Saturday 5 December 2009

Lyrical Issue

I'm trying to write some lyrics, and I've hit upon a problem...

I wrote a line which included "different to" - of course, this is incorrect...  Anyone but a moron knows it ought to be "different from"...!  I despise this mistake - along with the other obvious issues of less/fewer, if I was/were, etc - and was horrified to see that I'd written it myself...

However, there is a reason for this...  The song I'm trying to write isn't particularly slow, so with "different from" you end up getting two "fr" sounds in quick succession...  It's harder to sing, and it sounds more clumsy, than "different to" which seems to scan much better as a lyric...  Natural, as a lyricist, I want to write verses that flow, sound pleasing and are nice to sing...  But, I couldn't bear to think I'd written a grammatical error into one of my songs, and allowed it to stay there, like an un-Bazooka-ed verruca...!

So now, there is a battle, between my inner artist, and my inner grammar pedant...  They're not just having a fight - they're actually jousting!  In my head!  Horses, lances, suits of armour - the lot...!!  And it's giving me a headache...  Maybe I should give the songwriting a break, and try and get some sleep?!