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I have frequently seen that certain people post, on certain websites, lyrics of a certain song with a cleaning, a grammatical cleaning. For instance, take the song See See Rider by Big bill broonzy. Here is a link: http://youtu.be/3hIcF_1DTFg

As an example, let us look at a extract of the song, namely:

"See see rider see what you done done, You see see rider, see what you done done, You done made me love you and now your man done come."

This is what Big Bill Broonzy sings. However, when I search for lyrics on google, I find this:

"See see rider see what you have done, You see see rider, see what you Have done, You have made me love you and now your man have come."

Which is different to the original Big Bill Broonzy's version. (Done ---> have)

I believe this is an insult. But, I would like to ask you all, what do you think? Do you think it is permissible to clean lyrics?

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    As written, this question is entirely opinion based and there are not many (if any) facts that can be brought into the discussion. Is it "correct" to change written lyrics? Well... no. Is it an "insult"? That's going to depend entirely on the person answering the question.
    – Lin
    Commented Jul 11, 2015 at 19:35
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    Lyrics are copyrighted, and cannot be legally copied (other than excerpts) without permission. So it doesn't really matter. Anyway I would guess it is possible the lyrics were not transcribed by a native English speaker. Interpretation is a completely different matter.
    – user3169
    Commented Jul 12, 2015 at 5:59
  • What is an insult? The fact that someone did a job and commits some flaws, or the fact that someone else sees the flaws and just complains about that? It is very rare to have official sources for lyrics, so most of online ressources are fan made. As far as I know they are open to corrections so you can submit your corrections?
    – Bebs
    Commented Mar 21, 2017 at 8:20

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