When I was working at the drive thru coffee stand on Saturday with my co-worker, Renee, who loves country music, the song “It’s America” by Rodney Atkins came on. It begins:
Drivin down the street today
I saw a sign for lemonade
They were the cutest kids I’d ever seen in this front yard
As they handed me my glass, smilin thinkin to myself
Man what a picture perfect postcard this would make of America!
Although I’m mad that my childhood lemonade stands never made any money, that’s not the problem I have with this song. Neither is the dropped g at the end of the ings. Fine. I get the accent has been written into the lyrics just in case we forget Atkins has a country twang.
My problem is that the line, “They were the cutest kids I’d ever seen in this front yard” is ambiguous. Does he mean that of all the times he has driven by this yard, and of all the kids he has seen in the particular yard, that these are the cutest ones? Or does he mean that these are the cutest kids that he has ever seen in his life, and that they happen to be in this front yard selling lemonade? As it stands, I am inclined to believe the former.
This may be a country song, but punctuation and clarity still count.
“Nonsense,” Renee said. “No one else cares except you English types. Everyone knows what he means.”
Ok, so maybe we can give Mr. Atkins the benefit of the doubt about these cutest kids. Maybe. But I won’t. He should know better, or at least be able to afford a song editor who does. And so should Renee. She may work at a coffee stand on the weekends, but during the week, she teaches America’s fifth graders.
It is Unambiguously America
Driving down the street today
I saw a sign for lemonade.
These were the cutest kids I’d ever seen, right here in this front yard.
As they handed me my glass, I smiled, thinking to myself:
Man, what a picture-perfect postcard this would make of America!
How would you change the lyrics?
To see the music video with the unedited lyrics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f33KzjrjTg0
I'm usually pretty Nazi-istic when it comes to stuff like this, but I'm afraid I agree with your friend. As a self-proclaimed, anti-country person, I still view music as a form of free creative expression, and whichever way the artist chooses to express that is a personal decision. Now, if they were publishing a book of poetry, or even their lyrics in a book, that would be a different matter in which the standard rules would have to apply (as best they can in cases where singers use La La Las or Shooby Dooby Doos).
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