The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #127788   Message #2855576
Posted By: Genie
04-Mar-10 - 01:51 AM
Thread Name: Poor grammar in lyrics
Subject: RE: Poor grammar in lyrics
One of the worst offenders - and I still have no idea how or why the songwriter came up with the line - is a country song with the hook:
"Forever and ever, till death do we part ... "

The only way this makes sense, grammatically, is if it means "we will part until death" -- which is obviously a strange wedding vow!

Of course, Neil Diamond's horrible line from "Play Me": "Songs she sang to me, songs she brang to me ... " makes me cringe every time I hear the otherwise lovely song. But that's really not "grammar," is it? It's a semantic error - much like the use of "ain't" as a substitute for "aren't," "didn't," "haven't," etc. But unlike "ain't," "brang" is not all that common, even in regional dialects, nor is it an almost mandatory part of blues or country music.

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BTW, in "Live and Let Die," McCartney SOUNDS to me like he's singing "... this ever changing world in which we're livin' ."    The first time I heard the song I thought he was singing "... in which we live in," but once someone pointed out the alternative, grammatically correct, line, it sounds more like that than it does like the awkward, redundant version.   As to what "Macca" originally wrote, I'd have to see his original lyric sheet -- not an album liner note or some sheet music from a third party -- to know that.
(Sheet music and liner notes sometimes have egregious errors.)