Misheard lyrics

To this day, I still hear Justine singing about Sto-vo-kor on "Connection" and have no clue what the real lyric is supposed to be.

whereabouts?

At 0:44, in the first verse.

You can't really blame her because this particular misheard lyric is in Spanish, but my wife thought at the end of Spanish Bombs by The Clash, they keep repeating "Oh my car is on."

In John Cale's Buffalo Ballet, whose third verse goes:

Gold came and went, quickly spent
And the people broke down, and often drowned
In the wealth and pain of old Abilene

I always hear:

And the people broke down, and often dreamt/wept

I get how 'drowned' makes an AABB pattern, but I think it fits better as AABA. He even changes the articulation in many of the live versions to make it that way.

speaking of AABBBA, "Dancing Queen." the chorus will always be "YOU CAN DANCE!!!!!! YOU CAN DIE!!!!! HAVING THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE!!!!!"

I had a friend in high school who came to me ( i having been, and still am, the goto guy for such matters)with this question pertaining to Alice Coopers No More Mr. Nice Guy. Upon hearing the line, "I went to church incognito" he quite earnestly enquired "Hey Joel, where's Cognito"? I should've said Southern California! Instead I politely corrected him. Not a lyric but another time, at a party where we were all listening to Ozzy's live lp Speak of the Devil, in the intro to The Wizard, the Ozzman says " this reminds me of the old Fillmore East. Anyone remember old Fillmore East "? At which point Ronnie turned to me and said, " Hey Joel, who's Phil Maurice? I don't recall my response but I'm pretty sure I laughed and gently corrected him. That guy could be a real bonehead at times. Lol!

And I must admit, as Flappy Bird says, I've always heard the chorus of Dancing Queen that way too. I was quite disappointed to discover it was "you can jive" at the age of..oh..45 maybe. I still prefer "die" though. Overgrown arrested adolescent to the end, I suppose.

Just heard Bobby Brown's "My Prerogative" and remembered when I was a kid I used to think he sang:

"Don't get me wrong / I'm really not sick / Beetlejuice is not my thing"

I assume it's because the film and the song were hot around the same time and my 8-year-old self probably thought he wasn't feelin' it.

I wasn't so familiar with the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter until recently, but when I heard it I had to check the lyrics for the chorus to check ("War, children") - as I thought it was unlikely that it went "Booooob Dylaaaan!"
...which is what I kept hearing.

I used to think that the Spice Girls' Wannabe, instead of 'get with my friends' went:
"If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get rid of my friends."

that Gimme Shelter variant is amazing.

"Shane Wright like a diamond"

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/resources/images/5772602.jpg

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/14946511._Prolific_offender__arrested_after_multiple_burglaries/

On Today by Smashing Pumpkins, I still maintain that Corgan sings "My willy stings" at one point.

Last week Guy Garvey introduced this with "Here's a song about Les Dennis"

For nearly 30 years I've misheard the greatest moment in the greatest Warren Zevon song, The French Inhaler.

It's I-I-I thought you'd be a star. Not I-I-I passion fiesta.

Another illusion shattered.

I always heard INXS 'Don't Change' as:

Don't change the earth
Don't change a thing, for me

― VegemiteGrrrl, Sunday, 27 September 2009 10:50 (1 year ago)

...you mean it isnt that? *checks*

fuuuuuck.

― Stargazey Pi (Trayce), Friday, January 21, 2011 8:06 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

holy shit y'all just blew my mind

This one is embarrassing: I had gone my entire life thinking "Satisfaction" went "I can't get no girly action."

Happened to be listening to a cover recently and realized that it must have been "no girl reaction" all along, which makes much more sense and is a better lyric.

I probably first got to know those lyrics through Weird Al's "Hot Rocks Polka," where it really sounds like "girly action," and that's how I heard it for years and years.

Listening to it now, I'm certain Al is actually singing "girly action." So, you're in good company!

I always thought it was “girly action” too, til about 10 yrs ago.

One I was reminded of recently was my longstanding misconception of the last verse of “The Green, Green Grass of Home”:

There’s a garden, there’s a saddled padre

I've always thought it was "girly action". I reckon Bono does too.

Along Came Jones by the Coasters. As a kid, I always heard 'along came long, lean, lankey Jones' as 'along came lonely, naked Jones'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFyr49TwuiI

Was disappointed to realize that the bridge from Nothing But Flowers by Talking Heads was not

The highways and cars
Were sacrificed for angry culture
I wish that we'd start over
But I guess I was wrong

I feel it works just as well in context.

A couple years ago my in-laws bought my daughter K (then 4 years old) a little stuffed dog that would sort of bop its head and sing "Thank You For Being A Friend" (aka the Golden Girls' theme). I guess as a result of this juxtaposition, K used to sing "Your heart is true, you're a pal and a comfy dog."

that's great

I'm watching this gator glide by on the lake
Ice frozen six feet deep just how long does it take

first time i heard this i thought Neil was talkin' about alligators slowly sliding across a frozen lake

Black Grape, Kelly's Heroes.

I originally heard it as: "Don't talk to me about heroes / most of these men sing like Suggs.", wondering whatever poor Graham McPherson did wrong & imagining Superman singing Baggy Trousers.

Then, for ages, I thought the correct lyrics were: "Don't talk to me about heroes / most of these men sink like subs." - which I thought was fairly intruiging & worked alright.

Only now I found out that the real thing apparently is: "Don't talk to me about heroes / most of these men sing like surfs."

For a considerable time, I thought The Tubes' "Don't Touch Me There" contained the phrase "I love the way you're built, Fritz".
On reflection I reckon it's probably "I love the way your belt fits". Still hear it wrong, though.

Another one: Peter Gabriel, Games Without Frontiers. That bit where you hear the French version of the title: "Jeux sans frontieres", that initially sounded to me like: "She's so funky, yeah!". (I did look up the lyrics then right away as I suspected I might have been off.)

"Don't talk to me about heroes / most of these men sink like subs."

I believe this to be the actual lyric...

Actually, it was supposed to be "Don't talk to me about heroes / most of these men do cocaine." which at least rhymes with the next line "Who's got the biggest, Who's got the biggest, Who's got the biggest brain...."

"She's so funky, yeah!"

I had it as "She's So Popular".

Anyway, Kate Bush sings that bit, I always had it "hey, that Peter Gabriel has a range!"

"Don't talk to me about heroes / most of these men sink like subs."
I believe this to be the actual lyric...

Really thought it was too, I found that 'surfs' line earlier through a Google search for the lyrics. It's claimed to be that on the majority of lyrics sources, but now I'm thinking that those pages are all wrong.
(In any case, it's nothing to do with Madness' frontman either...)

I speak French and I had always heard "she's so popular" instead of "jeux sans frontières". Even now, having known it's "jeux sans frontières" for years, it still sounds a lot closer to "she's so popular" to me.

"Don't talk to me about heroes / most of these men sink like subs."

I believe this to be the actual lyric...

I thought it was this too, all this time. But you listen to the song again and you hear the "f"s, mostly.

"Serfs" not "surfs" though.

They're both doing "f"s, I think, at 1:10 here.

But then, at 1:18, one of them definitely does a "b".

I think it's both.

Actually it's Smurfs.

I always thought it was "most of these men seem like sods". As if I even know what a "sod" is!

Roky Erickson - Two Headed Dog:

Beast bark back bark back

According to all the lyrics sites it's 'peace brought back brought back'

We All Came Up To Montra
From The Waves Beneath The Shore Line
To Make Wickets With Them All
We Didn't Have Much Time
Frank Sipper And The Morgans
Will Have The First Real Surround
Some Stupid Little Flare Do
Burn The Place To The Ground
They Burned Down The Diamond House
It Died With An Awful Sound
Town Was Running I And Out
It Was Calling Kids Out To Found
When It Was All Over
Had To Find Another Place
Wish Time Was Running
Seeing We Would Lose The Race
Come On Baby

when i was a kid i used to think santana’s “evil ways” went like this:

“when i come home, baby,
my house is dark and my butts are cold”

as opposed to “pots” (the “woman you don’t cook for me” thing would’ve gone over my head anyway)

As a kid i heard the line in Livin On A Prayer as
“Take my hand, we’ll make it elsewhere”

When that song came out, there was a kid in my class who thought it was Livin' on a Prairie, like Laura Ingalls Wilder.

that's great!

I like my version better, but in the song Sugar n' Spikes, Captain Beefheart says Whoopin' hope, not Poopin' hope.

yesterday i learned that the dutch word for "mondegreen" is "mama appelsap", after a michael jackson song (presumably the soul makossa thing)

Correct, it's because a lot of people thought they heard/wanted to hear 'mama appelsap' in 'Wanna Be Startin' Something'. 'Mama appelsap' means 'mama apple juice'.

mamasay mamasa mamakusa puts me in mind of the epic Rusted Root neologism thread

In "Man In The Mirror", the line "a summer disregard, a broken bottle top" I always sing in my head as "a Baby Bottle Pop"

"So when you call up that shrink in Beverly Hills
You know the one, goddammit everything's going to be alright."

Runnin With the Devil:

I found the simple life ain't so simple
When I jumped out, on that road
I got no love, no love in Korea ...

Party Rock Anthem, I always heard them declare "No Lennon or Zeppelin."