Did John Lennon sing wrong?

In the song "How do you sleep?", in which he attacks his former partner Paul McCartney, John Lennon sings: "Those freaks was right when they said you was dead".
Correct form should be "Those freaks were right when they said you were dead", shouldn't it?
Or is it a form of poetic license?

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5 respostas
Ordenar por: Data
dlr 1
he's grammatically incorrect, but it's a song. On the other hand, I know a lot of uneducated people that talk like that normally.
Donay Mendonça 23 127 1.7k
Complementando:

Sim, cantou errado e recomendo não copiar o erro apesar de ter sido cometido por um nativo.

Como disse o DLR:
but it's a song
Para mim, tem a ver com 'poetic license'.

Boa sorte!
Poetic license has in many songs, as "Love don't live here anymore" of Madonna (the right would be "doesn't"); as "DJ, let it play" of Can you hear me of Enrique Iglesias (correct: plays); etc.
Yes, poetic license is commom, but in this case of Lennon, it seems to me much more to be a mistake, not poetic license, because there is no apparent reason to use "were" rather than "was", since it doesn't make any sound change.
dlr 1
Sissi_B escreveu:Poetic license has in many songs, as "Love don't live here anymore" of Madonna (the right would be "doesn't"); as "DJ, let it play" of Can you hear me of Enrique Iglesias (correct: plays); etc.
"let it play" is correct, because you can't conjugate 2 verbs. ('deixe a música tocar').. but you're right, sometimes songs even make mistakes on purpose.