Dylan dilemma of the day: Comma in It Ain't Me, Babe?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Popmartijn, May 26, 2020.

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  1. Folknik

    Folknik Forum Resident

    Without the comma, it could change the whole meaning. The word "me" meaning "my" could be a possessive pronoun in a certain colloquial English dialect with "It Ain't Me Babe" meaning "It Ain't My Babe." Grammatically, it needs the comma.
     
    OldSoul and Dave Gilmour's Cat like this.
  2. Folknik

    Folknik Forum Resident

    The absence of the comma in the complete sentence title of the song is almost as annoying to me as the misplaced apostrophes in The Mama's and the Papa's. Is it meant to be ambiguous, denoting both plural and possessive, or was someone just not very knowledgeable about proper punctuation?
     
  3. Rick Bartlett

    Rick Bartlett Forum Resident

    This is true.
    Another case in point.
    When John & Paul wrote 'She Loves You' and presented it to Paul's dad, he suggested that they'd
    change the words to 'She Loves You', citing, 'we have enough of these Americanisms around, couldn't you sing
    'She Loves You, Yes, Yes, She Does' instead 'She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah'?
    They obviously didn't take his advice and look what a 'catastrophe' that turned out to be....
    :whistle:
     
    mark winstanley likes this.
  4. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    I say yes to the comma. Otherwise it ain't me babe, its someone elses.
     
    Uncle Miles and Beatlened like this.
  5. R. Totale

    R. Totale The Voice of Reason

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