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Songs where you misheard the lyrics and like your version better

Started by Kishi the Bad Lampshade, April 10, 2015, 02:30:14 PM

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Kishi the Bad Lampshade

We might have had this one before, but do you have any songs where you misheard the lyrics for a long time, and were disappointed when you realised the actual ones weren't as good?

The first one off the top of my head is Taylor Swift's recent hit, Blank Space[nb]it was recent, wasn't it? I'm still relevant?[/nb]. I heard part of the chorus as:

Gotta love these Starbucks lovers
They'll tell you "I'm insane"
But I got a blank space baby
And I'll write your name


which I really liked. I pictured loads of identikit middle-class students with their chai lattes talking about how wacky they are and how they and their mate Tristram come up with the most random ideas sometimes, like setting off the fire extinguishers or calling each other 'Jonathan'. But Taylor's young and up for anything so she'll put up with any of that shit for a fun couple of months with an attractive virile idiot.

Unfortunately I suspected the actual lyrics couldn't be that precise in that imagery, and the real ones are:

Got a long list of ex-lovers
They'll tell you I'm insane


which is much less interesting.




amnesiac

good thread! the one that springs to mind is Findlay's 'Off & On'

Actual lyric:
You give me the horrors and I give you the goo that oozes
Separate the scabs from the bruises

I hear:
You give me the horse and I give you the goo that it oozes
Separate the scabs from the bruises


alcoholic messiah

There's a line in Purple Haze where Jimi Hendrix sings "Excuse me while I kiss the sky", but I always heard it as "Eskewed beef? Haff anybody got any bockle orange joof?", which is obviously much better.


chand

First time I heard Cex's 'You Kiss Like You're Dead' without knowing the title, I thought the titular lyric was 'you kiss like your dad', which sounded like an excellently petulant diss to a former lover. It was cool though because I got to steal it for one of my own songs.

Norton Canes

"Under neon loneliness,
Motorcycle emptiness"

What? That's nonsense. What even is 'motorcycle emptiness'?

Whenever I heard it, before reading the lyrics:

"I'm dying of loneliness,
Oh this I call emptiness"

There. Everyone understands.

'Take me to the dance and hold me tight
I want to see the bright lights tonight'

by Richard and Linda Thompson

I always heard it as 'Take me to the docks and hold me tight'.  Much more evocvative I think.

Ray Travez

Quote from: Kishi the Bad Lampshade on April 10, 2015, 02:30:14 PM
Gotta love these Starbucks lovers
They'll tell you "I'm insane"


Not what you're asking I know, but I just can't imagine any of Taylor Swift's exes telling a potential future partner that she's 'insane'. 'Narcissistic', 'careerist' and 'overly demanding' I can imagine...

Just bothered me a bit. As someone with genuine mental health issues, it's a bit... anyway, I'm looking forward to Justin Bieber's new one about the pain of being bald, unemployed and unable to roll back his foreskin

holyzombiejesus

In Ziggy Stardust, it would be better if he was 'making love with a seagull', as I originally thought.

Phil_A

I had Pulp's I Spy in my head this morning. There's one line I always hear as

"Your apple crumble turned me on"

But I just looked it up and apparently it's

"Your Ladbroke Grove looks turn me on"

Nah, sorry Jarvo, I think I think I'll stick with mine,


JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on April 12, 2015, 11:41:35 AM
In Ziggy Stardust, it would be better if he was 'making love with a seagull', as I originally thought.

I first heard it as "Making love with his eagle".

And although I didn't think this myself[nb]Having first heard the song before "the nads"[nb]Via "the dogs bollocks" -> "the dogs nads" -> "the nads".[/nb] was even a thing.[/nb], it occurred to me that there might be those that hear "he was the nazz" as "he was the nads".


chocky909


Buttress

Big Yellow Taxi I always thought had a brilliantly understated 'fucking' in it:

"They paved paradise, to put up (with) a fucking lot"

Oh modern life, we do put up with a fucking lot don't we? From almost all angles. Its as if the song predicts the rapid deployment of disappointment, resentment and longing that characterises our internet cybersphere

hedgehog90

Bowie - Quicksand - "Knowledge comes with gas release"
I always imagine a little valve on David's face.

Captain Z

It's been covered by Peter Kay now, but for years I couldn't see how that Shania Twain lyric could be anything other than 'I cant believe you kiss your cock at night'.

PaulTMA

The return of The Thin White Duke
Throwing dogs in lovers' eyes


Serge

Yet another Bowie one: I initially misheard the line 'This is the kiss-off' in 'Joe The Lion' as 'This is some bizarre' and assumed that's where the record label got its name from.


Kane Jones

Quote from: Utter Shit on April 13, 2015, 11:23:11 AM
I'm blue, if I was green I would die.

"I'm blue, I will bleed, I will die."

Sounded much cooler to my early twenties, Marilyn Manson fan ears.

another Mr. Lizard

In 1979 The Undertones were seen by some as being inferior to Stiff Little Fingers in the Irish punk stakes, too frivolous and why oh why didn't they sing about 'the Troubles' or the state of things.

Until 'Get Over You'.

Blistering opening line - "dressed like Thatcher must be living in a different world..." - political, funny, sussed, romantic, socially relevant, all in those few brief words. And showing that Feargal, John, Damien and gang could have a dig at the Establishment every bit as much as any of their rivals.

Or so I believed for some 25 years until I discovered that I'd misheard the lyric...

Vodka Margarine

Rhythm is a dancer, it's a source of canyon.

Oooh-oh, your sex is on fire. Oooh-oh, we're the ones to perspire.

It's my life, don't you forget. Cutting the crap - it never ends.

Bingo Fury

Quote from: Serge on April 13, 2015, 12:03:10 PM
Yet another Bowie one: I initially misheard the line 'This is the kiss-off' in 'Joe The Lion' as 'This is some bizarre' and assumed that's where the record label got its name from.


You and me both.


Jockice

Quote from: another Mr. Lizard on April 13, 2015, 12:21:39 PM
In 1979 The Undertones were seen by some as being inferior to Stiff Little Fingers in the Irish punk stakes, too frivolous and why oh why didn't they sing about 'the Troubles' or the state of things.

Until 'Get Over You'.

Blistering opening line - "dressed like Thatcher must be living in a different world..." - political, funny, sussed, romantic, socially relevant, all in those few brief words. And showing that Feargal, John, Damien and gang could have a dig at the Establishment every bit as much as any of their rivals.

Or so I believed for some 25 years until I discovered that I'd misheard the lyric...

There's a song on their third album called Life's Too Easy. The chorus is 'stop complaining boy, your life's too easy.' But a mate of mine was absolutely convinced that the words were 'stop complaining when you're masturbating.' To this day if I ever here that song I sing those words to myself.

Some Kind Of Nature off Plastic Beach:
"They sit with barbiturates until they grow old"
is much better than
"They sit with our pictures in until they grow old"

ya done fucked up Lou

buttgammon

"Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile,
As girls with colitis go by"

hedgehog90

I always hear it as that too. I used to interpret colitis to be some sort of disgusting skin disease.

non capisco

A mate of mine has a story about teaming up with someone at his college to go busking in Glasgow, him on guitar and this other guy on vocals. They're attempting a version of 'Anarchy In The UK' and at the bit where John Lydon would sneer "No dogsbody!" this guy heartily bellowed "NO BUGS BUNNYYYYY!". That was what punk wanted to bring down. Prog rock, the monarchy and the cultural hegemony of American cartoon characters.

Oops! Wrong Planet


Burning Spear "Marcus Garvey words come to pass" - my sister misheard it as "Marcus Garvey wears underpants".