Rick Savage: Dialect Traitor

Because I’m a serial obsessionist, my obsessions occasionally overlap. I was always interested in linguistics, but 2 classes on the subject over the last year and I am now ruined. I get distracted in conversation looking for possessification and wondering why a person unvoiced or voiced a particular phoneme (and don’t let me get off on Gender Linguistic Pattern because I may never come back.) It’s sad really. Another of obsessions is Def Leppard which dovetails nicely because the band is originally from Sheffield, England. (Bear with me, I am going somewhere with this.) The Sheffield dialect is missing a phoneme and it happens to be a significant one that non-native speakers struggle with. This means I will listen to interview twice (or more) because the first time I got sidetracked on how something was being said and have to go back to listen to what was said. I said it was sad.

Let me explain the phoneme. This will require talking to yourself, but it’s all in the name of education. Focusing on the position of your tongue when you say the words ‘thin’ and ‘think’. For ‘thin’ your tongue starts between your teeth, flattens out so that the ‘i’ can rise up in the dome of your mouth and finishes with the tip of your tongue right behind your teeth. For ‘think’ (unless you are from Sheffield or are a non-native speaker of English) your tongue starts between your teeth, flattens out so that the ‘i’ can rise up in the dome of your mouth, and arches at the back of your mouth. The phoneme actually looked like this: ŋ. Now, non-native speakers struggle with this. They will start with their tongues between their teeth, flatten out for the ‘i,’ touch their tongues right behind their teeth (for the /n/) and then arch the back of the tongue for the /k/. You can try it if you want, but I’m always afraid I’m going to sprain my tongue. Yes, this means I’ve spent a significant amount of time thinking about the position of Rick Savage’s tongue. It’s a lot less dirty than it sounds.

Sometime in the late 80s or early 90s Savage made a comment that he’d lost his accent. I was in the middle of collecting dialect data for a class project when I came across that tidbit so I was painfully aware of how far wrong that statement was. (For one, you can’t lose an accent, you can only exchange it for a different one. For another, his language was still ringing with the Sheffield dialect.)

Then at the end of April I stumbled upon a recent interview and he was trying to use the ŋ! Dialect traitor! I have no idea what the interview was about (because I was too stunned by the appearance of that phoneme) but it was him and Joe Elliott (who stayed true to his Sheffield accent, /nk/, intrusive ‘r,’ and Gender Linguistic Pattern et al) so I had a perfect control to study from. He wasn’t using it perfectly and was ending up with something more like /thinŋk/ but he was trying. I’m figuring this is coming from his wife. From what I’ve read, she was raised in London and lived for a time in Dublin so she’d have the phoneme and while I haven’t tracked where the change really started to take place (yet) I’m pretty sure it was after he met her. That means, so you’ll have the terminology, he’s applying covert prestige to her accent – which he had never bothered to do before despite the fact that every native English speaker uses /ŋ/. It makes me wonder what his sons sound like as they have lived most (if not all) of their lives in Sheffield.

I know. I need to get out more.

Vivian Campbell. I could watch him paint a bathroom.

There’s something wrong with my fascination with Vivian Campbell. It is entirely possible that he once saved my life (that’s a another post.) But the accent also leaves me agog. I’ve had way more contact with the Dublin Irish accent than any normal American should have so the Belfast accent fascinates me. Even more disturbing, my linguistics professor has the same accent. Makes it very hard to pay attention to

what

is being said in class because I’m so busy listening to

how

it’s being said.

Rick Savage. I could watch him paint a bathroom.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve been staring at Rick Savage for over 25 years. And according to the internet stalking I’ve done, he likes to do over houses. Watch him paint a bathroom? Absolutely. (‘Specially if he was chatty cause I love that accent.)

BTW, this is a recent pic. Looking that good at 48? (He just turned 49 this past week.) I foresee many more years watching him do whatever I can find. Including paint a bathroom.

Dedications

Not dedication. I’ve got that too. But for the moment I’m thinking about dedications, the things you put inside the cover of a book. I’m a big dedications junkie. I love them whether they’re in a book, an album or a movie, I’m looking for the dedications. They give me a better sense of who the creator(s) is/are than all the interviews, blogs and about pages out together. So naturally when it comes time to dedicate my own books, there’s a certain amount of pressure. Fortunately, for The Rock Star’s Respite, it was a no brainer in three parts.

To my husband. The story is set in West Virginia, a place I would have known little or nothing about except that it’s between me and Disney World if not for my husband. My husband is into hillbilly music and a lot of that wound up in Rock Star right up to the name of Cass’ campground, In The Pines.

To my brother. My big brother started quizzing me on music when I was 6. I was the only kid in first grade who knew about Blue Oyster Cult. For my seventh birthday he bought me my very first record, Hotel California by the Eagles. He encouraged my interest in music so much that when other girls were going gaga over actors, I could pick out a bass player from twenty feet.

To Def Leppard for the Slang album. I love Slang. It may be Def Leppard’s least popular release, but it’s been my favorite since the moment I heard it. While I was writing Rock Star, I played it over and over again. Something about the tonal quality really lent itself to letting me work on that book. I would put it on repeat and let it go for hours. I also played it when I edited the book. Then I started playing it when I worked on the next book in that series. I’d gotten to the point where I could sing along and compose sentences in my head.

That’s when things got really weird. I started hallucinating the music. One day I searched my house trying to find the source of the music I could hear until I realized I was hearing the intro to “Truth?” Like Pavlov’s dog, now when I hear any of those songs I feel like I should be writing.

So if you want an authentic experience with The Rock Star’s Retreat, pop in Def Leppard’s Slang album and put it on repeat.

And then you will know what a lot more about me.

Anvil: The Story of Anvil

I have been waiting with bated breath to see Anvil: the Story of Anvil - it’s research, I swear – and I finally got to see it. This movie is so much more than a documentary about an almost ran.

Anvil is a band that started to get big in the early 80′s with bands like Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and Metallica and just fizzled. Then they vanished.

Except they didn’t. The 2 main guys have been at it continuously since then. The singer works for a children’s catering company (looks like he delivered school lunches or something), either nothing was said about what the other guy did or I missed it, and they kept the band going. Seriously, 25 years later when it should have been totally obvious that they were never going to be rock stars, they were still trying.

Spoiler

When the documentary starts they’ve just been contacted about a European tour. They’re excited, but it’s a disaster. Then they decide to record another album with their old producer. They have no money. The singer’s sister comes through with money and they record. Then no label will pick it up so they press it themselves and they’re selling it out of the trunks of their cars. Things actually do pick up by the end of the movie and after the movie things got much better. Anvil played the Download festival and they are doing a couple shows opening for AC/DC. But that’s not the good part.

End Spoiler

The lead singer is sort of the main “character” throughout and he has this incredible attitude. He has such utter faith he’s going to make it that you can’t help but root for him. He’s 50 frickin’ years old and he still thinks he’s going to be a rock star. There’s a clip in the trailer where he says, “well the good thing is, we found these sleeping bags.” That comes from the middle of the disastrous tour and he is not being sarcastic. He really does mean the sleeping bags were good. He is like this all the way through the movie.

I walked into this documentary thinking I was going to get some good background info and walked out of it inspired. If you ever feel like you’re never going to get anywhere, you need to watch this movie.

In fact, you just gotta watch this documentary. Look for it in a theater near you.