Tuesday, January 29, 2008

on a roll

I feel a bit like a news reporter as I write this ...

Today on NPR, Terri Gross interviewed punk legends Mick Jones and Tony James. And while I was less interested in their personal histories, musical lineage, or even their entertaining anecdotes, I was vastly amused by their very thick English accents.

I mean, where the hell is Mick from? He almost sounds like the character 'Bert' from Mary Poppins -- loads of dropped syllables, thickly slurred endings of words, all expressed with an unique cadence. And at some points, it was like I was hearing a foreign language. I could easily imagine meeting him in a not-so-respectable place trying to sell me some not-so-respectable stuff.

Tony, on the other hand, had what I would consider the standard, what-we-Americans-think-is-a-British-accent accent. He enunciated just about every word distinctly, sounded rather "Tut, tut, looks like rain-ish" to me and I sort of image him being a banker or businessman -- never a former punk, glam rock star of the 70's.

What a funny thing -- how you speak -- making such a silly impact on people's perception of you.

I found it very amusing.

2 comments:

Omega Mum said...

Darling, he's from media land - a little known UK province where all our best TV and music stars live and where no aspect of their life bears any resemblance to the rest of this benighted country.

molly gras said...

OM -
That's odd, we here in America have the very same place ... what a strange coincidence.