So, one unforeseen consequence of having my wife in the hospital recovering from her surgery is that I get to drive her car, which didn't get its radio stolen, and thus for the first time in 5 months I'm listening to the Morning Show instead of my Zen iPod clone. They were having a conversation on the topic of why do most British artists not sing with a British accent. Various callers say various non-definitive things, and Greg points out that Rancid & Green Day are from Berkeley, but sometimes they want to sound like the Clash. So I call in to say that I think Greg has the right idea, and that singers make a conscious decision to add or drop their accents. The first British Invasion was all bands that were inspired by American R&B artists, but the 2nd British invasion, all those bands were inspired by the Sex Pistols & The Clash. I also added that when Syd Barrett died there was a quote from Bowie, that he'd been a tremendous influence on Bowie because he was the first guy Bowie had heard singing with a British accent.
So they thanked me for my comments, Dave said, "Yeah that's good", and Renee said "You've got a lot of knowledge". After the next commercial break they played my call back, and then played another, but before they let the guy speak Dave said, "This had better be good, because the last guy was really smart." Needless to say I was laughing out loud.
This was about 7:20, and half an hour later they had Ramblin' Jack Elliott on & he's telling fascinating story after fascinating story, and then Peter Finch asks him what he thinks about the whole accent question. And he proceeds to say just what I said, that all those guys from the British invasion were trying to sound like Ledbelly.
