Friday Random Ten

Oh. Oh Oh Oh, Oh Oh Edition

1. "Look Inside America," Blur
2. "This Time Darlin,'" Social Distortion
3. "GG Train," Charles Mingus
4. "D'Yer Mak'er," Led Zeppelin
5. "Baby, Take a Piece of My Heart," Kelly Willis
6. "What Went Wrong," The Moldy Peaches
7. "Poor Flying Man," Sleeper
8. "New Feeling," Talking Heads
9. "John James," Toots and the Maytals
10. "Lover, You Should've Come Over," Jeff Buckley

So does everyone know the meaning and pronunciation of "D'Yer Mak'er?"

My first encounter with the song was my friend Sean (who had an older sister) explaining authoritatively that it was pronounced "DI er MAK er." We were maybe twelve.

About ten years ago, in the midst of Tribute Album Mania, Sheryl Crow covered the song. In an interview she said it was pronounced "Djer MAK er." She said it was a crude British guy-ism asking after a friend's amorous success. The equivalent of "did you get any?" from my day, or the current "did you git with that?"

Right pronunciation, wrong etymology.

Some time later I saw an interview with Robert Plant. He says it comes from an old joke based on a blue collar British pronuciation of "Jamaica." As in:

"The wife and I went to the Carribean on holiday"

"Jermaker?"

"No, her idea."

Plant went on, "so since then I get these American kids coming up to me saying "I really like DI er Maker."

Now if only he would tell us what to call that fourth album.