Hi,
James Brown was singing, “This is a man’s world
But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl
He’s lost in the wilderness
He’s lost in bitterness”
which made me wonder what sense makes the ” But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman” line.
Double negation used in some lyrics, sounds justifiable and meaningful, but not in this case where it sounds quite the opposite of what was meant to say in my view.
Or my doubts about possible misinterpretation are exaggerated?..
You have misheard it. He sings,
but it would be nothing, nothing, without a woman or a girl.
[quote=“Beeesneees”]
You have misheard it. quote]
Seems like not me alone.
Mettrolyrics play.google.com genius.com/ songtexte.com/ all go for ‘wouldn’t be’ while some others make it ‘would be’ or even ‘wouldn’t mean’ with ‘wouldn’t be’ obviously prevailing in the net. Strange?..
Not really - just the nature of the Internet (people contributing what they hear to lyric websites) combined with the way he sings it, which makes it easily mistaken.