You’re assuming that he is repeating himself. Report directly to JDM 101. Also it rhymes. Also remember lots of drugs were involved.
You think that’s bad? I didn’t even know he was mispronouncing it until I started playing Gran Turismo about a year ago. Hell, I didn’t even know it was an actual car.
Someday, someone may record an entire album about it.
Try the Judas Priest version. (See also Green Manalishi (can’t be arsed to look up the actual spelling))
Oh, and the “light year” thing? You’re the guy who likes to point out that the peanut is neither a pea nor a nut and that Iceland is really green while Greenland is really icy, amirite?
Dosen’t rhyme.
Actually the rhyming and scansion thing pretty much explains most of your pedantic nitpicks. It’s a song, not a doctoral dissertation.
In the Johnny Mathis recording of That’s All, he makes this mistake:
“There are those I am sure who have told you
They would give you the world for a toy.
All I have are these arms to enfold you
And a love time can ONLY destroy.”
What was he thinking? That “only” should be “never.” That’s the way it was written originally. Nat King Cole’s version is right and Michael Buble’s makes sense. But shame on Johnny!
Wings: Live and Let Die ‘In this ever-changing world in which we live in’
See, I’m not sure this one is an error, I try to tell myself he’s singing ‘in which we’re living’.
Someone once pointed it out to me though and ever since then I can only hear the error. It drives me mad, so I’ll pass it on to the few remaining people who aren’t afflicted yet.
That’d still be kinda nuts, unless you note that he’s singing conditional advice: “live and let die” is the slogan you should adopt IF this ever-changing world in which we’re livin’ makes you give in and cry.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrgh! you just made it worse! I had honestly never thought that through, and now I have and I’ll never escape from either level of knowledge. Thanks. Really.
I once thought that too, but looking at lyric sites, they all say “a”. I don’t have a copy to listen to, maybe he sings “the”. I just hate the “tattoo too” part. :rolleyes:
Reminds me of a poem by John Hegley, about the Edinburgh tattoo (an annual military display)…
The Edinburgh Tattoo
I’m afraid I won’t be going to the Edinburgh tattoo
because to me a parade of weaponry
and the capacity to hurt
is about as pleasing as dog dirt
on the shoe
only poo
is easier than the tattoo
to get rid of
to you
it may be taboo
to poo-poo
the tattoo
but to me
the tattoo
is something to say tat-ta to
All you people who call John Lennon a hypocrite for “Imagine no possessions” completely fail to understand the song. He might be a hypocrite if he advised the listener to give up all possessions, but that’s not what the song says. Here’s a hint: the song is called Imagine. Lennon is singing about a state of mind, not advocating that everyone literally give up everything and go live in the wilderness.
The thing is, “poetic license” isn’t a universal Get Out of Jail Free card for bad songwriting.
As I said in my example, if the passage in question makes you pause and stumble, then it shouldn’t have been written that way.
No one will object to “She Don’t Care About Time” (had to use the example of one of my favorite songs of all time!) or “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” (though I would object that I just don’t like the song!).
But many of the examples given here are valid, and can’t be written off by simply calling those who’ve proffered them “pedantic.”
Elvis Costello’s criticism might have a bit more weight if he himself had signed over all of his songwriting royalties to charity. But I don’t think that has happened.
Apparently, being a member of the most successful group in popular music history automatically disqualifies you from ever daring to engage in speculation about what a different world might be like.
Word. He also “imagine[s] there’s no countries”, but no one is calling him a hypocrite for living in a certified nation-state.
Okay, here’s mine – in the Stones song “My Obsession” (from their wonderful album Between the Buttons), Mick sings:
I didn’t see you were so young
I could almost be your son
This never made sense to me (although it just occurred to me that maybe the protagonist is more used to being attracted to women his grandmother’s age…ick!)
