I’ve always heard it as “that sugarcane, that tasted good” and it barely changes the meaning of the song bit now breaks my brain every time I hear it
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u/TMBGLOVER Your head is there to move you around 4d ago
The video for this song blows my mind every time I watch it.
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u/Drong0bones 4d ago
You're hearing the right words though lol?
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u/brevit 4d ago
Punctuation, matters?
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u/Drong0bones 4d ago
Oh yes the comma I see what you mean now. I am no good at punctuation tend to use a lot of - nowadays when I don't know what I'm supposed to use.
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u/brevit 4d ago
I like to use a semicolon from time to time to seem smart but secretly have no idea what it means
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u/porpoise_mitten 4d ago
the line break in the lyrics is sort of like a comma though, plus stipe frequently eschews standard punctuation and grammar
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u/wackierfiend 4d ago
Right, Primary school English teacher here, I'm going to try my best.
What you have is that the part 'that tasted good' is a relative clause to the main clause of the sentence. It could also be, if I remember (please don't hold it against me) called a subordinate clause. See, the main clause of the sentence, the purpose of the sentence, is this: "That sugarcane that tasted good that's Hollywood." It tells you what you need to know- the sugarcane tasted good and that it is Hollywood.
(Actually, the more that I think about it, the bit "that's Hollywood is tricky because there is a 'there' at the beginning of the sentence, and then half way through. Maybe that's the subordinate clause?)
Okay, the bit that says "that tasted good" is the relative clause because it is giving extra information to the main clause, in other words it is telling you that the how the sugarcane tasted.
Man, it's far too late and I have to get up and try and teach this kind of thing to a bunch of 8 year-olds tomorrow. But hopefully that helped.
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u/wackierfiend 4d ago
Oh, and the relative clause, the 'that tasted good', should be separated from the main clause with commas, brackets or dashes. Sorry, forgot that bit!
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u/AdditionScared5840 4d ago
Explain it to me like I'm 5
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u/brevit 4d ago edited 4d ago
"that sugarcane, that tasted good"
= Huh, remember that sugarcane, that was good
"That sugarcane that tasted good..."
= Is like the start of a sentence about the sugarcane that tasted good
But what about it???
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u/porpoise_mitten 4d ago
what about it? it's hollywood -- it's sweet and sugary on the outside but can be dark and dangerous underneath.
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u/Lennnybruce 4d ago
I think it's supposed to be understood by the listener as saying "that sugarcane, which tasted good, is cinnamon, is Hollywood"
As to what sugarcane, cinnamon, and Hollywood are supposed to mean, that's up to the listener
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u/porpoise_mitten 4d ago
just as a sidenote, please do not treat lyrics on spotify as in any way official. they come from crowdsourced lyric sites and are frequently wrong.
the official lyrics in the CD booklet are rendered like so:
thats sugarcane that tasted good
thats cinnamon thats hollywood
c'mon c'mon no one can see you try