Yesterday (16 Bit, SNES) - The Beatles

ol' macca apparently didn't like the elvis version of yesterday because the version he heard (which was a rehearsal) had elvis singing 'i must have said' instead of 'i said', which i would generally agree is a pretty big blunder and changes/ruins the whole meaning of the song, but in the live version - which this transcription is based on -, elvis does sing the line properly. but y'know, i feel like paul could have given just a little bit more charity to elvis, since the man was one of the few people to cover yesterday who sang the notes of the word 'yesterday' properly at the beginning - most people start a step higher for the 'yes-' and then back to the root for '-terday', which is incorrect if you listen to mccartney's original. he only goes the full step on/after the second repeat. that first 'yes-' is even slightly slightly sharp like how it is in the original. say what you will about elvis as a person but the man had a fantastic ear and a brilliant voice. if you've never heard it, by the way, paul's self-cover of yesterday from send my regards to broad street is great - all of the broad street self-covers are fun, honestly. y'know, one of the only american cartoons i watched as a kid was johnny bravo, because, for some reason, one of the cartoon channels here really liked airing reruns of jb at every hour of the day. johnny bravo was great, man. anyways, i remember first hearing elvis speak when i was a little kid and going 'this guy sounds like johnny bravo but with a deeper voice'. it's a shame that the johnny bravo voice gets conflated with elvis' voice so often, because they are very different despite the clear inspiration. elvis himself had a tendency to push his words together, almost slurring them but still annunciating the first few syllables of a word clearly, whereas jb's voice is very very snappy; every word has a clear punch to it and makes his speech feel erratic yet still comprehensible and thought out, which fits him really well. you could attribute elvis' often-slurred speech patterns to his tendencies to use substances just to keep himself alive basically, but even when he was younger, he kinda talked with the elements that i described. i think people's voices are so interesting, man. my favorite voice in the world is norm macdonald's stage voice. if you don't know who norm macdonald is, i don't care because i'm about to subject you to a common-language description of his speech patterns and how it makes him really funny. norm's whole stage schtick was acting like an old man, and his stage voice reflects that. there's a classical and antiquated cadence he follows when giving a punchline, which in my brain sounds like the refrain in libestraum, where it goes high, down a step, and then low, and up a step, y'know? - it's a voice that has motion. if you listen to norm's real voice, though, he talked like a standard learned man. everyone already knows that he was a literal actual genius, and his real speaking voice reflects that - that's why i'm not talking about it, because it's less intentional and fun to dissect. his stage voice is, by his own admission, inspired by the cadence and diction of the old guys in the middle-of-nowhere canadian town that he grew up in, and it shows in the sort of slack-jawed and wide-mouthed drawings of syllables and vowels especially. gives his cadence an elastic quality, y'know? it's how the long and drawn out jokes don't really feel like they're long and drawn out. i love norm macdonald, he's great. speaking of, i saw that one animation of him talking about sam kinision that was co-produced by the smiling friends guys. i hate smiling friends and think that it is terribly unfunny because i am a neolithic zach dissenter from the time that i was listening to sleepycast back when it was airing in the days when i was a literal child, and all of my criticisms of his humor then carry to now over a decade later; he just ain't that funny most of the time. anyways, the animation of norm talking about kinison (it's just called 'norm' on youtube, defintely worth a watch if you like norm macdonald) is very very well done. well directed, well animated, all that good stuff. in fact, in that original segment, norm talks about kinison's voice, taking us back to the topic of voices. yeah, voices are cool, dude. but since i'm almost out of space: we gotta end it, i guess, lol. i was able to finish this vid fast because it's a simple song even with the more instrumentally-filled-out arrangement they did for elvis, so the next vid will probably be in like a week or so. obviously i'll do more beatles in the very near future but since i've done two beatles covers in a row, i'll probably do a different track next. i'm thinking the new toshi version of ai wo torimodose because i've talked about that at every chance i've gotten recently and i think i just need to do it so you don't have to hear me talk about it anymore. have a wonderful day, gentlemen. god bless and love ya.