And in this ever changing world in which we live in… – IOTW Report

And in this ever changing world in which we live in…

Saturday, 30 July 2016, 20:40 BFH Uncategorized 50

Rotten Grammar Song Lyrics.

Yeah, yeah, pot meet kettle.

I’m a pretty “folksy” writer. I tend to write with an informal speaking voice, and since I’m a New Yawker and sound like a lost Bowery Boy, my writing can get a wee bit casual Fridayish, even when it isn’t Friday.

But that doesn’t mean I’m disqualified from critiquing lyrics that are a little Grammatically Incorrect.

The reason I’m posting this? Every time I hear To Live and Let Die, whether it’s performed by Wings or the remake by Ethel Merman (Wait, what? That’s Axl Rose? No way), I cringe at the “in this ever changing world in which we live in” mangling of the English language. I just went out for a donut and it was playing on the radio. (<—-I think this sentence is somehow wrong, no?)

Boom. Blog post.

(Sometimes a blog has its perks. I get to rant, run it up the flag pole, and see who salutes it.)

Here are some other lyrics that don’t sit right-

Rolling Stones – “I can’t get no satisfaction.”

Can’t never tell, but what would a Brit know about proper English?

Three Dog Night – “Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea.”

And what about the Mooses?

Bryan Adams – Everything I do, I do it for you.

A copy editor would remove the “it.” It’s unnecessary. A musician, however, needs the song to have cadence, which leads to the artistic abuse.

Flipper Theme Song – No-one you see is smarter than he.

Well, he’s certainly smarter than the lyricist.

Ringo Starr – “It Don’t Come Easy”

It seems it do not, doesn’t it?

America – “In the desert you can remember your name, ’cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain.”

There’s too much wrong with it to fix it. We’ll chalk this lyric up to heat stroke.

Frank Sinatra –  “But through it all, when there was doubt, 
I ate it up and spit it out…
This song is two tense.
Jackson Five –  “If you should ever find someone new I know he’d better be good to you ’Cause if he doesn’t, I’ll be there.”
Isn’t.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seriously, though, do we want grammatically correct lyrics?
-“Whip it. Whip it well.”
-“Lie, lady, lie. Lie across my big brass bed.”
-“Some sweet-talkin’ mama with a face like a gent,
said my get-up-and-go must’ve got up and gone.”
-“She’s got a ticket to ride, but she doesn’t care.”
– “Worst man in the whole damn town.
Worse than old King Kong.”
We should cut lyricists a little slack… and bloggers.

 

 

 

 

50 Comments on And in this ever changing world in which we live in…

  2. I know this is a departure from the intent of your thread, but I feel the need to ask about the “Slow Children, At Play” signs.
    My God how many mentally handicapped kids do we have in the USA anyway?

  6. I’m going to claim Three Dog Night’s, “Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea.”, is correct grammar. “Fishes” means several species of fish, and certainly there are many species of fish in the deep blue sea.

  7. “Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy…”

    Thinking back, I should have used the restrictive relative pronoun: “a date THAT will live in infamy…”
    👿

  13. @VietVet Great video.
    @FDR, from what I hear FDR was all hopped up on coke when he gave that address, cocaine being the solution to nasal issues of the day.

    But, I hear you BFH about poor grammar. The death of the adverb is particular(ly) troubling.

    Music needs a mulligan, however. Sometimes grammar has to give way to musical timing. And coolness. I can’t get no. Yeah, double negative, but what would you replace it with? I can’t get any? Ugh.

    I can overlook certain things. Stupid rock lyrics are a bigger problem for me, even if they are grammatically correct. Like this one….
    Tonight there’s gonna be a jail break. Somewhere in this town.

    Somewhere in this town? I’d think that a jail break would be….AT THE JAIL. Dumbasses.

    And then there are grammatical pet peeves like…. “I could care less.”
    It’s ‘Could Not Care less’ or ‘Couldn’t care less’. Meaning, this issue is of so little importance to me that there is no way I could care any less about it. It’s common. Happens all the time. Smart people say it without realizing it. I hate it. If someone says that they lose 20 IQ points immediate. Ly.

  15. When the moon hits your eye lika biga pizza pie, that’s amore.
    Gotta be da dumbest song ever sanged. But I loved Dino.
    When you walk down the street with a crowd at your feet?
    Oh gimmeafookenbreak!

  22. @Jethro:

    “In a Gadda da Vida” was a toddler’s mispronunciation of “In the Garden of Eden.” The offender was, if I recall correctly, the nephew of one of the members of Iron Butterfly.

  23. LBS, “Gunter Glieben Glauten Globen” puzzled me a bit too back then, since the German speakers in my life said it was nothing.

    Turned out they were just bored of saying 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 and made them up.

  25. Jethro (first comment): The following is from a reporter who interviewed Iron Butterfly:

    “While I had the band’s ear, I couldn’t pass up the chance to get the real story behind the origins of “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” I’d heard rumors about the song being based on an LSD hallucination or Hindu prayer. To my disappointment, it was nothing quite so dramatic. Evidently, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” is what “In the Garden of Eden” sounds like after consuming a gallon of cheap red wine. After hearing then-lead singer Doug Ingle slur the words, Bushy thought it was catchy and wrote it down that way, and rock’s first heavy-metal classic was born in 1968.”

    http://www.tbo.com/list/news-columns/the-meaning-of-in-a-gadda-da-vida-and-other-s-revelations-217876

    🙂

  29. Horse with no name always bothered me. Crappy song.

    And Bob Dylan’s “Lie Lady Lie” would sound like a tribute to Hillary.

    Wherever the line of acceptance is drawn, rap needs to be on the other side. That is not music or normal communication that a human would understand.

    But you take country music, for example. If you don’t have any grammatical errors in it, it Ain’t country music. The whole genre would disappear because nobody would buy the music.

    And just think what would happen to songs like Louie, Louie, if we had to play by some set of rules. What the hell do they say in that song anyway? Who cares? It’s still a great song.

  30. “And in this ever changing world in which we live in…”

    Fur, you’ve chosen well. This is cringe-worthy and it makes me grit my teeth every time I hear it.

    I know I could come up with a few dozen more but at the moment my mind is blank. By the time I think of them this thread will be consigned to the archive.

  31. Fur,

    I always thought that the lyric in “Live and Let Die” was “…in this ever changin’ world in which WE’RE LIVIN'”.

    Lyrics sites seem to agree with your take but there is a citation in Wikipedia which states:
    “When asked about the lyrics, McCartney responded that he doesn’t remember for sure himself, but that he thinks it is “in which we’re living”.[“Live and Let Live: Sir Paul McCartney”. Washington Post. 30 July 2009. Retrieved 17 January 2014.]”

    In case it isn’t already obvious, I’m at least as anal about lyrics as you!

  32. I always thought it was “this world in which we’re living” also. However, John Cougar doe this in one of his songs, something like “I never forget from where I come from.”

    Also, in that “Horse with No Name” song, the thing that always jumps out at me the most is the stupid line, “The heat was hot”–were these guys too high to think of something better? Do I just not get the shitty 60s enough to see that as a decent line?

  36. Always figured the only way it made sense would be,

    “But *IF* this ever-changing world in which we’re livin’

    makes forgiving a crime

    say ‘live and let die.'”

    But for some reason, wasn’t.

  37. Vietvet, I have a friend who asked Ron Bushy about those lyrics, it is Garden of Eden.

    Those guys liked to get stoned too (I can personally verify that).
    🙂

  39. @Loco, you’re talkin’ hockey, right?

    Like BFH and others, I’m a bit of a pedant when it comes to grammar.
    I blame good teachers and having been a copy editor in a former life.

    And, I hate to have to tell you this, butt from the Flipper Theme Song – “No-one you see is smarter than he.” is correct.
    The sentence doesn’t end with a copular verb/adverb, but if it did, it would read, “No-one you see is smarter than HE is smart.”

  40. “You put da lime in da coconut..”

    The individual sentences in a song don’t worry me so much as the story the song is telling. How does one put a lime in (inside or mixed together?) ‘da’ coconut? Because if I’ve been awakened by a nighttime belly ache, I think one needs to be precise when messing around with homemade cures. Does he mean to actually place the whole lime inside the whole coconut, mix them ‘both together’, or is it okay to just put the lime juice in the coconut juice and mix ‘them both tagetha’? Is drinking them ‘full up’ the same thing as drinking them all down?

    (I hope Callie is right, and this is consigned to the archives. 😉 )

  44. grammar schmammer…….i hate when the lyrics contradict the internal logic of the song…..i give you bette middler “God is watching us”……

    first point of song – from a distance, everything is fine…

    second point – except, close up, it toadly sucks here….

    BUT DON’T WORRY!!!!!

    “God is watching us……from a distance.”

  45. second case in point…..mike and the stupid mechanics “in the living years”

    “….say it loud, say it clear, we can listen as well as we hear…
    ….it’s too late, when we die, to admit we don’t see eye to eye….”

    ya know, somehow, i suspect his father actually KNEW they didn’t see eye to eye the whole time……

  48. mycroft holmes, the self-aware computer in “the moon is a harsh mistrss,” was able to tell if people were telling the truth or not, depending on their use of the subjunctive tense……

    all yall who know what the subjunctive tense is, raise yer hands…….

    thot so……

  49. mycroft holmes, the self-aware computer in “the moon is a harsh mistrss,” was able to tell if people were telling the truth or not, depending on their use of the subjunctive tense……

    all yall who know what the subjunctive tense is, raise yer hands…….moetom, you don’t count……

    thot so……

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