D'yer Mak'er
Sun, September 19, 2021 Growing up in England in the 1940s and 1950s, we listened to the radio for entertainment, as did most working-class families. We did not have a television in the home until the mid-1960s. Much of the entertainment consisted of variety shows, with a mixture of music and comedy.
Comedians would often work in pairs with a straight man, and a funny man. The straight man made the setup for the joke, and the funny man delivered the punch line. Many of these jokes were repeated so many times over the years, they became engrained in one’s memory. (They did in mine anyway.)
In one such joke the Funny man says, “I took my wife to the West Indies.” The straight man asks, “Jamaica?” to which the Funny man replies, “No, she went of her own accord.” The humor will be completely missed in America, because it relies on the miss interpretation of the word “Jamaica.”
To a Brit, “Did you make her?” If you say it fast in a working-class accent. It sounds like “Ja’ make ‘er.” Hence the reply, “No, she went of her own accord.” I am fully aware the jokes are never funny if you have to explain them, but I do so for a reason.
Just this week I read an article in “Far Out Magazine.” It outlined a song written by “Led Zeppelin” called “D’yer Mak’er.” (Sound familiar.) The author told of how Led Zep had written the song as a terrible joke and all the band members hated the song so much, they would not play it live.
If Led Zep wrote a bad song as a joke, why would they go to the trouble and expense of recording it to their usual impeccable high standard, and then put it on the album?
No, more likely the author got the story completely ass-backwards.
This is an excellent song, that was afterwards given a title, inspired by a bad joke. The members of the band grew up in the 1950s and would have heard this corny old joke a million times, just as I did. British fans too from that same era would have immediately “Got it.”
If this were not so, it would be an extreme coincidence that a song with a Jamaican Reggie feel to it, was then given the title D’yer Mak’er. (Short for “Did you make her,” or “Jamaica.”) Someone commented on the piece,
“Sometimes I think these authors hear a guy, who knew a guy, who thought he said....”
So true; this is how fake news stories get started. It is not always intentional.
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Reader Comments (1)
The only thing I can relate is the rumor back in the early 70's that if you played certain Led Zepplin songs backwards it was Satanic.
How many people actually got their turntables to spin backwards? And if you could, I bet Frank Sinatra would sound alien!
Last I heard it was a false rumor to promote sales...