BBC lyric help

[cslewis]

I was listening to some of the BBC's old jingles for a class, and I came across this one. I only have one problem, though; I can't understand it! When played, I hear

Put on your hearphone
Tune on your set
Lickin' in the handbag tree

Sh** will bang
We're going to have a thwack
From Auntie Auntie of the BBC

I'm sure i'm hearing something wrong; what does it really say?

http://www.reversespeech.com/rev/bbc.mp3

________________________________________

[EDIT] The second half is it played backwards. There was an accidental reversal -- 'this is not a noose, no, it's really not' that conspiracy theorists use to claim that the BBC is some satanic brainwashing organisation. Unfortunately, that was the only website that had it (the jingle was originally on my hard drive from my communications elective at school). You can disregard the second half.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

I can make out...

Put on your earphones,
Tune in your set,
Listen in at half-past three

Sit well back,
We're going to have a track,
From Auntie Aggie of the BBC

...if that's any help!

EDIT: Reading through the reversespeech.com, they give the lyrics as...

Put on your headphones, tune in your set, Listen in at half past three.
Sit right back, we're gonna have a crack, from Auntie Aggie and the BBC.

...so I didn't do too badly!

 

[cslewis]

I can make out...

Put on your earphones,
Tune in your set,
Listen in at half-past three

Sit well back,
We're going to have a track,
From Auntie Aggie of the BBC

...if that's any help!

EDIT: Reading through the reversespeech.com, they give the lyrics as...

Put on your headphones, tune in your set, Listen in at half past three.
Sit right back, we're gonna have a crack, from Auntie Aggie and the BBC.

...so I didn't do too badly!

Thanks a ton! As far as you and the website, I definintely think you're right about 'earphones', sit WELL back, and OF the BBC. We needed to decipher it perfectly to see 'what difficulties faced radio transmission clarity in the early 1920's'.


But one thing. Who's Auntie Aggie? And 'we're gonna have a crack'???? (as the website says)

I'm confused

 

[Jaffa Cake]

We needed to decipher it perfectly to see 'what difficulties faced radio transmission clarity in the early 1920's'.

One of the chief difficulties was Scottish blokes trying to speak in Received Pronunciation...

Have a crack... if that's right, it could mean 'have a joke with'? Maybe she was one of the characters in an early radio comedy show?

 

[cslewis]

One of the chief difficulties was Scottish blokes trying to speak in Received Pronunciation...

Brits, is it really dead?

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Brits, is it really dead?

It's reckoned to be on it's way out, I think – for one thing, people are generally less snobbish about regional accents. You'll hear newsreaders speaking with all kinds of accents nowadays – they used to be the mighty bastion of RP (especially the BBC ones).

I for one am rather proud of my glottal stop...

 

[cslewis]

people are generally less snobbish about regional accents.

Really? I read a thing in National Geographic about regional dialects. It said that regional dialects all over the industrialised world are getting stronger and diverging at a faster rate than ever before. Since you live in the UK, where regional dialects are much more distinct, do you find this to be true?

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Really? I read a thing in National Geographic about regional dialects. It said that regional dialects all over the industrialised world are getting stronger and diverging at a faster rate than ever before. Since you live in the UK, where regional dialects are much more distinct, do you find this to be true?

They say that with the advent of radio and television, accents lost a little of their distinctiveness as people consciously and unconsciously picked up elements of other accents they heard – an example is the claim that some Brits started raising the end of their sentences in a similar way to Australians, due to all the Aussie soaps that were broadcast over here. I know that where I'm from, they reckon that a local used to be able to tell very easily whether someone was from the east or west of the city because of distinctive differences in the accent – and we're not a very large city either. That isn't the case now though (although you can still tell an 'Ull accent a mile off!).

I have heard it said though that regional accents are getting stronger. Maybe with the world getting smaller and smaller, people are becoming more aware of where they're from and are trying (probably without realising) to preserve their distinctiveness and regional identity. I have a friend who moved down south and was concerned she would lose her Lancashire accent, with the result that it ended up becoming a lot stronger – unfortunately at one point it became so strong it sounded quite ridiculous...