Lyric discussion by carrie ann 

Cover art for I Wish I Was lyrics by Avett Brothers, The

I love this song BUT the grammatical error ruins it for me. I'm not even that interested in grammar, but this disregard for convention in a line that's repeated throughout the song seems gratuitous. Why couldn't they just say "I wish I were..."? It has the same number of syllables and no rhyming issues. This would be my all time favorite song but the grammar irks me. Do they know it's wrong and use "was" anyways to sound more genuine? Or is it in fact an intentional error? Do grammar conventions even matter? In the song "Fisher Road" they sing about going to university and learning bigger words to use without regard for their audience. So are they purposely ignoring grammatical conventions? I'm so curious that I can't sleep.