# Song Lyrics That Need One Minor Change - Your Input **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [July 7, 2023, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731 "2023-07-07T14:11:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2023, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/61 "2023-07-08T23:10:10Z")
Go to the Argentinian, Puerto Rican, Chilean, and some Mexican and Colombian pronunciations here. You’ll here both “zhama” and “jama”: > **[llama pronunciation: How to pronounce llama in Spanish, English, Galician,...](https://forvo.com/word/llama/#es_latam)** > > Pronunciation guide: Learn how to pronounce llama in Spanish, English, Galician, Quechua, Catalan with native pronunciation. llama translation and audio pronunciation ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/62 "2023-07-09T02:39:56Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > 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) That’s what _I_ came in here to say. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/63 "2023-07-09T03:25:35Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Yeah, there’s a bunch of them, all right. Huh. How do you pronounce “Mexico”? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/64 "2023-07-09T04:42:43Z")
Yeah, it doesn’t come up that often, but usually “MEH-hee-co.” ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/65 "2023-07-09T04:43:40Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Yeah, it doesn’t come up that often, but usually “MEH-hee-co.” - And “Paris”? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/66 "2023-07-09T04:44:42Z")
Paris. Like the Greek guy. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/67 "2023-07-09T07:52:31Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Possibly the worst rhyme in rock and roll. > > ETA: Actually, Texas-“facts is” is possibly the worst rhyme in rock and roll. Sorry. I feel like “Texas” is too important to the verse to drop it, but there just aren’t any good word choices that fit the theme and rhyme with it any better than “taxes” does. Vexes? Nexus? Alexis? Solar plexus? Lexus? Maybe that last one could work. _Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas The taxpayers put the gas in his Lexus_ Hmm. Still feels clunky. Also, the Lexus hadn’t yet hit the market when the song was written, so we’d have to invoke some sort of time travel to get Steve Miller to write that line. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/68 "2023-07-09T07:53:38Z")
Linda Ronstadt’s “You and I march to the beat of a different drum” drives me nuts, although I’m not sure how to fix it. If you parse it as written, it means that you and I are marching to the beat of the **same drum** , which is different from the one the majority is following. What she wants to say is that you and I are marching to the beats of two different drums (different from each other, if that isn’t clear), which is what the lyrics that follow say. Can’t figure out a way to phrase it that makes good lyrics, though. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/69 "2023-07-09T08:56:18Z")
Give the difference in IPA, then. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/70 "2023-07-09T10:31:24Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > so we’d have to invoke some sort of time travel to get Steve Miller to write that line …To go to work, he rode Tyrannosaurus Rexes ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/71 "2023-07-09T11:07:20Z")
I think the chorus to **I Am the Walrus** should be changed to: _I am the wordman, they aren’t the wordmen_ _I’m a thesaurus, shoo-bee-doo-bee-doo_ ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/72 "2023-07-09T13:52:26Z")
Well, this raises an interesting question. Is the act of “be good” a state of being? In which case the opposite would be “isn’t”. Or is it something you “do”? In which case the oppose would be “doesn’t”. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/73 "2023-07-09T14:03:55Z")
“Be good” is a form of the verb to be. No argument there, right? The formation of its contradiction needs some verb to be, with a “not” tacked on. “He better be good to you…” “And if he isn’t [good to you]…” “Doesn’t” in this sentence is an abomination that cries out to God for vengeance. Come on, people, this is important! ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/74 "2023-07-09T14:04:14Z")
In Pat Traver’s _I La La La Love You_, the first lines are: “When I tell you that I love you baby Don’t you that I like it from the bottom of my heart Uh huh, uh huh” Wouldn’t it make more sense if it were, “I mean it from the bottom of my heart”? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/75 "2023-07-09T14:46:12Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Can’t figure out a way to phrase it that makes good lyrics, though. With Linda’s phrasing, it could easily be “…travel to the beat of different drums.” Sure, it messes up the “run” rhyme in the next line, but not much. In any case, blame Mike Nesmith. He wrote it. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/76 "2023-07-09T14:52:08Z")
Yeah, I can’t see any parsing where “doesn’t” is acceptable there. And I don’t mean in the prescriptivist “don’t use no double negatives in English” manner, I mean in a descriptivist manner – I wouldn’t have thought any native speaker would consider that a proper construction in their dialect. Then again, maybe it is a feature of MJ’s dialect – it wouldn’t be the first time I learned something new. But now that I think about it, maybe it is? I mean, if it were “he better treat you well/'cause if he doesn’t”, that is a normal construction. Maybe there is a dialectal variation where “be” verbs can take “does/doesn’t.” I don’t know. But for my dialect, that’s definitely not a valid construction. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/77 "2023-07-09T17:14:53Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > 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) I know **he’d** better be good to you 'Cause if he doesn’t **[be good to you]**, I’ll be there. **He** is the someone new, but that’s not what I was disputing. I don’t know how you can interpret it any other way. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/78 "2023-07-09T19:30:30Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Give the difference in IPA, then. Huh? I don’t see what beer has to do with anything. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/79 "2023-07-09T22:36:51Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Suckin’ on a chili-dog outside the Taste-e-Freeze…" > > Ew. How about “Suckin’ on a chocolate malt…” or “Chewin’ on a chili-dog…” Sucking on a hot dog sounds obscene. I always assumed Mellencamp did that deliberately. ---
**Author:** ![Stratocaster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stratocaster/32/16393_2.png) [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2023, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731/80 "2023-07-09T23:23:50Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I know **he’d** better be good to you > 'Cause if he doesn’t **[be good to you]**, > I’ll be there. > > **He** is the someone new, but that’s not what I was disputing. > > I don’t know how you can interpret it any other way. “Doesn’t be good to you” seems a proper use of the King’s English, eh? Okey-dokey… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-that-need-one-minor-change-your-input/986731.md?page=5)