yesterday once more

[Nefertiti]

“I’d listen to the radio”, "I'd sing along", “It was songs of love that I would sing to then”
1. What does would above mean ?

2. Do ‘Sha Sha-la-la-la’,’wo-o-wo-o’ and ‘shing-a-ling-a-ling’ have special meanings?


"When they get to the part"

3. What does the quote above mean? Is it common usage?


“Lookin' back on how it was in years gone by”
4. What does the quote above mean?

5. Is 'to be in years gone by' common usage?

“Makes today seem rather sad”
6. Is the subject ‘it’ omitted in the verse above?
(i.e. It makes today seem ...)

“It was songs of love that I would sing to then”
7. What does the quote mean? What does‘then’ mean?


"Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
That they're startin' to sing's
So fine. "

8. Let me rewrite the verses above in one sentence.
"Every shing-a-ling-a-ling that they're starting to sing is
so fine."
Every shing-a-ling-a-ling is the subject.

'That they're starting to sing' is relative clause modifies the subject.

'Is' the main verb.

'Fine' the adjective modifies the subject, 'every shing-a-ling-a-ling'

Am I right?


Thanks

song lyrics

[Soup]

1. When the person was in love he would listen to love songs on the radio and sing along.

2. They have no meaning. They're words that song writers make up.

3. When the singer of the song get to the part in the song where the boy is breaking his girlfriend's heart...

4. Looking back in time to the days when the boy and girl were in love.

5. It means the past years.

6. Yes.

7. When he was in love, he listened to love songs on the radio and sang along to them.

8. Yes.

9. Yes.

10. Yes.

11. Yes. It's a predicate adjective.

[BobK]

“I’d listen to the radio”, "I'd sing along", “It was songs of love that I would sing to then”
1. What does would above mean ?
Habitual action in the past.
2. Do ‘Sha Sha-la-la-la’,’wo-o-wo-o’ and ‘shing-a-ling-a-ling’ have special meanings?
No. They are nonsense syllables, characteristic of the kind of song the singer is talking about. Example: "Wo-o Wo-o yea yea/ Love you more than I can say/Love you twice as much tomorrow-ow-ow/Wo-o yea yea" (Some '50s singer - Bobby Darren?)

"When they get to the part"

3. What does the quote above mean? Is it common usage?

"they" = the singer (in the songs the singer of this song is referring to)
"the part" is a reference to the part of such songs where ...


“Lookin' back on how it was in years gone by”
4. What does the quote above mean?
Reflecting on the past.

5. Is 'to be in years gone by' common usage?
Not to be in years gone by - nobody is. But "how it was in years [or "days"] gone by" is perfectly normal.

“Makes today seem rather sad”
6. Is the subject ‘it’ omitted in the verse above?
(i.e. It makes today seem ...)
No time to check the lyrics now.

“It was songs of love that I would sing to then”
7. What does the quote mean? What does‘then’ mean?
What I used to sing in those days was songs of love [singing along with them]

"Every shing-a-ling-a-ling
That they're startin' to sing's
So fine. "

8. Let me rewrite the verses above in one sentence.
"Every shing-a-ling-a-ling that they're starting to sing is
so fine."
Every shing-a-ling-a-ling is the subject.

'That they're starting to sing' is relative clause modifies the subject.

'Is' the main verb.

'Fine' the adjective modifies the subject, 'every shing-a-ling-a-ling'

Am I right?


Thanks

song lyrics

G'night.

b

[Nefertiti]

Hi BK.

“I’d listen to the radio”, "I'd sing along", “It was songs of love that I would sing to then”
1. What does would above mean ?
Habitual action in the past.

1. 'Would' has many meanings. It can mean past intentions, expectations, habits ...etc. Why has it such a meaning in question?


“It was songs of love that I would sing to then”
7. What does the quote mean? What does‘then’ mean?
What I used to sing in those days was songs of love [singing along with them]

The lyrics show 'I would sing to THEN not THEM'.

Does 'then' mean at the time in the past?

Do you say "I'd sing to then" often?


Thanks for the reply.

[BobK]

Hi BK.

“I’d listen to the radio”, "I'd sing along", “It was songs of love that I would sing to then”
1. What does would above mean ?
Habitual action in the past.

1. 'Would' has many meanings. It can mean past intentions, expectations, habits ...etc. Why has it such a meaning in question?

She (I seem to remember the lead singer in the original was the sister, though maybe Soup was thinking about a male-sung cover version) is reminiscing about her life when she was a teenager, sitting in her bedroom singing along to the radio.

I'm not defending the language used in the song; it's not my favourite! I wouldn't have used 'would' there, but then again I wouldn't have written the song in the first place. Still, 'would' is perfectly acceptable to describe a habitual action in the past, and the context makes it clear that it's talking about that rather than any other possible meaning of "would".

“It was songs of love that I would sing to then”
7. What does the quote mean? What does‘then’ mean?
What I used to sing in those days was songs of love [singing along with them]

The lyrics show 'I would sing to THEN not THEM'.

Does 'then' mean at the time in the past?

Do you say "I'd sing to then" often?


Thanks for the reply.

Not often (though she probably did spend a lot of time doing it - the song just doesn't say that). The "then" means 'in those days' - "they were such happy times".

Incidentally, though the timestamps suggest otherwise, I hadn't seen Soup's answer when I wrote mine (which I cut/pasted into a temporary file while I was out for most of the day), so I didn't mean to tread on her toes (if that's the way it seemed ). I am, though, not sure about your (and her) interpretation of 'Would make...' in your q6. I think that here -

Lookin' back on how it was
In years gone by
And the good times that I had
Makes today seem rather sad
So much has changed.

it is at least possible that it's the comparative view that "makes today seem rather sad". I can understand anyone's possible discomfort with this interpretation . It is, after all, the comparison and not the "Lookin' back" that does the job ("makes today seem rather sad"), and if my interpretation is accurate then it's not very well expressed in the song; but that's what I think it means (and I remember feeling it was badly expressed 40-some years ago!)

b