Favourite misheard opening line from a song

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
I guess the old 'misheard song lyrics' chestnut has done the ILM rounds before. But what when your version is better (to you) than the original - or in this case, completely changes the slant of the song?

I just discovered on the 'favourite opening line' thread that I've spend twenty years mishearing 'I'll get killed but...' in the Only Ones 'I always flirt with death, I'll get killed but I don't care about it' as 'Out at Kilburn'.

I thought it was a nice London/LA bit of irony: I can well imagine the very wired Mr Lonely One hanging around high and pulling women on the sunny boardwalk that is Kilburn High Road.

Frankly, the real lyric is less distinctive, but better. Anyone else with favroutie mishearings that ARE better, or at least very much change the tenor of the song?

jon (jon), Thursday, 26 September 2002 07:11 (twenty-one years ago) link

I've probably mentioned this before, but for years I thought the opening line of "Street fighting man" was "Everywhere I hear the sound of Mark and George and Pete, boy". Of course, it made no sense at the time to me (I was 9 so did it matter?) but I was a bit surprised to find out the real lyrics a few years later.

Rob M, Thursday, 26 September 2002 11:59 (twenty-one years ago) link

what I they? I have to know!

jon (jon), Thursday, 26 September 2002 12:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

The real lyrics are "Everywhere I hear the sound of marching charging feet, boy", y'see...

Rob M, Friday, 27 September 2002 16:18 (twenty-one years ago) link

ten months pass...
The most disappoint for me is Arab Strap's "The Shy Retirer."

I thought the first line was "Another blow-head disco," but their online lyrics say "another bloated disco."

I like my version better.

miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Monday, 28 July 2003 04:05 (twenty years ago) link

dictators - "two tub man" - "i'm a pilgrim lookin for danger" - i thought it was "i'm too good looking for danger" which is a pretty great line in its own right.

duane, Monday, 28 July 2003 04:18 (twenty years ago) link

I always heard "I'm gonna kill myself trying to stay in your life" in Blur's 'No Distance Left To Run', which is, er, the exact opposite of the real lyric. When I was a little I always wondered why Madonna was singing about a "young girl with eyes like potatoes" in 'La Isla Bonita', too.

The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 28 July 2003 11:35 (twenty years ago) link

four years pass...

I just discovered that the opening line to H-Town's "Knockin Boots" isn't

"Last night I chawed tobacco
When we made gooood loooove"

but rather a much more uninteresting
"Last night I thought to back to
When we made gooood loooove"

OH WELL.

phil-two, Saturday, 19 April 2008 13:33 (fifteen years ago) link

I thought David Sylvian sang "Oh Satan" repeatedly in the Nine Horses song Snow borne sorrow, but it was "Oh save them". I was very disappointed, thought it was a rather refreshing line.

ConnieXX, Saturday, 19 April 2008 14:22 (fifteen years ago) link

"Oss soss a soss soss chuck a budgie"

Dave Davies' "Susannah's still alive"

Mark G, Sunday, 20 April 2008 08:03 (fifteen years ago) link

six years pass...

"When you were on the phone, couldn't look you in the eye.."

Mark G, Sunday, 24 August 2014 07:56 (nine years ago) link

five years pass...

"Promised you a miracle, guinea pig's a beauty thing..."

Portsmouth Bubblejet, Sunday, 8 September 2019 10:01 (four years ago) link

one year passes...

Midnight rockers
City slickers
Gunmen in Maine

it bangs for thee (Simon H.), Tuesday, 17 November 2020 18:43 (three years ago) link

I went down to Miami, I let a girl name a salmon.

CRVTCHΞS (Deflatormouse), Tuesday, 17 November 2020 22:53 (three years ago) link

there's an obscure song by Ween based on a misheard opening line in an Aerosmith song (Last Child) - "take me back to a south pappy flappy"

frogbs, Wednesday, 18 November 2020 05:26 (three years ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.