We don't need no education;
We don't need no thought control,
No dark sarcasm in the classroom.
Teacher, leave them kids alone.
It has been over 30 years since Pink Floyd released "Another Brick in the Wall," and people are still singing along--despite a few cranks who in 1979 wanted to ban the song for what they insisted was its "bad grammar."
Which is nonsense, of course. As any Floyd fan will tell you, lyricist Roger Waters was artfully impersonating the voices of disaffected teens. Or, as a linguist might put it, Waters was mimicking the casual register of those young people.
In language studies, register refers to a variety of English (or a subset of any language) used for a special purpose or in a particular social setting. And in the setting of The Wall, the double negative was (and still is) the appropriate register.
That said, there's really no excuse for the rhyme crime that Neil Diamond once committed:
Song she sang to meYou'll find Diamond's "Play Me" on Martha Brockenbrough's "Bad Grammar Hall of Fame Playlist" at the website for National Grammar Day (March 4).
Song she brang to me
And if there are any grammatically challenged tunes that you can't get out of your head, please send them along by clicking on "comments" below.
More About Usage:
Image: The Wall by Pink Floyd, 1979. EMI (UK) and Capitol (US, reissue)
Comments
My proposal is just a minor offense. The song: Little Pink Houses by John Cougar Mellencamp. The line: Little pink houses for you and me. In our society, we use the word “I” a lot, but seem to forget about when it comes to “you and I.” In our world, “you and me” has become a standard practice.
“You and me” is actually correct. As an easy check, think of whether “I” or “me” would complete the sentence without the “you” in it: Little pink houses for . . . me.