Topic: Lyric Transcriptions

[mr mando]

I think that this thread should be used as a "sticky" on top of the topics in the "Country Blues Lyrics" section.

That said, here's my contribution, which was prompted by Dingwall's comment: "I published some lyrics a few years ago. Guessing (correctly as it turned out) that a good proportion of the customers would not be native English speakers ......"
As some of you probably can guess, I am not a native speaker and consult many of dingwall's publications regularly. They have helped me a lot in understanding and appreciating my prewar blues favorites even more. Rarely, I could not follow a transcription as I thought I clearly heard something different, but most of the times mysteries were unraveled.

However, I found that the "guidelines" used by Dingwall (as stated in his Reply #350 on: Yesterday at 04:28:59 AM) were sometimes a little inconsistent, as sometimes the transcriptions reproduced the sound and sometimes not. As a second language (actually third) English speaker interested in music generally and in prewar blues and jazz especially, it's the SOUND primarily I'm after. I realize it's more work, but I also think it's the forte of a place like this forum that it unites people who are more interested in doing the rough work, i.e. typing in the words they can easily understand with people who like to dig deeper and with people who like to be very precise about small details.

One of the many really interesting things IMHO in prewar blues is the regional differentiation in music but also in pronunciation, which can only be illustrated if you're really transcribing the sound. If words come out garbled, then a note could be added, of course. 

So really I don't think there should be rules for what anybody posts to start a discussion or in search for missing words, but there should be clear and consistent rules for a transcription that shows up on the Weeniepedia lyrics page.

[waxwing]

Hey Mr. M. I stopped by first and moved your other post over here. You can Remove or Modify as you see fit within your posts.

All for now.
John C.

[GhostRider]

Howdy:

Not trying to make this discussion more technical, but I feel the the important point in all lyric transcriptions (sung in English anyway) is to record the phonemes the singer attempted to sing.

What the heck?

So, if a singer sings "growin'", clearly their attempt to pronounce "going", transcribe it "goin' ". The singer attempted all the speech sounds in the word except the final "g". To transcribe it as "going" is literally putting "sounds in their mouth".

Equally incorrect, in my view, is to transcribe it as "growin'". The singer was singing "goin' ", he/she attempted all the phonemes in that part of the word. The outcome was affected by the accent/dialect of the singer.

In summary, when transcribing lyrics, render into standard English spelling, all the parts of the word sung that the singer actually attempted to sing. Use apostrophes to indicate parts of the word that the singer made no attempt to pronounce.

Anyway, that what I think.

Alex

[dj]

So, if a singer sings "growin'", clearly their attempt to pronounce "going", transcribe it "goin' ".

I'm very much in agreement with this.  But if the singer sings "growin'" where "goin'" is meant, or "Norah" for Noah", I think a note is needed to point out what the singer is really singing.

[Rivers]

The issue only arises where it's borderline, could be one or the other. If we all hear a shortened-up end of the word no problem, it never gets discussed.

On the other hand where it's borderline I propose we take the 'Occam's Razor' approach. This means we would put the full spellin', and that would be 'spelling' 

Are we all agreed?