List of the Day: 3 of Rock’s Most Frequently Mispronounced Names

Aspiring music nerds: Try using the little-known, correct pronunciations of these rockers. You’ll either sound like the smartest or the dumbest person in the room.

Randy Bachman

…of The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive doesn’t pronounce his name BOCK-min, but BACK-min, using the Canadian rather than the more common German pronunciation of the name.

Thin Lizzy

…is named after a character from a British children’s comic magazine–a robot named Tin Lizzy.

The band changed the spelling to “Thin” to poke fun at the local Dublin accent, in which “thin” would be rendered as “tin”.

So the band’s name is actually, officially, pronounced “Tin Lizzy”.

Ray Davies

…aka the Godfather of Britpop, pronounces his last name DA-viss, rather than DA-veez. Kinky.

Songs You May Have Missed #858

Joshua James: “Queen of the City” (2012)

Indie folk songwriter Joshua James has been writing spooky, spare, introspective songs “since I got the disease”.

He’s the rare folk singer who can land multiple songs on the Sons of Anarchy soundtrack and release an album of Carpenters covers.

His voice, like his songs, comes across with a gritty and arresting honesty–exactly what you’d expect from a guy who raises chickens, goats and honeybees.in Utah.

On a Lighter Note…

Songs You May Have Missed #857

Elliott Smith: “Waltz #2 (XO)” (1998)

On the heels of Elliot Smith’s Academy Award-nominated work (“Miss Misery”) for the Good Will Hunting film soundtrack, he signed with a bigger label and released a bigger sounding album.

Smith was still writing songs of torment, depression and addiction. But adding horns, string arrangements and Chamberlin, Smith at least made the darkness sound more (musically) attractive than ever.

See also: Songs You May Have Missed #210 | Every Moment Has A Song

Did You Ever Realize…

Songs You May Have Missed #856

Peter Wolf: “There’s Still Time” (2010)

Peter Wolf’s “There’s Still Time” is a grown up rock song about reflection and re-centering.

The man who presided over the sweaty house party that was the J. Geils Band sounds like a guy quite a few miles down the road on his 2010 offering, Midnight Souvenirs.

Some rockers don’t know how to settle down or get on with the next phase, and nothing’s sadder than seeing geriatric rockers trying to maintain an image, or songwriting POV, suited to a 25-year-old.

It’s nice to hear one act his age.

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