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3.01am
1 November 2012
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Sometimes songwriters put the accent on an unnatural or wrong place in a word, to make it fit their melody.
The only Beatles example I can think of right now is “Glass Onion ” — where John repeatedly stresses the “YUN” part (2nd syllable) of “onion” rather than (or along with) the “UN” part (1st syllable).
Any other examples anyone can think of?
Many years ago, I was living with a family that had two little girls, and one day I was sitting on the floor with a pair of headphones listening to the White Album , singing along. In the middle of “Glass Onion ” one of the girls keep poking me in the shoulder, so I took off my headphones and said “What!??” She said: “Why do you keep saying ‘onYUN’…?” 
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3.12am
6 December 2012
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I know there are some… but I just can’t remember them… I know I’ll post this and then remember them.
Also known as Egg-Rock, Egg-Roll, E-George, Eggy, Ravioli, Eggroll Eggrolli...
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3.19am
1 December 2009
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This is one of my pet peeves of pop-song singing – it really irritates me when singers can’t find a better way to phrase those lines to make them sound more natural! It seems to be especially hard to do with words in which the last syllable is stressed.
The one song that always immediately comes to mind when I think of this trend is “Lips To Find You” by Teena Marie. The lyric is “…and forget how we made love in a ’57 Ford”, and she pronounces “forget” like it rhymes with “FOREhead” to force the rhythm to fit. Man, that bugs me! There’s got to be a better way to do that.
GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty.
3.36am
1 November 2012
Offline I actually like it for the most part, though I understand what you’re saying. Ideally, there would be complete compatibility.
Another non-Beatles example: in the Spanish lyrics of Guantanamera:
“…y antes de morirme quiero…”
— where the accent should be:
“…y ANtes de morIRme quiEro…”
— but the song is usually sung with the syllabes of “antes” and “morirme” all equally distributed, with an unnatural pause between the “mor” and the “irme”.
Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...
7.52am
1 November 2012
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Even worse (if one doesn’t like that sort of thing) than Guantamera, is the Mexican pop song Tres Deseos, where like at least half of the words are sung with the accent stressed unnaturally, NOT as they should be spoken.
As sung by Ednita Nazario — and one can hardly accuse her of not knowing Spanish!
Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...
8.22pm
10 August 2011
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How about when a singer suddenly sings very fast because there are too many syllables in the sentence?
Can’t think of an example, but someone here will, I’m sure.
"Into the Sky with Diamonds" (the Beatles and the Race to the Moon – a history)
11.41pm
1 November 2012
Offline Into the Sky with Diamonds said
How about when a singer suddenly sings very fast because there are too many syllables in the sentence?Can’t think of an example, but someone here will, I’m sure.
Here’s the greatest example of that:
Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...
3.40am
10 August 2011
Offline True – but I think it actually works there!
Sometimes it really sounds awkward; I’ll post an example as soon as I think of one.
"Into the Sky with Diamonds" (the Beatles and the Race to the Moon – a history)
7.54pm
10 February 2013
Offline Paul does this a teeny bit with “I’ve Just Seen A Face , I can’t FORE-get the time or place where we just met…”
8.23pm
1 November 2012
Offline Monkey Finger said
Paul does this a teeny bit with “I’ve Just Seen A Face , I can’t FORE-get the time or place where we just met…”
That’s odd, I don’t hear that — I hear Paul stressing the “-GET” part adequately enough. Though he does add a bit of artificial stress to the “FORE-” part as well, he doesn’t go so far as to neglect the “-GET”, and one could argue that the “-GET” gets a bit more weight (as it should).
Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...
8.30pm
10 February 2013
Offline Yes, it’s debatable. That’s why I qualified my post with a “teeny.” 
I suppose it’s more a case of him drawing out the pronunciation than emphasizing the wrong syllable.
4.31pm
6 December 2012
Offline When John sings “I Am The Walrus ,” he doesn’t put the accent on the first syllable of “walrus,” or the second, either. It seems to me that the accent is equally distributed, when in normal speech (at least for me) the accent should be on the first syllable.
Also known as Egg-Rock, Egg-Roll, E-George, Eggy, Ravioli, Eggroll Eggrolli...
~witty quote~
5.23pm
3 May 2012
Offline ^ I hear the accent on the first syllable. Or maybe he just says it a bit louder.
Moving along in our God given ways, safety is sat by the fire/Sanctuary from these feverish smiles, left with a mark on the door.
(Passover - I. Curtis)
9.01pm
1 November 2012
Offline Egroeg Evoli said
When John sings “I Am The Walrus ,” he doesn’t put the accent on the first syllable of “walrus,” or the second, either. It seems to me that the accent is equally distributed, when in normal speech (at least for me) the accent should be on the first syllable.
I think that’s a function of the notes of the syllables. In that song, the two syllables of “wal-rus” are the same note, so it would be next to impossible to sing them as spoken. And if the “-rus” were any note higher, the stress would have to be on it, not the first syllable.
Only with the “-rus” being a note lower can one reproduce the natural spoken accentuation.
That’s my theory, and I’m stickin’ to it.
Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...
12.50am
6 December 2012
Offline This might be another example of what you 
described, but in Happiness Is A Warm Gun , when John sings “donated” (“A soap impression of his wife that he ate and donated to the National Trust”), he sings doNATed, when normally (at least for me) it would be pronounced DOnated. But DOnated doesn’t work with that melody, like you said about I Am The Walrus …
Also known as Egg-Rock, Egg-Roll, E-George, Eggy, Ravioli, Eggroll Eggrolli...
~witty quote~
2.23am
1 December 2009
Offline That’s a strange one, since the word “donation” definitely has the -NA- stressed.
Then there’s the weird case of “permit”, which in its verb usage has the second syllable stressed, and the FIRST syllable if it’s a noun (ie. “gun permit”)
GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty.
2.36am
6 December 2012
Offline Another word like that: I’ve heard “contrast” pronounced conTRAST when it’s a verb (e.g. comparing and contrasting two things) and CONtrast when it’s a noun (the contrast between two things).
Also known as Egg-Rock, Egg-Roll, E-George, Eggy, Ravioli, Eggroll Eggrolli...
~witty quote~
7.11pm
1 November 2012
Offline My memory of “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” is that it’s incredibly chock-full of wordiness, but John always manages to keep the pronunciation natural (with a wee bit of license on the “real fire” part).
Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...
3.16pm
31 March 2008
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Just about. [phonetically] “Pablo Fankiss Fair” should have been pronounced “Pablo Fanks Fair”. The guy’s name was Pablo Fanque – Lennon’s pronunciation always sounds a bit awkward to me.
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5.45pm
14 January 2013
Offline When listening to Happiness Is A Warm Gun , I always have difficult hearing the line “Man in the crowd
With the multicoloured mirrors
On his hobnail boots” because of the way John pronounces hobnail boots. It does not sound like hobnail boots to me. It sounds like he emphasizes the ts at the end of boots.
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