Ain't For Metrical Reasons

Tonight I downloaded a very good album, Colorblind by Robert Randolph & The Family Band, coming a bit late to the RR&TFB circle of fandom, but I was only just introduced. Then I got a couple more albums after that being in a musically desirous mood this first snowy eve of the season. Then again experiencing how these new musical additions tend to get so totally lost in the vast vacuum de iTunes when you download more than two things and then can't remember what you just purchased or figure out how to configure the blinkin' application to sort by "Newest Addition" which would seem obvious, clever and defaultish...

Anyway, remembering that on the first album I bought - Colorblind - there's a song Ain't Nothing Wrong With That which is a fun, jammy, danceable blues/gospel tune, I search "ain't" and lo and beholdsky, what an absolute goldmine of songs include the notword "ain't" in their titles within my very own confoundingly unsortably giant iTunes liberry!

The online free Merriam-Webster Dictionary tells me that ain't "is flourishing in American English" despite being "widely disapproved as nonstandard" and commonly used by the "less educated" (than what/whom?) to mean: am not, are not, has not, did not, etcetera and other things you already know... Not included in the definition: "works really good-like in song lyrics being monosyllabic while lending a certain unpretentious low poetry and downtobusiness twangy familiarity." It does concede, however (and this is for reals): "...also used for metrical reasons in popular songs..."

Herewith, the "Ain't For Metrical Reasons" Playlist:

Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing - Nina Simone

Things Ain't Like They Used to Be - The Black Keys

Ain't No Easy Way - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross & The Supremes & The Temptations

There Ain't A Girl Alive - Joan Armatrading

I Ain't Got Time - Fern Jones

I Ain't Proud - Langhorne Slim

Ain't No Cure For Love - Leonard Cohen

Ain't Going Down to the Well - Tom Waits

Ain't it the Truth - The Gossip

People Ain't No Good - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds