Song Lyrics That Need One Minor Change - Your Input

Cafe Society
1

Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues came up on my workout playlist and this lyric came up:

“I bet there’s rich folks eatin’ in a fancy dining car
They’re probably drinkin’ coffee and smoking big cigars”

Coffee? Since when was coffee considered some upper crust beverage of the well-to-do?

I think a better choice would have been “They’re probably drinkin’ champagne…”

Fits easily within the rhythm structure and conveys a more ritzy drink choice than coffee.

Are there any lyrics that you think could have used a minor tweak to improve?

2

In “Late in the evening” by Paul Simon, the narrator walks out and smokes himself a jay, then walked back into the funky bar with his guitar and proceeds to “blow that room away”. For some reason he didn’t use the more common stock phrase,which is also a double meaning in context: he should have blown that “joint” away.

3

In “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”, the line’s generally sung “Oh, when will they ever learn?”

I think “When will we ever learn?” would be better.

4

I would say Brandy.

5

“I’ll Be There,” by MJ (emphasis added)

If you should ever find someone new
I know he better be good to you
'Cause if he doesn’t, I’ll be there (I’ll be there)

If he doesn’t be good to you? Say what? Great song with one grating word (which should be replaced by “isn’t”)…

6

“In My Bed” – Amy Winehouse (2003)

“It’s something I know you can’t do
Separate sex with emotion”

Point taken, Amy. But I think you meant “Separate sex and emotion.”

7

The obvious one to me is U2’s “Pride (In the Name of Love)” in which Bono cites MLK Jr’s assassination as taking place “early morning, April 4th.” They even, as far as I know, performed it off and on with those lyrics for decades. When he sang it at President Obama’s inauguration, he finally changed it to “early evening” which is when the assassination actually took place. (just looked it up, and the acoustic version they recently released has the corrected lyrics).

8

Billy Joel has some issues with finding the right word.

In “Allentown” he says “So our graduations hang on the wall” when he probably meant “diplomas”….although that doesn’t scan.

And in “Goodnight Saigon” he refers to “tameless horses” when he meant “untamed”.

9

That always bugs me, and it’s such a good song otherwise!
“Tameless” however, is perfectly cromulent.

10

From No Myth, by Michael Penn:

What if I was Romeo in black jeans
What if I was Heathcliff, it’s no myth

Should be “what if I were…” Drives me slightly batty every time I hear it.

11

Kinks, All Day and All of the Nught

“The only time I feel all right is by your side”

Should be:

“The only place I feel all right is by you side.”

“Your side” is a place, not a time.

12

Bruce Springsteen, Glory Days
“I had a friend was a big baseball player, back in high school
He could throw that speedball by you, make you look like a fool, boy”

Come on Bruce, use nearly any actual pitch name and it would scan - fastball, curveball, slider, knuckleball.

13

Hear, hear. I’ve watched and listened to literally thousands of baseball games and never heard the word speedball.

14

Adele: Rolling in the Deep

Finally I can see you crystal clear
Go ahead and sell me out and I’ll lay your ship bare

No. It should be shit.

15

The Doors, “Touch Me.”

“I’m going to love you until the stars fall from the sky, for you and I.”

C’mon, Krieger. Let us not debase the language. How about “…until the stars fall to the sea, for you and me.”

16

“Come Fly With Me”

If they want to hear a one-man band in lama land, it should be:
Come fly with me, let’s take off to Tibet
In lama land, there’s a one-man band
With a tune you won’t forget
Come, fly with me, we can take my private jet.

Or they could just pronounce “llama” properly. That would be a more minor change.

17

Steve Miller, “Take the Money and Run”;

Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas
You know he knows just exactly what the facts are
He makes his living off of the people’s taxes
He ain’t gonna let those two escape too far

It doesn’t fix the “Texas/taxes” rhyme, but it’s better than as written.

18

You’re confusing your antecedents: “new” vs. “be good.” “Doesn’t” makes perfect sense with the latter.

However, “he better” does not make sense. It should be “he’d better” (a contraction of “he had”). Subjunctive mood.

My own minor change is for “Moonlight Shadow”:

Four a.m. in the morning is redundant. It should be Four o’clock in the morning.

19

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart
But the very next day, you gave it away

By all rights, “gave it away” should be “tore it apart.”

20

Back to Folsom Prison — I never understood how committing murder in Nevada would get you time in a California state prison. Maybe “I shot a man in Fresno”?