I heard the long version of Light My Fire on the radio today – what a great song, even 51 years after its release.

Here’s what bugs me – look at the third line of the first verse:

You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Girl, we couldn’t get much higher

The word was should be were because ‘if’ opens up the subjunctive mode. The Doors should, if they were following grammatical rules, had the verse read “If I were to say to you..”

Have two generations of rock music listeners been mis-educated by The Doors?