Lyrics Watch: "Proud Mary"

Breaking news! (Breaking news that's more than 40 years old.) Tina Turner doesn't understand her own signature song!

I'm talking about "Proud Mary," of course, written by John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival and released in late 1968 or early '69.

Ike & Tina Turner first started performing the song in 1970, and their "nice and rough" version eventually came to define Tina Turner.

You know how it goes:

Left a good job in the city,
Workin' for the man every night and day.
But I never lost one minute of sleeping'
Worryin' 'bout the way things might have been.

Only, that's not how Tina Turner usually sings it. She usually says something like, "But I never lost one minute of sleeping—I was worrying about the way things might have been." Which is not only the opposite of the intended meaning; it's also kind of meaningless. (If you don't lose any sleep, it means you're not troubled. You're not worrying. "I never lost sleep; I was worrying about something" is a contradiction.)

I've been thinking about this for a long, long time. How can she have sung this song so many times without singing it the right way? Is that the answer—that she has sung it so many times she's stopped paying attention? She can certainly be forgiven for adopting a less-than-fresh attitude to the number she must have performed a thousand times. (And we all know what she means. We don't really listen too closely, either.) But! Her strange wording goes back to the 70s. She's been singing the song like this from the beginning! (See 1:30.)

But then in this 1982 performance she does it right! (See 3:05.)

Beyoncé got it wrong in her rendition at the Kennedy Center Honors tribute to Tina Turner in 2005. Which I guess isn't surprising; she was emulating Tina Turner, after all. (See 1:25.)

Am I missing something? Does it actually make sense the way she (usually) sings it, and I just can't see it?

Flap Songs 2: Getting Better at Flapping

It's the third flap-related post in a row, and this is the timeliest one yet, involving, as it does, a snappy little number from 1967.



So here are the lyrics to "Getting Better," from the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP, presented in my usual format (where D represents a flap and T represents an aspirated t):

It's geTing beTer all the time 

I used to get maD at my school 

(No I can't complain)

The teachers that taught me weren't cool

(No I can't complain)

You're holding me down

(Ah-ahh)

Turning me round

(Ohh)

Filling me up with your rules

(Ooo)

I've got to admit it's geDing beTer

(BeTer)

A liDle beTer all the time

(It couldn't get no worse)

I have to admit it's geDing beTer

(BeTer)

It's geTing beTer since you've been mine

Me used to be angry young man

Me hiDing me heaD in the sand

You gave me the word

I finally heard

I'm doing the best thaD I can

I've got to admit it's geDing beTer

(BeTer)

A liDle beTer all the time

(It couldn't get no worse)

I have to admit it's geDing beTer

(BeTer)

It's geTing beTer since you've been mine

GeTing so much beTer all the time

It's geTing beTer all the time

(BeTer, beTer, beTer)

It's geTing beTer all the time

(BeTer, beTer, beTer)

I used to be cruel to my woman, I beaT her

And kept her apart from the things that she loved

Man, I was mean, buD I'm changing my scene

And I'm doing the best thaD I can

(Ooo)

I admit it's geDing beTer

(BeTer)

A liTle beTer all the time

(It couldn't get no worse)

Yes, I admit it's geDing beTer

(BeTer)

It's geDing beTer since you've been mine

GeTing so much beTer all the time

It's geTing beTer all the time

(BeTer, beTer, beTer)

It's geTing beTer all the time

(BeTer, beTer, beTer)

GeTing so much beTer all the time

I’m only an amateur flap detective, so there might be a lot more to this business than I’ve been assuming. But considering the post-lexical nature of flapping—the rule’s exceptionlessness—I don’t know what to make of all those places where Paul or whoever is flapping. I would have expected to see “geTing beTer” (each word with an aspirated t) or “geDing beDer” (each word with a flap), and not this hybrid “geDing beTer” flapping. Does it reflect the underlying tensions and cultural upheaval of the turbulent ’60s? The pull between established norms and exciting new possibilities of expression? No, I don't think that's it. But what, then? I know that in my speech, my flapping isn't inconsistent like this is. This is all over the place, a freewheeling ecstasy of unpredictable flapping!

Flap Songs

I never realized how interested in flaps and flapping I am. I've been collecting things like this for a while, it turns out. Everyone needs a hobby, I guess. There's just something about this one little speech sound that seems to open a window into what we're doing when we talk. Or in this case, when we sing. Right now I want to talk about songs with inconsistent flapping. (You all know what I'm talking about by now, don't you? See this post about Flaps and NPR for some background.)

On the Rolling Stones 1978 single "Shattered" we get a whole lecture on the sociological essence of flapping. Or... something. Throughout the song, Mick flaps his t's. Shattered, tattered, battered, chitter chatter, party, dirty, I can't give it away, what a mess, does it matter?: he flaps in all of these, like the New Yorker he's personifying. (In the whole piece, I counted one place where Mick doesn't flap: listen at :58 and you'll hear the repeated Yiddish shmatte shmatte shmatte! with aspirated t's.) But the backing vocals (by Ronnie Wood and... whoever?) are a different story. These guys stubbornly refuse to flap. It can first be heard clearly around :22 and really stands out around 2:40. It's as though they're holding on to their Englishness, aspirating t's all over the place, while Mick goes native, belting out his ambivalent ode to the Big Apple right over them. The result is so discordant, almost like they're singing two different songs at once.

Everything is ordinary, flap-wise, in Heart's blistering 1977 classic rock standard, "Barracuda." Until the 1:30 mark, that is, when Ann Wilson doesn't flap the d in barracuda! That is a full-on d! (Compare this with the flapped barracudas at :40 and 2:48.) I know! That d always strikes me as a jolt of childlike innocence in the center of a scathing takedown. It's... Well, it's pretty remarkable.

















Now, I don't know what to say about "The Authority Song," John C. Mellencamp's 1983 anthem to underdogism. In the chorus Mellencamp tells us, "I fight authority; authority always wins" 13 times. And, strangely, in seven of those instances, he aspirates the t in the first authority, but flaps the t as expected in the second. (In other words, using the same simplified transcription I used in the NPR post linked to above, a little more than half the time, he says, "I fight authoriTy; authoriDy always wins.") It's like he's fighting himself. Fascinating. Listen to all the pairs and see for yourself. :42 (one aspirated t, one flap), :48 (again, one of each), 1:00 (both authorities are flapped), 1:37 (one of each), 1:43 (one of each), 1:56 (both flapped), 2:35 (one of each), 2:42 (both flapped), 2:54 (both flapped), 3:00 (one of each), 3:06 (both flapped), 3:18 (both flapped), and 3:25 (one of each).

I don't know how everyone doesn't hear this stuff. I can't not hear it. It jumps out at me and says, "Listen up!"

Addendum: Here's a fun article about analyzing the Southern Californian "punk rock" accent. Tip of the tongue to Torque for the link.