The Boys need a better proofreader!

For general discussion of Pet Shop Boys topics.
Message
Author
User avatar
Sandy Shaw
Posts: 4201
Joined: Thu 29 Nov 2007, 8:36 am
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#106 Post by Sandy Shaw »

Patrick Bateman wrote:
No Muscle Mary wrote:Neil corrects West End Girls to West End girls.

He got this one wrong. The title of a song is a proper noun, therefore gets capitals. How can you give The Pop Kids full capitals and not the girls in West End Girls? I worked as a sub-editor for years, and it's rarely Neil gets something wrong, but he's wrong on this one.
Surely West End girls are simply girls from the West End, just as Brazilian girls are girls from Brazil? If it was The West End Girls, or West End Girls the group, then it would be a proper noun. As it is, it's a common noun with an adjective preceding it.

Similarly, The Pop Kids is a proper noun because it refers to a specific couple of people, rather than pop kids in general.
Yes, but look at how other bands capitalise their song titles. Neil had to make a point years ago that PSB were in a sense breaking the rules!
What's for supper?

bohemians.
Posts: 1590
Joined: Wed 05 Nov 2008, 9:46 am
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#107 Post by bohemians. »

for example "Lyrics of the day" are wrong today! it goes "in love with he" and corret is "IN LOVE WITH ME"!

User avatar
No Muscle Mary
Posts: 1806
Joined: Fri 31 Oct 2003, 8:07 am
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#108 Post by No Muscle Mary »

A song title is supposed to have all capitals because it is a TITLE, therefore proper nouns throughout. It's the NAME of a thing.

Yes, Neil is breaking the norms here.

I had these rules drummed into me in primary school.

http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/capit ... songs.html

West End Girls gets capitals because it is the name of a song. The fact that the West End is also a place, is irrelevant here. Neil has made this into a song title, therefore it gets capitals, girls bit included.
Churlicious

User avatar
No Muscle Mary
Posts: 1806
Joined: Fri 31 Oct 2003, 8:07 am
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#109 Post by No Muscle Mary »

Sandy Shaw wrote:
Patrick Bateman wrote:
No Muscle Mary wrote:Neil corrects West End Girls to West End girls.

He got this one wrong. The title of a song is a proper noun, therefore gets capitals. How can you give The Pop Kids full capitals and not the girls in West End Girls? I worked as a sub-editor for years, and it's rarely Neil gets something wrong, but he's wrong on this one.
Surely West End girls are simply girls from the West End, just as Brazilian girls are girls from Brazil? If it was The West End Girls, or West End Girls the group, then it would be a proper noun. As it is, it's a common noun with an adjective preceding it.

Similarly, The Pop Kids is a proper noun because it refers to a specific couple of people, rather than pop kids in general.
Yes, but look at how other bands capitalise their song titles. Neil had to make a point years ago that PSB were in a sense breaking the rules!
Exactly :up:
Churlicious

User avatar
Sandy Shaw
Posts: 4201
Joined: Thu 29 Nov 2007, 8:36 am
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#110 Post by Sandy Shaw »

bohemians. wrote:for example "Lyrics of the day" are wrong today! it goes "in love with he" and corret is "IN LOVE WITH ME"!
Hello bohemians all lower case!

It is a deliberate lyric, so that Neil can rhyme " he" with " me".
One could argue it should be " When you're in love with him" though! Of course the rhyme gets lost. Neil again is making a conscious choice here, not a mistake!

"I want to wake up" is a great lyric to examine for this thread as Neil refers to "Tainted Love" and "Love Is Strange" with conventional capitalisation - showing that he can do it when he wants to! Not being PSB titles, they warrant more conventional capitalisation.
What's for supper?

User avatar
Sandy Shaw
Posts: 4201
Joined: Thu 29 Nov 2007, 8:36 am
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#111 Post by Sandy Shaw »

rollo wrote:... or you could just respect the artist's preference, and Neil has said that their song titles are normally written as sentences. I'm not sure what's going on with the latest material though.

Chris, on the other hand, is clearly not as OCD as the rest of us...
Haha! There's a lovely bit in the Super launch video where he says, tongue firmly in cheek something like " We're sticklers for punctuation". This was in connection with "What is Super?" website not having a question mark, which of course it couldn't have in the url.
What's for supper?

User avatar
No Muscle Mary
Posts: 1806
Joined: Fri 31 Oct 2003, 8:07 am
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#112 Post by No Muscle Mary »

Sandy Shaw wrote:
bohemians. wrote:for example "Lyrics of the day" are wrong today! it goes "in love with he" and corret is "IN LOVE WITH ME"!
Hello bohemians all lower case!

It is a deliberate lyric, so that Neil can rhyme " he" with " me".
One could argue it should be " When you're in love with him" though! Of course the rhyme gets lost. Neil again is making a conscious choice here, not a mistake!

"I want to wake up" is a great lyric to examine for this thread as Neil refers to "Tainted Love" and "Love Is Strange" with conventional capitalisation - showing that he can do it when he wants to! Not being PSB titles, they warrant more conventional capitalisation.
Is there a song called Love Is Strange, or does it refer to Strange Love by Depeche Mode? Anyone know?
Churlicious

User avatar
Sandy Shaw
Posts: 4201
Joined: Thu 29 Nov 2007, 8:36 am
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#113 Post by Sandy Shaw »

No Muscle Mary wrote:
Sandy Shaw wrote:
bohemians. wrote:for example "Lyrics of the day" are wrong today! it goes "in love with he" and corret is "IN LOVE WITH ME"!
Hello bohemians all lower case!

It is a deliberate lyric, so that Neil can rhyme " he" with " me".
One could argue it should be " When you're in love with him" though! Of course the rhyme gets lost. Neil again is making a conscious choice here, not a mistake!

"I want to wake up" is a great lyric to examine for this thread as Neil refers to "Tainted Love" and "Love Is Strange" with conventional capitalisation - showing that he can do it when he wants to! Not being PSB titles, they warrant more conventional capitalisation.
Is there a song called Love Is Strange, or does it refer to Strange Love by Depeche Mode? Anyone know?
See Wayne's annotations to "I want to wake up" at www.geowayne.com
Yes, the song is called " Love Is Strange".
What's for supper?

User avatar
Sandy Shaw
Posts: 4201
Joined: Thu 29 Nov 2007, 8:36 am
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#114 Post by Sandy Shaw »

This one speaks for itself!
Screenshot_2016-02-21-12-16-33.png
Screenshot_2016-02-21-12-16-33.png (259.64 KiB) Viewed 2956 times
What's for supper?

User avatar
Patrick Bateman
Posts: 9388
Joined: Sat 12 Apr 2008, 4:35 pm
Been thanked: 1 time
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#115 Post by Patrick Bateman »

No Muscle Mary wrote:A song title is supposed to have all capitals because it is a TITLE, therefore proper nouns throughout. It's the NAME of a thing.

Yes, Neil is breaking the norms here.

I had these rules drummed into me in primary school.

http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/capit ... songs.html

West End Girls gets capitals because it is the name of a song. The fact that the West End is also a place, is irrelevant here. Neil has made this into a song title, therefore it gets capitals, girls bit included.
Yes, but he has always made it clear that he does this and, like Harry, I've always considered it to be a favorable trait. It's a very Modernist manifesto.

User avatar
Drico One
Posts: 5850
Joined: Tue 16 Sep 2003, 8:56 pm
Has thanked: 29 times
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#116 Post by Drico One »

In the end, it's a matter of style.

Drico.
The pale kid that hides in the attic behind his PC...

User avatar
Sandy Shaw
Posts: 4201
Joined: Thu 29 Nov 2007, 8:36 am
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#117 Post by Sandy Shaw »

Drico One wrote:In the end, it's a matter of style.

Drico.
Yep. For those who are stuck on "West End girls" - for those for whom it looks plain wrong, check it out on the lyrics page in the list of song titles. Wouldn't a capital G start looking wrong!?
Attachments
Screenshot_2016-02-21-13-03-16.png
Screenshot_2016-02-21-13-03-16.png (231.59 KiB) Viewed 2938 times
What's for supper?

User avatar
Hillbilly
Posts: 2640
Joined: Tue 11 Apr 2006, 6:28 pm
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#118 Post by Hillbilly »

"West End Girls" looks better with a capital G, but a complete sentence like "We all feel better in the dark" looks better that way - as it IS a sentence. I love that the PSB print their titles in this way because we write like that in Swedish! :)

User avatar
TheGardner
Posts: 4442
Joined: Wed 08 Jan 2003, 1:22 am
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 5 times
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#119 Post by TheGardner »

...always decited starting the names of every single word for the digital music files with capitals... such a songname is a noun for me.

since 1999

User avatar
Sandy Shaw
Posts: 4201
Joined: Thu 29 Nov 2007, 8:36 am
Contact:

Re: The Boys need a better proofreader!

#120 Post by Sandy Shaw »

Harry wrote:
I remember Neil being very adamant about 'Love etc.' having no comma after love as the 'et' in 'etcetera' is French for 'and'. Because it's an abbreviation it gets a full stop too!

Harry
Unlike Drico!
http://www.petshopboys-forum.com/viewto ... =1&t=19647
What's for supper?

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot], Bing [Bot], jasonjohn, Semrush [Bot] and 9 guests