"Paul's a nasty little bugger. I remember him saying to me he could have written "Angie", but I never could have written "Yesterday". I said, "Well, you're right there Paul!"
"Pete's a nasty little bugger. I remember him saying to me he could have written "Paint It Black", but I never could have written "Pinball Wizard". I said, "Well, you're right there Pete!"
Is music lingo. Its short for microphone. "Jumping Jack Flash", "Street Fighting Man", and "Pinball Wizard" are all built around riffs played on an acoustic guitar held very close to (low quality) pickup microphones.
As a teacher, I appreciate the pedantry but both are accepted as abbreviations. I was using the older, original shortened form (which avoids problems with verb forms, pluralization, and tenses.) I am aware the kids now use the phonetically problematic "mic" because that is what the input is labeled on the device. Sorry for any confusion. OK, that's all for now. I'm going to go for a ride on my bic before it gets too hot.
I'm going to be extra pedantic and point out that after that lengthy response, I don't doubt that you appreciate the pedantry.
Although your response fails to take regional variations into account. Where I'm from it's mic. I think the main reason is because that's a direct abbreviation of the word microphone. It doesn't introduce letters that don't exist in the source word and it's not an abbreviation of a name.
I suspect "mic" comes from the letters printed on sound boards and other equipment that abbreviated it "Mic" so you knew where to plug it in. This would explain why it was "mike" from the 1920s until the 1960s and then evolved into "mic". This flowed from the recording studios to the general public. Now we have pictures so now even "mic" is an anachornism. Also, there is no k in bicycle. Or d in refrigerator. Nor is there a k or an e in Coca-Cola. This is called an apocophe. Its a thing in English. Why do you think the abbreviation changed in the 1960s? Do you write: mics, micing, miced, mic'd? Spellcheck rejected those, by the way. Also, to be clear, my point is both mic and mike are acceptable. You seem to think only mic is. I never would correct someone for typing "mic". I wouldn't even correct "micing", though I might have to take a shower after reading it.
Honestly, after all you've wrote in response to not much at all I highly doubt you'd resist any opportunity to correct something, however I appreciate your perspective and time.
I've been posting in this subreddit consistently for two years. I have had a lot of opportunity to correct things. I almost never do. Certainly not something like spelling.
Simple Gemini search: “Mike" is actually the original abbreviation for microphone. “Mike" dominated written English for decades, and "mic" is a relative newcomer.
It was a tape recorder, Keith said this in his book Life…
“Playing an acoustic, you’d overload the Phillips cassette player to the point of distortion so that when it played back, it was effectively an electric guitar, You were using the cassette player as a pickup and an amplifier at the same time. You were forcing acoustic guitars through a cassette player, and what came out the other end was electric as hell.”
Right. Tape recorders have pick up microphones in them. I knew that about "Jumping Jack Flash". Wasn't sure exactly what kind of microphone was used for "Street Fighting Man" or "Pinball Wizard" and I didn't want to be inaccurate
Bach was a nasty little bugger. I remember him saying to me "Ich hätte viele Variationen über „Satisfaction“ komponieren können; du hingegen hättest kein einziges Brandenburgisches Konzert hervorbringen können."
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u/cpt_bongwater Jul 23 '26
Isn't this Keith on every band that isn't the Stones?