The Smiley Smile Message Board

1) To my ears, in the mono mix of Cabinessence on the 2011 TSS, "iron" seems to be pronounced with a hard "r" as in "irony".  

2) One reason to dislike Barbara Ann: pronouncing the name Barbaran.

I have a cousin named Deirdre. It's pronounced "Dee-dra". I don't know any other Deirdres and perhaps it's my own family pronouncing it wrong, but the first time I heard "Deer-dree" I was like WTF?  :lol

"Deer-dree" is how we pronounce it in the UK, but it seems an odd name to use in a song, unless she was another masseuse like Marcella.

Fair enough. It just sounded strange to my ears. But I'm used to it now :)

How about Brian's French in "At My Window?"

And of course there's Al's comedy voice on "Take Good Care of Your Feet"...

I've always pronounced it, and heard it pronounced, as Dee-ah-dree.

"Soulful Old Man Shunshine" - Carl Wilson  ;D

Thank you for this topic, it's been on my mind. I think I have heard Al pronounce away as "ay-way" on a couple of songs, and it irritates the heck out of me. Then again, I've heard that pronunciation in non-BB songs as well, so maybe there's something especially musical about it.

Names are sketchy, because people often just make up their own spellings and/or pronunciations.
 
I always assumed it was pronounced "Dee-dra" if it was spelled "Deidre", and then "Deer-dree" sounded not totally off for the "Deirdre" spelling. But maybe it's half wrong and it's supposed to be "Deer-dra." When there an "R" in the first syllable though, "Dee-dra" doesn't sound right.

Less a pronunciation and more a stylized choice, the "Califor-nye-a" thing is something that I never paid a great deal of attention to, but in recent years I had someone who obviously had less exposure to BB classics who was all "Wtf?" when they heard them sing "Calior-nye-a" in a recording.

For native Japanese or French speakers: how accurate is Mike's accent in Sumahama and Bells of Paris?

I'm assuming that he sung the lyrics phonetically.

In reference to the "miss my pad" vs. "miss my pet" debate on "That's Not Me", if he *is* meaning to sing "pet", then it's a relatively bizarre pronunciation of "pet."

I've heard people who have claimed to ask Mike himself and Mike has said it's "pet", but I still hear "pad."

In Desert Drive, Foskett sings "coyote" as "Kie - Oat" rather than "Kie - Oat - E".

It annoys the poop out of me.

Probably because singing it with three syllables sounds even clunkier  ;D But yeah, it's a bit of a funny pronunciation, I'm guessing a regional reference of some sort.

I've heard it pronounced "kie-oats" many times by different people.

I've always heard it as "Californ-i-a" (or "Californ-eye-aye"), and I always thought of it as a nick-name for the state more than a pronunciation choice.   Similar to how "Californy" is used in the Beverly Hillbillies Theme.

"Californy-ah" is pronounced that way in "Cal Saga" so that it will rhyme with "sunny day."

Yes, I agree. Like I said, I don't think it's a mispronunciation, but rather a stylization for effect, more to shoehorn a rhyme in than anything else. I just thought it was an interesting perspective from a non-fan that it was arguably kind of lazy and silly to rhyme "USA" with "California" by stylizing it as "Califor-nye-a" (regardless of whether the second syllable ends with the "n"; it's stretched out the same way).

Imagine how odd it would have been if, instead of changing the pronunciation of "California" to shoehorn the rhyme in, they changed the pronunciation of "day" to rhyme with "California"?

"On my way to sunny California… On my way to spend another sunny duh"

Not quite the same ring :)  There is definitely an art to the shoehorn.

Brian sings "I miss my house" on this tour.

In "Livin' with a heartache" Carl sings the word "miss" as "mish". Rmbr the now dead Shut Down board? There was thread where smb. said that Carl had unusual accent from any of the BBs, then the other poster replied that it's Californian accent to which smb. else replied that there isn't such thing as "Californian" accent & further debates. I don't think they got to the bottom. Would like to know, maybe it [the accent] has diff. name?

Alcohol? He sounds drunk on that song.

That's because he was. It's in the liner notes for the KTSA/TBB twofer.

2Rick5150: I didn't mean specifically that song. As I said, smb. in Shut Down board years ago mentioned Carl's weird wording of words & then smb. else said it's (typical) "Californian" accent. Then turned out it isn't & I'm not sure what the bottom line is. That is the question to those who know/live in CA - does Carl indeed speak as typical Californian & whether it's called differently if people in that area *do* have their own distinct accent. Or the way Californians speak belongs to the group of states that speak that way?

This Happens also in can´t way too long

All the BBs do have a California accent, and I suspect that accent is changing with the generations (like the old Noo-Yawk accent is disappearing). I'm from the eastern US, so I can definitely hear a California accent with the BBs (or maybe it's just a western accent). Some examples:

"I miss my pay-ad and the places I've known..." "Caehlifornia..." (Something about the vowel sounds. Being from the east, I'd say pad and California with a flat A.)
"I wish they all could be California grrrrrrrls..." "Surrrrfin'" (over-exaggerated R)
There's also something they do (and Carl does in particular) with Ls. Very...distinctively pronounced?

Clearly I'm not a linguist. I can't quite explain what I'm talking about. But as an American, you listen to them and you know they're from west of the Rockies.  I think their pronunciations really added to their appeal as makers of the "California sound."

I'm reminded of something runnersdialzero had as his signature at one time. Regrettably I can't locate it right now. Something about Alan's pronunciation of a word. ("Sometimes I'm up all night thinking about this.")    

Got it. It was in Ovi's signature:

Quote from: runnersdialzero on April 06, 2014, 07:41:45 AM
Right, I don't like how Al says "vheyjtibles". Is that a Californian thing? Sometimes I'm up all night thinking about this.

Al was born in Ohio and grew up there and in upstate New York before moving to California when he was about 10 years old.

Thank you, Amy. This'll do.

Didn't know he lived in New York b4 going to Cali. Where did you read it?

The thing with a "California Accent" is that a lot of people from California don't think they have one. I'm sure there's something experts in those fields could point to as to why people in CA think they don't have an accent. There are probably some rather flattened, non-accented things going on.

But, as someone who has lived in California my entire life and who for a time had a job that required talking to people all over the country and all over the world on the phone, people in California can and do have a "California accent." Though it's not always an accent and is sometimes word usage or vocabulary (referring to an organization or group of people as "you guys" is apparently one "California" example), people from other regions can hear it. Now, to be fair, I've talked to people from the Midwest who think I have a "California" accent who think they *don't* have any accent, even when they have a prominent Wisconsin-ish sort of accent, that "sort of Canadian" but mixed with Midwest sort of accent.

I do think the BBs occasionally used some slightly odd accents that weren't *always* down to just being Californian. I think in some cases their own accent was clashing with how they learned to sing from listening to records of other singers with different accents.

Thanks, this adds to Amy's post to get bigger picture. I read in some thread posters compared David's speech to the rest of BBs; smb. said his accent differs & added that it's funny as they were neighbors living across the street.

One thing I always notice his how Dennis, Carl, and Dave all say the word "you" as "yoo" (rhymes with boo) instead of "yu"/"yew" (rhymes with ewe), and I've never noticed it in Brian, Mike, or Al.

The extended r's must be a California thing, as Tom Delonge of Blink 182 (from San Diego) is notorious for it. First line of their song "Down": The drops of rain they fall all overrrrrrrr. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrTZT49u0kM  It's just the opposite of the Boston accent.

His pronounciation of the French words in Belles of Paris is actually pretty good. Brian doesn't do as good a job in At My Window.

OK, 1st I was thinking, "What's the difference between "yoo" & "yew"?", then I got it, got thru the BBs & solo catalog to hear what you say (it was quite difficult). Agreed re: David & Dennis, with Dennis sometimes shifting. But Carl definitely says "yew" like Brian, Mike & Al. But it's interesting observation you brought. Thanks.

I knew Al was born in Lima, Ohio, but I didn't know until I read James B. Murphy's book, Becoming the Beach Boys, 1961-1963, that he'd lived in New York State.  He went from part of first grade through part of third grade in Rochester, then completed third and fourth grades in the West Irondequoit School District near Lake Ontario, not far from Rochester.  The Jardines moved from New York to San Francisco in 1952 and then to Hawthorne in 1955.

As for their "California accents," this Wikipedia article, "North American English regional phonology," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_English_regional_phonology (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_English_regional_phonology), may be helpful.  It's rather long, I admit.

Thanks for the answers! Al should sing about New York after SC/BH (Ohio) & California Saga. Shall check the wiki page.

Didn't Al sing the demos for Back Home (1970)? If so, he shouldve sang lead on it for 15 Big Ones! "I'm goin' back this summer to Ohio..."

Yes, I listed Back Home as BH. You're right, Al is best choice to sing it. Brian's vocal is among his worst.

Is "I feel so break up" a part of the California accent too?  :)