Mis-heard Lyrics

[Obskua]

There are several web-sites dedicated to the public humiliation of those whose minds & ears are not always synchronised when listening to music. Purely in a spirit of scientific enquiry, has anyone any personal examples they would care to share ?

I'll kick off :

In 'Over, Under, Sideways, Down', by The Yardbirds, the lyric goes

Over under sideways down,
Twist & fall & circle round.

I heard :
Over under sideways down,
Twist and fornicate around.

They don't make those cheap transistor radios anymore !

[Cathy]

Its not mine but its good...
Bob Dylan, 'Blowing in the wind':
'The ants are my friends, they're blowing in the wind'

My own one, from a song by the Saw Doctors. The real line goes:
'I'll not say nothing, I'll be polite'
I heard 'I'll not say nothing, I'll beep a light'

[Seraphina]

I used to be convinced that the words to 'Feed the World' (Band Aid early 80s) were

'Bee..da...wa..ahlah
Let them know it's christmastime....'

I know it's not even a word, but I was 3! And my parents used to put it on the headphones for me and let people watch me sing it and laugh at me. I was scarred for life!

And for the record it still sounds like Beedawallah IMO!

Also in Shania Twain's 'That don't impress me much', the words are 'I can't believe you kiss your car goodnight', but I thought it was 'I can't believe you kiss your ass at night'!! Much to the ridicule of my so called friends!

I'm sure there are more, I'll post as and when I think of them!

[Deinonychus]

Until about six months ago I thought the lyric to 'England Swings' by Roger Miller ran: "Bobby's own bicycle's 2-by-2..." and always wondered why we would care about the odd dimensions of this kid's bike. (The real line is of course 'bobbies on bicycles, two by two' - ie an American's somewhat rose-tinted vision of British policemen.)

Then there's always Magazine's 'Burl Ives...pours out of meee!' ('The Light Pours Out Of Me').

[My Friend Jack]

Good thread, Obskua!

I've never been sure of some of the lyrics in Wizzard's See My Baby Jive. Even the Words / Disco 45 lyric magazines at the time couldn't agree on this. Was it "My chord ain't got no keys," or "My dog ain't got no fleas," both of which appeared in print at the time?

In the Monkees' I'm a Believer, I was for years convinced that there was a line which went "Dissapointing parted all my dreams." It was, of course, the far more sensible, "Dissapointment haunted all my dreams."

[Harriet]

I was convinced that the chorus R.E.M's 'The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite' was 'orange and vinegar' repeated over and over again until last summer, when I looked up the lyrics and got told that it is in fact 'call me when you try to wake her up'. I was very disappointed.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Lmao

[Magwitch]

Maybe some of you remember a song from 1988 by the Tribe of Toffs? Apparently it spent five weeks in the charts (how did we manage before Google?). Anyway, it went like this:

"John Kettley is a weatherman,
A weatherman, a weatherman,
John Kettley is a weatherman,
And so is my goldfish."

Aahh, happy memories. :D

[Deinonychus]

MFJ - I used to read my sister's 'Disco 45'/'Words' (honest!) when I was a wee laddie. I'm still convinced they just sat people in an office and played records over and over to get the lyrics - hence some of them were utterly unrecognisable from the genuine article. (Coincidentally, it was 'Disco 45''s bizarre misreading of Wizzard's 'Ball Park Incident' that convinced me of this...)

[My Friend Jack]

Deino, I totally agree! And I suspect that in the case of Ball Park Incident, I am still singing along to those bizarre and mis-heard lyrics! I have no idea what it should be, but my version starts, "Remembering last night, way up in the city, where they shot my baby down..." That's probably right, but what about, "She could be guided, oh wo wo, well it can't much matter to you, I kinda like it, oh wo wo, in the ball park out of school." And there was reference, I think, to a billy-goat through a door! Any ideas?

[Starry]

I was convinced that the chorus R.E.M's 'The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite' was 'orange and vinegar'

I've always misheard those very words too, except in my case I was convinced he was singing 'Only Jamaica'.

John Kettley is a weatherman
Happy memories for me too. An out of hours school trip to see a Harry Enfield gig. We sang it all the way there... poor teachers!

[jfp]

When I was seven I thought the Supremes' You Can't Hurry Love was actually called Kangaroo Love.

And in the same song I though "But it ain't easy" was "What if my knees ache"...

Seriously.

[Adrian]

I'm pretty disgusted that Vera Lynn supports Japanese Whaling. "Whale meat again"

It's an outrage!

[Radders]

In the Dire Straits song "Money For Nothing" there is a line:

"I want my MTV" for years I thought it was

"I want my own TV".

My younger, when she was young, thought Boy George was singing "Become a Comedian" and not "Karma Chameleon"!

[jfp]

ABBA:
I was sick and tired of everything
When I called you last night from Tesco

[jfp]

Van Morrison, "Ballerina" (Astral Weeks) :

Grab the ketchup...

It's actually:
Crowd will catch you

[Binker]

My younger brother and I both thought--independently--that the Bee Gees were singing about "manganese" instead of "tragedies" and simply could not figure out the attraction of an entire song about manganese.

My 14-year old son thought the chorus of the Rianna (sp) song "S&M" which is just chock full of inappropriate lyrics, was "Ask Him." He was happily singing along in the car and I finally said, "I'm going to tell you what this song is about so that you understand when I request that you never, ever, ever sing along with this song in front of another grown-up."

I think the line "want to jump inside your love" in the Black Eyed Peas song "Just Can't Get Enough" sounds like "want to germ inside your love." I was able to figure it out pretty quickly, but it was on the radio a lot when my son and I were driving around the American Southwest this summer and I just sing along with it as "germ."

[solace91z]

I always liked "She's so popular" from Games without Frontiers...

[Tay]

My ex wife used to think the line

"My world crumbles when you are not there"

in the Macy Gray song "I Try"

was

I wear goggles when you are not here.

[Squirls]

REM's Sidewider sounds to me like "Come on in Cheryl Baker"

and in the Bee Gees How deep is Your Love, the line that goes "... and you come to me on a summer breeze" sounded like "... and you come to me on a submarine"

A friend of mine used to sing "An Italian Monster" instead of "An Alternative Ulster" (Stiff Little Finger).

[momac]

When I watched Live Aid many years ago headed up I think by U2 there was a song "When you go away you take a piece of me with you" and to me it always sounded like "When you go away you take a piece of meat with you".