It’s Gramlyrical

In response to the exhortation to songwriters by Zack Davis (Letters, March 16):

Thank you for the grammar lesson. Now here’s a lesson in songwriting: Song lyrics are not poetry, not prose, and not necessarily subject to traditional rules of grammar. In “what if God was one of us,” Joan Osborne’s choice of “was” over “were” is inspired; not only is “was” easier to sing than “were,” but “was” creates internal (albeit imperfect) rhymes with “what” and “us,” and also supports the innocence of the question, as if it were asked by a child.

It is not safe to assume that all ungrammatical choices in lyrics are made from ignorance of the English language: Otherwise, Alan Jay Lerner could never have given us the everlasting “absobloomin’lutely” from “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly.”

HEIDI BARRON

Los Angeles