‘Proper English Only’ Song Ordinance Proposed

Eric Crafton, the Metro Council member who has made a cottage industry out of attempting to make English the “official” language of Nashville, upped the ante this week with a proposal to restrict the use of slang and incorrect grammar in songs performed or recorded in Music City.

“While fighting to make Nashville an ‘English-only’ city, I have developed a deep appreciation for the use of proper English, and I now know that substandard usage is every bit as much a threat as Spanish-speaking immigrants,” Crafton says.

Crafton says his bill would, for example, require singers to carefully enunciate the “ing” syllable in Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” which, by law, would be rendered “Your Cheating Heart.”

The law would apply to “all public performances and recordings within Davidson County, Tennessee.”

“So this means that singing ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ would be against the law?” asks one incredulous performer when told of Crafton’s proposal. “That’s beyond crazy.”

The proposed law would also apply to “Ain’t No Sunshine,” “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” and John Mellencamp’s “Pink Houses,” with its refrain “Ain’t that America,” to cite three examples of hundreds of affected songs—many of them country classics written by people who knew how to communicate using the language and words of rural working people.

“We might as well shut down Music Row,” says on appalled member of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce. “Where does he get off trying to police what people say or how they say it?”

Crafton, it turns out, has an answer for that question.

“I’m doing this for the kids,” he says modestly. “We teach that education is the most important thing for our children and our community, and this is an extension of that. We want the name of Nashville to be associated with high education, good English and great music. I think we can have all three.”