Word Crimes

[JEDM]

Unless I'm forgetting something, this might be the original song with the most "adult content" Al's ever tackled. I'm guessing this will also replace "CIA" on stage.

[Big Spoon]

Very excited for this song! It'll probably be about the various crimes against English people make when speaking, but I hope that it's more than just a list song.

[mrmeadows]

It almost has to be somewhat of a "list" song, but the original is so wordy--almost conversational--that he could easily weave in a storyline. That is, rather than simply listing different kinds of "grammar police" infractions, it could be a guy singing to his girlfriend about how he loves her but has to break up because she continually mangles the English language, but within that we would of course get a laundry list of examples. (Kind of like an extension of the "Jillian" verse in CBNC).

[Bruce the Duck]

It almost has to be somewhat of a "list" song, but the original is so wordy--almost conversational--that he could easily weave in a storyline. That is, rather than simply listing different kinds of "grammar police" infractions, it could be a guy singing to his girlfriend about how he loves her but has to break up because she continually mangles the English language, but within that we would of course get a laundry list of examples. (Kind of like an extension of the "Jillian" verse in CBNC).

That's exactly what I'm envisioning for this one.

[Bruce the Duck]

Like all the other parodies on this album, this one has been trimmed down a bit from the original. I'm guessing that Al cut out the T.I. rap solo, which is a shame since Al excels at rapping.

[The Sporkman]

Maybe he cut out Thicke's second verse and the second chorus.

[tomatochives]

It almost has to be somewhat of a "list" song, but the original is so wordy--almost conversational--that he could easily weave in a storyline. That is, rather than simply listing different kinds of "grammar police" infractions, it could be a guy singing to his girlfriend about how he loves her but has to break up because she continually mangles the English language, but within that we would of course get a laundry list of examples. (Kind of like an extension of the "Jillian" verse in CBNC).

I know most Americans suck at the English language, but the whole "grammatical errors" theme seems trite.

Maybe Word Crimes has a political connotation?

[mrmeadows]

I know most Americans suck at the English language, but the whole "grammatical errors" theme seems trite.

Maybe Word Crimes has a political connotation?

Political words? I don't follow....

As for bad grammar being a trite topic, are there other songs that go into this? I think TLI had one on semicolon misuse that was pretty funny, but I can't think of any others.

[Bruce the Duck]

Me neither. Do you mean like when a politician like Joe Biden or Sarah Palin make gaffes in their speeches? I really don't think so. It's "Crimes" because that just rhymes with the "Lines" in the song. We've seen that Al notices grammatical errors around him. (I still laugh every time I see a "12 Items or Less" sign) I wouldn't bet on much else with this album, but I'd bet hard money that this song is about common grammar errors and word usage errors in general.

[mrmeadows]

Anyway, just because a subject has been "done" by others before doesn't mean Al can't do it. I don't recall AL ever having a song all about about bad grammar (aside from the occasional reference here and there), so it's new territory for him. Also, like I mentioned in another thread, he's not the first one to do a "Radioactive" parody called "Inactive", either...but I'll bet he does the best one.