What's with the bad grammar? Pop songs are rampant with poor use of our beautiful language. As a purveyor of words this matters to me. I claim no perfection in this. There will likely be some misplaced comma, some dangled participle, some run on sentence in this entry. Perhaps even a fragment or two. But what is it with songwriters that they think they can do whatever they want with the language?

If we are trying to convey ideas, feelings, emotions, thoughts, etc, etc. we better watch our mouths: choose our words carefully.  There are so many words and phrases to choose from. Why use the same ones over and over? It's not like we have to stick to a limited supply. Language is a perpetual motion machine: a renewable resource. Even an undiscovered country. There is always more where the last ones came from.  And even more to be explored. You could clear cut words from here to Sidney Australia and you'd wake up the next morning with a whole new forest. 

So while others barely pay attention to the words in a favorite song I cringe when I hear tortured phrasings. Take the Rolling Stone song, Satisfaction. "I can't get no satisfaction" Mick repeats numerous times. Sure its a toe tapper but what does he mean? The hook line is plainly a double negative which literally means he gets plenty of satisfaction.  And given the myth surrounding Mr. Jagger and his band of rollicking mineral deposits, plenty is more like it.

And this incessant use of Baby, baby, baby. Are we talking pedophilia here? Incest? What's with the childish reference? And how many times can a pop singer swear to love some person forever? Even the most basic understanding of cosmology should indicate that forever is a pretty darn long time. Chances are, after the first billion years or so, the thrill is bound to have ebbed a little. 

As songwriters we are bound by a sacred code to explore and develop the oral landscape. We are required to check under the metaphors to see if there is any engine powering the machine: kick the references for solidity: hitch our horseys to the grist mill of locution. It's now or never baby. Sure the song remains the same but the words don't have to.