Well, Guns and Roses wrote:

"reminds me of childhood memories."

It reminds him of memories! So does he remember the actual events of his childhood when he sees her smile, or does it just remind him of other times when he remembered his childhood?
Reminds me of memories....

I'd rather hear "in which we li-ive"

good point CC, maybe he was referring to a reincarnation recession episode

"But in this ever changing world in which we live in."

Are you sure it's not "...this ever changing world in which we're livin'"? After all, an Englishman would know enough not to end a sentence with a preposition. (I know G'n'R got it wrong because they printed the lyrics in the Use Your Illiusion booklet; but I always assumed Axl just misinterpreted the lyric.)

Hmm, that's a good point, JR. All the lyrics I've seen have specifically said "in which we live in," and it sounds like that, but I can't actually profess to having seen the original lyrics that McCartney sang. All online sources show what I found, but even those can be incorrect at times.

As for the "reminds me of childhood memories" line, I think it may be Axl indicating some sort of personality disorder, maybe a split personality or something. You know, like "reminds me of childhood memories (of my alter-ego Rex.)" That might explain the odd, creepy child-like "humor" Axl displays on a bootleg of a 2002 GnR show I recently got ahold of . . .

I like your theory, but it would seem to indicate that Axl is stupid and McCartney smart, which just can't be right.

Seriously, this has always bugged me and I've never thought of your sensible solution.

Sting pointed out in an interview once that certain lyrics make musical sense but not grammatical sense. He used his own line as an example: "If you love someone, set them free." The correct way would have been "If you love someone, set him or her free," which just doesn't scan.

My other favorite grammatical offender is Steve Miller Band's "Take the Money and Run":

Billy Mack is a detective down in Texas
You know he knows just exactly what the facts is

Christopher Ricks makes great hay of Dylan's grammatical "faults," and how clever and meticulous and aware of the grammar and word choice Dylan was, in his amazing new doorstop.

There's a particularly illuminating section on "Hattie Carroll" and the peculiar grammar of:

And handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance
William Zanzinger with a six-month sentence

I love this book, by the way. Anybody else read it or interested? It got quite a bit of pub a couple of months ago. Amazingly, he's able to wring meaning out of stuff like "New Pony," "All the Tired Horses" and "Handy Dandy" that almost had me believing that these throwaways (and a bunch of other overlooked or misunderstood Dylan songs) are actually pretty great. Not "Handy Dandy," actually.

Can't wait to see what he does with "Man Gave Names to All the Animals."

Seriously, I have been reading all the articles and reviews of Ricks' book, which certainly looks interesting.

He doesn't discuss that one, which is just a silly kids' sin-along song after all. Do you find that one particularly stupid? There's worse, but there is no point in dwelling on the small amount of subpar Dylan when there's sooooooo much good stuff, the best of which is the among the very best of modern music, IMHO.

"But in this ever changing world in which we live in."

FYI, It's actually "IF this ever-changing..."

ooh, there's a wrinkle

It bugs me too, but I believe this is a case of McCartney indulging in artistic licence. It's fine, just as loong as he doesn't decide to pick up a second job in which to make a living in.

Clubhouse -- Actually my vote for dumbest Dylan song is "Lenny Bruce," the famous comedian who "never robbed any churches nor cut off any babies' heads."

Starting the line with "in" would make no sense for McCartney to do, anyway - consider the following line! I believe the proper lyrics are:

"If this ever-changing world in which we're livin'
Makes you give in and cry"

It's a song... do songs need to be grammatically correct? go through every song throughout history and correct them then you can say bad stuff about all of them ok? music is music it needs to go to a beat and if he says it who cares.

Really, what can you expect from a pothead and high school graduate like mccartney? There was one truly intelligent person that went into rock music, and that was Frank Zappa.

It does not really matter if the lyrics reads "in which we're livin'" or "in which we live in" beacause that is not the end of the sentence. The whole sentence reads "If this ever-changing world in which we're livin' makes you give in and cry." Just something to think about.

There is NO issue here!

Positively, the lyric is:

"If this ever-changin' world in which we're livin' makes you give in and cry..."

I fussed over this for years and settled it awhile back by listening ultra-carefully to several live performances.

Make all the grammar teachers go home and read their Strunk & White, please. The rest of us will go with artistic licence.

The number of grammatical gaffes in popular music puts George W Bush to shame. Too many to list.

I love this post.

Strunk & White... reminds me of all my journalism classes. Thanks, Vern!

'S OK..... Strunk & White.... I still have a copy buried away somewhere next to my Baltimore Catechism.

Anyone who has read my posts probably wishes I had my copy more handy- although I think my typing is worse than my grammar.

I can't believe it, I JUST CANNOT!! I'm a mexican student of English. I've been studying this language for a year now; correct my grammar if you wish, tell me I'm wrong....BUT.... YOU NATIVE SPEAKERS GET YOURSELVES INFORMED FIRST!!! IT GOES "BUT IF THIS EVER..." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF, NO IN...IN.

PAUL, GOD, FORGIVE THEM, THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE SAYING...

you smarty pants

Ale, first, I'm hoping your English classes included a section on "sarcasm."

Second, the issue is not with the phrase "but if this ever" or "but in this ever." It is with the phrase "in which we live in." It's either "in which we live" or "which we live in" - there is no need for two instances of "in" there.

But, most of all, people, get a grip! For those of you who got it and played along, thank you! The rest of you . . . yikes. This was just a fun piece, which is something that should be very obvious just in the way I composed it - it is obviously tongue-in-cheek. Oh well, I guess there's no hope for humor in America.

Tom, trust me, I just got hit for using It's instead of its, in a string I just had published an hour ago, so I know the feeling, but if I were you, I'd have done my homework on line. I also got the amount of money a guy lost in the stock market per share confused with the actual price he sold it for. It was easily fixed with a quick "I'm wrong" and a thanks to Dave Nalle, but this is beyond that.

So as gently as I can...

the word "If" blows this whole string sky high, and I'd delete it.

I bought the vinal soundtrack album for the movie the day it came out waaaaaaaaaaaaay back when, and trust me Axl did not do it justice at all. But you know what I've learned over the years? You like the first version you hear, so if you heard Axl first, you'd think Paul's version sucked.

All things being equal, I'd delete the whole post before a bunch more give ya grief, my friend...

...but that's only my opinion.
Jet

Help me understand this, is everyone aware that this whole thing was written almost 2 YEARS ago????

Time passes differently on the web, Jet.

Tell me, are you named for the McCartney song?

My father was in the airforce and I grew up literally at the end of the runway pattern of Greater Pittsburgh International Airport.
As a kid, I'd run around the yard as the jets flew over VERY LOW with their landing gears down, and make jet noises, and I acquired the nickname.

I used to never refer to them as jets, they were L1011's or 747s or C124s.

One winter when it snowed, I shoveled out a giant HI DAD in our acre back hard, because my father flew right over our house to land.

From then on I was known as Jet

No, no changing of this piece, no deletion. I'm just stunned at the inability of people to comprehend what they're reading. It's always fun to get an alert of a comment on this because it's always surprising to see the dunderheadedness of people on the internet. "Humor," people, do you recognize that?

Sometimes it's hard to find the humor on this blog on which we blog on sometimes.

Bart: Well if your soul's real, where is it?

Milhouse: It's kinda in here... and when you sneeze, that's your soul trying to escape. Saying god bless you crams it back in. And when you die, it squirms out and flies away!

Bart: What if you die in a submarine at the bottom of the ocean?

Milhouse: Oh, it can swim, it's even got wheels, in case you die in the desert and have to drive to the cemetery.

this world in which we're living?

is that possibly what he said?