:smack: Thank you. For 40 years I could not make sense of that line and now that you’ve explained it I can’t believe I couldn’t figure it out. Still shite lyrics, though.
“Their” is becoming more accepted when referring back to a singular noun. The Chicago Manual of Style and the Associated Press stylebook recently changed to making it acceptable. The Who was ahead of their time.
Theme? I’m gonna take a guess that those minor mistakes didn’t make your paper go from an A to an F.
I couldn’t understand it either but that’s because I thought it was “picked”. Didn’t even have to strain to hear the “d”, but now of course if I hear it again I will probably hear the s.
Ellie Goulding’s “Burn” sort of qualifies. The grammatical error irritates me so much that I don’t like listening to the song, but if she just sang “We’re gonna let it burn” instead of “We gonna let it burn,” then I think I’d like the song. Granted, “gonna” isn’t high-class English, either, but the “gonna” doesn’t bother me, just the part where she sings “we” instead of “we’re.” And even that wouldn’t be so bad if those words didn’t crop up in the song so god damn much!
Two current songs that I like everything about, except for the damned title line:
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Brett Dennen, “Already Gone” - the “Bye, bye, I’m already gone” sounds more like “baaa, baaa, I’m already gone.” (In fact, I had to look up the lyrics to find out that it was supposed to be ‘bye, bye.’) If it weren’t for that, it would be a fine song. I feel kinda sheepish about that, but still…
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The Revivalists’ “Wish I Knew You (When I Was Young)” - why, what’s wrong with right now? If there’s the hint of an answer in the song, I can’t find it.
I’m loving the song as it goes Friday night, holy ghost, take me to your level, show me the one I need the most, and then it hits me with the title line, and I’m going WTF? every time.
Add the Kings of Leon’s “Your Sex Is On Fire” to that list. Totally agree.
I’m a big Moody Blues fan, but that “senior citizens” has annoyed me for 45 years now. Clunk.
It took me a while, but I finally came up with a contribution.
From Elton John’s Your Song:
*So excuse me forgetting
But these things I do
You see I’ve forgotten
If they’re green or they’re blue
Anyway, the thing is, what I really mean
Yours are the sweetest eyes I’ve ever seen *
Could this passage be any clunkier?
and:
If I was a sculptor, but then again no…
Wait…what now?
mmm
If I remember, the story was that his lyricist ran out of ideas, or had to go to the bathroom or something, so Sir Elton himself wrote the third verse. Which is probably why he employs a lyricist.
‘I’ve never been to me’ is my pet hate. Y’all know the song, right?
Similarly on “LA Woman” Morrison wrote “If they say I never loved you, you know they are a liar.”
I like The Doors a lot, but that grates.
I always sing it as “ooooh, your snatch is on fire” which is not less squicky but at least is funnier.
Two possible meanings in my mind right away:
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Modestly realizing that he’d make a terrible sculptor
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Thinking that any sculpture he’d make of this person would end up too risqué
I don’t know the song, but wishing you knew someone when you were young, could easily mean “Too bad I ended up married to someone else instead of you”.
We gon’ let it burn cuz we baaaaad. ![]()
I found my three-yell
On Blueberry Hee-yell
Cutting Crew’s (I just) Died in Your Arms Tonight has this seemingly simple line:
Her diary it sits on the bedside table
Except the singer pronounces the words “diary it” as if it were Ms Morgendorffer - “Daria”. There are too many syllabibbles for the meter, so he shorts it.
You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I** was **to say to you
Girl, we couldn’t get much higher
[Jules Winnfield voice]The subjunctive, mfer! Do you understand it?[JWV]
Daria and diary both have three syllables.
To me it sounds like it rhymes with sorry (not the Canadian way)- där-ē.
Ha! To me it always sounds like"dowry", but that’s nothing compared to the next line:
“The curtains are drawn, the cat’s in the cradle”
Unless there’s a meaning to that phrase that I’m not aware of, it’s a clunky, obvious attempt to rhyme with “table”.
That one would be at the top of my list, except the OP call for lines in songs we like and the thing that’s on fire is my hatred for that song and any other by that braying ass of a singer.:mad: ![]()
OK I’m wrong about the meter, but there’s got to be some reason he mispronounced it. I don’t know, but it does bug me. ![]()
^ I think you’re right about the meter, and that’s why he mispronounces it as having two syllables and not three.