The first sixty years of rock and roll have been littered with casualties.
The infamous “27 club” – musicians taken aged 27 – includes Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Amy Whitehouse, Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin and many more.
Today’s theme is another casualty of rock. Grammar.
More specifically, the correct use of the subjunctive.
Rockers are dreamers. Imagineers. Hypotheticalvinists. They live in the world of wishing. And they come unstuck.
If I Was, a UK #1 by Midge Ure, wears its misuse of the subjunctive on its sleeve.
Walk the Dinosaur by Was, Not Was wears it twice. On both sleeves, if you will.
And Ian McNabb, whose conjecture on what love would be like, were it like guitars, really should know better.
Next week’s lesson: “owing to” vs “due to” in the Great American Songbook.