White knuckle ride

[Nightmare85]

Hello friends,
There is a song called "White Knuckle Ride".
(It's from Jamiroquai :up

However, shouldn't it be "White-Knuckle Ride"?
My dictionary tells me that knuckle is something like a finger bone.
So it would be a white finger bone ride, which doesn't make any sense.
White-knuckle means something like exciting, according to my dictionary.
What do you think?

By the way, the video:
YouTube - Jamiroquai - White Knuckle Ride

P.S. Maybe it's a BrE exception!?

Cheers!

 

[Munch]

Hi Nightmare,

You are probably right that it should be hyphenated but this is pop music and musicians are too cool to worry about stuff like punctuation. Your comment is very German by the way, I love it!

Here are some songs with something worse than bad punctuation - bad grammar!

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
A Bitch Iz A Bitch - N.W.A.
Ain't No Good Life - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Ain't No Other Man - Christina Aguilera
Ain't No Sunshine - Bill Withers
Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady - Helen Reddy
Ain't No Woman (Like The One I've Got) - The Four Tops
Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing - Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
Ain't That A Shame - Fats Domino
Coz I Love You - Slade
Do You Know Where You're Going To? - Diana Ross
Don't Ask Me No Questions - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Don't Let's Be Beastly To The Germans - Noël Coward
Hev Yew Gotta Loight, Boy? - The Singing Postman
I Like the Way She Do It - G-Unit
I'm Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman - Britney Spears
It Don't Matter To Me - Bread
It's Gonna Go Away - KoRn
Lay Down Sally - Eric Clapton
Me And My Shadow - Ted Lewis
My Give A Damn's Busted - Jo Dee Messina
Nuthin' But A G Thang - Dr. Dre
She Don't Have to Know - John Legend
The Way I Are - Timbaland
Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight - Spinal Tap
Where It's At - Beck
Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad - Derek and the Dominos
You Ain't Got Nuthin - Lil Wayne
You Enjoy Myself - Phish
You Haven't Done Nothin' - Stevie Wonder

 

[Nightmare85]

Thank you, but what do you mean by "very German"?
The translation?

Cheers!

 

[farhanishak]

I like the part when you mentioned that they are way to cool to worry about grammar. :up:

I do agree with what you had said as some pop songs' lyrics are not helping young children be better in their grammar and conventions.

 

[Munch]

Thank you, but what do you mean by "very German"?
The translation?

Cheers!

No, your English is flawless as far as I can tell. I just thought it was charmingly German to notice a punctuation problem in a pop song title. It reminded me a bit of this German stand-up comdedian (he starts at 1:00)

 

[BobK]

Hello friends,
There is a song called "White Knuckle Ride".
(It's from Jamiroquai :up

However, shouldn't it be "White-Knuckle Ride"?
My dictionary tells me that knuckle is something like a finger bone.
So it would be a white finger bone ride, which doesn't make any sense.
White-knuckle means something like exciting, according to my dictionary.
What do you think?

...

A knuckle is the joint between finger bones, often used to mean the joint itself (the things that stick out when you make a fist). So you're right (esp. about the hyphen ;-))

b

 

[Ouisch]

You are correct in that "white-knuckle" should properly be hyphenated. That term has been in use long before Jamiroquai was even born. It refers to being a passenger in a car or airplane or amusement park ride or other vehicle that is so fast and frightening that you grasp onto the arm rest or safety bar so tightly that your knuckles turn white due to lack of blood circulation.

 

[Munch]

You are correct in that "white-knuckle" should properly be hyphenated. That term has been in use long before Jamiroquai was even born. It refers to being a passenger in a car or airplane or amusement park ride or other vehicle that is so fast and frightening that you grasp onto the arm rest or safety bar so tightly that your knuckles turn white due to lack of blood circulation.

Good explanation. I don't think I was very clear in my previous posts. Yes, it should be hyphenated as a matter of style in most situations. But I was serious when I said musicians are too cool to worry about punctuation. You can call a song whatever you like. It is part of artistic license.

There is no artistic licensing centre, so people like Jay Kay (the name of the singer - Jamiroquai is the name of the band) and his band-mates even get to use artistic license, even though using the word "art" for the product of their endeavors seems to stretch the term to the point where it is looser than a bucket of fishing worms. Did they deliberately leave out the hyphen? I seriously doubt hyphenation is a topic which has ever troubled the members of Jamiroquai.