JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Mis-heard Lyrics

Hello Everyone,
Have any of you misunderstood lyrics to a song? I have! That's why I am starting this thread. This is a song lyric I misunderstood:
If your life was bad to you,
Just think what your mother will do
If your life was bad to you,
Just think what tomorrow will do
Don't Stop by Fleetwood Mac

Bye-bye for now!
Nicole

------------------
"Don't Go To Bed Hungry!"

[This message has been edited by Nicole98.6 (edited 03-14-2006).]

Hi Nicole-
Nice topic.
I am attracted to the music and the beat first in a song, then the lyric.
I understand that if someone is not focussing on the words, one may mis-interpret a lyric; sometimes, the words are so badly sung, it's hard to understand them.
It is a rush, eventually, finding the correct words.

LOUIE LOUIE by the Kingsman, was a classic example.
Many of us had fun joking about, and singing the words, which we thought were about sex;
actually making up those dirty words we wanted to hear.
The song was actually about a guy sailing to Jamaica to see his girl.
original lyric:

http://www.letssingit.com/?/kingsmen-louie-kmjq4lv.html

The dirty versions people made up:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~tdg/lyrics.html

I had to think twice the 1st time I heard- Kenny Roger's LUCILE;

Wondered how he had-

Four "hundred" children and a crop in the field.

"Four hungry children and a crop in the field"

And, the Beatles-
What the heck is a Day Tripper?


Cal

I was always partial to Creedence:

"Don't go out tonight, it's bound to take your life--
There's a bathroom on the right."

Joe
www.soundclick.com/bands/7/joewrabek_music.htm

OK... somewhat adult humor here... so if you're a minor or easily offended, don't read the rest of this post:

Years ago, there was a hip-hoppy dance tune called "Doin' the butt" (which is apparently a particular dance move).....

I thought it said, "doin' it IN the........" lol... anyway, I couldn't understand how they got away with commercial radio play!

Originally posted by: roxhythe
"I was always partial to Creedence:
"Don't go out tonight, it's bound to take your life--
There's a bathroom on the right."

Yeah, me and my family always get a kick when we hear that song! Sometimes it really sounds like they're saying that...
Bye-bye for now!
Nicole

------------------
"Don't Go To Bed Hungry!"

[This message has been edited by Nicole98.6 (edited 03-14-2006).]

Yeap, which also the title of a book that lists hundreds of misunderstood lyrics...I think the guy even has a second book out now.
My favorite one from the book was Hendrix's "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy"

Midnite

[QUOTE]Originally posted by roxhythe:
[B]I was always partial to Creedence:

There's a bathroom on the right."

Joe




------------------
Satchel was right...Something is gaining on me....
www.jackcouldntmakeit.com

Hey Joe-
I love it!
Now I don't feel so bad.

Cal

Ohhhhhh.
You picked a fine time to leave me.
Loose wheel.
Graham

------------------
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/2/grahamhenderson_music.htm

Blinded by the light
Wreck up like a douche
ya know the rumour in the night

its:

Wreck up like a deuce
ya know the roamer in the night

deuce coupe

Manfred Mann doing Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded By The Light."

"Wrapped up like a DOUCHE, you know the runner in the night." The actual word is DEUCE, but when you sing it next to YOU, you get the sh sound and voila...!

Greg

Dang, David, great minds must think alike...or perhaps warped minds.

We seem to differ on the lyric, but we got the offending word, huh?

Greg



[This message has been edited by Greg C. Brown (edited 03-14-2006).]

oh yes!
the things we think we hear

I laughed for years at my parents who were laughing at the silly song my sister would listen to on her radio.
how could it possibly be a song???

"Who loves the moo cow now?"

and years later.... I realized the song they had been unable to understand was actually

"Who wrote the book of love?"


And Cal...
I'm amazed that you found the real words to Louis Louis...
The Kingsmen remembered what they sang?
I say that because a few years ago I saw the original songwriter on some talk show. and they asked him the burning question... what were the real lyrics...
and he couldn't remember! LOL

------------------
Harriet
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/9/harrietamesmusic.htm

My favourite misheard lyric of all time has got to be from Cream's 'Badge'.

A lot of people (including my dad!) think the line
'I told you 'bout our kid now he's married to Mable'.

is this instead:

'And I told you 'bout our kid now he's not a tomato'

Cracks me up every time!

What's really interesting to me is that the original Springsteen lyric is:

Cut loose like a deuce, another runner in the night.

Makes me wonder why Manfred changed it. Did he think he was making it more clear? Or did he just hear it wrong?

Scott

Warm port and mollassas.
Is all you get in Jail
On one karaoke track of Nutbush City Limits.
That's a jail I wouldn't mind meing in.
Re the ask why Manfred changed the line.
I don't think it is uncommon for singers to bend words.
Desirable when they do a lot of the time actually.
Graham


------------------
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/2/grahamhenderson_music.htm

The Stones--"I'll never be your pizza burnin"{Beast of Burden}

Elton John--"Count the head-lice on the highway" {Tiny Dancer}

The Eagles--"On a dark desert highway, cool whip in my hair"{Hotel California]

Elton John--"She got electric boobs, her ma' has too!" {Benny and the Jets}

AND THE WINNER--The entire lyrics to "Down on the Corner"by CCR {"You don't need a pinhead,just to hang around"}ect ect

------------------
bc

[This message has been edited by bcushing (edited 03-15-2006).]

Children..please..

The Springsteen lyric is

"Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night"

"Deuce: is street for a customized ford 1932 coupe or roadster.
When the Beach boys sing "Little Deuce coupe" they're referring to the same kind of car, usually customized, chopped and channeled.

The word deuce comes out sounding like douche on the record because they pushed the high end too much in the mastering.
just too much sybilance !

I am a warehouse of useless information !

Bob (eating oatmeal as I type this) Young

John Fogerty apparently now uses the "bathroom on the right" lyric himself when he performs "Bad Moon Rising," because I saw him a little while back on Austin City Limits and he stuck it in there on the last chorus. He even pointed to the right as he sang it.

I hope the first person who misheard it doesn't sue him for plagiarism...

--- Ed


------------------
http://www.edperrone.com/music/

[This message has been edited by EdPerrone (edited 03-15-2006).]

When one of my daughter's was about five she was singing along with the Supremes on an oldies station:

"Stop! in the neighborhood..."

(Stop, in the name of love...)

Thanks, Bob! Revved makes perfect sense in this context. Wonder why that never occurred to me. Probably the whole deuce/douche thing captured all my attention.

Just one small nit. The Springsteen lyric is how I posted above. Either that or my Greetings from Asbury Park album liner notes are wrong. These would be a Manfred Mann variation.....

Scott

when i was little i used to sing the boxer by simon & garfunkel. but i used to say: just a come from the horse on 7th avenue. i still laugh every time i hear that song! great topic! barn.

------------------
www.barkinbarney.com

One of my ex-girlfriends always thought that the Joe Diffie song "Third Rock From The Sun"
was actually, "Throw a rock from the sun".

She was alot of fun.

Justin.

Hello,
The one I was wrong about for years was the line:

"just like a one winged dove.. sings the song.. sounds like she's singing"

I can remember thinking yikes ! A one winged dove will just go in circles trying to get airborne until it goes completely stir crazy. I doubt it would be singing any songs!

Then eventually I discovered it is a white winged dove that is singing.. makes a whole lot more sense.

------------------
Sorry, I did not major in english.

Hey Daris Armani,
That misheard lyric is very funny! My mom always had mistaken the line "Just like the white winged dove.." for "Just like the wild ranger.."

I'm glad everyone that posted their misheard lyrics did, they all are SO funny! Whether it was their daughter, girlfreind, sister, or themselves it is all funny!

Bye-bye for now!
Nicole

------------------
"Don't Go To Bed Hungry!"

[This message has been edited by Nicole98.6 (edited 03-15-2006).]

All right,

I realize that this is at about a 2 on the 1 -10 humor scale,,,,but I sang the first line wrong for years, before I realized that Jimmy Buffett was actually...

"Nibblin' on sponge cake"...& not

"Livin' on sponge cake"...

Midnite


------------------
Satchel was right...Something is gaining on me....
www.jackcouldntmakeit.com

Ok so you may find this hard to believe . . but I once knew a girl who thought the lyrics to Steve Miller Band "Jet Airliner"

instead of "big ol' jet airliner"

she thought they were saying "big ol' Chet and Lionel"

Lately I had been singing the song "Taking care of business".

I found myself wondering about the line;

if you change on time you can get to work by nine...

I thought the songwriter must have been implying he had to change his clothes from yesterday to todays outfit.

Once I bothered to look up the actual lyric it was;

if your trains on time you can get to work by nine...

Makes a heck of a lot more sense.

------------------
"digging deep in the verbal sludge of society, for the gems of interest"

I'm putting a date on myself with this one:
"Marsey doats and
Dosey doats and,"
should be:
"Mares eat oats,
and does eat oats,
and little lambs eat ivy".
From the fifties I think...

There's a song I do that David Lee Roth did. I learned right off the radio, so I never had the time to learn the words right. There's a dynamic break in the song where I sing " I got mu-mop-a-leam-nop, Dixie cups, tutti-fruity and raspberry too". Never did find out what "mu-mop-a-leam-nop" ever really meant. The song title was "Ice Cream Man".. I just had a request for that song last night. (No one ever notices the goofy words).



[This message has been edited by heen-man (edited 08-12-2006).]

I think that was the point of the song Heen-man! The guy who wrote it (can't recall name right now but a Brill Building fellow) did other songs that played around like that too so you weren't as crazy as you might think!!

I'm told I mishear just about everything in songs! Wouldn't know where to start, as I still don't know if I'm wrong or not on specific songs. I just know my wife laughs at me sometimes when I sing certain words in a given song, and she says "What are you saying?" So without knowing the wrong or right to songs, I'll take it to another area where I was recently corrected, (my wife again,,,,,smarty pants.

For the world ending?: A pockolips. (Just had no thought about why lips would be in there).

That spinny animal?: Porkypine. Isn't it? She said pork "U" pine.....???? What? Pork U? Doesn't seem right. I like porky pine!

So you can imagine what I must do to songs and not even know I am wrong. It's embarrasing when told by one of songriting friends, for me not to zero in on lyrics more than I do. It's like the meaning is not that important to me, whereas the melody is, along with the sound of the words. Is that wrong? Is that why no Grammy?

John

[This message has been edited by dhsongs (edited 08-12-2006).]

Men At Works "It's a mistake" an old work friend of mine thought they were singing Midsummers day. May I digress, going back to the thirtys. I have the Robert Johnson Vocalion complete recordings box set. The song is called "Last fair deal gone down". In the fifth verse as it is written, he sings something that sounds like "Take camp tain he and see camp ain't be and seen". Columbia released the box set and in their liner notes explained that the referenced passages are "phonetic approximations of what Johnson sings, which in truth, may be nonsensical". Eric Clapton does this song on his "Me and mister Johnson" album and sings the same jibberish in that verse. I know Robert Johnson changed words and phrases alot to keep people from stealing his songs and never wrote down words for anybody to see, but if anybody has a clue as to what he said let me know. Eric Clapton doesn't even seem to know. By the way it is a great song I do a cover of it.

There used to be a website that had hundreds of misheard lyrics contributed by web surfers.

One I always got wrong wasn't because I misunderstood it, I just didn't know what the heck it meant. It was by Merle Haggard called "The Roots of My Raising" and he pronounced it "raisin." Well, I could never figure out why somebody was singing about a "raisin," which is a dried grape. In case you think like me and don't know what it meant, it meant "the roots of "the way you were raised." I learned what the song meant when Ricky Skaggs recorded a video for "Uncle Pen." In the video, Bill Monroe says "don't get about your raisin', boy."

When I was in the first or second grade or so, I was at a friend's house. He had a record called "Nowhere Man." I thought it was "Now Here Man" and couldn't figure that out either. By the way, I think that song was about Elvis.

"When I was in the first or second grade or so, I was at a friend's house. He had a record called "Nowhere Man." I thought it was "Now Here Man" and couldn't figure that out either. By the way, I think that song was about Elvis."

hey guy,
I think you are correct. Let us analyze;

he's a real nowhere man..
sitting in his nowhere land..
making all his nowhere plans
for nobody...

Ringo Star stated in an interview that Elvis had tried unsuccessfully to have the CIA block the Beatles from entering the U.S.A.

If that was fact how did the Beatles ever find out? I guess someone will always talk.

For years I thought "Nowhere man" was an indirect mockery of the U.S. president. Because of the presidents claim of being the most powerful individual in the free world.

Anyone care to speculate?

------------------
"digging deep in the verbal sludge of society, for the gems of interest"

Ben I always thought that verse was "The captain he can see, captain he can see
That captain he can see good lord
Oh that Gulfport Island Road" maybe I just heard it that way because he's singing about how mean the captain is to him in the verse before that, but the way I heard it the captain's mean to him & watchin him all the time.


------------------
In order to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, think about the guy who invented sliced bread. He didn’t invent bread, he didn’t invent slicing. He just put together two things that hadn’t been put together before in a way people liked.

“The ants are my friends and they’re blowin in the wind”

Goldenbird, That's the way I hear it but Columbia calls it nonsensical.Maybe their ears aren't so good. How about take 1 of "Come on in my kitchen", the verse goes "She's gone I know she won't come back I've taken the last nickle out of her NATION SACK you better come on"....).A nation sack was a small pouch worn around the neck in which women kept valuables. Sounds to me it might be derived from Notion sack. Kind of a regional dialect. Am I wrong?

Actually Ben that's not a regional dialect. That, I think, really is meant to be nation sack. In the Memphis region, a special kind of mojo, worn only by women, is called a nation sack.



------------------
In order to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, think about the guy who invented sliced bread. He didn’t invent bread, he didn’t invent slicing. He just put together two things that hadn’t been put together before in a way people liked.

This is a great thread!
My favorite : "the ants are my friends" for "the answer my friends."

I'm always looking up lyrics to figure out what I'm hearing. I mishear all the time.

My hubby laughed at me a couple weeks ago when I didn't know what Billy Squier was singing in "The Stroke."

I'm a Queen junkie, so I have a few examples there.

One that throws me even though I *know* it, is "I'd rather buy me a new carburetor" (I'm in Love With My Car) I keep hearing "a new car Beretta."

The funniest is one my KIDS misheard, on "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon"--they thought Freddie sang, "Fridays I go painting in the nuuuuu-ude..."
(...it's "in the Louvre.")

Linda




------------------
====================
Linda Adams
http://www.alyssastory.com

So what was Jimi saying?
I always heard that too--but figured I was wrong

Linda


------------------
====================
Linda Adams
http://www.alyssastory.com

Came across this online, from come together the real line is One thing I can tell you is you got to be free!

But someone ehard it as:One thing I can tell you is you got to eat cheese.

Gave me a giggle.

------------------
In order to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, think about the guy who invented sliced bread. He didn’t invent bread, he didn’t invent slicing. He just put together two things that hadn’t been put together before in a way people liked.

'Scuse me, while I kiss the sky...

Midnite





------------------
Satchel was right...Something is gaining on me....
www.jackcouldntmakeit.com

Now see....I always thought it was 'Scuse me, while I kiss this guy...

Sorry Jimi

When Dobie Gray's "Driftaway" used to come on the radio, I always made my brother mad when I sang along with the chorus, "Give me the meatballs and free my soul...", which didn't make any sense, but it sure annoyed him.

(should be "give me the beat boys, and free my soul")

------------------
Tom Tracy
http://www.soundclick.com/tomtracy

These are all pretty funny, there is a web site for misheard lyrics, check it out it's pretty good, Randy


www.kissthisguy.com

Hey Tom,

I used to have a roomate who swore up & down that it was "Give me the Beach Boys & free my soul"...Not a bad concept....

Midnite(gimme the beat, boys)Bob





------------------
Satchel was right...Something is gaining on me....
www.jackcouldntmakeit.com

Just wondering,,,

Wasn't there also a Kinks song that had a line about "Lazing on a Sunday afternoon"???





------------------
Satchel was right...Something is gaining on me....
www.jackcouldntmakeit.com

My high school girlfriend loved the song "Higher Love" by Stevie Winwood...

During the chorus, when Chaka Khan was belting out "Bring me a higher love!", my girl would be shouting just as loudly: "Bake me a pie of love!"