Lyrics Cobwebs - Loudon Wainwright III

Cobwebs

Well it stumbles and it falls off of almost every tongue
Give a listen and you’ll hear
It’s workin' like a landmine in almost every sentence
It’s an assault to my mind’s ear
Yeah it might have started back with Jack Kerouac
Probably more than likely it was Maynard G. Krebs
It’s the 4 letter word that used to mean 'as if'
And the meaning’s covered in cobwebs
Cobwebs
Used to be a preposition then it was a conjunction
Now it’s used as an audible pause
Oh I hate it when I hear it especially when I see it
Gotta stamp it out there ought to be some laws
College boys valley girls mall rats grandmammas
Everybody’s mis-usin' that word
I heard it four times in one poor little sentence
It was the saddest sound I ever have heard
Cobwebs x3
I suppose you could blame it on my generation
Chickens from the 60s finally comin' into roost
I’ve been sayin' it myself for over 30 years now
Just to give my cool quota just a little bitty kind of a boost
But when I hear it
I can’t stand it
Especially coming out of the mouths of one of my own kids
It’s been taught and, God
What have we wrought?
Give a listen here, what do we dig?
I prefer ah or er
You can rest assured
If you’re sayin' what you mean then it don’t mean a thing
It’s just an ugly little 4 letter word
Doesn’t anybody care or am I the only one?
Am I just stuck back in some kind of a past?
Maybe it’s harmless but it feels like a virus
And it sounds like it’s catchin' on fast
Cobwebs x2