18 present perfect songs u know & love

 

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to produce present perfect in english u need the auxiliary have or has and the past participle of another verb.

it’s the same structure in spanish, but recognize that the auxiliary have/has translates as haber NOT tener.  check out these examples in popular music…..

• if u were rickrolled in 2008, u may not have let the video play long enough to realize that there is a standard application of present perfect used twice.  in rick astley‘s never gonna give u up  (the rickroll song) at 1:01 and again at 2:16 the lyrics say

we’ve known each other for so long
your heart’s been aching, but you’re too shy to say it (say it)
inside, we both know what’s been going on (going on)

your heart’s been aching and what’s been going on are both present perfect continuous. ache means hurt. shy is nervous around people.

present perfect is often used with the word ever to indicate that an experience has happened some time in your life. or to emphasize the importance of an experience.

here are  5 songs that use ever and like the rickroll contain the past participle known:

• the chorus of jessie j‘s smash hit domino includes these lines…

rock my world until the sunlight
make this dream the best i’ve ever known

• the chorus of justin bieber‘s track my favorite girl from early in his career says…

of all the girls i’ve ever known, it’s u, my favorite girl

• the video for 80s anthem here i go again by whitesnake is confusing. lead singer david coverdale and actress tawny kitaen (the star of the video dancing on the cars) look like they might be the same person and the lyrics in the chorus make kitaen’s participation questionable in the first place…

here i go again on my own
going down the only road i’ve ever known
like a drifter, I was born to walk alone

additionally, there is present perfect in the final two lines of the chorus…

and i’ve made up my mind
i ain’t wasting no more time

and the first two lines of the song

i don’t know where i’m going
but i sure know where i’ve been

• an example from early 90s zeitgeist 👉🏼the first lyric in the smashing pumpkins song today …

today’s the greatest day i’ve ever known

• and taylor swift‘s song about her relationship with actor jake gyllenhall, all too well (which is a phrase used to describe an extremely familiar or deeply understood scenario), is useful too. listen at 10:25…

but u keep my old scarf from that very first week
’cause it reminds u of innocence
and it smells like me
u can’t get rid of it
’cause u remember it all too well, yeah
’cause there we are again when I loved u so
back before u lost the one real thing you’ve ever known

the red scarf in the all too well video is an important metaphor for taylor swift and her fans

get rid of means throw away, remove.

• in contrast, dr. hook‘s classic the cover of the rolling stone details the band’s rock and roll experiences which DO NOT include appearing on the cover of rolling stone magazine (a distinction that was more important in the pre-internet era).  listen at :22 for this lyric…

we take all kinds of pills that give us all kind of thrills
but the thrill we’ve never known
is the thrill that’ll getcha when u get your picture
on the cover of the rollin’ stone

a thrill is a positive feeling of excitement. getcha is a reduction of get u.

• mexican spanish does not usually use present perfect to talk about the experience of going to a place. the spanish verb typically used in these situations is conocer, which in most cases is translated into english as know or meet.  but when talking about going places in english, this is a mistake. u should use present perfect with visited (visit) or more commonly been (be), as in the title of johnny cash‘s tribute to all the places he visited,  i’ve been everywhere.                            

in addition to the title being used in the chorus, there are four verses that start with i’ve been to... and include extensive lists of towns, cities, states and countries visited.

• joe walsh is a member of the eagles and his guitar work on hotel california contributed to making that song an unforgettable rock track. his song fairbanks, alaska asks various questions that start with “have u ever…”.  at 1:50, walsh uses never and sings (in contrast to johnny cash’s song above)…

i’ve never been to fairbanks, alaska that’s the only place i’ve never been

• speaking of hotel california, it contains an easy to identify example of present perfect in a famous lyric. listen at 2:40 in the video for …

so i called up the captain, please bring me my wine
he said we haven’t had that spirit here since 1969

• bringing it back to the present, listen to sam smith and kim petras‘ cut unholy at 1:45…

dirty, dirty boy. u know everyone is talking on the scene
i hear them whispering ’bout the places that you’ve been
and how u don’t know how to keep your business clean

• the chorus of central cee‘s let go has a line that says

only know that you’ve been high when you’re feeling low

• central cee’s version samples passenger‘s gigantic 2012 hit let her go, which has the same chorus…

• the chorus of are u experienced? by jimi hendrix is another example of the use of ever with present perfect.  jimi asks

are u experienced? have u ever been experienced?

jimi’s meaning here is open to interpretation. one possibility is understanding this line as  clever wordplay (smart arrangement of the lyrics). have u ever been experienced can be understood as present perfect passive voice. it changes the perspective from asking about experience (are u experienced?) to being the object of experience.  in other words, has someone else experienced u?

• from one blues virtuoso to another, the first line of this beloved b.b. king jam is

i’ve been downhearted baby
ever since the day we met

downhearted means very sad. ever since means continuously from that time.

standing outside a broken phone booth with money in my hand, primitive radio gods’ only hit sampled bb king’s famous line and also added this present perfect example in the lyrics at the beginning of the second verse (1:00)…

we sit outside and argue all night long
about a god we’ve never seen
but never fails to side with me

sticking with the concept of a god guiding us, nas & damian marley‘s in his own words references the rastifarian god jah multiple times. as for present perfect, at 1:55 damian says…

hey can u think of a color that you’ve never seen?
can u reminisce on places you’ve never been?

and at 3:30 nas says…

and these know-it-all rappers have become more weird
as if they were superior and fans are inferior

and to conclude with the god theme, could have u ever seen the rain be a tribute to the aztec rain god tlaloc?  probably not. but creedence clearwater revival is beloved in mexico and have u ever seen the rain might be the most obvious and popular present perfect song of the past hundred years.

the true story in the reel above is told with these 9 present perfect examples:

*has this ever happened to u?
*i’ve compiled a fire fucking list of present perfect songs
*i’ve defined interesting words in the lyrics of the songs and i’ve presented these definitions in a blog post on richyrocks.com 
*i’ve created a humorous tiktok to promote the blogpost and playlist              *i’ve selected a song as the soundtrack for my tiktok. it’s a good one
*what’s this? the entire audio has been removed from my tiktok including my humorous diaglogue
*they’ve taken my voice and it’s left me downhearted

additionally, there are vocabulary examples of ever (at any time), fire (great), fucking  (for emphasis), downhearted (sad), meanwhile (at the same time), hoarder (acqires/accumulates an excessive quanity of things), border (line that divides countries), zonkey (hybrid of a donkey and a zebra) and dick (penis).

which present perfect song do u like best?  what other songs do u know that utilize the present perfect? share your input under leave a reply