Misheard lyrics!

[tarawhipped]

Ooo...Candleshoe, resurrecting threads I never saw. Very cool!

I will always hear Neil Diamond's "Forever in Blue Jeans" as "The Devil in Blue Jeans."

That, and many of my misheard lyrics, are the fault of my mom, who can twist and mix songs around like no one. I gave up years ago insisting that CCR's "I've seen the bad moon rising" was NOT "I've seen the blue moon rising." And in Silent Night, I'm fairly certain the author did not intend for you to "sleep in heavenly peas." I love my mom.

-Cameron

[GayNow]

Remember the huge hit from Flashdance by Irene Cara?

The actual lyrics.....

"Take your passion and make it happen"

My mother, lord love her, turned to me in the car one day and asked...

"What kind of song is this?! 'Take your pants off and make it happen'?!?!"

I just laughed my ass off. We both start cracking up whenever we hear the song.

[tarawhipped]

Your mom has a dirty mind, Car. I guess it runs in the family?

-Cam

[GayNow]

My mother can make a Marine blush when she puts her mind to it.

[FineyMcFine]

I've heard that misheard lyrics are called 'mondegreens.' There is a Dar Williams song called "Spring Street" where the lyrics go:

Yeah, let’s watch the tour bus stop and tell us
Here’s the scene of a spring green life dream
Take the best part
Write it in your caffeine diary

This wasn't exactly misheard, as such - it was just a funny joke that some of my friends and I would make - we'd say "caffeine diarrhea" instead of "caffeine diary" and then laugh like 9-year-olds.

There's also a Dar song called "I Love, I Love (Traveling II)" where the lyrics go:

And were I a deadwood ship, my heart a compass
I would leave with inanimate grace, no love could touch me
But I live and I know that I'll burn as I grow
Though it might break my heart to walk away and so

Again, we would sing it differently, as in "no love could touch me butt" as if we were Irish 9-year-olds.

[Krazy Dreamer]

In Blondie's Tide is high I swear she's saying, "I'm not the kind of girl who gives up just like Dad" instead of "I'm not the kind of girl who gives up just like that."

And in Tarzan Boy by Baltimora the lyrics are:

Night to night
Gimme the other, gimme the other chance
tonight

I hear:

Knight to knight
Gimme the armor, gimme the armor. No chains tonight.

[oneyedchicklet]

One of the guys I worked with used to sing "She's got better days aside" instead of "She's got Bette Davis eyes". We all started cracking up since it was on one of his cd's. After that everytime the song came on, we'd all sing it his way.

[Boadecia]

Ray Charles' "the night is the right time" in teh chorus i could swear the back up singers are singing "god is gay" BUt i have been told that they are singing "night and day"...whatever, i think my version is better! lol

[kisstheviolets]

when i was 14 or 15 and the gin blossom's song "hey jealousy" came out my best friend at the time swore the lyric "i'm in no shape for driving" was "i'm no sheep or dragon." we thought it made perfect sense. my mom heard me singing it like that once and was like "are you kidding me??" and has proceeded to remind me about it everytime the song has come on in the 12 or 13 years since.

i am also fond of purposefully singing the words "you're the feces" instead of "you're the fiercest" in tori's "concertina". i have ruined that song for many a person but can't stop my compulsion to shout "you're the feces!" it amuses me about as much as the word urinalysis (see the random thread).

[Candleshoe]

Oh, Watson on the Lyrics Chain thread has just made me realise that I have mis-heard a lyric for years. Savage Garden's I Want You apparently goes

Sweet like a chic-a-cherry cola

I thought it was "Cheeky Cherry Cola"

[Emms]

Oooo I have one (well, I'm posting this for my wife)

Um...the theme song to Good times: the actual line is Hangin' in the chow line

My wife and her friends were having a discussion about this in college, and since no one knew what they were singing during that part of the song, decided that it was hanging in the the shower room. (drastically different.)

After hearing that story a million times I finally looked up the actual lyrics on the computer for her.

xoxo
Emms

[kindagay]

Okay, in the song Perfect Day by Lou Reed, the line "feed animals in the zoo", I used to think that it was "freak animals in the zoo"

& also, when I was very little, I was convinced that Belinda Carlisle was singing "blue heaven is a place on earth"

Hugs
Jeanne

[umgaynow]

I can't think of any misheard lyrics right now cuz my brain is oxygen depreived from laughing so hard...but on a semi-related note...when Hootie and the Blowfish first came around...my sister heard them on the radio and thought the name was Who Ate The Blowfish?

[willlovestara]

I always laugh whenever I hear the song ''Hey Baby'' by No doubt cos my gf sings ''I'm just sippin' on camels milk'' instead of ''I'm just sippin' on camomile.'' Bless her.
Hannah.

[Auburn]

Hehe I got a Madonna song wrong(like a virgin), my mum actually pointed it out to me after I'd sang it she looked at me funny and said "what did you say?" through a fit of giggles. Pfft, mothers!

Actual lyrics: Yeah, your love thawed out
What was scared and cold


My version: Yeah, your love poured out
What was gray and old

[Guppy]

The Rob Thomas song, Lonely No More confused me. It really didn't seem like something to sing to someone you want to get with. I always heard
It's hard for me
With my heart still on the bend
Open up to me
And I can do your girlfriends

Actual:
It's hard for me
With my heart still on the mend
Open up to me
Like you do your girlfriends

[Candleshoe]

Someone caught me singing to Dance without Sleeping by Melissa Etheridge tonight.

Apparently the line is:
The eyes on a magazine

Not, as I assumed:
Your eyes on my brassiere

[Candleshoe]

Apparently this might be a medical condition, according to this Metro newspaper article

'Scuse me while I kiss this guy

No matter how often you listen to some songs, there are lyrics which do not sound right.

It is difficult to imagine punk queen Chrissie Hynde might opine, 'gonna use my sausage'instead of 'my sidestep', in the Pretenders' classic, Brass in Pocket.

Or that Madonna sang, 'Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie, put your hands all over my body' rather than 'erotic, erotic'.

A poll yesterday revealed the top ten misheard lyrics of all time.

Straight in at No.1 is Jimi Hendrix with Purple Haze. Millions of people sing the line, 'Scuse me, while I kiss the sky' as 'Scuse me, while I kiss this guy'. Close behind in second spot are the Beatles and Paperback Writer (Paint the black whiter).

A hearing specialist said people sometimes misheard lyrics because they were suffering from a condition called 'consonant loss' – an early sign of hearing loss.

Peter Omerod, of David Omerod Hearing Centres which carried out the survey, said: 'Higher frequency speech sounds, created by consonants, are the first to go when hearing deteriorates.

'People with hearing impairment can pick out vowel sounds but it's consonants that carry the meaning of words.'

[Grayson]

Here are two from friends of mine in college

REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feelin'"

Actual lyrics: "You're a candle in the window on a cold dark winter's night."

Misheard lyrics: "You're a candle in the window on a corn dog winter's night."

Indigo Girls' "Love Will Come to You"

Actual lyrics: "As if I offered up a crystal ball to look through"

Misheard lyrics: "As if I offered up a crystal bottle of glue"

[LtSticks]

Oh god, this thread cheered me up when I needed it.

I, like michellesflute, misheard Behind Blue Eyes, with car instead of conscience *blushes*

~Emma

[Trom DeGrey]

Maybe it's the cold medicine, but despite the fact that I've heard this song hundreds of times it wasn't until this morning that I clearly heard the lyrics to Depeche Mode's "People are People".

The lyrics?
I can't understand
What makes a man
Hate another man
Help me understand

What have I heard for years???
I can't understand
What makes a man,
Takes another man
To help me understand

My gay mind at work, Kittens.

[twink]

i always thought the country song "third rate romance" was called "dirt red roses" don't ask me how i got that out of it. b/t/w yes, dirt can be a reddish color.

[justin]

The first few times I heard the song Wise Men by James "god awful singer" Blunt I thought it had the lines

Look who's alone now
Piss on me! Piss on me!

To say I was a little disturbed would be an understatement

[CaptMurdock]

Elton John's "Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dancer.

Actual

"Lay me down in sheets of linen."

What I heard:

"Baby darlin, she's so blendin'"

Well, really, some of his pronunciation is really out there. Try listening to "Good-bye Yellow Brick Road." What that man does to "...huntin' the horny-backed toad..." should not be considered part of the English language.

"Hun'n the hoorrnaah b'ck TAAAAOOODDD..."

And don't get me started on "vodker'n tonics..." Hearing loss, my ass!

[amber 4 prez]

this song, when I heard it I kept thinking "Did I just hear that?" it was part of the chorus, and I knew it had to be wrong, but I couldn't think of anything else that it might be.

Artist: Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Song: Blinded By the Light

What I heard:
Blinded by the light,
Wrapped up like a douche
In the middle of the night

The real lyrics:
Blinded by the light,
Revved up like a deuce,
Another runner in the night

[oneyedchicklet]

Bonnie Tylers Total Eclipse of the Heart

Actual line:

living in a powder keg and giving off sparks

What I heard:
I honestly had no clue until my daughter googled it. I was just too lazy to do that since I don't hear the song that often. She likes the song so she decided to look it up. Thanks Meghan

HUGS
Barb

[potential_angel]

Recently got the Panic! at the Disco Album 'A Fever You Can't Sweat Out'

Track 11 ' I constantly thank God for Esteban'

Actual lyrics:
'Strike up the band! Whoa! The conductor is beckoning'

Misheard Lyrics:
'Strike up the band! Whoa! The good doctor is sick again'

A friend pointed this out to me yesterday when I was singing it loudly in the middle of class. I still swear the misheard lyrics are the actual ones but then everyone tells me I have a hearing problem... at the age of 15 as well...

[Gatito Grande]

Wow: I heard a lot of these same lyrics wrong, too!

(e.g. I hear "douche" in Manfred Mann too! . . . and I thought it was "and I can do your girlfriends" in Rob Thomas! )

Here's a classic, that I re-heard last night while watching Cold Case. The plot was a take-off on the Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match of the early 70s, so naturally, they started w/ I Am Woman.

The actual lyrics say

"Yes, I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain."

Me, hearing this at the age of 11 (and thereafter)

"Yes I am wise
But I squeezed through all the pain"

GG Maybe Edge-of-Puberty GG's child-birth anxieties, no? I'll never know! Out

[Auburn]

Will Young was just on the tv show 'Davina' singing his new song, but I couldn't understand one line and I asked my friend, quite shocked, if he had just sang "I can't help but touch my self"

She laughed her head off and said no. The actual line is.

"Well I, I wouldn't be myself at all."

At least it has one word in common....

[DelWhicker]

I'd forgotten about this one, but I heard it on the radio a few days ago.

There was a Salt-n-Pepa song a loooong time ago, "Push It". Well, I thought they were singing about a certain location on a woman's body. When I said "I can't believe they let them say that on the radio", my friends nearly had aneurysms laughing so hard. I've never been able to live that one down, but I still sing it my way whenever I hear it.