― Jeremy, Wednesday, 27 August 2003 01:58 (twenty years ago) link
Here's an article from their fan site, Cloud Zero, )at http://cloud-zero.org/):
Here's my old post on Edward's accent. I have made some corrections to itand additions based on new information. This should be the end of thisthread. I'll save it this time in case the question comes up again:
I've heard a lot of talk on here about Edward's voice and itsunusual quality. I've also heard it referred to as a "lisp". Hopefully, i can help illuminate everyone a little. Edward comesfrom East London, (Phil comes from Ilford in nearby East Anglia.) I myselflived for a time in Colchester, which is near Ipswich, Ilford, Harwich, andmany of the other places that Edward seemed to be working in and aroundwhen the band was still in the U.K.. I also spent quite a bit of time inEast London and my best friend is a certified Cockney geezer, born andraised in Barking. So this can be considered expert advice from anhonorary Cockney boy. Go West Ham. Back to Edward: His accent is pretty normal for that area,especially if he spent some time in more urban areas (Daggenham, Barking,Basildon, what have you.) And indeed he did, as a recent conversationrevealed. He was born in Barking and lived in nearby Daggenham. Beyond his East London/East Anglian accent he has a pronounced wayof pronouncing certain sounds, for instance his R's. To many they start tosound like W's (especially to American ears, which don't hear this asoften.) This is NOT a "lisp". Strangely, it is not an accent either.What it really is is a bit more complicated. There are several theories asto why some folks in England talk this way, and here is one of the mostfeasible that i've heard. It seems that a great while ago, (a couple ofhundred years perhaps) it became fashionable for people to speak with asoftened "R". Over time, this R became so softened that it pretty muchdisappeared altogether. It's important to point out that this manner ofspeaking does not appear to be regional, and is, rather, an affection. Idon't mean by that that Edward is faking this, at least not anymore. Itseems that at a very young age a person begins to talk this way, (perhapsbecause a parent does) and by adulthood it has become natural to them. Inother words, if you were to visit where Edward grew up, Barking, Daggenham,or some such place, most of the people would have a characteristic EastLondon accent, but most would not have this little "quality" in theirspeech. Since there isn't a good explanation as to where it comes from,many people in Britainrefer to it jokingly as a speech impediment. But in reality, it as apeculiar form of permanent affection. It is not a "lisp" which is more ofa true speech impediment. Unfortunatly, I don't know of a term for this kind of speaking, butmaybe someone else out there has heard of one. I have not studied speech,so a few of the above facts may be a little off. If anyone out there has adegree in this sort of thing, I welcome them to correct me. I hope thishas been of interest to someone besides myself and I hope I haven't boredyou all. Just thought you might like to know that the way Edward talks iseven more unique than you thought. You may want to note that this way oftalking is not thought of very highly by Joe Brit, as most of them considerit silly. As a Pink Dot fan I have to admit that this way of speaking (orsinging) used to really annoy me, but with Edward, I don't mind. In fact,with him I really like it. It's when I meet anyone else that talks likethat that it bugs me. Strange.
For a good example of someone without the same regional accent asEdward, but with the same affection, check out Jonathen Ross on BritishTelly. (or as we say "Jonathen Woss") (his show is still on isn't it?)For a good example of someone with Edward's regional accent, but withouthis speech peculiarity, listen to Billy Bragg. Billy is from Barking aswell.
whew, that's over. -Jared Butler
jared@sfsu.edu 12/4/95
― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 02:03 (twenty years ago) link
(RZA??)
― oops (Oops), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 02:04 (twenty years ago) link
― Adam Harrison-Friday, Wednesday, 27 August 2003 02:18 (twenty years ago) link
― reo fordecor, Wednesday, 27 August 2003 02:33 (twenty years ago) link
RZA tends to pronounce his 'r's as 'w's, at least on the Wu-Tang tracks I've heard (same prob as Ed from LPD, apparently). I've heard it called a 'wubbleyou'.
― Jeremy, Wednesday, 27 August 2003 02:35 (twenty years ago) link
― ham on rye (ham on rye), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 02:59 (twenty years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 03:01 (twenty years ago) link
― Andrew Frye (paul cox), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 03:02 (twenty years ago) link
More than a fair share of stutterers, too, but I won't name names (they're not famous anyway). But the stuttering in their speech is lost when singing.
― bflaska, Wednesday, 27 August 2003 03:19 (twenty years ago) link
― Jeremy, Wednesday, 27 August 2003 03:22 (twenty years ago) link
― chaki (chaki), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 03:24 (twenty years ago) link
― chaki (chaki), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 03:25 (twenty years ago) link
― Sean M (Sean M), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 04:20 (twenty years ago) link
― Andrew Frye (paul cox), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 04:26 (twenty years ago) link
― The Man they call Dan (The Man they call Dan), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 04:40 (twenty years ago) link
― JesseFox (JesseFox), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 05:11 (twenty years ago) link
― nathalie (nathalie), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 06:09 (twenty years ago) link
― Joshua Houk (chascarrillo), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 06:26 (twenty years ago) link
Kool G Rap totally has a lisp but it's weird cuz it's the only lisp ever that sounds HAWDKORR.
― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 06:39 (twenty years ago) link
"Itths a mythtery"
― jack battery-pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 07:07 (twenty years ago) link
― dave q, Wednesday, 27 August 2003 08:55 (twenty years ago) link
And speech impediments which don't make it into the songs: Gareth Gates to thread. I may have given this too much thought.
― Alan Connor (Alan Connor), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 10:52 (twenty years ago) link
― duane, Wednesday, 27 August 2003 11:35 (twenty years ago) link
So how come Jonathan Ross's even less talented brother doesn't have the same "affection". Face it, yer man Ka-Spel has a lisp.
― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 11:41 (twenty years ago) link
― BrianB, Wednesday, 27 August 2003 12:50 (twenty years ago) link
― Jez (Jez), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 13:47 (twenty years ago) link
― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 13:47 (twenty years ago) link
― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 13:50 (twenty years ago) link
― Tom Breihan (Tom Breihan), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:13 (twenty years ago) link
― cuspidorian (cuspidorian), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 14:23 (twenty years ago) link
― Ian Johnson, Wednesday, 27 August 2003 22:52 (twenty years ago) link
this is purely affected, in case you were wondering.
― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 22:56 (twenty years ago) link
― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 23:13 (twenty years ago) link
― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Wednesday, 27 August 2003 23:14 (twenty years ago) link
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
― PeterALopez, Thursday, 28 August 2003 16:24 (twenty years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 29 August 2003 00:14 (twenty years ago) link
― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 29 August 2003 00:37 (twenty years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 29 August 2003 01:23 (twenty years ago) link
― Mark C (Mark C), Friday, 29 August 2003 11:45 (twenty years ago) link
― Born on the floor, Friday, 29 August 2003 17:54 (twenty years ago) link
― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 29 August 2003 18:11 (twenty years ago) link
― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 29 August 2003 18:13 (twenty years ago) link
K, bad joke.
― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Friday, 29 August 2003 18:18 (twenty years ago) link
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
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
― Haikunym (Haikunym), Sunday, 31 August 2003 14:04 (twenty years ago) link
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
https://myspace.com/illpunk/music/songs
― Remember! The cormorant is a big brrd. It has got a long neck. (unregistered), Thursday, 8 August 2013 20:10 (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
― 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
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
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
― 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 otherSo check out my message to youAs a matter of fact, don't let nothin' hold you backIf the Scatman can do it, so can you
Everybody's sayin' that the Scatman stuttersBut doesn't ever stutter when he singsBut what you don't know I'm gonna tell you right nowThat 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
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
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