[Dixielandjazz] when lyrics don't rhymez

[pj.ladd]

 "Stepping out, taking air/ stepping out, on a tear".  The singer pronounces 
"tear" as used in crying, not (as I would assume would be best) as a rip.>>

Hi Epher,
fascinating stuff, but I think you have forgotten yet another meaning for 
`tear`. `Tear` as in `rip` doesn`t make sense to my mind. `Out on a tear` it 
seems to me would be slang for` out on the razz`, or ` out  having a ball`. 
This would fit in with the `stepping out` idea of going `on the town`.

Of course just to complicate things using `rip` in the sense of `having a 
ripping good time` would work. Aint English ,even the American version, 
wonderful?

Just an afterthought. I have just returned from  Lanzarote, part of an 
island group off the coast of Africa. It is mainly a tourist spot where 
youngsters go to have sex, get drunk and sunbathe. Not necessarily in that 
order.  The entertainment provided by the bars, restaurants, timeshare 
complexes etc.,where the older visitors go,  usually consist of a keyboard 
player plus singer, or one person singing to backing tapes. Some of these 
have very good voices and style and singing with great Nelson Riddle 
backings sound quite acceptable..
One guy really surprised me He had done one set of `Rat pack` songs, Dean 
Martin, Sinatra etc and one set of other singers, Bobby Darin and so forth. 
He really sounded good.
When I talked to him during a break I found that his normal speaking voice 
was really what, in class ridden England would be described as very low 
class Cockney. And a vocabulary to match. He was only late teens and \I 
would have expected him to be into all the modern bands and groups.
When I said I was surprised to find such a youngster singing `standards` He 
said " Weyall! All de fackin` rubbish they fackin` wroight these dauys ent 
got no fackin` tune and the wurds is fackin` crap ent they?`.

I sentiment with which I heartily concurred.

Cheers

Pat