Song lyrics and my curious need to have them make sense!
I am the first person to say that some of my pet peeves are completely ridiculous. And yet, they’re mine so here goes…
A few years ago there was a song that got a lot of airplay. The lyrics of the first verse were the following:
“If I could grant you one wish, I wish you could see the way you kiss…”
Every single time I’ve heard the song (and it just came on the radio where I am sitting) I have cringed at these two lines.
The singer isn’t talking about granting someone else’s wish with her words. Ostensibly, the singer wants her partner to see how well he kisses. She would love it if he could see what she sees. That isn’t granting someone else’s (in this case, the partner’s) wish at all.
She is actually talking about granting her *own* wish. To make any sort of sense, the lyrics ought to be
“If I could grant myself one wish, I wish you could see the way you kiss…”
But they aren’t. Is this another case of the songwriter needing to fit either the scan or the rhyme scheme and therefore making no sense whatsoever with the lyrics? Or, did the songwriter not have a real understanding of what it means to grant someone’s wish?
Either way, how did it happen that this song got so much air play?
What do you all think? Has songwriting evolved or devolved to where it stands today?