DrownDING in a sea of love???
 

:distress:

I must say I have always HATED when Stevie pronounces drowning- drownding- in old "Sara' performances. She sounds so ignorant. As this ever bothered anyone? Or do you find it cute???

Nah, it does not bother me. I chalk it up to one of her "Stevie" moments...sort of like how she always says the word only.. "on..a....lee".

I've said it before and people nearly fainted (not really) but, i'm going to say it again-- I think Stevie has a minor speech problem that dates back to childhood that was never worked on. Her pronounciation of many words on songs is slightly off but it's another thing that makes Stevie....Stevie. Through the years it's certainly grown on me and I don't really notice it much anymore--i'm too busy decrypting lyrics--crazy shipper that I am, etc.

cocaine
 

I think cocaine had a lot to do with it. Try stuffing both nostrils with blow and say drowning.....

It's "drowned in," okay? "Drowned in." ;)

She does it in The Nightmare as well...in fact I think it is more noticable on The Nightmare.

That's right. I was going to add that. So clearly, she believes it is pronounced "drownding." I've said it before, I'm not sure why someone didn't pull her aside at one point during the Tusk sessions and say, "Stevie, hon. It's drowNing, not drownDing. No "D", hon." I don't disbelieve the possibility of a speech impediment of some kind. She does say other words slightly differently. Nothing really bizarre, and I can't think of any at the moment, but there are more than just drownding.

I at one point also thought maybe she was saying "Drowned in... in the sea of love..." but when I heard her say it in The Nightmare, I just shook my head and smiled. :)

Nah, I think it's cute.

That's just Stevie...you could spend hours going over her mis-pronunciation and poor grammar in her songs...

"Well would you stay if she promised to you heaven, would you even try? Would you even try? Well, I don't think you do!"

I don't think you do what? But it sounds good, so who cares?

I think it actually bothers me more, that this bothers people so much. ;) I never even really noticed it until I started reading about it on these boards. If anything, it makes her that much more unique. IMO, when you're the Queen of Rock, who really gives a ****. :D :wavey:

IT'S THE POET THAT SHE IS !

:lol:

Of course I find it annoying, but not too much. Or maybe I am in a forgiving mood today. Stevie is a silly person on some levels. Kind of dorky. It's endearing in a way. But it certainly won't help you convince someone she is a literate, disciplined artist. :laugh:

Actually, to this day she'll still say "drownding." Atleast, on the SYW tour she did. It doesn't bother me. It's something I've become used to...sad thing is though, she's got me singing it that way too. lol.

YOU WOULDN'T SAY THAT TO BOB DYLAN! :laugh:

Actually have you not ever notice how many a great writer bends and molds the English language to suit their will, often straying beyond the realm of technical correctness? I think there's a huge difference between ignorance, sloppiness and conscientious contrariness. That being said, I can't imagine what statement she might be trying to make here. I chalk it up to a personal idiosyncrasy, but hey I'm southern we butcher the English language daily. Unless of you're familiar with Middle English and then of course you can see the correlation. :)

Cute! :blob2:

Gee, I thought I was the only one who figured this out!

Nice try- She says "Drowndin IN a see of love"

Not Drowned in, there is definitely a separate IN.

I even have a Wild Heart bottleg in which after she says DROWNDED, she says "SEE, I SAID IT!"

Really? That's awesome! Is there anywhere I could DL this? :thumbsup:

Personally, I've always found the "drowndin" cute, and I do agree that she has a minor speech impediment that was never corrected. I'm almost glad it wasn't though, because it adds to her charms!

~Marissa~

I forgot about that! lol. I have that bootleg around here somewhere...

That's fine if that's what you hear. I'll interpret it my own way. :nod:

Actually...I've heard this comment for years now from quite a few people...and I have to say that I still honestly don't know what you guys are hearing...I totally hear drowNing...all I can see is that the echoey tone (don't know how else to describe it) that was added to the beginning makes some people here it with the "D"....but I honestly think she's saying it the right way. Just my humble opinion.

See. Some people get it and some people don't. That's what separates the chiffonheads from the merely casual Stevie fan. :)

:xoxo: :xoxo:
Indeed. What's a little syntax/grammar problem among genius???? ;)

LOL...well then I must be a card-carrying chiffonhead b/c I don't even hear the "D".

There you go. :lol:

As long as were on the subject, I've always had a nice snicker over the line in No Spoken Word:

"What was it she wanted? They say she had-ed everything..."

Or is it:

"They say she had it. Everything..."

There are times when doing this song live that she sang "They say she had it." and she leaves it at that, but.... This is something I've always wondered about.

Didn't Stevie say that Robin was working as her speech therapist when she was on the road with her?

In interviews, I've noticed her speech style is a bit choppy, but I love it. She does pronounce certain words more correctly than what I usually hear (like to-morrow instead of tah-morrow and I've noticed she doesn't use a lot of contractions). It's almost like maybe she's consciously trying to use correct English when she's speaking. Just my thoughts...I'm still a relative newbie fan of Stevie's.

What I can't stand is when Sheryl Crow was giving Stevie the Blockbuster Award (I think?) and Sheryl kept pronouncing "hero" as "hee-row." Maybe that's the right way to say it, but it drove me nuts!!

This is funny because when I sing along to her in the car, sometimes I sing that line, "Well, I don't think you would!" :laugh:

I don't think you do.
 

That drives me crazy. It doesn't make sense. LOL. And I wish she'd stop saying "Mick says Stevie, it's just one more link in the chain....." It's old. But most of the time I love how she speaks. I always have to laugh at the 70's lingo she still uses. She's just so freakin' cute.

Robin. Speech Therapy
 

If I'm not mistaken, I think Robin was helping Stevie with her throat problems because Stevie had trouble with her lymph nodes during the Tusk Tour and Robin was working with her to speak in a different register or whatever. I remember seeing a behind the scenes video where Stevie was using a machine with steam coming out and she was breathing it in before a show. Robin was with her. I don't think Stevie has a speech impediment. Her weird syntax and accent if you want to call it that might be a result of moving around alot to different areas as a kid.

I LOVE that. It's so heavy. :o

Yeah, her grammar's not always spot on, and for some people it IS like fingernails on a chalkboard. The "I don't think you do" I can't even sing when I'm singing along. It's like my brain won't let my mouth form the words. Drownding I've come to accept. It's sort of a little Stevieism. The "She said she had-ed or had it everthing.." I've tried to convince myself is "she said she haa-ad everything." :)

Ok girlfriend does NOT have a minor speech impediment. She just has a lot of different little sayings and pronounces things slightly different than we are used to hearing them but that does not mean she has a physical problem. I sing "drownded" along with her and never noticed it till now lol! None of this bothers me at all, it's just one more thing I adore about her and what makes her so unique. There are times when I've heard her pronounce things in interviews and thought it was a bit odd but so what.

And it's not like she's developed a fake accent like a certain celeb who shall remain namelesss MADONNA.

:xoxo: :thumbsup:

Where can i find that WH bootleg?

And in Smile At You when she says, "I should have turned away and ran..." it always makes me think, "It's supposed to be run!" The "have" goes with both verbs. As a graduate english student currently taking a grammar/linguistics course, I can't help but notice these things! It's a curse, I tell you... a CURSE! :laugh:

~Kat

I never thought she was saying anything else. :shrug:

response
 

ABsolutely. :)

Thanks for pointing out Robin's role as "speech therapist" for Stevie. I had a lisp when I was young and went to a speech therapist for it, so I associate that term with speech/pronunciation problems.

Even though she says drownding and drownded, I really think she'd know
had-ed was wrong. :) The whole drownding thing... I can see doing it live and slipping up, but it would bug the heck out of me if I were in the band and that was sung in the album version of the song.

You're right about "run" there -- Stevie needs the past participle there, not the simple past.

But look up the expression "I can't help but notice ..." The correct forms are:

"I can't help noticing ..."

"I can't but notice ..."

Surprise your colleagues & grad seminar professors with that one!