Why not present perfect in "Nobody told me"

There is a song by John Lennon called "Nobody Told Me". It goes like this:

Nobody told me there'd be days like these / Strange days indeed

As ESL learners we are told that in the presence of a negation present perfect should be used. The reason that is usually given is that simple past is only acceptable when you can pin a specific point of time to the event in question, which is not possible in presence of a negation simply because the event has never happened.

Considering that, one should expect the lyrics to read:

Nobody's told me ...

Of course, I'm aware of the fact that John Lennon, being a native speaker, is unlikely to have gotten his tenses wrong ... but still, it would be nice if somebody could come up with an explanation for it.

Solution 1:

As ESL learners we are told that in the presence of a negation present perfect should be used. The reason that is usually given is that simple past is only acceptable when you can pin a specific point of time to the event in question, which is not possible in presence of a negation simply because the event has never happened.

Regardless of where you were "told" about this preposterous lie, you're wrong. The very existence of auxiliary verb contractions such as wasn't, weren't and didn't clearly shows that you can negate the simple past form of the verb.

Moreover, your example is not even verbal negation. The negator nobody is the subject of the sentence.