Great line changes in live versions of songs

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

I think it's great when bands change their lyrics when they are playing live or in session or something (as long as it's done well).  I suppose this thread could encompass line changes in covers of songs as well (like Chumbawamba's surprisingly incredibly good cover of Her Majesty and it's lyric alterations) but it's more about the original artists changing their own stuff. An example might be that great 'Mothercare version of A New England that Bragg did on some radio show or other. It's the little changes I like the most though, like in the Peel Session of The Fall's Theme from Sparta FC the original lyrics in one bit of the song go, inexplicably, from:

Be my toy
Come on have a bet
We live on blood
We are Sparta F.C.

To:
You live on...
You live on ...
...Mark Lamarr

It's just great for the 'what the fuck'ness of it, anyone know what that lyric change is all about or if it was just MES pissing about? Anyway, use this thread to give your favourite changes or the stories behind other ones mentioned.

[TOCMFIC]

I always liked some of Nine Inch Nails changes.

An early song says:

"I'm Jesus Christ on ecstacy"

One live performance changed it to:

"I'm Jesus Fuck on ecstacy".

Which amused me.

There's another as well. On Terrible Lie (a song about god) it goes:

Why are you doing this to me?
Am I not living up to what I'm supposed to be?
Why am I seething with this animosity? Hey God!
I think you owe me a great big apology.

Most live renditions of the song change the last line to:

I think you owe me a great big fucking apology.

What's cool is it still fits perfectly.

Then there's there's one particular live performance of "Piggy" which instead of the lyrics, had Trent rolling round on stage screaming "PIGS!" for most of it.

[alan strang]

"Monopoly, twenty one, checkers and chess
Mr Stephen Morrissey in a breakfast mess..."

(REM playing 'Man On The Moon' at a London gig a few years back)

[Bert Thung]

Eskimoes and Geordies!
(Roxy Music singing "Do The Strand" in Newcastle)

[Robot Devil]

It's the little changes I like the most though, like in the Peel Session of The Fall's Theme from Sparta FC the original lyrics in one bit of the song go, inexplicably, from:

Be my toy
Come on have a bet
We live on blood
We are Sparta F.C.

To:
You live on...
You live on ...
...Mark Lamarr

What about the Peel session of Hey! Student's lyric change?

"As you stare in your room at Shaun Ryder's face"

becomes

"As you masturbate with your Shaun Ryder face"

As for the Mark Lamarr line, I read some article which called it a "gnomic reference", which leaves me none the wiser, I'm afraid.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

What was the Frank Zappa song that changed 'cunt' to 'Republican'?

[JesusAndYourBush]

Those websites that list misheard lyrics always list "Scuse me while I kiss this guy" from Purple Haze, but in concerts Jimi actually used to sing this line sometimes in place of the correct lyric.


During the gulf war, at a Sisters Of Mercy concert in Germany, during the song "Vision Thing", the line "A little more mad in the methodrome" was sung as "A little more mad in the desert zone."

[TOCMFIC]

Ignore...

[Barney Sloane]

What was the Frank Zappa song that changed 'cunt' to 'Republican'?

'Honey Don't You Want A Man Like Me?', as featured on the live vid "Does Humor Belong In Music?"

[Jemble Fred]

(like Chumbawamba's surprisingly incredibly good cover of Her Majesty and it's lyric alterations)

Blimey, more than a few alterations, they wrote anentire song around Macca's squib! It is indeed topness.

There's a great live version of Billy Bragg's 'Walk Away Renee' – ordinarily a witty and thoughtful piece of prose delivered over an instrumental version of the Four Tops hit, but generally when he does it live it just becomes improvised stand-up – to a better standard than any new stand-up I've seen this fucking decade.

[Spiney Norman]

Bob Dylan tends to change lyrics a bit in live performances, particularly around the Blood on the Tracks era... I'll see if I can dig out some examples later.

[Brutus Beefcake]

Lemmy claims that he sang the Eight of Spades for years with no one noticing.

[The Plunger]

'When I was a very small boy, Michael Jackson played with me'.

New Order - True Faith, think this was at the Reading Festival a good few years back.

[benthalo]

The Fall... Mark Lamarr... Shaun "rent boy" Ryder

Or, indeed, "If I ever end up like Stewart Lee, smash my head in with a garden tool". As performed at a London gig in about 2000.

[Goldentony]

I didn't manage to hear this live but it got reported over at the forum, Mark e. Smith changing the line in wrong place, right time from -

'I keep on knockin'
but there's no bugger in'

to

'i keep on knockin'
but there's no fucker in'

simple but effective/hilarious.

Some misfits show ive got lying around too, Glen Danzig changed the chorus in Teenagers from mars from

'teenagers from mars,
and we dont care'

into

'bobby steele is an asshole
a fuckin cunt
yea, show me your cunt, asshole
you DO have a cunt dont you?'

for a lot of the song.

[Ray Le Otter]

Oasis "Live Forever"

"Maybe you're the same as me / Have two sugars in yer tea / You & I gonna live forever"

[MissInformed]

Heard at kids karaoke last weekend, sung by a boy of around 12, the line from "Summer Nights",

"wonder what she's doing now"

became

"wonder WHO she's doing now"

[Barney Sloane]

Lemmy claims that he sang the Eight of Spades for years with no one noticing.

"And don't forget the bastard..."

Never could understand why he puts that line into live versions of AOS.

[TOCMFIC]

'When I was a very small boy, Michael Jackson played with me'.

New Order - True Faith, think this was at the Reading Festival a good few years back.

No more calls, we have a winner...

[morgs]

Seem to remember hearing the B52s doing a live version od Rock Lobster which contained the line (IRMC) :

We were at the beach
Everybody had matching towels
Somebody went under a dock
And there they saw a rock
It wasn't a rock
It was GIANT OIL SLICK

[spit]

'Check that expiration date, Damon'

Pavement 'We Dance'- Reading 95

[The Culture Bunker]

Bernard Sumner did this all the time. One gig in America, he changed the opening line from Blue Monday to:

"How does it feel?/to play in front of cunts like you?"

There's a live version of Love Vigilanties that's pretty obscene, but I can't remember how it went.