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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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Jockice

I heard Cars by Gary Numan earlier and it gave me the impetus to check a lyric in it that has always puzzled me. It turns out that what I always thought was 'it gives me stable boy nights' is actually 'it keeps me stable for days.'

Still prefer my version though. Whatever it means.

Johnboy

Watching that old doc British Rock on Netflix with the subtitles on has alerted me to the fact that the lyric to Gangsters goes "Why must you record my phone calls?"

not "Why must you wreck all my phone calls?" as I had thought for 42 years

pigamus


Jockice

I was watching a thing on Channel 5 about 1985s best videos in bed last night with the subtitles on. Because I can't work out how to turn them off. One of the videos was Money For Nothing by Dire Straits. I was very surprised to find out that what I always thought was: "we've got some kitchens to liberate' is actually 'custom kitchen deliveries.'

I still very much prefer my version though. I never considered exactly why these kitchens needed liberating but took it as read that they should be. Free the kitchens!

The Mollusk

Quote from: Clatty McCutcheon on January 16, 2022, 11:56:23 PM'Lust for Life'.

I can't remember what specific radio show it was now but ever since I heard Chris Morris play this song and then afterwards questioned it as "you got lost for a laugh?" I can't hear the lyrics any other way.

buttgammon

Quote from: The Mollusk on March 05, 2022, 09:48:09 AMI can't remember what specific radio show it was now but ever since I heard Chris Morris play this song and then afterwards questioned it as "you got lost for a laugh?" I can't hear the lyrics any other way.

My version starts "here comes Johnny Yen again with Luther Vandross, and a fax machine".

From Uptown Top Ranking by Althea and Donna, I thought that the bloke been addressed had seen the singer whilst they were both in the much-loved local tobacconist, which was jokingly being referred to in French:

See mi in the ol' tabac,
Say mi give ya heart attack.

Tobacco smokers are, of course, at heightened risk of experiencing cardiac problems so the connection seemed logical and sound.
Typing this now I also realise that seeds of association between reggae girl duos and speaking French for a laugh may have been planted by the Wee Papa Girl Rappers assertion "I passed my exams in French about one year ago" on "We Rule".



Lemming

They played Vic Reeves' chart-topping cover of "Dizzy" on the radio earlier. Reminded me that as a child, I thought the third line of the verse, "it's so hard to talk to you with fellas hanging round you all the time", was "it's so hard to talk to you with colours hanging round you all the time".

Didn't know what it was meant to mean but concluded that, in the narrator's eyes, the subject of the song was such an impressive and awe-inspiring individual that she had some kind of aura of multicoloured rainbow lights sparkling and swirling around her at all times, presumably a contributing factor to the narrator's titular dizziness. This struck me as a really sweet way to describe another person, and endeared me to the song, even in the face of the subsequent lyric being fucking terrible: "I want you for my sweet pet, but you keep playing hard to get" - fucking eurgh.

JesusAndYourBush


Bently Sheds

"The Honey Monster's got me a full bowl" - opening line of In The Gold Dust Rush by Cocteau Twins.

Jockice

Another one that I've just checked. Strange Town by The Jam. It turns out that after Weller sings: 'I'm oh so glad the revolution's here,' the next line is: 'It's nice and warm now' whereas I always thought it was 'In Saffron Walden.'

Got to admit though, until I looked it up a couple of minutes ago I knew nothing about the place except that it's down south. And sounds like it might be a bit of a strange town with a name like that. So it can stay in my head as that forever.

JesusAndYourBush

Quote from: Jockice on April 05, 2022, 10:48:36 AMSo it can stay in my head as that forever.

And it will.  I've found that because the wrong lyric has been in my long-term memory for so long, when I look up the correct lyric for something I'll have forgotten it by the next time I think of the song again, and have to look it up again.

Always thought the beginning of Love Will Tear Us Apart was 'We're rooted by time and ambitions are low' rather than 'When routine bites hard...'

I like them both.

A couple of other ones I've remembered recently.

'I can't believe you kiss your carpet knife' (Shania Twain, 'That Don't Impress Me Much' - actual lyric is 'I can't believe you kiss your car at night').

In my heart of hearts, I knew this probably wasn't right, but I thought there was just an outside chance that Shania was pithily rebuffing the romantic advances of a carpet fitter.

In 'Like a Virgin', I thought it was 'Been saving it all for you/cos I'm in luck at last'.

I had discounted the possibility that it was 'cos I'm a lucky lass' on the grounds that Madonna is not from Huddersfield, but it turns out that it's the rather boring 'cos only love can last'. I genuinely prefer either of my interpretations.

Bently Sheds

Quote from: Jockice on April 05, 2022, 10:48:36 AMAnother one that I've just checked. Strange Town by The Jam. It turns out that after Weller sings: 'I'm oh so glad the revolution's here,' the next line is: 'It's nice and warm now' whereas I always thought it was 'In Saffron Walden.'
I always thought it was "Backs to the wall, lads" - to be honest I never knew the lyrics to that verse at all until I just looked them up.

Rizla

"Here At The Western World" by Steely Dan - apparently the chorus ends "we got your skinny girl, here at the western world", which I always heard as "we got young skinny girls, here at the western world".

Jockice

Quote from: Bently Sheds on April 06, 2022, 02:42:41 PMI always thought it was "Backs to the wall, lads" - to be honest I never knew the lyrics to that verse at all until I just looked them up.

With that line about being 'kind to queers' that would have made sense in an offensive sort of way. More sense than 'in Saffron Walden' anyway. But it's been in my head as that since the late 70s so it's stuck there.

Not necessarily a misheard lyric but when where I knew I was wrong from the start and just carried on with it for my own amusement: In The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go" the bit where the backing vocals are sung in spanish "Esta indecisión me molesta" I always sang it "Gary Glitter is a child molester" or just changed the name to a work colleague if I was taking the piss out of them.

famethrowa

60s standard: Every Time You Walk in the Room or whatever it is. I thought it was:
Trumpets sound and I hear, lovely tuuuunes

like a Father Ted kind of line.

It's actually Trumpets sound and I hear, thunder booooom

boring

phantom_power

It is the "savage jaw" you have to be wary of with regard to 1984, not the much scarier "savage whore" that I thought it was. Missed a trick there, David so-called Bowie

famethrowa

Quote from: phantom_power on May 07, 2022, 08:38:08 AMIt is the "savage jaw" you have to be wary of with regard to 1984, not the much scarier "savage whore" that I thought it was. Missed a trick there, David so-called Bowie

Whaat?? I thought it was "beware the south-east shore", as in Eurasia or Eastasia or whatever. Silly me, thinking it might reference Orwell

monkfromhavana

My girlfriend keeps singing "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba and keeps singing "I've got no doubt, that I'll get over it, you ain't never gonna keep me down".

Which I think is probably better.

famethrowa

I thought California Dreaming ended the second verse with "the preacher likes the cold, he knows I'm gonna stray" and I thought "oh that's good, it's subtly predicting the younger generation breaking free from the mainstream and religion to find new paths". Turns out it's just "He knows I'm gonna stay" which barely makes sense.

EOLAN

Walking past the theatre for 'The Drifters Girl', I finally realised after well over 30 years that the song wasn't 'You're More Than a Number in my Limerick Book'.

I thought the guy was taking phone numbers and writing little five-line poems by which to remember who exactly the girl was.

Mr Farenheit

The Coasters - Charlie Brown

"Who's always writing on the wall
who's always poopin' in the hall"


I always knew poopin' couldn't be right but never knew what it really was until looking it up just now. Goofing apparently.

This song is also notable for being referenced in The Sopranos. When Tony and Carmela go to see AJ's principle Tony says, "let me guess, he called the teacher daddy-o?"

"He walks in the classroom cool and slow
Who calls the English teacher Daddy O"


Now that's a reference! Suits and Billions take note!

Blue Jam

Just heard Janet Jackson's Whoops Now and realised I still hear the chorus as:

QuoteWhoops now, sorry I can't go
Whoops now, sorry I can't go
Whoops now, sorry I can't go
I don't know why Jarvis called me in

I still don't know what the actual lyric is and I don't want to know. I wonder if any other Pulp fans hear this too.

badaids


I've started hearing in Disorder Ian Curtis singing: 'I've been waiting for a guy to come and take me by the hand'.

And on A Northern Soul Richard Ashcroft keeps supplicating the listener to cum inside him.

buttgammon

In Check the Rhime by A Tribe Called Quest: 'the rhymes were so rumping that the brothers wrote to Zapp'. It makes more sense than the actual lines, 'the rhymes were so rumping that the brothers rode the zack', which I don't understand, whereas the idea of somebody writing to Zapp to say 'you've got to hear this' at least makes some sense.

Quote from: badaids on August 28, 2022, 06:43:05 PMI've started hearing in Disorder Ian Curtis singing: 'I've been waiting for a guy to come and take me by the hand'.


Me too. There's actually a live version where he changes it to 'person' so I assume other people heard the same.

JaDanketies

Just thought I'd figure out exactly what Blondie (actually Miley Cyrus) was saying about the Jews in Heart of Glass. Turns out it's "Riding high on love's true bluish light."

I think I thought it was "Riding high on a long true Jewish life."  Or maybe "lobster Jewish life."

Egyptian Feast

My favourite line in Wire's 'A Serious Of Snakes' was "I'd rather make fun of a German girl or two at midnight mass" until it turned out to be "I'd rather make furniture than go to midnight mass".