I was poking around the 'What are you listening to right now?' thread, and was reminded of songs that you at one time misunderstood the lyrics to. There was a kid I used to know who thought that in The Police song Canary in a Coal Mine, they were actually singing "Larry in a Coma"! To this day, every time I hear it, I think of that! [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG7lDY-s24g[/yt] Surely you've others...this could be fun!
posted this one in that thread, but the shame and embarrassment is worth another post... When the Miami Dolphins (American Football, measured in yards...oops, wrong thread! ) were kicking ass and taking names in the '70's, the radio stations were playing the hell out of the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar"...during that time and for years after, I thought they were singing "Don Shula" (the name of the coach of the Dolphins) instead of "brown sugar"... ...hand to god... ...yikes... ...I am cleansed now...
Mondegreens! I love mondegreens. Speaking of classic Rolling Stones songs, for years I thought the first line of the chorus of "Ruby Tuesday" was "Goodbye, Groovy Tuesday." From Steppenwolf's “Born to be Wild”: The line “Fire all of your guns at once and explode into space,” I used to think was “Buy all of the guns and watch them explode into space.” And in the song "Tonight" from West Side Story -- the line "Today the world was just an address" I always used to hear as "Today the world was just a mattress."
Good one How about Blowin´in the Wind by Bob Dylan: Instead of "the answer my friend ..." it´s easy to understand "the ants are my friends".
Two from Heart, from back when I was an early teen in the late 80s: In "Who Will You Run To", she says "Who's gonna love you baby as good as I", and I always thought she was saying, "Who's gonna run your fear's coup d'etat". In "These Dreams", she says "White skin.... in a linen. Perfume on my wrist", and I thought she was saying "White skin, in a lemon, is perfume on my wrist". (By way of explanation: in medieval times, women would rub themselves with scented oils and fruit essences, including citrus peels, to perfume themselves.) And another one from 38 Special: In "Second Chance", he says, "When love makes it sound bad", and I thought he was saying "When love makes a salvage". I thought Heart were some lyrical geniuses, and they are, but I'm actually kind of pleased that those two particular pieces of lyrics that I still think are quite good were the result of my own brain trying to fill in the words, and coming up with them. And frankly, I just refuse to acknowledge the "correct" lyrics to "Second Chance". Seriously, what the heck does "When love makes it sound bad" even mean there? At least mine makes sense.
I was listening to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers earlier and I always giggle when I hear Refugee. I was a preteen when the song first came out as I always thought the line "You do-on't ha-ave to li-ive like a refugee" was something along the lines of "Ooo ow-own he-eh a little like a refugee". In my defence Tom's enunciation isn't exactly stellar. I got a shit-ton of song lyrics wrong when I was younger, but darned if I can think of another example right now.
I'm still convinced the riff in ''when the going gets tough (the tough get going)' is "Go and get stuffed".
Steppenwolf IV: The Quest for Peace I was hoping that starting the thread would shake my memory loose too, but so far no dice...
My wife used to think that where the INXS song "Not Enough Time" was saying "Make time stop... for the two of us" that it was saying "Big time stuff... for the two of us". I occasionally lovingly pick on her about that.
I was never quite sure what about that particular summer Phil Collins was waiting for his entire life, until I realized it was, "I've been waiting for this moment for all my life." Likewise, I thought Dobie Grey just wanted to chill out to some Beach Boys and drift away. Turns out, he wasn't that discerning about who was singing the song, and just wanted some young male to "Give me the beat boy and free my soul, I want to get lost in your rock and roll and drift away."
I heard this one, too. And speaking of summer, for a while I had the damnedest time finding a copy of a song I really liked called "Poison Summer". Part of the chorus went like: I can tell you, My love for you will still be strong After the poison summer has gone.
Me too! Nice ones! Some mishearings I've heard: Stand Back -- Stevie Nicks What I thought I heard -- 'Don't turn away my friend, like a weirdo I can't bend...' The real lyric -- 'Do not turn away my friend Like a willow I can bend' Old Time Rock & Roll -- Bob Seger What I thought: Just take those old records on yourself () What the lyrics really were: Just take those old records off the shelf I was singing this song awhile ago and got the lyrics messed up by mistake, due to being somewhat tired. I finally understand the lyrics from Billy Joel's song, We Didn't Start The Fire. For years I misunderstood two parts from it... What I thought the lyric was: Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball Starkweather Homicide, Children of The Little Mind... * Keep this in mind, I was a little kid when I first mis heard this, I wasn't being disrepectful to people in any way. I only finally understood the lyrics this year. Thank you Mr. Joel and your singing . What it really was: Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball Starkweather Homicide, Children of Thalidomide... The other misunderstood one: Buddy Holly, Ben-Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go U2, Cinnamon Ring, payola and Kennedy Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo * Ok, this one makes no sense at all , but that's what I hear EVERY time he sings that part of the song. What it really was: Buddy Holly, Ben-Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo
Echo and the Bunnymen "Lips Like Sugar". The actual lyric is: Lips like sugar Sugar kisses What I heard: Lips like chicken, chicken kisses Though I guess I wasn't the only one.
I have spent like 20 years hearing the Van Morrison song lyrics.. And it stoned me to my soul Stoned me just like jelly roll And wondering wtf it was actually saying as obviously I got it wrong since it wasn't saying jelly roll. I only hear this song in shops so I never remembered to find out. And I FINALLY thanks to this thread remembered to look it up. After decades. AND IT IS ACTUALLY SAYING JELLY ROLL!!! Why.
I had a lot of these as a kid, primarily due to being deaf until I was four and still having pretty crap hearing. There was You're so Lame/You probably think this song is about you, and of course, Beck's early 90's smash hit, I'm a lizard baby/So why don't you kill me? I still rely on lip-reading quite a bit in day-to-day conversation, and just recently misheard my boss when he spoke while facing away from me; he said "thematic units," I heard "fanatic eunuchs."
I had to prove to my wife that "Bad Moon Rising from CCR was most definitely not "Brand New Horizon." *Groans.