Paul's Americanisms | Page 2 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Funny Paper said

cbatcu said

Now that I think about it, I guess this is why I love “English Tea” and “Penny Lane ” so much …

I do have to admit I like “Mrs. Vanderbilt”. Actually, that is the song that got me so hooked back in May at the concert.

Also “Eleanor Rigby ” and “She’s Leaving Home ” — very British.  Maybe the more apt question is why did John and Paul tend to sound more upper class in their English accents while singing, rather than Liverpuddlian?

While there are raincoats in those songs you mentioned, there is from “Mamunia” —

So lay down your umber-rellas

strip off your plastic macs

you never felt the rain my friend

till you felt it running down your back…

And speaking of “Penny Lane “, don’t forget

And the banker never wears a mac

in the pouring rain…

In “Two Of Us ” at least, there is a definite need for a two-syllable word, and without “raincoat”, you’re stuck either with one syllable (“macs”) or four (“mackintoshes”).

P.S.: Your comment about hearing the wrong word in “That Was Me” reminded me there’s a topic buried somewhere in the archives here all about mis-hearing words in various songs.  I don’t know exactly which section it’s in…

Yes, Penny Lane has many good British references for me to enjoy.

I did think about “meeting a man from the motor trade” from SLH. Would that be a car salesman or a mechanic? or either? or something else?

Isn’t the common word for umbrella used in Britland brollies?

I’ll let you folks on that side of pond hash out the Liverpuddlian v Upper Class accent smackdown.

Funny Paper said

cbatcu said

Funny Paper said

mccartneyalarm said
What about the “loo”? Shouldn’t it have been “She Came in Through the Loo Window?” And in “Walrus”, why was it “pretty little policemen in a row?” Why not “bobbies?” Just wonderin” (giggle)

been “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window ” requires two syllables.  However, it would have been funny if he’d sung:  “She Came in Through the Loo-Loo Window”

Perhaps it could have been “She came in through my loo window” if they really wanted to use loo instead of bathroom?

You still have one syllable missing — but that could be solved by adding one word:

She came in through my back loo window…

I had thought about that missing syllable. I like your fix better than what I thought of. At first, I thought they could just stretch the “my” out for 2 syllables. Your fix is much better. Yikes, I’ve started us rewriting Beatles songs. This might be very dangerous territory.

fabfouremily said
They don’t sound Upper class to my ears at all. Maybe that just depends on you, and how you compare the way you speak/sound to how they did. Don’t most Americans think British people all sound posh or upper-class when talking anyway? I can understand why, it’s because you’re comparing that British person’s accent to your own. Obviously, though, to a native British person, every accent sounds different.

My point is that maybe to someone not from the UK they sound U-C, but to me they don’t.

I think a large majority of my generation in the U.S. learned about British accents from Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins. Bert had a working class accent (though played by an American). The others were upper class and most of them were really British.

You know, now that I reflect on it, I guess I’ve always felt that American accents were 2nd class in comparison to British ones. The Brits sound so proper, and Americans sound kind of backwoods and frontier in comparisoin. I guess you could the British sound “posh”.