Is "start" necessary here?
Native speaker’s answer
Rebecca
Yes, "start" is necessary for the sentence to make sense. Firstly, the implication of the sentence is that the person she is singing about didn't care about her before, and there is no point in them caring now. This is why she says "don't start". Secondly, we cannot use the sentence structure of 'don't + verb + ing' in English. If we omit "start" from the sentence it becomes, "don't caring about me now", which is grammatically incorrect.