If It Hadn’t Been for Love
Adele Lyrics


Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴  Line by Line Meaning ↴

Never woulda hitch-hiked to Birmingham
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda caught the train to Louisian'
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda run through the blindin' rain
Without one dollar to my name
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love
Never woulda seen the trouble that I'm in
If it hadn't been for love
Woulda been gone like a wayward wind
If it hadn't been for love
Nobody knows it better than me
I wouldn't be wishing I was free
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love

Four cold walls against my will
At least I know he's lying still
Four cold walls without parole
Lord have mercy on my soul

Never woulda gone to that side of town
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda took a mind to track him down
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda loaded up a forty-four
And put myself behind a jailhouse door
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love

Four cold walls against my will
At least I know he's lying still
Four cold walls without parole
Lord have mercy on my soul

Never woulda hitch hiked to Birmingham
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda caught the train to Louisian'
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda loaded up a forty four
And put myself behind a jailhouse door
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love




If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love

Overall Meaning

In Adele's song "If It Hadn't Been for Love," the singer reflects on the events that led her to a life of trouble and imprisonment, and how all of it was because of love. The song starts off with the singer confessing that she would have never hitchhiked to Birmingham or taken the train to Louisiana if it wasn't for love. She also mentions that she would have never braved the blinding rain without any money to her name. The second verse reveals that the reason for her troubled life was a man who she wouldn't have known if it wasn't for love. She then goes on to mention how she wouldn't be in the situation she was in if it wasn't for love.


The chorus of the song adds to the bleakness of the story as the singer mentions how she's in a prison surrounded by four cold walls. She continues to reflect on the past with regret and wishes to be free from the situation she finds herself in now. The last verse mentions how the singer wouldn't have gone looking for the man who is the source of her troubles if it wasn't for love. She ends the song by repeating the chorus, emphasizing the severity of her current situation.


Overall, the song is a tragic tale of how love can lead to ruin and heartbreak. It showcases how sometimes the very thing we think is good for us can lead us down a dark path.


Line by Line Meaning

Never woulda hitch-hiked to Birmingham If it hadn't been for love
I would've never resorted to hitchhiking to get to Birmingham if it wasn't for my love pushing me to do it.


Never woulda caught the train to Louisian' If it hadn't been for love
I would've never taken the train to Louisiana if it wasn't for love guiding me there.


Never woulda run through the blindin' rain Without one dollar to my name If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love
If it wasn't for my love driving me, I wouldn't have put myself through running through heavy rain with no money to my name.


Never woulda seen the trouble that I'm in If it hadn't been for love Woulda been gone like a wayward wind If it hadn't been for love Nobody knows it better than me I wouldn't be wishing I was free If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love
My love brought me into trouble that I wouldn't have otherwise seen. Without my love, I wouldn't be longing for freedom.


Four cold walls against my will At least I know he's lying still Four cold walls without parole Lord have mercy on my soul
I am confined to these walls against my will, but at least I know that the person I love is still. These four walls are my prison with no possibility of parole. May the Lord have mercy on my soul.


Never woulda gone to that side of town If it hadn't been for love Never woulda took a mind to track him down If it hadn't been for love Never woulda loaded up a forty-four And put myself behind a jailhouse door If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love
If it wasn't for my love, I wouldn't have gone to the other side of town to track him down with a loaded forty-four that put me behind bars.


If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love
Without my love, none of these events would have played out. If it wasn't for love, everything would be different.




Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: MICHAEL JAMES HENDERSON, CHRIS STAPLETON

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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@angelawilliams4827

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Why Do Some People Seem To Lose Their Accents When They’re Singing?
If you’ve ever been confused when you heard a musical artist talking during an interview, this article is for you.
BY THOMAS MOORE DEVLIN
August 1, 2022
Why Do Some People Seem To Lose Their Accents When They’re Singing?
Singing and speaking seem like they should be pretty similar activities. Both involve forming sounds with your mouth and vocal cords. Sure, you don’t randomly start singing in the middle of a conversation — unless you’re very into musical theater — but still, they overlap in many ways. If that’s the case, then, it doesn’t explain why people’s singing and speaking voices can differ so widely. More specifically, why do some people seem to lose their accent when singing?

Take Adele. She grew up in Tottenham, London, and her speaking voice is distinctively British. Many people say it’s a Cockney accent, though she isn’t technically from the area associated with that way of speaking. If you hear her sing, though, you’d be hard-pressed to guess where she’s from.

There are a few different things going on here. To understand why a person sounds so different when they sing, you have to look at both the physical act of singing and the cultural forces shaping the music industry. But first, we have to discuss what it means to “lose” your accent when singing.

Are People Losing Their Accents When Singing?

The first thing to know is that it is impossible to speak without an accent. At its most basic, an accent is simply the way we pronounce certain words. No matter who you are and what you sound like, you’re using an accent, or you wouldn’t be able to form sounds at all.

When we say someone is “losing” their accent, what it really means is that they’re speaking in a way that we consider more neutral. In many cases, that means taking on an accent called General American. Often associated with newscasters, General American is defined not for what it sounds like but for what it doesn’t sound like. It doesn’t have the r-lessness of a Boston or British accent, it doesn’t have a U.S. southern twang and it gives you absolutely no information as to where the speaker might be from. Because of how General American evolved, it’s also very white, very male and associated with “authority” in the United States.

Returning to the original question of this article, we can rephrase it from “Why do people lose their accents when singing?” to “Why do people tend to sound like they’re using a General American accent when singing?” With this new question in mind, we have to look at two big factors.

Singing’s Effect On Accents

Your accent comprises all of the specific ways you pronounce words in your language. When we talk about accents, we usually focus on the most noticeable aspects, like the difference between to-may-to and to-mah-to. Really, though, there are countless features in an accent, from how long you sustain vowels in a word to the tone you use when you’re saying them. All of these add up to your distinct voice, and all of these are subject to change when you’re singing instead of speaking.

The biggest explanation for a singer’s accent change, then, is that many accent features vanish because of the nature of singing itself. An article in Mental Floss cites linguist David Crystal’s explanation, which is that, “a song’s melody cancels out the intonations of speech, followed by the beat of the music canceling out the rhythm of speech.” Thus, many of the features that give away your speaking accent are not possible to reproduce when you’re singing.

Why, though, would it sound like a General American accent instead of something else entirely? As mentioned above, the General American accent is defined by the lack of distinct features, instead of the presence of any in particular. While singers might not be doing a General American accent exactly, when their singing voices make certain features vanish, it so happens that the result would be closer to General American.

Even with that in mind, though, it doesn’t entirely explain the phenomenon that’s happening. For one thing, there are plenty of musical artists who clearly have an accent when singing. Many country music artists in the United States show off their southern accent in their songs, to use but one example. To understand the use of General American in music, then, we must turn to the cultural side of things.

The Cultural Reasons For Accent “Loss”

Throughout the 20th century, the United States came into its role as a massive cultural exporter. It was the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll and its music spread far and wide, whether other countries really wanted it or not. One option for a non-American musical artist who wanted to catch the wave of “American cool” would be to imitate the sound, and many did. Even if singing with an American accent is not a conscious decision — some up-and-comers are naturally influenced by more established voices, which happen to be American — it’s had a wide impact in music history.

To use an example of a band that has had its music dissected completely over the decades, we look to the Beatles. Admittedly, if you listen to their entire archive of music, you know that their British-ness (and specifically Liverpool-ness) stands out, particular in their later songs. Yet in a thorough examination of their accents in their music on the blog Ace Linguist, the writer found some clear examples of American accent features being used. In a song called “Another Girl,” they start the song by clearly pronouncing the “r” in “another” like an American would, but by the end of the song they’re pronouncing it as the more Liverpudlian “another.” In another song, “Till There Was You,” singer Paul McCartney over-corrects for his r-lessness by pronouncing “I never saw them winging” like “I never sar them winging,” placing an “r” where one wouldn’t otherwise be. Both of these point to the singers trying to sound slightly more American in their music.

While this can start to sound conspiratorial if you keep digging for clues, there are also artists who openly admit to trying to sound more American in their singing. British boy band One Direction once said their record company told them they sounded “too English,” and so they had to tweak their accents in their music. On the flipside of the matter, there are singers who reject the American way of singing to show off their accents, like artists in the British grime scene. As American cultural hegemony has lessened over the years, there has been a greater diversity of voices in the music industry.

The way we sing, like the way we talk, is shaped by countless forces around us. While some of it is entirely out of our control, the way we sing can convey our individuality or it can align us with a group we’re longing to be part of. Accents are another way that music has allowed us to express ourselves since the earliest days of human society.
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Author Headshot
Thomas Moore Devlin
Thomas grew up in suburban Massachusetts, and moved to New York City for college. He studied English literature and linguistics at New York University, but spent most of his time in college working for the student paper. Because of this, he has really hard opinions about AP Style. In his spare time, he enjoys reading and getting angry about things on Twitter. He's spent a lot of time trying to learn Spanish, and has learned a little German.
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@julianpiccin2767

Never woulda hitch hiked to Birmingham
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda caught the train to Louisiana
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda run through the blindin' rain
Without one dollar to my name
If it hadn't been
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda seen the trouble that I'm in
If it hadn't been for love
Woulda been gone like a wayward wind
If it hadn't been for love
Nobody knows it better than me
I wouldn't be wishing I was free
If it hadn't been
If it hadn't been for love
Four cold walls against my will
At least I know he's lying still
Four cold walls without parole
Lord have mercy on my soul
Never woulda gone to that side of town
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda took a mind to track him down
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda loaded up a forty four
Put myself behind a jail house door
If it hadn't been
If it hadn't been for love
Four cold walls against my will
At least I know he's lying still
Four cold walls without parole
Lord have mercy on my soul
Never woulda hitch hiked to Birmingham
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda caught the train to Louisiana
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda loaded up a forty four
Put myself behind a jail house door
If it hadn't been...
If it hadn't been for love
If it hadn't been...
If it hadn't been for love
If it hadn't been...
If it hadn't been for love



@itsmeadamdanial8926

Never woulda hitch-hiked to Birmingham
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda caught the train to Louisian'
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda run through the blindin' rain
Without one dollar to my name
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love
Never woulda seen the trouble that I'm in
If it hadn't been for love
Woulda been gone like a wayward wind
If it hadn't been for love
Nobody knows it better than me
I wouldn't be wishing I was free
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love
Four cold walls against my will
At least I know he's lying still
Four cold walls without parole
Lord have mercy on my soul
Never woulda gone to that side of town
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda took a mind to track him down
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda loaded up a forty-four
And put myself behind a jailhouse door
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love
Four cold walls against my will
At least I know he's lying still
Four cold walls without parole
Lord have mercy on my soul
Never woulda hitch hiked to Birmingham
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda caught the train to Louisian'
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda loaded up a forty four
And put myself behind a jailhouse door
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love



@KevinRodriguez-no8dl

Never woulda hitch-hiked to Birmingham
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda caught the train to Louisian'
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda run through the blindin' rain
Without one dollar to my name
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love

Never woulda seen the trouble that I'm in
If it hadn't been for love
Woulda been gone like a wayward wind
If it hadn't been for love
Nobody knows it better than me
I wouldn't be wishing I was free
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love

Four cold walls against my will
At least I know he's lying still
Four cold walls without parole
Lord have mercy on my soul

Never woulda gone to that side of town
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda took a mind to track him down
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda loaded up a forty-four
And put myself behind a jailhouse door
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love

Four cold walls against my will
At least I know he's lying still
Four cold walls without parole
Lord have mercy on my soul

Never woulda hitch hiked to Birmingham
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda caught the train to Louisian'
If it hadn't been for love
Never woulda loaded up a forty four
And put myself behind a jailhouse door
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love
If it hadn't been, if it hadn't been for love



All comments from YouTube:

@daafrothoafro8338

Will truly never understand how Adele goes from that normal British accent to what is quite literally one of the most electrifying and beautiful singing voices on the planet.

@angelawilliams4827

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Why Do Some People Seem To Lose Their Accents When They’re Singing?
If you’ve ever been confused when you heard a musical artist talking during an interview, this article is for you.
BY THOMAS MOORE DEVLIN
August 1, 2022
Why Do Some People Seem To Lose Their Accents When They’re Singing?
Singing and speaking seem like they should be pretty similar activities. Both involve forming sounds with your mouth and vocal cords. Sure, you don’t randomly start singing in the middle of a conversation — unless you’re very into musical theater — but still, they overlap in many ways. If that’s the case, then, it doesn’t explain why people’s singing and speaking voices can differ so widely. More specifically, why do some people seem to lose their accent when singing?

Take Adele. She grew up in Tottenham, London, and her speaking voice is distinctively British. Many people say it’s a Cockney accent, though she isn’t technically from the area associated with that way of speaking. If you hear her sing, though, you’d be hard-pressed to guess where she’s from.

There are a few different things going on here. To understand why a person sounds so different when they sing, you have to look at both the physical act of singing and the cultural forces shaping the music industry. But first, we have to discuss what it means to “lose” your accent when singing.

Are People Losing Their Accents When Singing?

The first thing to know is that it is impossible to speak without an accent. At its most basic, an accent is simply the way we pronounce certain words. No matter who you are and what you sound like, you’re using an accent, or you wouldn’t be able to form sounds at all.

When we say someone is “losing” their accent, what it really means is that they’re speaking in a way that we consider more neutral. In many cases, that means taking on an accent called General American. Often associated with newscasters, General American is defined not for what it sounds like but for what it doesn’t sound like. It doesn’t have the r-lessness of a Boston or British accent, it doesn’t have a U.S. southern twang and it gives you absolutely no information as to where the speaker might be from. Because of how General American evolved, it’s also very white, very male and associated with “authority” in the United States.

Returning to the original question of this article, we can rephrase it from “Why do people lose their accents when singing?” to “Why do people tend to sound like they’re using a General American accent when singing?” With this new question in mind, we have to look at two big factors.

Singing’s Effect On Accents

Your accent comprises all of the specific ways you pronounce words in your language. When we talk about accents, we usually focus on the most noticeable aspects, like the difference between to-may-to and to-mah-to. Really, though, there are countless features in an accent, from how long you sustain vowels in a word to the tone you use when you’re saying them. All of these add up to your distinct voice, and all of these are subject to change when you’re singing instead of speaking.

The biggest explanation for a singer’s accent change, then, is that many accent features vanish because of the nature of singing itself. An article in Mental Floss cites linguist David Crystal’s explanation, which is that, “a song’s melody cancels out the intonations of speech, followed by the beat of the music canceling out the rhythm of speech.” Thus, many of the features that give away your speaking accent are not possible to reproduce when you’re singing.

Why, though, would it sound like a General American accent instead of something else entirely? As mentioned above, the General American accent is defined by the lack of distinct features, instead of the presence of any in particular. While singers might not be doing a General American accent exactly, when their singing voices make certain features vanish, it so happens that the result would be closer to General American.

Even with that in mind, though, it doesn’t entirely explain the phenomenon that’s happening. For one thing, there are plenty of musical artists who clearly have an accent when singing. Many country music artists in the United States show off their southern accent in their songs, to use but one example. To understand the use of General American in music, then, we must turn to the cultural side of things.

The Cultural Reasons For Accent “Loss”

Throughout the 20th century, the United States came into its role as a massive cultural exporter. It was the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll and its music spread far and wide, whether other countries really wanted it or not. One option for a non-American musical artist who wanted to catch the wave of “American cool” would be to imitate the sound, and many did. Even if singing with an American accent is not a conscious decision — some up-and-comers are naturally influenced by more established voices, which happen to be American — it’s had a wide impact in music history.

To use an example of a band that has had its music dissected completely over the decades, we look to the Beatles. Admittedly, if you listen to their entire archive of music, you know that their British-ness (and specifically Liverpool-ness) stands out, particular in their later songs. Yet in a thorough examination of their accents in their music on the blog Ace Linguist, the writer found some clear examples of American accent features being used. In a song called “Another Girl,” they start the song by clearly pronouncing the “r” in “another” like an American would, but by the end of the song they’re pronouncing it as the more Liverpudlian “another.” In another song, “Till There Was You,” singer Paul McCartney over-corrects for his r-lessness by pronouncing “I never saw them winging” like “I never sar them winging,” placing an “r” where one wouldn’t otherwise be. Both of these point to the singers trying to sound slightly more American in their music.

While this can start to sound conspiratorial if you keep digging for clues, there are also artists who openly admit to trying to sound more American in their singing. British boy band One Direction once said their record company told them they sounded “too English,” and so they had to tweak their accents in their music. On the flipside of the matter, there are singers who reject the American way of singing to show off their accents, like artists in the British grime scene. As American cultural hegemony has lessened over the years, there has been a greater diversity of voices in the music industry.

The way we sing, like the way we talk, is shaped by countless forces around us. While some of it is entirely out of our control, the way we sing can convey our individuality or it can align us with a group we’re longing to be part of. Accents are another way that music has allowed us to express ourselves since the earliest days of human society.
Learn a new language today.
TRY BABBEL
Share:
facebook icon
twitter icon
linkedin icon
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pinterest icon
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Author Headshot
Thomas Moore Devlin
Thomas grew up in suburban Massachusetts, and moved to New York City for college. He studied English literature and linguistics at New York University, but spent most of his time in college working for the student paper. Because of this, he has really hard opinions about AP Style. In his spare time, he enjoys reading and getting angry about things on Twitter. He's spent a lot of time trying to learn Spanish, and has learned a little German.
Recommended Articles

The 8 Foreign-Language Songs That Have Topped The US Charts
The 8 Foreign-Language Songs That Have Topped The US Charts
BY THOMAS MOORE DEVLIN
7 Popular English Songs That Were Originally Performed In Other Languages
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@jimclawley9117

Or they just grew up listening to certain acts and mimicked them.

@kevinprzy4539

@@angelawilliams4827 educational comment, ironically showing their accent in Grime is ironic because Grime imo is absolute trash

@gamingbrotherstech883

She is witch😂

@CraigT

This is genuinely superb. We need more country music from Adele

@clarissam.8740

5:20

@goofsaddggkle7351

Written by Chris Stapleton

@truthbearingpsychonaut

This is soul and blues more than anything.

@PocketAces2Start

When she says, "The sentiment is about killing his wife" she sure shocked the crowd into laughter. I love the tone of her voice ,especially in the beginning of the song. Perfect for this song. She is is a good singer no matter what she sings though.

More Comments

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