11:26 (seven years ago) link

Wow, can't believe no one has yet mentioned Scatman John, who even had a Top 10 hit about his stuttering.

Scatman John, is what I thought immediately too! :)

Ludo, Monday, 9 January 2017 12:00 (seven years ago) link

Claudine Longet had a speech impediment which, like everything she did apart from shooting her boyfriend, was very endearing. It's particularly notable on her cover of Bwoomstick Cowboy.

Bubba H.O.T.A.P.E (ShariVari), Monday, 9 January 2017 12:03 (seven years ago) link

four years pass...

Surprised no-one's mentioned Richie Havens.

When Smeato Met Moaty (Tom D.), Friday, 26 November 2021 23:32 (two years ago) link

On Barry Gibb's solo album In the Now, he not only seems to have problems with vocal projection and resonance, it sounds like he has trouble pronouncing the lyrics. His whole vocal style had changed. Had he had a lot of health issues in the 15 years since the last Bee Gees album?

Halfway there but for you, Saturday, 27 November 2021 03:09 (two years ago) link

the guy from dead milkmen, not sure of his name

grove street (party) direction (voodoo chili), Saturday, 27 November 2021 04:04 (two years ago) link

The guy in the Romantics has a slight lisp. Not Jimmy Marinos, but the guy who sings "Talking In Your Sleep."

henry s, Saturday, 27 November 2021 14:00 (two years ago) link


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