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childhood misinterpretations of songs? (c/d)

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ok, so when i was smaller i thought "maneater" by hall and oates was actually about a man-eating tiger or one of the Big Cats. the song is actually a lot more scary than if you think it's about a man-eating female human, i think. the whole tune is drenched in creepy ambience when you think it's about impending death at the hands of a lion or some similarly dangerous feline.

of course, i realise that the song is probably not about a big cat, but it's never lost that thrilling creepiness (due to the misinterpretation)

similar stories?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 27 September 2004 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought Olivia Newton John's "Physical" was about aerobics.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 27 September 2004 20:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought "Material Girl" was "Cheerio Girl".

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 27 September 2004 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I misunderstood "Rapper's Delight" as "Red was the light" ...

― xenografia, Monday, 27 September 2004 21:31 (twenty-one years ago)

As a nine-year-old metaller I thought "Twist and Shout" was about torture.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Monday, 27 September 2004 21:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I clearly remember seeing a "Cereal Girl" video on Sesame Street once.

― bill neil (inabillity), Monday, 27 September 2004 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

i thought Revolution #9 was the sountrack to some film and kept trying to imagine what it was about.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 27 September 2004 21:37 (twenty-one years ago)

In Hoyt Axton's "Dellah and the Dealer," when he sang, "It was Dellah and the Dealer and a dog named Jake and a cat named Kalamazoo" I thought he was really singing about actual cats and dogs. It would bring too mind the paintings of dogs with cigars, gambling.

― shookout (shookout), Monday, 27 September 2004 21:42 (twenty-one years ago)

From my wife -- she misheard "Hold me closer, tiny dancer," as "Hold me closer, Tony Danza."
Which I guess isn't quite a stretch in this case.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Monday, 27 September 2004 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought that "Let this groove, set in your shoes" was "Let's groove, be sick in your shoes".

― adam. (nordicskilla), Monday, 27 September 2004 21:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I though "One of these Nights" by the Eagles was about a bounty hunter

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 27 September 2004 22:03 (twenty-one years ago)

From my wife -- she misheard "Hold me closer, tiny dancer," as "Hold me closer, Tony Danza."

is your wife on Friends?

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 27 September 2004 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Zeppelin's Immigrant Song: I was convinced it was "I wanna go where there's no wrestling show!" Whereas my younger brother heard "I wanna go where we can twist and shout!"

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 00:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought that "Let this groove, set in your shoes" was "Let's groove, be sick in your shoes".

wow, is *that* what they're saying? i never knew myself...

― ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 00:54 (twenty-one years ago)

"vinnie, don't kill the radio star" -- about a dude from brooklyn named vinnie, who wanted to kill the radio star b/c said radio star was porking his girlfriend.

i thought that "night moves" was about a detective ("workin' on mysteries w/t any clues").

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 01:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Young Guns! Wham Rap! There can be no doubt, for Wham I am devout.
I love Hall and Oates too but they just can't equal the genius of Wham -- it's not like they ever wrote a brilliant Christmas song. Also, I was very disappointed to find out that Daryl wasn't singing "She can really rip your butt apart" in "Maneater".

-- Nicole (nicolew1...), March 27th, 2003.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 01:04 (twenty-one years ago)

"I'm a soul man" --> "I was so mad"

A lot of those.

― babyalive (babyalive), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 03:16 (twenty-one years ago)

A friend of mine used to think that the line "Chicken Little must've been right" in the Music Machine's "Advise and Consent" was "Chicken Little, mustard, and rye."

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 03:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh god, someone else remembers 'Cereal Girl' from Sesame Street.. awesome. Funny how that stuff stays with you.

― Ally P., Tuesday, 28 September 2004 03:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to hear "Once in a Lifetime" in a very literal way - I mean, my young self would be all "Wow, that WOULD be so weird, just finding yourself in some other guy's nice house, with his wife, and then wondering how you got there. Man"

― Kim (Kim), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 04:35 (twenty-one years ago)

In "Me So Horny" I thought the chorus was saying "Me love your long tights"

― Hurting (Hurting), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 04:43 (twenty-one years ago)

"Cereal Girl" was great. ("Cee-ree-al! Cee-ree-al!") Recently rediscovered "Lowercase N." Which is actually a really beautiful song.

― babyalive (babyalive), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 05:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"I want a monster to be my playmate" OWNZ0RZ.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 05:10 (twenty-one years ago)

My favorite:

"Making love with his ego" (Ziggy) freaking my friend out as a kid because he thought it was "Making love with his eagles"!

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 05:13 (twenty-one years ago)

and the next line is of course - "like a leopard messiah".

― Kim (Kim), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 05:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to hear "Once in a Lifetime" in a very literal way - I mean, my young self would be all "Wow, that WOULD be so weird, just finding yourself in some other guy's nice house, with his wife, and then wondering how you got there. Man"

In the trailer for that bad Nicolas Cage movie where he finds himself in someone else's house with a beautiful wife, they use this song for the moment when he realizes it. It's hilariously literal.

― Symplistic (shmuel), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 06:30 (twenty-one years ago)

a girl I was in school with thought lennon's "nobody told me there were day's like these" was "nobody told me we were going to lenny's party". ???? I think she was the same one that misheard "shock the monkey" as "chocolate monkey". oh karen! I hope your hearing has improved.

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 18:19 (twenty-one years ago)

"We don't need no education / we don't need no exhaust control."

I was about six years old.

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

"Don't go out tonight, it's bound to take your life, There's a bathroom on the right"
I also thought Born in the USA was really gung-ho American, thanks to Reagan.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Before this thread mutates entirely into "Misheard Lyrics", here's my contribution. As a eight-year old, I'd hear Jim Croce's "One Less Set Of Footsteps" ("...on your floor/In the morning") and picture actual muddy footprints throughout the house. Between that lyric and "one less pair of jeans on your door" it seemed like a song about housecleaning in general.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Given all of Freddie Mercury's exclamations of "Mama" during "Bohemian Rhapsody," I was convinced in my early years, that he was actually singing this song to his mother (as opposed to just some babe)...although, to be fair, there's nothing to indicate that he isn't singing it to his mother.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 20:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"Angel in the Centerfold" - I loved this song when I was 7 but I had no idea what a centerfold was.

― mcd (mcd), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I indeed thought "Cat Scratch Fever" was something you caught from being scratched by a cat.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

It took me a few years to figure out that ZZTop's "Pearl Necklace" and "Tubesteak Boogie" (which I assumed was two-step boogie) were, y'know, naughty.

― Kim (Kim), Tuesday, 28 September 2004 20:32 (twenty-one years ago)

See also: "Velcro Fly".

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 02:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Forgive me for not being fully aquainted with their entire ouevre. But yeah, from the title I would likely have thought that was about when you see two houseflies going around, like, stuck together? Oh wait, but that's still kind of naughty. Man, they got all the bases covered, those guys!

― Kim (Kim), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 10:30 (twenty-one years ago)

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