What is Eric Burdon’s accent? I was listening to an interview with him by “Fresh Air”'s Terry Gross (http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13&prgDate=2-Jul-04). It doesn’t sound like any English accent I’ve heard before, whether London, Northern, West Country, Welsh, etc. Is it an amalgam of some English accent with the accents of the black American blues musicians he spent his life emulating?
Well, Burdon was born in Newcastle, but I think he’s lived in the U.S. since the '60s, hasn’t he?
I think Burdon affected a semi-American accent even before coming here. Listen to his spoken word passages on old Animals albums (not to mention War’s “Spill the Wine”)–he does not sound like a typical Geordie.
I used to be in a rockabilly band and the other guitarist was a Swedish immigrant who sounded just like he came from Oklahoma or a similar area. What’s more, he had the country-rockabilly look down pat, right down to the Wranglers.