When I was 14, I spent a summer at an international summer school program in Scotland. It was a formative summer in many ways- first cigarettes, first drinking, first encounter-of-a particular-type with a boy, etc, etc. (Not THAT type of encounter. 14! Only 14! Minds out of gutter!)
(An aside: I HIGHLY recommend getting these awkward and potentially very embarrassing formative experiences out of the way when one is far away amongst people one will never see again. Just in case any of you parents out there are on the fence about sending your children to camp? DO IT. They will be doing this experimenting either way, and your exposure to the drama will be dramatically decreased if it all happens at camp.)
Anyhoo, spending a summer in Scotland with a bunch of Scottish folks led to a predictable but entirely sincere affection for Scottish accents, which persists to this day. Some of my favorite actors are ones with charming Scottish lilts. (See McAvoy, James.)
You know one thing that makes me kind of sad? There are many many singers and musicians who have lovely English/Irish/Scottish accents, but those accents entirely disappear when they are singing. Think about Eric Clapton- do you hear an accent when he sings? No. U2? Not really. A lot of music, it seems, is sung accent-free.
So I get a particular measure of enjoyment when you can hear the accent of a band coming through in its songs. Recently, I’ve been listening to this great band called Frightened Rabbit, and there’s a moment towards the end of the song “Modern Leper”- the lyrics are “I am ill, but I’m not dead- and I don’t know which of these I prefer” – when the band’s Scottish accent is clearly, wonderfully apparent, and every time I hear that little snippet, it makes me smile. (Pensive, gloomy lyric notwithstanding).
Anyway, it’s a great song, and a great band, and when I heard it on the train this morning after a very unpleasant start to my day, that little bit of Scottish gave me a much-appreciated smile. So I figured I’d post it here for you to check out. Maybe you’ll like it, too.
I NEVER hear accents in songs. That’s why I’m often stunned to find out where singers are from.
oh! i know! i always think the same thing – dude, we LOVE YOUR ACCENTS SO MUCH, why do you hide them when you sing?? or is it just natural, everyone sounds oddly american when they’re singing? that doesn’t seem rational.
I LOVE Scotland, seriously what a gem in this world of ours. I would go back in a heartbeat.
There is a scottish mix album called “Folk in Hell” and it is a mixture of tradional scottish music with modern edgy music. Very interesting.
I am going to check out this band now.
When I was a little girl I read a newspaper article about Phil Collins, about how he’s just a regular guy in England, and once when he was mowing his lawn his next door neighbor asked what he did for a living and upon hearing he’s this totally famous singer over in the US, dude didn’t believe it.
Upon reading this, I asked my dad why he didn’t have an accent when he sings. My father had no answer. My point to this whole lame story is that I’ve noticed it too.