Open Letter To A Beatle To.
Dear Sir Paul McCartney,
First of all, hello. Or shall I say, cheers! Okay, enough with the pleasantries. I know your time is precious, so let’s get right to the point, shall we?
On Sunday afternoon I went with my mom, my dad, and my sister to see "Shrek The Third" for Fathers Day. The movie was a cute enough sequel to the other two films, but I have to tell you, something has been bugging me ever since. I’m hoping you can help set my mind at ease.
Early in the movie when the Frog King dies, the opening section of your classic tune "Live And Let Die" is played. Now, I too am a songwriter, so I understand the somewhat fluid relationship one should be willing to have with traditional grammar when fitting words to music. That being said, there is one line in your song that drives me crazy every time I hear it. My sister has recently inspired me to follow through when I mentally note an intention to write a letter airing some grievance of mine, so you Sir are the fortunate guinea pig of my first such experiment. I sure hope you’re reading my blog.
I want you to be assured that I’ve been thorough in my research before bringing this to your attention. I’ve even done numerous lyric searches on Google just to be sure that I’m hearing it correctly. Apparently, and unfortunately, I am. And it seems I’m not the first person to notice this glaring atrocity. Perhaps, however, I am the first to bring it to your attention. Though I kind of doubt that too. The lyric in question goes like this:
"But if this ever-changing world in which we live in makes you give in and cry…"
Um, what? "In which we live in"??? With all due respect, Sir, you gotta be bloody kidding me! Maybe you were absent that day in elementary school (which I believe you wacky Brits coincidentally call grammar school), but I am rather certain I learned not to blatantly repeat prepositions like that in, I don’t know, second grade? Sir Paul, baby, tell me how much harder it would have been to turn the phrase thusly:
"But if this ever-changing world in which we’re livin’ makes you give in and cry…"
Phonetically, this sounds EXACTLY the same as your whack-ass construction, especially when your British accent is taken into account. Is that why you thought you could get away with it? Because any crime against grammar sounds correct - proper, even - with an English accent? That’s a load of bollocks! Even Judi Dench couldn’t get away with a phrase like yours. I doubt she’d even deign to try.
Besides, is the meaning of my proposed alteration really THAT much different than yours? It still ends up in the present tense, and all of the rest of the words around the phrase remain the same. I can simply think of no syntactical or contextual motivation for your extra "in". What purpose does it serve? Is it intended to add some extra oomph to just how "in" this world we live? Like, we’re "inside" this world? That makes little sense to me. Maybe the disconnect is happening because the world in which I’m living is different from the one in which you lived in the 60’s. See what I did there? I used your construction, but I used the second "in" to start a new prepositional phrase. That’s how we roll in the colonies.
I have no doubt that you will promptly take whatever steps are necessary to right this seemingly singular wrong on your otherwise pristine record. I suppose it might not bother me quite so much if I hadn’t been raised by a mother who used to teach English, but we are who we are. I cannot change that, nor would I want to if I could. For like you, I too believe in living and letting live - as long as said living is done with decent, inoffensive grammar.
I look forward to searching online for your lyrics again soon and finding them all fixed.
Have a chim-chimeree weekend, your Sirness your Knightity your Highness Paul!
Blimey,
Matt
P.S. - I’m loving the new season of "Footballers’ Wive$"! You people sure do make good telly. That Amber is an absolute crumpet!
