How many instances of bad grammar appear in Prince songs?


I know in Three Chains of Gold, Mayte says:

Give back the Chains.
If you don't U will die.
Nothing should come between
U and



But the " " was necessary in rhyming the passage even though the grammar is
wrong.


Are there any other prime examples of misuse of grammar?
I know some of it is deliberate, but some of it might just
be....well, poor grammatical skills?

In the past, I really didn't mind. Now it sounds like he's trying to be ghetto on purpose.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

This obviously means you're a very bad person and on May 11th, I'm going to prove it before 9 PM eastern!

Money don't matter tonight

Am I going to be the first to mention "a few turbulence"

It's all money, ain't nothin' wrong.

TheVoid said:

nothing is necessary about that line. It is the single lamest moment in all of Prince's music!

"this is where the party's at (party be)"

wasitgood4u said:

OK, that one might not have been on purpose


Money Don't Matter 2nite, I'm assuming is on purpose.

NDRU said:

Wasn't LoveSExy pepperered with bad grammar?


It 'put' my name upon my thigh.
It make me dance
It make me cry

?

Or did I mishear those lyrics?

TheVoid said:

I thought it was:

I put my name upon my thigh
It made me dance
It made me cry


But that could just be my own internal auto-correction... (or the race-cars burning rubber in my pants...)

TheVoid said:

this could be past tense

NDRU said:

It IS past tense. Don't be messing with Lovesexy!

NDRU said:

But he repeats the error "It make me dance."

"Spooky and all that he crawls for" - ends with a preposition, but this is more or less acceptable these days, so I don't think it's what we're looking for...

(he should have written: "Spooky and all for which he crawls", a much more poignant lyric)
[Edited 5/4/10 12:24pm]

Oh baby, I'm a star!
Might not know it now
Baby, but I are, I'm a star!

It's funny that you of all orgers had to start this thread

TheVoid said:

um, technically he repeats it on "it make me cry"

Dave1992 said:

FINALLY.

Someone got the joke.

TheVoid said:

Peenus powa connects, ya know?

Dave1992 said:

OMG, please stop!

I'm regretting you ever having come across Alexyss

TheVoid said:

It changed my life, Dan. The moment I looked into her poop-brown eyes and listened to her sawmill-voice was the most beautiful moment in my life. I felt like Borat when he first discovered Pam.

SHOCKADELICA1 said:

For years I had no idea what the lyric was coz it's so anti-intuitive.

wasitgood4u said:

It's as if he thought it should read "a few turbulents."

TheVoid said:

Must be something about the O+> album, he does it again in Blue Light "Baby, that's the problem with U and ..."

I think most of them are probably done knowingly...

WHAAAAAT???

"You and i" isn't proper english???? It's used so often in songs that i was absolutely sure that it was an alternative to "you and me"!!!

& yeah, i always wondered WTF with "money don't matter" and "i are, i'm a star": i don't get why he purposedely made these mistakes...

I don't care for this topic too much. Bad grammar in music is used all the time.

However...

The first time I ever noticed it and said "cool"... was during 200 Balloons.

"Take me for what I am,
Love me for what I are".

Very cool in my opinion. It added a little "something" special to the song, and in my opinion, that line is the songs' highlight.
[Edited 5/4/10 15:26pm]

databank said:

Here's my understanding

If you say "I went to the store" you would say "You & I went to the store"

But if you say "they're going to the store with me" you would say "they're going to the store with you & me"
[Edited 5/4/10 15:51pm]

Without poetic license in songwriting life would be pretty boring.


.....

lotusflw3r said:

for once I agree with you