I know that somebody out there has totally screwed up a lyric. So what's some of your pirze screwups?

Mine is from Jars of Clay- Flood.

The Real words: But if I can't swim after forty days What I heard: But if I can't sin let the party days

Not that it makes sense.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Answers

Cool question. Check out http://www.kissthisguy.com. Great website for misunderstood lyrics. The name is derived from the author thinking Hendrix's "Scuse me while I kiss the sky" was "Scuse me while I kiss this guy"...have fun

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

When I was little, one of the little boys I played with [he's three years younger], thought that the lyrics were, "Money for nothing, checks for free."

He would dance around and shake his hips when he sang it, and his mom wouldn't let us tell him that it was "CHICKS for free."


-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

www.kissthisguy.com cracks me up to no end. I was actually snort-laughing in the office one day. Whew.

"I just died in your arms tonight" was always "I'll just diet in your arms tonight" to me.

"She's a brick house" was "She's a bitch...ow" -

I could go on. I am that pathetic. It's not until someone catches me singing the wrong words at the top of my lungs and starts laughing that I realize it. I have no shame. If the artists wanted me to truly understand the words, they would have articulated more clearly. Neener neener.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

The song: "Looking Down the Barrel" The artist: 5X The album: "The Rage: Carrie 2" soundtrack

Lyrics: "Gotta take it back!" I hear: "Got a Chia pet?"

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

On Macy Gray's song "I Try", the last line of the chorus is "my world crumbles when you are not near". I was driving with my 12 year old daughter when I heard the song and didn't understand that last line. I asked her, the authority (hah!) on music, what the line was. She says "I wear goggles when you are not here". And she meant it.The bad thing is, that's the way I sang the song for a long time, picturing Macy in goggles. Finally last week I looked it up, knowing in my heart that goggles couldn't be right. We both got a good laugh.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

A few weeks ago. Sitting in the car with my husband. "The End of the World As We Know It" comes on.... and he starts singing with it. Right away comes the line that actually says "Birds and snakes and airplanes, Lenny Bruce is not afraid"... And he SANG... "Virgin snakes and airplanes". Too funny. Of course, I do that sort of thing all the time, too, but it's just not as cute as when HE does it!

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

When I was little I thought the song "pretty woman" said "Baby walnut walkin down the street" instead of "pretty woman walkin down the street." haha.. I have no clue why I thought that..

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Instead of "Suicide Blonde" I kept hearing "soup and salad bar" but I *knew* that had to be wrong - it confused me for a few days.

My absolute favorite is the DJ from a station in North Carolina. We're driving along on I77 and the guy introduces the Jimi Hendrix song "Voodoo Chile" - only instead of pronouncing it to rhyme with "while" - as in an abbreviation for "child" - the guy pronounced it "chili." That song will forever be Voodoo Chili for me...

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

The board game Songburst is great for this stuff. You're singing along to "Angel of the Morning" and you get to "Just touch my cheek before you leave me" and discover for the last twenty-odd years of your life you've been singing "Just wipe my feet before you leave me". And thinking it makes perfect sense.

Could be worse, my fifty year old father figured out just a year or two ago that Orientar is not a place (Where the three kings are from).

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Destiny's Child: Jumpin' Jumpin':

I hear "The club is full of ballers and their cocks are full grown" It's really "The club is full of ballers and their pockets full grown"

Thank god I don't sing in the company of others.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

On the same Christmas theme... "Olive the other reindeer"

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

From Silent Night - A friend of mine though the lyrics were "...around John Verden, mother and child" It always makes me think of a hoser in a lumber jacket and a gas station cap with a 24 of Canadian under his arm that happened to stumble out of the woods onto the virgin birth.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

I always thought Eddie Grant's "Electric Avenue" was "Electric Carbonute"...is that even a word? Who knows.

I also thought EMF's one hit wonder "You're unbelievable..." was "You're an ugly little boy".

Was I high or what!?

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

I always thought that "Forever in Blue Jeans" was "Reverend Blue Jeans". Better yet, a friend of mine used to think that "Life in the fast lane" was "Flys in the vaseline".

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

ok, my friend katy beaty tells that her mother used to think these lyrics from "Funky Town:

"well, i talked about it, talked about it, talked about it, talked about it....talked about, talked about, talked about mo-vin....gotta move on,"

were actually: "taco salad, taco salad, taco salad, taco sal- ad....got a new watch."

i can't hear it the same anymore!

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

I know I've mentioned Rusted Root on here before, so I feel I'm justified to offer this little funny:

For those 2 or 3 of you who are familiar with the song "Send Me on my Way"...my friend's mother was caught one afternoon listening to her CD and singing along with it...in her cute little mom voice

"Simi and the Whale"

She then tried to back herself up and tell a story about a little boy named Simi who had a pet whale...it continues to crack me up.

Pardon me. Apparently I'm addicted to ellipses.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

my family still teases me for this one. it was some 80's song, and i was little, and instead of 'looking in your eyes, i see a paradise', i would always say 'pair of dice.' also my sister, when she sang some country song, said '400 children and the crop in the field' instead of 4 HUNGRY

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

okay, really, I know how to use a forum! anyway, it was 'four hungry children and the crop in the field.' i still crack up about that to this day.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Sarah: I thought the same thing!

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Someone mentioned "Suicide Blonde." I always hear it (even though I know the words) as "Supersize Blonde."

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Til Tuesday -> Right lyric: "Hush, hush! Keep it down, down! Voices carry!" I heard: "Hush, hush! Keep it down, down! Sister Scary!" Mental Image: A vengeful nun, of course.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Katherine,

Your "she's a bitch...ow" is not nearly as bad as my total goofball of a 10th grade boyfriend's thinking they were saying "shake your breast out" -- and he was totally serious! The song came on the radio one time and he was all excited: "Woo-hoo, it's 'Shake Your Breast Out!'" What's even funnier is that he seemed so excited about the mental image of some girl's boob...then in college confessed to me that he was gay. Go figure.

I had a really goofy one when I was younger. The Kansas song "Carry On, Wayward Son" has a line "nothing equals the splendor," but I heard it as "nothing Eve will dismember"! What the hell does THAT mean?

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

okay, in Tori Amos' Nothern Lad:

"you changed like sugarcane"

for the longest time i thought she was saying

"you changed like shitcakes"

ew.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Oh God, the Macy Gray troubles.

What I thought it was: I blow bubbles when you're not here.

What it was: My world crumbles when you're not here. Oh yes, and Jumpin, Jumpin.

Whatever the hell I was thinking: The club is fulla ballers and the clock is full grown.

What is was: The club is fulla ballers and their pockets full grown.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

LOL this is cracking me up. My mom used to think "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" was "Smokettes in Your Eyes", whatever smokettes are. And me and my roommate were throwing out all kinds of guesses for the chorus in RHCP "Scar Tissue."

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Hey, how about Sting lyrics? The man cannot enunciate, I swear. And I had about 5 examples in my head a second ago, and now I can't remember any. How lame.

*long, blank-faced pause*

Ok, I can remember two.

"some kind of boys head/some kind of poison"... actual lyric? "Something the boy said".

"Consuela begone" (ha ha at nicole! ha!)... actual lyric? "Consider me gone"

And don't even get me started on "King Of Pain".

I'm also convinced that the main reason why that idiotic "De Doo Doo Doo, De Da Da Da" song was so popular was because we were all so relieved that he was finally giving up and singing what we were all hearing anyways.

Don't get me wrong - I love the guy - but he makes MushMouth from Fat Albert look like a master of elocution.

~SG~>

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

No thread on this subject could possibly be complete without a link to Jon Carroll's mondegreen columns. So here you go.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

My ex-husband insisted vehemently that the song "Cents on the Dollar" was actually "Since I know Madonna".

BAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!

(Don't rack your brain if you've never heard it... It sucked - very little airplay)

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

Two words: "Louie, Louie." I leave it to yourselves to figure THAT one out. :)

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

When I first heard that song by Macey Grey, instead of hearing "My world crumbles when you are not near", I thought she said "and I blow bubbles when you are not near". If you listen to the song without saying the correct line, you will agree with me, maybe that is how she intended it.. who knows?? :)

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

There was some stupid poppy song in the early '90s that had the chorus, "I wanna sex you up." I always thought it was "set" you up, like on a blind date or something. I was in high school -- too old to be that naive.

And also that old Animotion (sp?) song that is probably called "Obsession" (you know the one). I thought they were saying "to make you sync with me" (which makes no sense) instead of "sleep with me."

Oh, and I got in trouble in first grade for writing out what I thought were the lyrics to "9 to 5," after watching that movie about 20 times on HBO. Dolly says something about pouring herself a "cup of ambition," which I translated as "bitchin'," never realizing that a *five*-letter word could be a cuss word, too.

Andi -- I recall thinking the words were "even downtown, voices carry."

-- Anonymous, June 26, 2000

For a long time I thought the lyrics to "Voices Carry" was "Hush, hush, keep it downtown, this is scarey".

Oh, and when I was 9 I thought the song "It's Too Late Baby" was, "It's too late, baby, now, it's too late, though we really did try to make it. Something inside has died a napkin..." Yes, I thought it was that... I thought a mouse crawled into a napkin and died or something.

Now, that is scarey.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

That Third Eye Blind song... "Semi-Charmed Life" - I always heard "And I speak to you like a chorus to the verse, chop another line like a coda with a curse" as "And I speak to you like the coast to the birds, drop another line like the vota (Ebonics for "voter" I guess) with the verse..." I had to look up the lyrics online 'cause, well... "vota with the verse" didn't make much sense, but I still like my "coast to the birds" part.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Word on Macy Gray. I think I thought it was "I blow bubbles..." too. Later I settled on "My WALL crumbles..." I guess I'm still wrong. And what's the last word of that sentence? "When you are not ___"? I hear "there", but "here" or "near" would make more sense (and rhyme).

Oh, "Scar Tissue" bedeviled me for quite a while. And we've discussed "We would die forty cents" in other forums....

I have these hearing problems all the time. I hate songs I don't understand the words to (mostly). I guess that's why I still loathe Kurt Cobain.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Every single lyric on the first few R.E.M. albums. I love 80's R.E.M. because the lyrics are impossible to understand, and plus, they were never printed in the CD booklets. Therefore, we had the right to get them wrong..

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

I used to think in the song "Beast of Burden" that Mick Jagger was saying "Never leave your pizza burnin'"

And I used to sing it very loudly like Please, Please just don't ever leave your pizza burnin'.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Yep, Maureen McGovern had me singing as a child "Just touch my feet before you leave me, baby". I thought touching the feet must be something I'd work out later...

The child of a friend of mine had me grinning like a fool when she sang the first line of the Australian anthem with the words "Australians all eat ostriches", which would actually be "Australian sons let us rejoice.."

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

YAY, mondegreens! I LOVE misinterpreted lyrics :) I used to post one a day on a message board on a talker, but wouldn't you know, it "pissed some people off".. LOL, so I don't do it anymore. Oh well, their loss.

I've read a lot, but here are some I've actually heard:

My ex-boss was wandering through the office, and he happened by my desk. I was listening to (as Nancey mentioned) "Beast of Burden" by the stones. I heard him sing, "Don't wanna eat... your pizza, Vernon".

My best friend's husband was giving me a ride home late one night, and "Every Breath You Take" by The Police came on the radio. Where Sting says, "How my poor heart aches.. with every breath you take", Chris sang, "I'm a pool hall ace...".

LOTS of people I know (poke-nudge SHELAGH) think Stevie Nicks, in her song "Edge of Seventeen", is singing "Just like the one-winged dove", when it's really "Just like the white-winged dove". Most of my friends & my mom can never understand what she's singing.. I don't get it, I've never had any trouble.

This is one of mine - listening to the Eagles' "Hotel California" when I was but a young'un. Don Henley sings, "Bring your alibis", and I always thought it was "When you're out of ice".

Another of mine - Manfred Mann's "Blinded By The Light" - coulda SWORN it was "Wrapped up like a douche", not "Revved up like a deuce".

Yet another of mine - Korn's "Freak on a Leash", when he's sort of screaming that part that starts with "Go! Go!".. well I thought he was talking about how he liked boys.. "Boys! Boys! Sometimes like BOOOYYYSS!". My younger brother laughed so hard at me, turns out it's "Some things they FIIIIIGGGHHHTT". Whatever.

Some artists are just notorious for singing unclearly, like Elton John, Stevie Nicks, the Stones, Sting, RHCP...

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

You're SO right about REM. Michael Stipe even used to go on and on about it in interviews he gave at the time, about how he regarded his voice as just another instrument instead of as a means to deliver his lyrics.

My personal fucked up lyrics: Sex Pistols - 'God Save The Queen'. What the lyrics said: "There is no future in England's dreaming". What I heard: "There is no future in England stringland". I was 12 at the time, just learning to speak English, and I considered it perfectly logical that a country which produced as many guitarists as the UK was called a 'stringland'.

Beatles - 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. What the lyrics said: "I can't hide". What I heard: "I get high!" But hey, I wasn't the only one - Bob Dylan misheard these exactly the same way, back in 64. He even complimented Lennon on writing such a groundbreaking song!

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

i used to think micheal jackson's song Ben had a line that said. 'with a friend to comb my hair' it was in fact 'with a friend to call my own' but Amanda the line in Australia's anthem is Australians all let us rejoice.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

I keep thinking of more songs. Have any of you heard the song "Blue" by Eiffel 60-something (65? I think?)...it goes:

I'm blue da ba dee da ba dye ...

A friend of mine thought it was "I'm blue, I believe I'm a guy ..."

Someone else I know pointed out that it sounded frighteningly like "if I bleed I will die," too.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Here's a retarded one. Some Kinda Wonderful by Sky. The chorus gets me every time. It sounds like "she's some kinda wonderful, makes a mean steak, eggs and apples..." I hope to god those aren't the real lyrics! If somebody knows what the hell they're babbling about, please let me in!

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

*sigh*

I don't think there's a single song I've ever heard right.

Thanks to Elton John, I've heard "somebody shaved my wife tonight," "she's got electric boobs, I know it's true," and "hold me closer, tony danza".

I thought I'd misheard a Tori Amos song when I heard "I've shaved every place that you've been, boy" (think it was in Blood Roses), but upon reading the lyrics I was horrified to discover that that IS what she'd said. Eee.

The soundtrack to Grease? "I got shoes, they're made of plywood..."

I'm not entirely sure, but I think it's a song by Whitesnake. The real lyrics are "Like a drifter I was born to walk alone," but I have always heard it as "Like a twister I was born to wear cologne".

AC/DC? "Dirty deeds and they're done with sheep!" I was a sick child.

Beck? Oh, come on. That's like mid-80's R.E.M.

Phil Collins? "Billy! Billy Ocean knows my number.. and you're not anywhere! I can't find you! Ohhhh, Billy!"

Oh, and that "Angel of the Morning" song? I hear it as "Just brush my teeth before you leave me, baby".

I need help.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

I thought that the song "Owner of a lonely heart," by the Police or some other early 80's band was "Owner of a lonely horse."

Then there's this Peter Gabrielle song, "Games Without Frontiers," that I thought he said, "She's so funky, yeah." when he really says "jeux so fortier" or something like that, which means "games without frontiers" in french. Makes sense, right?

Then there was that "Whoomp! There it is!" song, which when I heard it for the first time, I was convinced that they were saying "Whoomp! Bad Ass!"

And most of Tori Amos' songs I can't make out correctly, along with the Deftones.

My Blue Heaven

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Atom and His Package has some of the funniest, oddest and most complicated lyrics, so it is fitting that his site has a whole section devoted to mis-heard lyrics...

At a drunken birthday party for my friend Nato, his girlfriend brought out his cake right as Black Flag's "wasted" was blasting on the living room stereo. Whenever I hear "wasted" now, all that I hear is Nato's impromptou lyrics:

"I have a birthday cake!"
"I wanna eat it!"
"I want some chocolate, cause it tastes good!"
"I waaant some caaaaaaake now!"

instead of the real lyrics...
I was so jacked up
I was so drunk up
I was so knocked out, I was out of my head
I waaas so waaaaasted....

also in "Bad Town" by Operation Ivy, it sounds like Jesse is saying "Mad Cow."
"no! no more! no! mad cow! No more maaaad cowwww."

allison

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Heidi--about singing "watermelon" and having it look like you know the words? It's "peanut butter, watermelon" and it does work, but only on The Star-Spangled Banner. No, really, it does! I promise.

I also heard "she's so funky, yeah" for "jeux sans frontiers." Lyrics in another language are the best for misinterpreting. "So, I walked in the door" instead of "soy un perdidor" (Loser, Beck) Etc, etc...

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

I had a friend that thought the Bruce Springsteen song "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" was "Ten Elephants in the Freezer". Bwahahahahahaha!

Naturally, I can't remember any of my own grievous errors. But I agree with the person who wrote that if the words aren't included in the jacket, then they can't expect me to know them.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

oh my god you mean "jeux sans frontieres" ISN'T "she's so popular"? heh. and yeah, the deftones and that informer song...and sting...greaaaat mondegreens [love jon carroll, i think i'm always gonna call 'em that]...but i've always been able to understand rhcp songs. except in under the bridge, where there's like a chorus singing "under the bridge downtown..." and then anthony kiedis sings, "is where i drew some blood" or "i could not get enough" or whatever the next verse is...and the thing is, that's the only mondegreen i can still hear either way.

oh, in a human waste project song, i kept thinking she was singing, "drive me on four sides" when it was really "try me on for size"...

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

There's a line in the Simon & Garfunkel song "The Boxer" that includes "whores on Seventh Avenue," but my mother thought it was "war zone, seventh cavalry." I have no idea where she got that from. When I was VERY young I listened to Elvis, but I couldn't figure out the line "I'm all shook up." I seriously thought it was a word he made up, and I sang it "amawshucup." And I loved that "Manic Monday" song, but I thought it was "Mannequin Monday."

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

My Mom has confessed to me that she always thought the words to "Bad Moon on the Rise" were "There's a bathroom on the right."

And my friend Tracy sings "Ah-oooo, railroads of thunder" instead of "werewolves of London."

As for me, I misheard a lot of the same lyrics you guys have posted about, some of which I don't remember at the moment. I know I thought "Voices Carry" was "hush, hush. keep it down, down. who's this Carrie?" There's more...i'm sure there's more...

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Oh yeah, here's one from my brother. In Destiny's Child's song "Bugaboo", they say "You make me wanna throw my cell phone out the window" and he thought it was "You make me wanna throw my self right out the window." Yikes!

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

I have friends that think the following:

Tom Petty's "Freefallin'"? And I'm green... green porridge... That Nabisco jingle: Love Dis-co... How about Secret Asian Man?

I know there are plenty of mistakes that I've made, too, but conveniently, I can't seem to remember any of them. Whoops.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

AAaaahahahaha... oh, stop, you're killin' me.

I have the book, 'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy and it's really funny. Here's my best one:

My little sister is a HUGE Madonna fan, and in the song "Open Your Heart", Madonna sings, "Too wrapped up in yourself to notice..." She thought that Madonna's boyfriend was leaving her to be a priest, and the line was "You'd rather give yourself to Moses."

AAAhaha. :)

-- Anonymous, June 27, 2000

Yes, I too am guilty of feeling sympathy for Stevie Nick's poor one- winged doves....I visited "kissthisguy.com" last night and read all night. Very educational. Apparently "Blinded by the Light" is so confusing that they have a special section for it. Hey, it really sounds like "douche" to me!!! What does "revved up like a deuce" mean anyway?

Here are some other things I learned last night:
Pearl Jam is NOT singing "Jeremy's smoking crack today!!"
Melissa Ethridge is not singing "To hell with the constant threats!" (It's "consequence")
I finally determined whether the Fugees are singing "No Woman No Cry" or "No Woman No Crime". (It's the former. Neither makes much sense to me.)
At the end of of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", they're singing "A denial!" over and over again. I thought they were just shouting nonsense syllables.

But I am most distressed over my misinterpretation of Toto's "Africa", a most beloved song (even if I don't know half the words). Apparently the title-bearing verse is "I bless some rain down in Africa!" I REALLY thought it was "I'd catch some rays down in Africa!" I'm deeply disappointed. I think my version makes much more sense. After all, the next verse is "Gonna take some time to do the things we never have." I'd think getting a tan in Africa would be one of those things, right? Besides, can anyone besides God actually bless anything?
< BR> Other mondegreens I'm guilty of:
Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me": Where they sing "Cmon fatten me up!" I really thought they were singing "Cmon fuck me up!" and was horrified....
The Go-Go's "Our Lips are Sealed" became "Islands of Seal" (or Steel) until a few weeks ago.
"If you could only see they way she loves me" became "If you could only see Lorraine, she loves me..." (don't remember who sings that)
And finally, from The Sound of Music: "Re, a droplet of the sun..." and "Ti, a liquid that you drink..." (these aren't really due to me mishearing the words so much as just not knowing the words, period).
And my ex-girlfriend thought that Fiona Apple's "Criminal" was "Crib in a Hole", cuz she stretches it out over so many notes.

And finally (as if this post wasn't long enough), some examples from kissthisguy.com that made me laugh out loud. I'll let you guess what the original songs were:
"We built this city on the wrong damn road!"
"That's the way I mow my lawn. I like it! I mow my lawn."
"Back up I might sit on you!" (Hint: George Harrison)
"I spilt tea all over you and me!"(Hint: country song)
"Little men die!"(Hint: McCartney or Guns 'n' Roses)
"Who ya gonna call? THOSE BASTARDS!" "If you change your mind (Jackie Chan) I'm the first in line (Jackie Chan) Ollie Oxenfree! (Jackie Chan) Take a chance on me! (Jackie Chan)"
And, my favorite: "I'll be there for you! Fee Fi Fo I swear to you!" Sung by Jon Bon Giant, of course.


-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

When I was little, I thought that the Paul Simon song "Kodachrome" was about an ice cream cone. I wondered why he was singing "Mama don't take my ice cream cone away..."

The other funny one is a friend who thought that old 80's song called "The Rain" (can't remember who sang it, The Call maybe?) was called "Lorainne." I realized it when he sang the lyrics like this: "I love to Lorraine in the summertime, I love to feel Lorraine on my face." Sort of changes the whole meaning, huh?

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

OH MY GOD, Jason! Is it really "C'mon FATTEN me up?" Did you look that up? If so, thus ends a very hot debate going on all over Texas

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Well, I don't remember if I read that somewhere or not, but that's gotta be what he's saying. I know, he squishes "fatten" onto one note so it sounds like a single syllable. But it makes sense in the context of the song, which is all about sweet stuff after all (at least on the literal level).

Did you think he was saying "fuck" too? Is there really an intense debate about this in Texas right now?

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Supergirl - about the Informer song - I once saw one of those "He said what?" or whatever that MTV show is about it. He was actually saying "a licky boom-boom down." I have no idea what that means, but, whatever.

Here's a couple of mine: "Hot Blooded" = "Hot Butter"

"When I make him dinner & I burn it black"(Shania Twain) = "When I make him dinner & I barney flat"

"Losin' You" (Juice Newton) = "that 'Loozanne' song"

"Soy un perdador"(or however you spell it - Beck) = "Sore from head to toe"

"Glycerine"(Bush) = "Kiss the rain"

Jenna

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Dave Matthew's----"Hike up your skirt a little more, and show your world to me." For the LONGEST time I thought he was saying "Hike up your skirt little boy and show your world to me" Needless to say I'm very glad that I was wrong!

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Actually, Jason, I believe the line is, "C'mon, FIRE me up", with the fire just elongated a bit.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Speaking of Def Leppard. If anyone speaks German, could you please tell me what, "Utten Gleetten Gloutten Globben," at the beginning of Rock of Ages means? Does it even mean anything or is it just some sort of German Dr. Suess-like nonsense?

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Oh, but now it's "C'mon FATTEN me up." Yes, it is. I vote for that. I am loving the idea that that's what he's saying.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

From Lyrics World. (ahem.) POUR SOME SUGAR ON ME
Def Leppard
Hysteria

Step inside, walk this way
You and me babe, Hey, hey!
Love is like a bomb, baby, c'mon get it on
Livin' like a lover with a radar phone
Lookin' like a tramp, like a video vamp
Demolition woman, can I be your man?
Razzle 'n' a dazzle 'n' a flash a little light
Television lover, baby, go all night
Sometime, anytime, sugar me sweet
Little miss ah innocent sugar me, yeah
Hey!
C'mon, take a bottle, shake it up
Break the bubble, break it up

Pour some sugar on me
Ooh, in the name of love
Pour some sugar on me
C'mon fire me up
Pour your sugar on me
Oh, I can't get enough
I'm hot, sticky sweet
>From my head to my feet, yeah

Listen! Red light, yellow light, green-a-light go!
Crazy little woman in a one man show
Mirror queen, mannequin, rhythm of love
Sweet dream, saccharine, loosen up
You gotta squeeze a little, squeeze a little
Tease a little more
Easy operator come a knockin' on my door
Sometime, anytime, sugar me sweet
Little miss innocent sugar me, yeah
Take a bottle, shake it up
Break the bubble, break it up

Pour some sugar on me
Ooh, in the name of love
Pour some sugar on me
C'mon fire me up
Pour your sugar on me
Oh, I can't get enough
I'm hot, sticky sweet
>From my head to my feet, yeah

You got the peaches, I got the cream
Sweet to taste, saccharine
'Cos I'm hot, (hot, so hot) say what, sticky sweet
>From my head, (head) my head, to my feet
Do you take sugar? One lump or two?

Take a bottle, shake it up
Break the bubble, break it up
Pour some sugar on me
Ooh, in the name of love
Pour some sugar on me
C'mon fire me up
Pour your sugar on me
Oh, I can't get enough
Pour some sugar on me
Oh, in the name of love
Pour some sugar on me
Get it, come get it
Pour your sugar on me
Ooh
Pour some sugar on me
Yeah! Sugar me!

Man, that's a bad song.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

There's a line in the Simon & Garfunkel song "The Boxer" that includes "whores on Seventh Avenue," but my mother thought it was "war zone, seventh cavalry."

I played this song once with a semi-acoustic outfit when I was in college. The singer had the words written down in this notebook, and he referred to the HORSE on Seventh Avenue. Imagine being so lonesome you take comfort with a horse! Ewww.....

I'm pretty sure the guy did it on purpose, though. He just was that kind of a guy.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Gross. I didn't know it was "break the bubble." I don't know why, but that makes me sick.

What does that even mean? No. Don't tell me.

Fatten me up. Heh.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

you mean its not "summer seen blah blah blah... flies in the vasaliiinnnneeeee?" yeah, when i dont know the words i just fake it like i do, i just hum and mumble. freakish i know, but i know all the rest of you do it too.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Chris --

Per my husband, who I consider to be THE authority on '80s heavy- metal and/or hair bands (I just recently looked at his vinyl collection again, and it is way heavy on the Def Leppard, AC/DC, Ratt, Dokken, etc., kinda bands), says that "Utten Gleetten Gloutten Globben" is just some little thing they made up (and was apparently like a catch phrase or something of theirs). So, not German. Def Leppardian.

I heard a good one last night. At the bar where I was playing trivia, the DJ kept playing the friggin' Go Gos. We were all about to lose our minds, until one guy said, "I used to hear this song as 'Alex the Seal' [instead of 'Our Lips Are Sealed]." I'll always laugh when I hear that damn annoying song from now on!

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Remember that song you sang for Christmas when you were a little kid - -yanno, around the time you started losing your baby teeth? "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, my two front teeth, my two front teeth..."

Mom says when I was little, I sang, "All I want for Christmas is my doo-blunk-ee, my doo-blunk-ee, my doo-blunk-ee," and if you asked me what a "doo-blunk-ee" is, I'd say that it's a table with three legs.

She said she never found out if that was a four-legged table that had one leg removed, or if it was a round table that only had three legs or what ...


-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

You guys, I have never laughed so hard in my life...I asked a bunch of my friends this because I couldn't remember any on my own and someone thought a line that was actually "don't you rush into decision making" was "don't you rush into the sea of mating" and someone else thought it was "don't you rush into the sea all naked."

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Hooray for Mondegreens! :) :) You said: oh my god you mean "jeux sans frontieres" ISN'T "she's so popular"? heh. I heard it that way, too. Though I also sang it as "She's so funky, yeah" for other choruses! I'm a double geek! Two mondegreens for the same line. *giggle* I'm glad that two posters shared my confusions. (When did I FINALLY clue? Not until after *second* year French, my friends.) I do remember wondering who "she" was, since she was popular *and* funky. "Alex the Seal" is so cool. Whenever I play Fun Boy 3 or the Go-Gos, I will never hear the right lyric again. Yay! "We built this city on the wrong damn road!"
Starship: We built this city on rock and roll. "That's the way I mow my lawn. I like it! I mow my lawn."
KC & the Sunshine Band: That's the way (uh huh uh huh) I like it (uh huh uh huh)
(I like your version better) "Back up I might sit on you!" (Hint: George Harrison)
(*howl*) I got my mind set on you (?) "I spilt tea all over you and me!"(Hint: country song)
Out of my area of expertise, I'm afraid. "Little men die!"(Hint: McCartney or Guns 'n' Roses)
Live or Let Die, the Bond theme! Love the boo-boo, think it's more appropriate. "Who ya gonna call? THOSE BASTARDS!"
Ghost busters? "If you change your mind (Jackie Chan) I'm the first in line (Jackie Chan) Ollie Oxenfree! (Jackie Chan) Take a chance on me! (Jackie Chan)"
This is my favorite, and I will sing it like this foever and ever. :) 'If you change your mind (take a chance) I'm the first in line (take a chance) Honey, I'm still free(?) (take a chance) Take a chance on me!" by ABBA I still get lyrics wrong. Local band, the Tender Idols: I was baffled as to why Ian was calling himself a pencilneck geek ("throw your hands around my tiny neck")...he's actually saying "dying neck". *amused* My fave mondegreen by a child: was babysitting and Bananarama's cover of Shocking Blue's "Venus" came on. Little boy, five years old, tore through the house screaming "I'm your PENIS! I'm on FIRE! I'm your flat TIRE!" I couldn't stop laughing long enough to restore order,a nd soon I had three little boys (3, 5, 6) running around and jumping on the couch screaming the same lyrics over and over again. It was fun, honestly. But I was hoping I wouldn't get nailed for letting them scream "penis!!" over and over. (I'm firmly convinced an evil adult taught him that, but you never know. Kids are darn smart.) My all time worst song for mondegreens: Blondie's "Rapture", which I purchased as a single at around age 13 or 14. Witness:

Toe to toe dancing very close
Body breathing almost comatose
Wall to wall people hypnotized
And they're stepping lightly
Hang each night in rapture (and each night it's rapture)
Back to back sacroiliac (I sounded this one out and got it phonetically correct, but had no idea what it meant for YEARS)
Spineless movement and a wild attack (this is not what I sang, but I can't remember the mistake)
Face to face sightless solitude
And it's finger popping (older friend SWORE it was "finger- f*cking" soI thought it was a Very Naughty Song indeed)
Twenty four hour shopping in rapture ("...down, and their clothes they're shucking, in rapture")
Fab Five Freddy told me everybody's fly (...everybody's fine)
DJ spinning I said "My My" (deejay spinning a set in my mind) Flash is fast Flash is cool Francois c'est pas flashe non due (Francois's a pa[w], Flash is one too)
And you don't stop sure shot
Go out to the parking lot
And you get in your car and drive real far
And you drive all night and then you see a light
And it comes right down and it lands on the ground
And out comes the man from Mars
And you try to run but he's got a gun
And he shoots you dead and he eats your head
And then you're in the man from Mars
You go out at night eating cars
You eat Cadillacs Lincolns too
Mercurys and Subaru
And you don't stop
You keep on eating cars
Then when there's no more cars you go out at night
And eat up bars where the people meet
Face to face
Dance cheek to cheek (and cheek to cheek)
One to one (arm in arm)
Man to man (man with man)
Dance toe to toe
Don't move too slow
'cause the man from Mars is through with cars
He's eating bars
Yeah wall to wall
Door to door
Hall to hall
He's gonna eat 'em all
Rapture
Be pure (Beep your)
Take a tour through the sewer
Don't strain your brain
Paint a train (take a train)
You'll be singing in the rain
Said don't stop to the punk rock
Random lyrics which might be:
"back to back, body muscular
spinless movement,
bite the jugular
one to one (?)technology
And a (?) ardour,
no sign of saviour in Rapture"
Well now you see what you wanna be
Just have your party on TV
Cause the man from Mars
won't eat up bars where the TV's on (When the TV's on)
And now he's gone back up to space
where he won't have a hassle with ...I never understood that line, just mumbled it... the human race And you hip hop (can you dig that?)
And you don't stop
Just blast off sure shot
Because the man from Mars stopped eating cars
And eating bars
And now he only eats guitars
Get up! Giddyup!


-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Apparently I lack the ability to code a line break. I hate when I do that.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

This isn't actually something I've done, but I'll bet someone has. I was at a Goldfinger show recently and John Feldmann, the lead singer, said after they'd finished playing "Anxiety" which has a line that goes "It's not your time, yeah" and is repeated many times, he said "You know, everytime I sing that song I think it sounds like 'It's Nacho Time!'". And everyone laughed and the band started making "nacho time" jokes and it was cool.

I apologize for the run-on sentence that made little to no sense.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

I can't remember my own, but I can remember friends mess-up's

From the Steve Miller Band, my friend thought they were singing "Bingo jet had a light out". She belted that out one night and we asked her what the name of the song was...she knew it was Big Old Jet Airliner, but still had the lyrics wrong!

Same friend Bruce's Tramps Like Us...she thought he sang Tran slide gus.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Regarding Secret Agent/Asian/etc. Man -- there's actually a band called Secret Cajun Band. I love that.

And if anyone is familiar with Catherine Wheel, they have a song called "I Confess" with a line that sounds for all the world like "one more Powerbar" -- does anyone know the real words?

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Misheard lyrics I've collected: My sister always sang Mr. Mister's "Kyrie Eleison" as "Carry a laser" (I know that one's common). A former coworker of mine thought "Life in the Fast Lane" was "wiping the Vaseline" (eeew). And my husband still insists on singing Yaz's "Move Out" as "Moo-cow," just 'cause he knows it bugs me.

The one I've never been able to figure out: Remember that song "Gold" by, I think, John Stewart? It's got Stevie Nicks singing backup on it. There's a line in the chorus that sounds for all the world like "Climbing old potatoes, singin' to my soul, people out there turning music into gold." If anyone can tell me what "climbing old potatoes" really is, I'd be forever grateful.

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

The song is probably called "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" I think it's by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Actual line: "I wanna know...have you ever seen the rain?" My interpretation: "I wanna know...have you ever seemed deranged?" Recently I was crushed to realize that in "When Doves Cry," Prince is singing, "Maybe I'm just like my father--too bold," NOT "just like my father--twofold." It's so much cooler as "twofold." And I can't be the only who thought "I Want a New Drug," by Huey Lewis and the News, was "I Want a New Truck." I never could figure out why a truck would come in a pill. My favorite one off the kissthiguy site was the guy who started singing suavely along with Sade's "Smooth Operator" at a romantic moment...only he thought the song was called "Goose on the River." Goose on the river....
Goose...on the river ...

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

Re: "No Woman No Cry" - ever heard of Bob Marley?

Re: Tori Amos' whacked out lyrics - just listen to all of the lyrics on "Little Earthquakes". My fav is "Boy, you'd best pray that I bleed real soon / how's that thought for you?" from "Silent All These Years".

Re: "Voices Carry" - I actually bought the album and it is "hush hush, keep it down, now, voices carry"

-- Anonymous, June 28, 2000

About "Blue" by Eiffel65- a friend of mine insists that she read the lyric sheet and it's "I'm blue, if I was green I would die, if I was green I would die, if I was green I would die."
I think da-bee-de whatever. though.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

I am so glad I'm not the only who sang "she's so popular" along with Peter Gabriel. My husband laughed so hard when he heard me he had to pull the car to the side of the road to avoid an accident.

My favorite comes from my sister, when she was about 10 or 11. I can't remember the name of the song, I think it was by Power Factory or something similar. It's a late 80s early 90s rap/dance song which has the actual line of "It's gettin gettin gettin kinda hectic." I still chuckle when I picture my sister dancing on the driveway in her spandex bike shorts singing, "Skinny, Skinny, Skinny's got a lover."

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

Dang it, I got it wrong again?!

Thanks for posting the lyrics, pamie (and Chris), but dangit, I'm with Allison: "fatten" IS better. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Gee, I never realized I knew so few of the words to that songs. Ya know where they sing "Sweet to taste, saccharine"? I thought it was "Sweet potatoes, saccharine!" Again, I prefer my version. THAT'S IT! I'm taking over that song from Def Leppard. From now on, I'm telling them what to sing. They couldn't write a song to save their life! (Heh.)

Glitterbeam: Your friend is wrong. The name of the song is actually "Blue (Ba Da Dee)". No green in it, I'm sure. (Really, I AM this time!)

Milla guessed all the songs right, except the country song is "I smell T-R-O-U-B-L-E" (or is it spell?). I don't remember who sings it. By the way: "I'm on FIRE! I'm your flat TIRE!" LOL!

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

Oh, more responses:

Lauren: I thought it was "shipment" too. Oops.

Katrin: Oh, that "Kyrie Eleison" song bugged me for the longest time, until someone finally told me that they weren't *supposed* to be words I could recognize. What does it mean anyway?...Oh, ok, I just looked it up, it means "Lord have mercy". Thanks, Katrin.

Emily: Yeah, I knew "No Woman No Cry" was a Marley song, but I've only ever heard the Fugees version, I think.

When I was in elementary school, I used to sing: "It was an itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow po-ka-dah-bi-ki-ni..." I had no idea what a po-ka-dah-bi-ki-ni was (I probably didn't know what a bikini was), but I sang it anyway, loudly, and with a big grin on my face. Until my friends pulled me aside and asked me if I knew what the hell I was saying.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

Jason,

I accept your version of "Pour Some Sugar On Me" to be the true one that God intended. Fatten me up with your sweet potatoes, baby.

It's just better.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

I'm laughing so hard the dog has come over twice to see if I'm really OK. You guys are making me *scare my dog*!

I may never stop laughing over "Venus."

I went to college in North Carolina back in the days when REM was still a bar band. When their first album finally came out, we all referred to it as "Mumble" rather than "Murmur." Stipe was infamous for changing lyrics, changing the chorus, he just sang whatever he felt like. He was his own mondagreen...

Liz

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

OK, I told my husband about this thread, and he got mad that I didn't post the ones he's done.. so here's a couple more.

Another from Manfred Mann's "Blinded By The Light": my husband thought instead of, "And little early birdie came by in his curly whirley, and asked me if I needed a ride", that it was "And little early birdie made my anus curly whirley..."

I'm a big Fleetwood Mac fan, and until he met me, he'd never heard the song, "Second Hand News", which Lindsey Buckingham sings, and it's one of my favorites. Well, one day he was wandering around singing it, and instead of "I'm your second hand news, I'm your second hand news.. yeah!", he sang "I'm just sittin' here nude, I'm just sittin' here nude.. yeah!" And I admit it, if you listen to the song and THINK those words, you could SWEAR that's what he's singing.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

Jesus. What is UP with this forum? It's like you're all in my head.

Jen - not ever in my life have I met anyone ELSE who heard it as "anus curly whirley." I was going to post that here but I thought y'all would think I was making shit up.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

Well...please tell me someone else listened to Pamie's MP3 of Heat.

Am I crazy or are they singing "dreidel, dreidel, dreidel?" Seriously. Because if they are, this is my new favorite song.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

I think I hear it as "anus curly-whirly" too....It gets worse. Apparently, it's "Early Pearly", not "early birdie". Who knew?

You can find (three versions of) the lyrics to that song at kissthisguy.com. You'll have to look in the FAQ (lol). Apparently, Bruce Springsteen wrote it (although by now, y'all probably won't believe a word I type). What the heck is he talking about?

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

Ok I never actually thought this was the lyric but someone said it to me once, and I actually like it better just 'cuz its funny.

Sugar Ray's Fly- "spread your wings and fly" as "spread your loving thighs"

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

Allison,

You should be ashamed of yourself. I was in hysterics over your last post (you sounded so surprised!), and I got a call in the middle of my laughing fit. We have those headsets that don't give us the option of picking up the call. One second it isn't there, the next second it is. I just laughed right into this guy's ear. Oops.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

Here are a couple of mine:

Depeche Mode's People Are People...
Actual lyric: "People are people, so why should it be, you and I should get along so awfully?"
What I heard: "...you and I should get along so awesomely?"

The song Greased Lightnin' from Grease...
What I heard, "It's supreme (uh-uh); chicks'll scream (uh-uh), for greased lightnin'."
(I wouldn't have understood the correct lyric back then even if I'd known it.)

This one I'm still not completely sure of, but there's some song that came out in the early 90's whose lyrics were something like:
[Waiting/Waited/Hang it/Paint it/Painted] on a line of green and blue, just to be the first to be with you..."

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

Hey Allison --

I think they ARE saying "dreidel dreidel dreidel".

Fantastic.

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

That sky song some kind of wonderful (i saw someone mention it above ) is not she makes a mean steak eggs adn apples, its
"She makes a mean steak adn shes an eyeful"
I always messed up the sloan song (you americans know sloan?) That says
"and the joke is when he awoke his, body was covered with coke fizz"
i thought it was "and the joke is when he awoke his body was covered with roses"
one would think that the latter would be the actualy lyrics not hte coke fizz one no?

-- Anonymous, June 29, 2000

Jason, I always thought that Toto lyric was "I bet the rain's down in Africa." It made sense at the time.

I thought that Def Leppard lyric were: "Flash a little thigh" but it's "flash a little light" "Devilish woman can I be your man" but it's "Demolition woman..." "sugar be sweet" but it's "sugar me sweet" The sad part of it is that the stoners played it every day on the school bus my senior year and then I'd watch the video on MTV's video countdown the minute I got home. That song was #1 for what seems like forever.

"When Doves Cry" -- I thought the lyric was "Maybe I'm just like my father--too cold,"

Thanks for reminding me Carol, I thought the lyrics in Huey Lewis' "The Heart of Rock and Roll" was "The heart of rock 'n roll is Toobeten," instead of "still beating." I dunno, sounded like a small town in Ohio.

When I was but a wee girl, I used to sing the chorus of "Skin Tight" as "Kin tight," but that's more a matter of having that little kid accent than anything else.

Surely I'm not the only one on this board to sing the praises of the great, "elemenal P" in the Alphabet Song.

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

I am notorious for just throwing CD's in the player on shuffle, and never looking at the cases. For years, I thought Prince was singing Get Up (23 positions in a one night stand). The goddam song is called Get Off! If I'd even looked at the case, I would have had the lyric right.

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

Sandra: That song was "To Be With You" by Mr. Big and it went Waited on a line of green and blue
Just to be the next to be with you I didn't know how it went for ages either, and I still have no idea what the deal is with the green and blue line.

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

I can't remember who sings that song "Bailamos" (Enrique Iglesias?), but for the longest time I thought the line was "Bailamos, let the rhythm take you over by the balls."

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

I thought it was "The heart of rock and roll is the beat."

I also thought the line in "When Doves Cry" was "Maybe I'm just like my father, Tilfold." Like "Tilfold" was his dad's name.

Maybe I should stop posting while I'm ahead.

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

How about: "The heart of rock and roll is still beaten."

No, Jason, you must never stop posting.

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

Let's take a moment to discuss music currently on the charts. The Thong Song. Does anybody know ANY of the lyrics to that stupid thing???

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

I used to work in a local print shop with two other graphic artists... Nobody can screw a song over like we can. Whether we knew the actual lyrics or not we sang them wrong.. Like Steve Miller's song about Billy Joe and Bobby Sue... running for the border and running into "A great big Asshole" instead of "great big hassle" and Neal Young's Cinnamon Girl was always "I wanna live with a Cinnamon Bun." Eric Clapton's "Lay down Sally, and whisper in my rear" ZZ Top's song Legs we sang as "pegs" There were tons more... but that's been a few years ago and I can't remember them all. And I'm really not sure why we did that... maybe to counteract the effects of the sadistic boss we had. Who knows.

--Captain Stubby

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

Dude. I always thought it was "The heart of rock and roll is in Cleveland".

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

Re: Thong Song

I continue to hear "she's got dumps like a truck." Of course, Sysqo insists upon dropping the last hard sound of the word, so it's more like "she's got dumps like a truh," but either way, I'm fairly certain I'm wrong.

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

Oh, and Katie? That Enrrique Iglesias song, Bailamos? I totally thought he was singing "by the balls" every time he said "bailamos". That song came on at a restaraunt during dinner with friends, and of course I began to sing along.

I've never seen 4 people simultaneously choke on their food before. : )

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

Oh Christ. I looked up the lyrics. Frighteningly enough, I *was* hearing it correctly:

She had dumps like a truck, truck, truck Thighs like what, what, what Baby move your butt, butt, butt I think i'll sing it again

DUMPS LIKE A TRUCK???

OK, one more part of the song that makes me cock my head to the side like the RCA dog:

Ooh that dress so scandalous And you know another nigga can't handle it So you shakin that thang like who's the ish With a look in yer eyes so devilish Uh

OK, I thought it was "shakin' that thing like who's the dish"...THAT makes sense. What the hell is an ish, people? I thought it was a typo, but it repeats in the song, and it's typed that way twice.

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

"In Cleveland", Wendy? *giggle* Well, it's true, the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame Museum is in Cleveland. But I think the song was written before the museum was built. :)

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

"Elemenopee" is not one letter? Damn...

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

When my cousin was four or five, he used to sing "Tra la la bum bum" instead of "Para bailar la bamba" (which isn't so funny if you don't know much Spanish). But the one that always cracked me up was "Wakey up, 'fore you cocoa!" instead of "Wake me up before you go-go."

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

Katherine: "ish" is the sound of the word "shit" when it's scrambled by radio station censors. Call it eliminating the middleman, I guess.

Jason: Oh yes, "Cleveland". My only defense is that, at some point during the song, Huey shouts "DETROIT!" so I thought he was just listing off cities he was fond of. Hey, I was young. Gimme a break. :)

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

I'm back again. I couldn't help myself. Someone mentioned Sugar Ray's "Fly" - my husband (again), thought he was saying "Spread your love on Clyde".

Just one more - in that song "Oh Sheri" by..er.. whatever that group is that Steve Perry was the lead singer of. It starts out with him sort of yelling something, like "Should've been gone!".. I think it sounds like "Shit, I'm in gum!"

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

The words "in Cleveland" really DO appear in Heart of Rock N Roll...at the very end. Cleveland had a rock reputation well before the Rock Hall of Fame--that's why they got it.

Full lyrics are here: http://www.summer.com.br/~pfilho/html/lyrics/h/heart_of_rock_and_roll. txt

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

I've always wondered what the line was in "To Be With You"...waited on a line of green and blue, huh? Could that mean jealousy/sadness? That's the only sense I can make of it but this is coming from the girl who thought the line "They say you're only sad and lonely...and no one is impressed" from the Wallflowers song "Bleeders" was "you're homeless and homely and no one is impressed."

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

Well, it never occurred to me until my freshman in college (i.e.: Binge Drinking 101) that the song "Filler" by Minor Threat could be interpreted as "Miller" (you know... like the beer. Get it?) The line "It's in your head (x2) Filler You call it religion You're full of shit" could easily be read as: "It's in your head (x2) MILLER! Tastes great, less filling You're full of shit!" And so on...

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

Well you know that part in Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody where it says 'Beezlebub has a devil put aside for me... for me... FOR MEEEE!' (I think that's what it is anyway). For years I thought it was 'The Albatross has a devil in his eye for me... for me... FOR MEEEE!' I wasn't so sure about the devil in his eye part, but I was certain about the albatross. It wasn't until Wayne's World came out and I actually watched their lips move that I figured it out.

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

Couple of people mentioned "No Woman No Cry". My best friend was singing it one day as "no woman, no priiiiide". I corrected her but she still insists that her version sounds better.

Anyway when I was younger, my mom would always play Motown music. You know that song "Baby Love" by the Supremes? Well there's a line that goes "don't throw our love away" but I always used to think it was "don't, though i love the way"....yeah I know I was a screwed up kid!

I also think that the Blue song DOES say "if i was green i would die" but who knows....I've only heard it a few times.

Let's see.... I've definitely screwed up on Hole lyrics. I heard "I've had bad days" instead of "Might last a day" (Violet). ..."oh just go eat flesh" instead of "oh just go nameless" (Celeb Skin)....

Hmmm. Can't really think of anymore but I know there's more out there...

-- Anonymous, July 01, 2000

OK, my mind is currently blank...but redemption has arrived in the shape of my husband. He remembers moshing along to the Jam's Eton Rifles and being utterly convinced (along with his friends) that it was in fact Nelson's Eyeballs..I married him before I knew this...

-- Anonymous, July 02, 2000

You know, y'all have NO idea how many lyrics I didn't know I'd misheard until I read this thread. I will swear to my dying day that the line from "Blinded by the light" is "Wrapped up by delusion" (which, frankly, makes a hell of a lot more sense than the original.)

The one that I remember from ages ago was a Michael Jackson song--"Got to be starting something", I think is the title. Anyway, on the middle bridge, I thought he was saying "mamasay, mamasah, mamakusah", a sort of Africanist sounding nonsense which matched the music. Apparently, LOTS of people thought this, because one day a DJ said something like, "People think he's just spounting nonsense stuff here, but no! it's real words! He's saying 'Come and sail on the sound of Michael's song." I was SO disappointed....

Are you sure that Stevie Nicks isn't singing about That One Winged Dove...?

-- Anonymous, July 03, 2000

Go tell that DJ to go to hell.

Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
Michael Jackson

Said you wanna be startin' somethin', ya gotta be startin' somethin'.
I said you wanna be startin' somethin', ya gotta be startin' somethin'.
It's too high to get over and too low to get under,
You're stuck in the middle and the pain is thunder.

I took my baby to the doctor with a fever but nothin' he found.
By the time this hit the street they said she had a break down.
Someone's always tryin', start my baby cryin',
Talkin' squealin' lyin', say'n' you just wanna be startin' somethin'.

I said you wanna be startin' somethin', ...
It's too high to get over and too low to get under.
You're stuck in the middle and the pain is thunder.

Billie Jean is always talkin' when nobody else is talkin'.
Tellin' lies and rubbin' shoulders so they called her mouth a motor.< BR> Someone's always tryin' to start my baby cryin',
Talkin' squealin' spyin', sayin' you just wanna be startin' somethin'.

I said you wanna be startin' somethin', ...

You're a veg'table, you're a veg'table,
Still they hate you, you're a veg'table.
You're just a buffet, you're a veg'table.
They eat off of you, you're a veg'table.

If you can't feed you baby, then don't have a baby,
And don't think maybe if you can't feed your baby.
You'll be always tryin' to stop that child from cryin'
Hostlin' stealin' lyin' - now baby's slowly dyin'.

I said you wanna be startin' somethin', ...
It's too high to get over and too low to get under. ...

Lift your head up high and scream out to the world,
I know I am someone and let the truth unfurl (Yee-haw!)
No one can hurt you now, because you know what's true,
Yes, I believe in me, so you believe in you.
Help me sing it: Mama se, mama sa, mama coo sa. ...
Mama se, mama sa, mama coo sa, mama se, mama sa, mama coo sa, ...< BR>

I didn't say they made sense. I just know the words.

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2000

Most of mine are pretty common ... "Big old Jed had a light on," and "There's a baboon on the right," for example ... but the funniest lyric I ever misheard was from a friend's band. They had this one song where the drummer sang a backup lyric that goes, "Now that you're leaving I've got time on my hands," repeated over and over. But I heard it as, "Now that you're leaving I've got come on my hands." I was pretty shocked that they were singing something so crude, but hey, there really aren't enough songs about wanking, are there?

I finally figured it out and told the drummer what I'd been hearing all along. He thought it was hilarious, and that night I was pretty sure he really was singing it my way. I don't think anyone noticed.

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2000

Okay. Here's one. Neil Diamond. "America"

I always thought: "Every time that flags's on the furl, they're comin' to America."

I thought that "on the furl" meant "tested." I assumed that every time America was down, immigrants would sweep in and make America better.

I don't know. I was six.

Oh, and "When Doves Cry"-- I thought it was, "touch if you will my stomach/ feel how it trembles inside/ you got the butt of flies all tied up."

Isn't that nasty? Thought it was some disorder of his tummy. With like, bugs in his stomach or something.

I probably have every single Smashing Pumpkins lyric ever wrong. 1979: "And we don't even care, to shake these amber blues." It's "zipper blues." I like mine more.

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2000

I heard a dj say that the "green and blue" part of that Mr. Big song is about how the feelings that he's singing about in the song would show up on a mood ring.

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2000

My best one is the Go-Go's "Our Lips Are Sealed."

By some chance of verbal dyslexia and even though I know the real words (it's the title for crying out loud!), it always comes out as "Islands of Seals."

-- Anonymous, July 04, 2000

Beatles - 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. What the lyrics said: "I can't hide". What I heard: "I get high >>>

Oh my god..those arent the words? im so dead serious here, ive always thought it was "I get high". man im dumb. also, my mom and i thought it was "wrapped up like a douche"... so we bought the album to reasuure ourselves [this is when i was in like first grade]...the retardation runs in the family, man

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2000

Re: The Thong Song - I thought it was "She's got dumps like a truck (whatever the hell that means), GUYS like what" In fact, I got into a big argument with this girl about it the other day...I also thought it was "who's the dish"

Jenna

-- Anonymous, July 05, 2000

In watching Rockie Horror Picture Show on VH1 tonight, I was reminded of a lyric that I could never understand. I puzzled over it for nearly 20 years. Tonight I finally knew what Susan Sarandon was singing in "Dammit Janet" as she holds up her left hand and admires her new engagement ring: "It's better than Betty Monroe had." All these years I heard: "It's better than betting on a roehad."

Roehad? Well, there are a lot of lyrics from that show that I'm still unclear about.

-- Anonymous, July 06, 2000

When I first heard that Sugar Ray song, instead of hearing "spread your love and fly," I heard "spread your love on rye." I thought it was great--maybe it was a covert reference to SNL's Coffee Talk Lady. Your love is like butter, baby; spread it on rye bread! I started finding Rye References everywhere, like in Paula Cole's song I don't want to wait: "open up your morning light and say a little prayer for RYE," instead of "say a little prayer for I." Nobody else really appreciated my bread lyrics, though. Oh well.

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2000

ok, it's a kiddy song, but here goes:
maresy dotes and dosey dotes,
and little lambsy divey,
a kiddley divey too,
wouldn't you?

That should really be:
Mares eat oats and does eat oats,
and little lambs eat ivy,
a kid'll eat ivy too
wouldn't you?

How messed up is that? :)

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2000

I just remembered another one of mine, from "What's the Matter Here" by 10,000 Maniacs. That Natalie Merchant just does not enunciate!

The lyric is: "If I'm the only witness to your madness offer me some words to balance out what I see and what I hear."

But I heard: "If I'm the only witness too you might just offer me some words to vomit out what I see and what I hear."

Made sense to me, at the time.

-- Anonymous, July 11, 2000

Oh man. I HAVE to dob my boyfriend in, because the other day I noticed him doing the mother of stuffed up lyrics.

I don't know if many of you know of the band Grinspoon, but on one of their latest songs is the chorus lyric "get on the right show". Because of the way it's sung and the bands lack of fear when it comes to subjects, my boyfriend thought they were singing "get an erection".

What I love most about this stuff up is that he likes to sing while he works (he's a carpenter) - I've got no idea how many people he has sang this out loud too hehehehehee. That should teach him to keep his singing to himself.

Incidently it's a very good band - one which I thoroughly recommend to Pamie.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

uh, whoops. The right lyrics in the before post are "get on a rock show" not "right show".

heh. There's probably a lesson in that but damned if I'm going to acknowledge it...

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

Okay, it keeps getting mentioned and I'm going to mention it again to explain that Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" is his way of kinda saying, "Hey Sweet Mamma, Don't Cry." If it was a rap song he'd say "No Hoe, Don't Bawl."

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2000

Remember The Steve Miller Band's "Fly Like an Eagle?" Well, one day when my much-younger sister (maybe 9 or 10?) and I were singing along to it, she looked at me with surprise and told me that she thought it was "Fly like a negro!" Like, where did she pick up "negro?" Who even used that term, even waaay back then in the mid-80s? I haven't let her live that one down....

Then again, I also heard "douche" and "anus curly-whirly" in Blinded by the Light, she just doesn't know about that. Put me down for the "Forever in Blue Jeans"/"Reverend Blue Jeans" misconception too. I learned of my error during one of the more humilating recess incidents of my preteen years (and there were many).

Ah, nostaligia...

-- Anonymous, July 15, 2000

My friend's ex-boyfriend used to think the Don Henley song "The End of the Innocence" was "The End of the Anderson's". Anderson was her last name. I cannot hear that song without giggling.

I always thought in U2's song "With or Without You" where Bono says repeatedly and you give...and you give" that it sounded just like he said "Andy Gibb" even though I knew what it was...

-- Anonymous, November 08, 2001

The Mr. Big song "To Be With You"

the lyric is actually "Waited on a line of greens and blues, just to be the next to be with you" if the plurals of the colors mean anything.

and for all the die hard Mr. Big fans like me, there is another lyric in the same song my version:the game of love is all reknowned actually: Your game of love was all rained out

for all you "Voices Carry" fans my version: Hush hush, keep it down down, this is Carrie

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2002

I thought Def Leppard's "Foolin'" was "Aw c-c-cool it!" A friend of mine thought Metallica's Creeping death lyric "killing first born man" was "killing works for me" Golden Earring's Twilight zone: "somewhere in a loyal crummin prize, he thought he realized that infernal change has got his back on him. it's 2 am. It's 2 am, in here is gone and I'm somewhere gone to the wall, drinkin' my connection, tired of takin' a chance. Well there's a song on the loose, thunderings in my head, wrapped up in silence, all circuits are dead, I cannot de-code, my whole life spins into a frenzy. Help, I'm steppin' into the twilight zone, place is a madhouse, feels like bein' cloned, I veeble bamboo from the moon and stars...I'm fallin' down a spiral, just a mission unknown, come across a messenger, all alone...well, the night was heavy on his guilty mask, ten steps from the border line, when the head man comes, he knows..." I don't know what that lyric to John Stewart's "Gold" is (climbin' old potatos) but I thought it was "drivin' on a canyon"

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002