Comments on: Bad Grammar pop lyrics

Question: Bad Grammar pop lyrics

spock — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:14:31 -0800

Please: I would like a bazillion examples of popular music lyrics and song titles that would make an English teacher cry out in empathetic pain for their abuse of grammar.

Examples:
"I can't get no satisfaction" (Satisfaction - Rolling Stones)
"No I cannot forget from where it is that I come from" (Small Town - John Mellencamp)

I'm not terribly familiar with rap, hip hop (etc.) but I'm guessing that anything from those genres would just be too easy.

By: epimorph

epimorph — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:20:56 -0800

"But in this ever changing world in which we live in / Makes you give in and cry" (Live And Let Die - Paul McCartney)

By: ScarletSpectrum

ScarletSpectrum — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:21:14 -0800

Bobbie Sue took the money and run.

Your friend and mine, Steve Miller.

By: hydrophonic

hydrophonic — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:22:44 -0800

Who do you love?

By: hurdy gurdy girl

hurdy gurdy girl — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:32:56 -0800

Keren Ann's "For You and I":

And it's over now for you and I
For you and I
It's over now for you and I
For you and I

By: srrh

srrh — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:33:59 -0800

Not grammar per se, but in Fergielicious:
T, to the A, to the S-T-E-Y, girl, you tasty

By: Fiasco da Gama

Fiasco da Gama — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:40:26 -0800

But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate

Dylan's All Along The Watchtower, but of course Hendrix mangled the object and subject better.

By: knave

knave — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:44:43 -0800

If they say I never loved you, you know they are a liar. — The Doors, "LA Woman"

(Funny, Jim also sings "for you and I" in "Touch Me.")

By: teraflop

teraflop — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:53:11 -0800

"The Reason" by Hoobastank was getting a fair bit of airplay a few years back:

I'm not a perfect person
There's many things I wish I didn't do
But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you...

By: bettafish

bettafish — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:41:17 -0800

Wannabe?

By: lain

lain — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:43:10 -0800

There's a band named "As I Lay Dying"

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:48:06 -0800

"But in this ever changing world in which we live in / Makes you give in and cry" (Live And Let Die - Paul McCartney)

"in which we're livin'," I always thought. Though it never stopped me from snarking.

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:49:25 -0800

"Songs she sang to me, songs she BRANG to me"

Play Me - Neil Diamond

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:51:54 -0800

Baby I'm A Want You - Bread

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:56:36 -0800

"Since many years I haven't seen a rifle in your hand"

Fernando - ABBA

By: clearly

clearly — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:00:04 -0800

My favorite grammatical error in any song is

'Going faster miles an hour'

in Roadrunner by the Modern Lovers. I laugh every time.

'Got a couple of couches, sleep on the love seat'

in Loser by Beck

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:02:47 -0800

"Don't Know What The Hell I Got" Pagliaro

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:04:22 -0800

"Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad" - Derek & The Dominos

"What's Love Got To Do With It" - Tina Turner

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:05:13 -0800

"and we got nothing to be guilty of"

Guilty - Barry Gibb & Barbara Streisand

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:06:00 -0800

"She's Got A Ticket To Ride" Beatles

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:06:41 -0800

"We Don't Need No Education" - Pink Floyd

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:10:58 -0800

"I Bet That You Look Good On The Dance Floor" - Arctic Monkeys

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:13:22 -0800

"there ain't no place I'm going to"

Mr Tamborine Man - Bob Dylan

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:14:27 -0800

"What If God Was One Of Us" - Joan Osbourne

By: clearly

clearly — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:15:21 -0800

'I'm thinking about my doorbell / When you gonna ring it?'

My Doorbell by The White Stripes

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:15:59 -0800

"Not Fade Away" - Buddy Holly

By: parkerama

parkerama — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:21:59 -0800

"...and this bird you cannot change..."

Free Bird, Lynyrd Skynyrd

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:22:31 -0800

"Once, it was once long ago."

Neil Diamond

By: Ambrosia Voyeur

Ambrosia Voyeur — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:24:20 -0800

What has love got to so with it -> What's love got to do with it

and

She has got a ticket to ride -> She's got a ticket to ride

are both ok (and I don't care. my baby don't care)

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:24:24 -0800

"The boat that I row won't cross no ocean"

Neil Diamond

By: parkerama

parkerama — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:24:42 -0800

"...and each one there has one thing shared
They have sweated beneath the same sun
and wept when it was all done
for bein done too soon..."

Done Too Soon, Neil Diamond

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:26:33 -0800

"Captain Sunshine, make me drink wine,
Make me feel fine when I'm feelin' wrongly down."

-Neil Diamond

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:28:50 -0800

"I got a song been on my mind"

Neil Diamond

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:30:19 -0800

"Her words as such as the way they were sung it was the way they were sung"

Neil Diamond

By: cincinnatus c

cincinnatus c — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:37:11 -0800

"But in this ever changing world in which we live in / Makes you give in and cry" (Live And Let Die - Paul McCartney)

People are always parroting this mishearing. The real words are: "But IF this ever-changing world in which WE'RE LIVING / Makes you give in and cry" i.e. fine grammatically and "Makes you give in and cry" actually makes sense.

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:41:19 -0800

"If I was a sculptor
But then again, no" (Bernie Bernie Bernie tsk tsk)

-Elton John (Bernie Taupin)

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:43:39 -0800

"Leaving was never
my proud"

-REM

By: parkerama

parkerama — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:54:42 -0800

"You keep lyin' when you oughta be truthin'..."

Nancy Sinatra, These Boots are Made for Walkin'

By: parkerama

parkerama — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:01:02 -0800

"You talk about things that nobody cares...
...You can't catch me 'cos the rabbit gone died"

Sweet Emotion, Aerosmith

By: Cosine

Cosine — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:02:26 -0800

"I Got Tears In My Fro Cause I'm Standing On My Head Over You"

-anyone???

By: parkerama

parkerama — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:11:45 -0800

I know this isn't technically incorrect, but the last line is so incredibly clunky and twisted (anything to make that rhyme!), I think it earns a spot here:

"Its no use, he sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabokov"

Don't Stand so Close to Me, The Police

By: patricio

patricio — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:11:47 -0800

"The female of the species is more deadlier than the male" from the track "Female of the Species" by 90's indie-chancers Space

By: RussHy

RussHy — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:34:55 -0800

1. It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing.
2. From Blues In The Night: "My Mama done told me, ..."
3. Is you is or is you ain't my baby?
5. Ain't Misbehavin', I'm savin' my love for you.

By: jontyjago

jontyjago — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 02:59:31 -0800

"Oh, you don't mean nothing at all to me" - Nelly Furtado

By: Jaltcoh

Jaltcoh — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:15:45 -0800

Prince has a lot of these:

"Dig if you will a picture of you and I engaged in a kiss" -- from When Doves Cry

"Every time she said the words another one of his doubts were gone" -- from Joy in Repetition

"I anticipate a few turbulence along the way" -- from International Lover

By: christinetheslp

christinetheslp — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:49:55 -0800

"Lovin' is what I got" - by Sublime from the song, "What I Got." I know "got" can be used in grammatically correct sentences, but here he's using it as a substitute for "have."

The song title "Doowutchalike" by Digital Underground is a horrible mis-spelling.

By: TheRaven

TheRaven — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:20:52 -0800

Dylan - Lay Lady Lay. Most people forget that that is a horrible solecism.

By: pearlybob

pearlybob — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:41:58 -0800

"Don't Chew" as in..

"Don't you forget about me.."

Not really a grammar thing but almost every popular singer will sing "Don't chew" instead of "Don't you". Listen for it and you'll start to hear it all the time. Pops up in alot of songs. It is the way I tell if a singer has had professional training because any voice teacher worth his salt will stop that right away! Drives Me Crazy!!!

By: MonkeyToes

MonkeyToes — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:43:59 -0800

Search lyrics.com with the term "ain't."

Sample hits:
Tupac, "I Ain't Mad at Cha"
Marvin Gaye, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"
Garth Brooks, "Ain't Goin' Down 'til the Sun Comes Up"
Etc.

And don't forget...."This ain't no party/This ain't no disco/This ain't no foolin' around" from Talking Heads' "Life During Wartime."

By: biscotti

biscotti — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:48:47 -0800

"I wish I would have met you" from "Hey Man, Nice Shot" by Filter (Wish I HAD met you, dammit! And you can even make it fit the music with the more awkward but still correct "wish that I had met you"), but that's an error I hear people make all the time. It bugs me because they get other grammar in the song correct ("those who were right there" etc).

"Whisper on a scream, doesn't change a thing, don't bring you back" (which he corrects to "doesn't bring you back" later, which always makes me smile, since it's like a little knowing wink to traditional bad pop grammar) in "Blue on Black" by Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

By: Lucinda

Lucinda — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:49:23 -0800

So open up your morning light
And say a little prayer for I

- Paula Cole, "I Don't Want to Wait"

By: futility closet

futility closet — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:08:43 -0800

Stan Freberg once cleaned up "Old Man River":

Elderly man river
That elderly man river
He must know something
But he doesn't say anything
He just keeps rolling
He just keeps rolling along

He doesn't plant potatoes
He doesn't plant cotting [sic]
Because these/them/those that plants them
Are soon forgotting
Elderly man river
He just keeps rolling along

By: BozoBurgerBonanza

BozoBurgerBonanza — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:11:20 -0800

America: Horse With No Name:

In the desert you can remember your name
cause there aint no one for to give you no pain

By: Nerro

Nerro — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:44:23 -0800

This song is really popular right now -- and would make any English teacher pass out. Just the title makes me squirm.

Timbaland - The Way I Are

I ain't got no money
I ain't got no car to take you on a date
I can't even buy you flowers
But together we be the perfect soulmates
Talk to me girl

By: unSane

unSane — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:59:04 -0800

I love the way in Sam Cooke's A CHANGE IS GONNA COME (which he sings as 'change gon'h come') he pronounces 'ever' as 'ev'ry': "Just like the river I've been running ev'ry since"

By: johnofjack

johnofjack — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:04:00 -0800

Bobbie Sue took the money and run.

Your friend and mine, Steve Miller.
posted by ScarletSpectrum

And, in that same song, rhyming "Texas" with "facts is."

By: aswego

aswego — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:19:09 -0800

It's subtle, but most later versions of Hard to Handle (including the well-known Black Crowes version) switch a subject pronoun to an object pronoun:

"I can love you better than he"/"I can love you better than he can" (in the older verisons)
became over the years:
"I can love you better than him"

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:20:30 -0800

Elvis Costello, "Oliver's Army":

Oliver's Army is here to stay
Oliver's Army are on their way

By: desuetude

desuetude — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:29:17 -0800

Gwen Stefani changing the grammatically correct lyrics from Fiddler on the Roof in "Rich Girl."

Every time she sings "If I was a rich girl" I want to punch something.

By: laconic titan

laconic titan — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:52:22 -0800

k.d. lang, "The Mind of Love"

I'm trying hard to ex-cape this
Constant pull towards ache

Technically a pronunciation error, but still gets me every time.
To say nothing of the infamous no-caps name, of course. She still has the chops.

By: ewiar

ewiar — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 06:58:58 -0800

Is rap cheating? If not, Jay-Z, 99 Problems... pretty much every line, but particularly:

Now I ain't tryin' to see no highway chase with Jay.
Plus I got a few dollars I can fight the case
So I pull over to the side of the road
I heard "Son do you know what I'm stoppin' you for?"
...
99 Problems but a bitch ain't one
If you havin' girl problems
I feel bad for you son
I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one

By: Melismata

Melismata — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:26:19 -0800

Ain't Nothing But a House Party--J. Geils

By: Slash_fan

Slash_fan — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:27:09 -0800

She popped her a pill o' ex
And drank on some orange juice
And just when you thought she was freaky she done got super loose

One of my favorite lines from "Sippin on Some Syzurp" by UGK & 36 Mafia

I actually used 99 problems once in one of my English classes, (it was one on one, and he was 18) there's a great site that translates slang from popular music into normal English for ESL teachers like myself

By: kittyprecious

kittyprecious — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:27:33 -0800

The most worstedest ever: Kelly Rowland, on how "her life was stole."

By: notjustfoxybrown

notjustfoxybrown — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:27:59 -0800

"Don't Take it Personal" -- Monica

By: owtytrof

owtytrof — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:53:37 -0800

I don't practice Santeria (ok)
I ain't got no crystal ball (whoops)
I had a million dollars (ok)
but I, I'd spend it all (wait... what?)

Santeria, by Sublime

Also:
Johnny Butt was a man with a real strong will to survive

The Ballad of Johnny Butt, also by Sublime

By: ManInSuit

ManInSuit — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:55:14 -0800

Reading through these, I keep wanting to distinguish between songs that use *wrong* grammar, and ones that are normal grammar in non-standard English. (Especially Black American English, what with that having a pretty special place in Rock and Roll)

To my mind, "I can't get no statisfaction" isn't a grammar mistake. It's just a double negation of the type used in African American Vernacular English. (And don't let your grade school teacher tell you that double negatives are somehow illogical- they're the norm in lots of languages).

On the other hand, I don't think "I cannot forget from where it is that I come from" is correct anywhere.

It seems like an important distinction. You have to be a pretty uptight language prescriptivist to be riled by the use of Black American English in rock music.

(I also want to distinguish actual "wrong" grammar from creative poetic constructions like "going faster miles an hour", but I'm guessing that's a pretty fuzzy line)

By: frecklefaerie

frecklefaerie — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:01:46 -0800

Doo wah diddy diddy dum diddy doo - "I knew we was falling in love"

I saw a program on PBS a few years ago all about songwriters from the early 60s, and Ellie Greenwich discussed how mortified she was that the line was sung so ungrammatically.

By: ManInSuit

ManInSuit — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:12:17 -0800

(oops - that last link should be "double negatives")

By: Pronoiac

Pronoiac — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:12:56 -0800

Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks?

By: desuetude

desuetude — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:28:23 -0800

What Man In Suit said. I don't count "ain't" as wrong whatsoever. It's certainly not proper formal written English, but it's perfectly acceptable slang.

By: Oriole Adams

Oriole Adams — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:36:11 -0800

It don't come easy. Ringo Starr

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 08:36:48 -0800

About half of these aren't incorrect at all. Certainly not this one:

Oliver's Army is here to stay
Oliver's Army are on their way

Here's one that's always bothered me, especially considering the source. From "The Soldering Life" by The Decemberists:

But I
I never felt so much life
Than tonight
Huddled in the trenches

By: porn in the woods

porn in the woods — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:25:54 -0800

Don't Come Around Here No More - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

By: Gucky

Gucky — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:26:17 -0800

If I ever become fabulously wealthy, I will commission famous musicians to cover songs that abuse the subjunctive, correcting the error and thereby eliminating the "it sounds weird" argument.

Creep by Radiohead
"I wish I was special" (wince)

New York City by They Might Be Giants
"Wish I was there" (cringe)

But there are hundreds of examples. In fact, the only one in popular culture I can think of is:
"I wish I were an Oscar Meyer weiner..."

By: Quidam

Quidam — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:33:28 -0800

A couple of months ago a TA in my sociology class used
"And I'm gonna miss you like a child misses their blanket" (Fergie - Big Girls Don't Cry)
as an example of what not to do.

Honestly, I'm not enough of a grammar whiz to articulate why you're not supposed to do that, but I know she used that lyric.

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:36:28 -0800

There's a band named "As I Lay Dying"

What's wrong with that? "Lay" here is the past tense of "lie," which is used intransitively, so that's correct, and "Dying" appears to be a participle, modifying "I." Looks fine to me.

I don't practice Santeria (ok)
I ain't got no crystal ball (whoops)
I had a million dollars (ok)
but I, I'd spend it all (wait... what?)

I've always heard the last line as "but I, I spent it all."

Oh, and I know you didn't ask the opposite question, for unexpectedly correct grammar where a lot of people would get it wrong, but in that vein I can't help but mention The Fifth Dimension's "(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All," including the correct lines "I lay awake and watched until the morning light/Washed away the darkness of the lonely night."

By: dixie flatline

dixie flatline — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 09:42:29 -0800

Some of these don't seem wrong at all. For example, what's wrong with "...and this bird you cannot change"?

Was "As I Lay Dying" bad grammar when Faulkner used it?

By: Rykey

Rykey — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:06:18 -0800

Not a grammar error per se, but there's a local band here called Mad Trucker Gone Mad.
I still chuckle when I see their name.

By: peep

peep — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:13:36 -0800

Some of these don't seem wrong at all. For example, what's wrong with "...and this bird you cannot change"?

Was "As I Lay Dying" bad grammar when Faulkner used it?

Yeah, I'm not getting WHY people think some of these are wrong.

By: ardinno

ardinno — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:14:03 -0800

Give my request to the DJ
Cos my song he's gotta play

From Jennifer Lopez's 'Play'.

By: notjustfoxybrown

notjustfoxybrown — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:14:36 -0800

Because it should be "like a child misses his or her blanket." But how does that fit into a song lyric.

By: peep

peep — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:19:26 -0800

REM's "Get Up" features the line "I've seen you laying pined." Unless that's some sort of colloquialism, it really should be lying. Even then I'm not sure it makes sense.

By: attercoppe

attercoppe — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:15:14 -0800

What's that one song the Traveling Wilburys do? Wriiten by Bob Dylan, refrences a bunch of Springsteen titles? You know, "When the walls...come tumbling down..."

There's a lot of pronoun issues in there, like "before he was a Jersey Girl".

(Too lazy too look up title or lyrics right now)

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 12:10:12 -0800

How can Oliver's Army be singular and plural?

By: desuetude

desuetude — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:50:31 -0800

kirkaracha, army is a collective noun and thus can be either singular or plural depending upon context. I believe Mr. Costello is making a point.

By: edverb

edverb — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:07:36 -0800

Artistic license:
Billy Joel: Don't "Aks" Me Why (in the last verse)
Bob Dylan: It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
Bob Marley "Redemption Song": Old pirates, yes, they rob I / Sold I to the merchant ships / Minutes after they took I / From the bottomless pit.

Probably unintentional:
Creed: What's This Life For?
The Doors "Touch Me": Till the stars fall from the sky, for you and I

By: Pronoiac

Pronoiac — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:45:42 -0800

Gucky: If I ever become fabulously wealthy, I will commission famous musicians to cover songs that abuse the subjunctive, correcting the error and thereby eliminating the "it sounds weird" argument.

You could just do this at karaoke. I've pictured doing that for the Joan Osbourne, Gwen Stefani, & Shaft theme.

I've also fantasized about taking a red sharpie (or Post-It, maybe?) & correcting the grocery store signs to "10 Items or Fewer." I think I could do this if I dress as a ninja, get a friend to follow me with a camera, & tell the store that I'm a grammar ninja for a school project.

By: h00py

h00py — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:37:09 -0800

"How Does It Feel" by Oasis always bothers the crap out of me (for lots of reasons really) but mostly because of the grammar:

How does it feel like, to wake up in the sun.
How does it feel like, to shine on everyone.
How does it feel like, to let forever be.
How does it feel like, to spend a little lifetime sitting in the gutter.
Scream out sympathy.

Yargh! (no sympathy!)

By: hurdy gurdy girl

hurdy gurdy girl — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:25:21 -0800

I wish that I knew what I know now
When I was younger

(The Faces, "Ooh La La")

Should be "I wish that I had known then what I know now."