Does bad grammar in songs bother you?

Question

When I hear a song and the lyrics have a bit of bad grammar, I always want to correct it, like in The Doors' L.A. Woman, Jim Morrison sings
"If they say I never loved you
You know they are a liar"
and that always bothered me

Just me or does it bother you too?

lovnrckets: I'm pretty sure many lyricists knew what they was doing... like Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall Part 2... Stop with the double negatives!

Wait... no, Light my Fire was "You know that it would be untrue, you know that I would be a liar" and L.A. Woman was written by Jim... wasn't it? Ah... I have really bad memory...

huevo_ranchero: I can't believe you caught that! No one else did! It was a little joke... yes I get a kick out of the smallest things.

Chunga: Very true.... it never use to bother me... I blame it on college apps (I blame that for everything)

Answer 1

Bad grammar bugs me all the time, especially in Y! Answers.

Sarah: When you made the comment to lovnrckets, where you used 'was' instead of 'were': that's just plain cruel.

It was a good one. I just caught it 'cause I'm a geek like that.

Answer 2

it bothers me if I sit down and think about it but for the most part no. Just think of some of the great lyrics we would be without if artists has used proper English. The first that comes to mind I heard from a comedian a long time ago: "I feel Well, I knew that I shall". It just doesn't sound as good as the way James brown sings it now does it?

Answer 3

It depends. When it's an obvious grammatical faux pas to make it fit the song (e.g., "No I cannot forget from where it is that I come from" in John Mellencamp's "Small Town" -- maybe the worst of all time -- or "Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas / You know he knows just exactly what the facts is" in Steve Miller's "Take the Money and Run"), then yes, it bugs me. It also tends to diminish the song (my first thought when I hear things like that: "can't these people write any better than THAT??"). However, when it's used to be clever (e.g., "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby," an old pop/jazz standard), I accept it and enjoy the song.

Answer 4

Actually, sometimes I like it when a singer uses bad grammar. Like for example, The Kissaway Trail are one of my favourite recent bands, and they're from Denmark, so the grammar isn't always spot on. One example is in their song "Smother + Evil = Hurt";

"We put favourite tracks on repeat
Forgot ourself, was afraid to admit it"

I just think it's kind of quaint or something, it gives the song character. In many cases I think it's better when a lyricist uses the language of everyday speech rather than being so correct in their grammar that it seems artificial.

And one of my favourite bands is Sigur Ros, whose lyrics are entirely gibberish (not Icelandic as a lot of people assume), so I guess you could say they use pretty bad grammar and that doesn't bother me at all.

Conie:
Yeah, to be honest I'm ot 100% clear on this one. I was under the impression that it was only on ( ), but I saw an interview with the band (which was, by the way, one of the most painfully funny things I've ever seen) that seemed to suggest that most or all of their stuff was in "hopelandic", a term they themselves distance themselves from. They weren't really elaborating much on their answers though, so who knows?

Answer 5

Yep bothers me a great deal, that's why I don't listen to rap and hip hop. Content and grammar of the song is just as important as the voice of the singer.
It's ok to break some grammar rules when the lyrics are abstract... and the lyrics have to be ******* amazing

ex. when system of a down said "the most loneliest day of my life"... I didn't think that was a big deal, but you always hear bad grammar in rap song, where the singer chooses to use bad grammar... because they think it sounds cool, and if they use propper grammar they might actually sound smart which is something they don't want to do.

Answer 6

Jim was a brilliant poet, and seemed to be heavily influenced by the works of great American poets and writers like Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Richard Brautigan, William S. Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg. Sometimes these writers felt to reach out to the person reading, employing slang along with grammatic error would help connect with that reader on a more personal level. I think that's what Jim Morrison was trying to achieve. And he did that wonderfully, dontcha think?
I suppose there was a time when Jim's grammatic errors bothered me as well now that I think of it.
Bad grammar might be the reason I fell in love with punk rock back in the 70's as well. Too many Tolkien, and Shakespearian influenced progressive rock bands by the late 70's, so a shot of... "She don't wanna baby that looks like that...I don't wanna baby that looks like that" seemed refreshing I guess!
And to correct another yahoo members response, the lyrics you've mentioned are from the classic 'LA Woman'...great song!

*Edit - I have to agree with phatzwave. Many people are so analytical...I mean com 'on, it's rock and roll we're talking about. Not some Ivy league lecture, correct?

*Edit - I just thought of something Sarah C. Many rock stars are high school dropouts, and never finished 10th grade. We should consider ourselves very fortunate to have a few high school graduates out there!

Answer 7

It has to be exceptionally bad to bother me since pretty much everyone slips up from time to time. Poetry and casual speech don't follow the same rules, anyway, and a lot of the time formal speech would just sound more awkward than the improper version.

EDIT: By the way, Robby Krieger wrote that song, not Jim, and funny enough it's still their most popular song.

Answer 8

sure! I hate thoes darn double negatives. I could desirable all and sundry while they use them. What i additionally hate is while people style LiKe tHiS. you would be unable to even examine what they are announcing! I fairly have in no way used that information superhighway slang,and not in any respect will. people merely might desire to make the attempt and charm out the authentic be conscious! besides, some songs... I Dreamed I observed St. Augustine by ability of Bob Dylan... Its Dreamt, not Dreamed! additionally annoying Rain's A Gonna Fall by ability of Bob Dylan. A Gonna isn't a be conscious!! additionally in Alec Eiffel by ability of The Pixies- the lyrics are " It do not make No Sence" Argh!!

Answer 9

I dont think grammar should be considered while listening to music. Sometimes different words that are incorrect sound better with the flow of the song. I've written alot of songs and using proper grammar gets very hard to do. Mixing it up with improper grammar is usally the only thing to do to keep it from sounding horrible.

Answer 10

I am intensely more perturbed by the grammar I am witness to in this forum (picky, picky). Typographical errors are understood, but when it becomes difficult to comprehend the writer due to the hack job on the language, buffster sighs heavily.

I always thought that what I encompassed within the realm of a song was integral to that song in particular. "I don't know if it's Art, but I know what I like."