With a juvenile delinquent—a kid who never attended a day of school and couldn’t even be bothered to get a proper case for his guitar—as its Jesus Christ figure, rock ’n’ roll couldn’t exactly be expected to produce anything approaching a Byron or Shelley. But surely a well-formed sentence or two isn’t too much to ask. Here are some of the best-known examples of the kinds of elementary grammatical mistakes that can be found on almost any rock record—some forgiveable, some not.
• “Insatiable an appetite” (Queen): In “Killer Queen,” Freddy Mercury’s loving ode to a high-class prostitute with fascist tendencies, this bit of linguistic nonsense is hardly the biggest crime. But we ignore clear warning signs like this at our peril: A year later, the quartet recorded the execrable “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and by then it was too late.
• “You and me ain’t no movie stars” (Alice Cooper): Alice hits the Trifecta: an incorrect subjective “me,” an “ain’t,” and a double-negative, all in one short line. A classic rock ’n’ roll attempt to mimic the language of an illiterate early-twentieth-century plantation worker—especially impressive considering that the lyrics were written between rounds of golf with George Burns in Palm Springs. Surely nothing could top this? Well, how about…
• “I can’t get no satisfaction” (Rolling Stones): …a glaring double-negative from a London School of Economics graduate?
• “This ever-changing world in which we live in” (Paul McCartney & Wings): Macca is undoubtedly too self-conscious and aspirational not to have spotted this obvious redundancy, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was an attempt at clever wordplay—like “the movement you need is on your shoulder.” Yeah, that one wasn’t so funny either.
• “Well since she put me down I’ve been out doin’ in my head” (Beach Boys): Turning the microphone over to Al Jardine is just asking for trouble.
• “I love she, she loves me” (Syd Barrett/Pink Floyd): LSD. Case dismissed.
• “ I’m going back to the ones that I know, with whom I can be what I want to be” (Jethro Tull): This is actually perfectly grammatical, but who the hell uses the word “whom” in a rock ’n’ roll song? Did Ian Anderson have his fourth-grade English teacher proofread his lyrics?
• “I ain’t got no cigarettes” (Roger Miller): Miller did not attend the London School of Economics.
• “Time Will Tell Just Who Has Fell” (Bob Dylan): I guess it’s possible that Dylan is actually saying “fallen” (the correct past participle) here—he’s so annoyingly nasal on this song that it’s hard to be completely sure one way or the other.
• “If you love somebody set them free” (Sting): Is Sting trying to avoid sexist pronouns, or is he oblivious to the fact that the grammatical numbers of “somebody” and “them” don’t match? Three guesses.
• “Till the Stars Fall from the Sky for You and I” (Doors): This grade-school misuse of “I” in the objective case is almost as offensive as exposing yourself onstage, but when you’ve slept with Nico you can criticize Jim Morrison, OK?
• “Death and hatred to mankind” (Black Sabbath): Given the quantities of cocaine and barbiturates that were coursing through his system at the time, can we fault the young Ozzy Osbourne for this bizarre prepositional screw-up? Of course we can.
• “You shoulda heard just what I seen” (Bo Diddley): WTF?
• “We don’t need no education” (Pink Floyd): Tell me about it.
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Thanks to the following generous people for lyric suggestions: Peter Keepnews, Scott Williams, Joe McGasko, Vartkes Baboghlian, Mr. Finewine, Debbie Daughtry, Stork, Ira Kaplan, Brian Turner, Michael Feldheim, Hova Najarian, Charlie Lewis, Mary Wing, MAC
I thought it was “This ever-changing world in which we're livin' ... ”
Posted by: Nic | April 12, 2010 at 11:09 PM
How could you have possibly left out the most nonsensical lyric in pop music history, such as it is ...
"'Cause there ain't no one for to give them no pain." (Horse With No Name" - America)
A grammatical mobius strip.
Posted by: bill | April 13, 2010 at 12:47 AM
Rhyme & Meter > Strunk & White
Posted by: K. | April 13, 2010 at 01:47 AM
I've never seen the published music and lyrics, so it could very well have been written as 'insatiable an appetite,' but I've always assumed it to be 'insatiable in appetite,' whenever I've heard it.
Posted by: Listener bkd | April 13, 2010 at 08:40 AM
Going back to the '50s, there's the redundancy of "Sh-Boom" by The Crew-Cuts: "Oh, life could be a dream, if I could take you up in paradise up above."
Posted by: Andrew | April 13, 2010 at 08:59 AM
How about anything by Neil Diamond?
"When it began, I can't begin to knowin'" (Sweet Caroline)
"I'll have me a time with a poor man's lady" and "
Don't need to say please to no man for a happy tune" (Cracklin' Rosie)
Posted by: Bobo Hoho | April 13, 2010 at 09:28 AM
Seriously, Pink Floyd? You don't think this was perhaps intended tad ironically, given the nature of the song/album? Same with Bo Diddley - I think there's a bit of humor at work there. I launch grammar corrections as much as the next know-it-all, but have a little perspective, huh?
Posted by: Bits N Rather | April 13, 2010 at 09:36 AM
“You shoulda heard just what I seen”
I so disagree. In context, that line is poetry (and self-conscious humor, as Bits noted).
Posted by: wapsie | April 13, 2010 at 09:47 AM
"Just break it all; you listen me: break it all!"
—Los Shakers
Posted by: Dann Baker | April 13, 2010 at 10:27 AM
“Well since she put me down I’ve been ALL THROUGH IT in my head” or do I just hear it the way I think it should be?
Posted by: Rockford John | April 13, 2010 at 11:24 AM
And then there's "No matter where I go I will come back to my English Rose/ For nothing, could ever tempt me from she" (The Jam, "English Rose") It's such a great song, but that lines rankles every time.
Or "She is addicted to thee" in "Dancing Barefoot"--that can't be correct grammar, can it? Even aside from being Old English.
Posted by: Paula | April 13, 2010 at 12:14 PM
"I thought it was 'This ever-changing world in which we're livin' ... '
Posted by: Nic | April 12, 2010 at 11:09 PM"
===
I think you think rightly.
"When you were young and your heart was an open book,
you used to say, 'Live and let live.'
(you know you did, you know you did, you know you did)
But if this ever-changing world in which we're livin' makes you give in and cry,
say 'Live and let die.'"
Posted by: Potsie | April 13, 2010 at 04:56 PM
"I having difficulty obtaining satisfaction, I'm really having difficulty obtaining satisfaction, well pardon me"
Yeah, cough, that's much better.
Here's another: "she was formerly in my possession, she was formerly in my possession" - O'Jays.
Man, literacy rocks.
Posted by: cursorx | April 13, 2010 at 05:45 PM
This is ridiculous. Rock and roll is freedom of expression. Poetry is freedom of expression. Some of the greatest writers of rock are "grammatically incorrect" poets. I don't think that this "problem" actually warrants a blogpost.
Posted by: Mr.H | April 13, 2010 at 11:04 PM
Old pirates, yes, they rob I,
Sold I to the merchant ships,
etc etc etc.
Posted by: K. | April 13, 2010 at 11:55 PM
"When you do not have anything, you do not have anything to lose" is not worthy of Byron or Shelley. "When you ain't got nothing, you've got nothing to lose" is.
Posted by: Matthew | April 14, 2010 at 01:39 PM
Hey! T-Shirt! Leave Those Kids A Loan!
Posted by: Vic | April 14, 2010 at 06:41 PM
I always thought that it was "insatiable in appetite". Lyric sheet typo?
"Till the stars fall from the sky for you and I"
is a much better 'change to create a rhyme' than
"I got a limo right in the back,
I lock the doors in case I'm attack"
(Joe Walsh "Life's Been Good")
Posted by: Dave | April 14, 2010 at 10:24 PM
Robby Krieger wrote "Touch me",not Jim Morrisson,as far as I know.(but maybe he slept with Nico too,who knows?)
Posted by: Martin L. | April 15, 2010 at 07:35 AM
...and Geezer Butler was usually Black Sabbath's lyricist.Of course some chemicals may have been shared.
Posted by: Martin L. | April 15, 2010 at 07:39 AM
There is an enjoyable tradition here. How about,
'He made a vow while in state prison;
Vowed it'd be my life or hisn' from High Noon (1953)
Posted by: Michael L. | April 15, 2010 at 10:46 AM
if I were a sculptor, but then again, no.....
Posted by: Libby | April 15, 2010 at 06:27 PM
Well, as we all know, rock & roll "...is sung, played and written, for the most part, by cretinous goons. And, by means of its almost imbecilic reiteration, and sly, lewd and in plain fact, dirty lyrics ... it manages to be the martial music of every side-burned delinquent on the face of the earth."
Posted by: Johnny Drongo | April 16, 2010 at 04:44 PM
The one that always made me cringe was the Heart song in the 90's that went, "Who's gonna wipe away the tears you cry/ Who's gonna love you babe as good as I?" Right pronoun, wrong adverb. I guess it wouldn't sound as rockin' if they sang, "Who's going to love you, dear, as well as I?" But it was more of a power ballad than a rock song.
Posted by: jonder | April 27, 2010 at 10:34 AM
And don't forget Billy Joel butchering the maxim "Every dog has his day" in "Don't Ask Me Why": "Every dog must have his every day"...
Posted by: Andrew | May 06, 2010 at 01:33 PM