Why is it spelled “Led Zeppelin?”

My last blog was about TTS. When things aren’t pronounced right from a TTS engine, the linguists can go in and add “exceptions” so the standard pronunciation rules don’t have to apply in specific cases.

Of course the easy way to get TTS to pronounce things right it to spell everything phonetically correct, then no exceptions or special rules are ever necessary.

I was watching a documentary last night on Led Zeppelin. I got a kick out of one of the early friends of the band saying they spelled “Lead” like “Led” so that Americans would pronounce it right. The ironic thing about this intentional misspelling is that it led to other bands paying homage by misspelling in Led Zep’s footsteps. Def Leppard didn’t need to change their spelling to get their name pronounced right. I suppose Motley Crue, with all their umlaut’s actually mispronounce their misspelled name. Even some of heavy metal’s big name singers (Axl Rose??) might have had more “normal” names if this strange tradition never started with Led Zeppelin…

…and on a wildly different note, my heavy metal video documentary recommendation goes not to Zep but to “Anvil, The story of Anvil”. Another great music related video for you to consider: “Les Triplettes de Belleville”…and if you want a music related video that’s closer to home then see the documentary “Standing in the Shadows of Motown – The Funk Brothers”.

Todd
sensoryblog@sensoryinc.com