Misheard lyrics.
Misheard lyrics are often hilarious. I wrote a post, years ago, about misheard lyrics.
I’m not going to read it, I’m just going to write this and go back and read the first one. I’m curious if they’ll be the same.
It will have to be somewhat the same because of the Flamingos.
Randy sent me a text, years ago, “my love must be a kind of blind love” which I thought was sweet and sort of random.
Then, I played the phrase through my head and realized I’ve been mishearing The Flamingos cover of I Only Have Eyes For You my entire life.
I thought the song intro was “My love must be a kite of my love.”
Which makes no sense at all.
What the fuck does that even mean? How can love be a kite of anything? “My love must be a kind of blind love” makes all the sense.
Yet, those misheard lyrics make more sense than other ones I’ve heard.
In 1973, when I was 10 years old, Ringo Starr released the song Photograph. I did not understand the lyrics and took my misunderstand into my late 20s, maybe early 30s.
His lyrics say “All I’ve got is a photograph and I realize you’re not coming back anymore.”
I thought he was saying “All I’ve got is a bowl of crap and I realize you’re not coming back anymore.”
When I was a kid, I thought this was really dumb because it would be better to have nothing than a bowl of crap.
Having nothing would be a definite step up from having a bowl of crap.
Ringo Starr was the musical guest on SNL and he sang that song.
Oooooohhhhh….yeah. Well. That makes more sense.
I remember getting into an argument with a girl in the 8th grade over Aerosmith’s Walk This Way. She swore they were saying “born to suede.”
One time, I called Randy on my way to work to talk about the song that was playing.
Me: This is the only Metallica song I love. The whack for my stereo song.
Randy: They don’t have a whack for my stereo song.
Me: Pretty sure they do.
Randy: No. No, they really don’t.
Me: Yeah, it’s a pirate song and something about Molly and he says whack for my stereo and whisky in the jarro.
Randy: That isn’t how that song goes.
Me: Whatever.
At least, they didn’t have a bowl of crap.
Anyway, I love reading misheard lyrics.
Both because they are funny and because they make me feel better about my misheard lyrics.
Oh, and I could do a whole post about Springsteen lyrics. I love Bruce. He is one of my forever music loves, but he does not articulate well.
I know he doesn’t say “Hunting down a cross eyed Horton in the rain” in Downbound Train, but I will always hear the line that way.
What’s your favorite misheard lyric?
Artwork courtesy of naobim
In Beyoncé’s Song about New York she sings something in the chorus about “dit dit dit dit dit tomatoes….” I swear she does but my family just rolls their eyes and says it’s about dreams made of or something. Insert eye roll 😉
HAHAHA. I get a lot of those eye rolls as well.
Now picturing Horton Hears a Who…
Yep. Every time.
“Secret ASIAN Man” (should be Secret AGENT Man”. Every time I heard that song, I was more and more sure he was deliberately slurring the ‘g’. I always knew it was Agent, but I caught my husband muttering the words one day saying Asian and realized that in today’s political climate, they are probably both correct.
That is a good one!!!
In your defense “My love must be a kite of my love” does have kind of a weird surreal poetic quality to it. It reminds me that there have been a few times when I’ve misheard lyrics and then found out what the real words were and I realized the song was even weirder than I’d imagined. Queen is pretty good at that.
And it’s why one of my biggest musical disappointments is AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”. You know how some songs are about fictional rock bands? Bennie & The Jets, The Sultans Of Swing, Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars.
For the longest time I thought AC/DC’s song was about a band called “Dirty Dan & The Thunder Chiefs”.
HAHAHAHA that is hilarious, Christopher!
I just assume I never will understand the correct words so I am pretty much just hum along!
My mom just makes up her own lyrics. Which I guess I do as well.
Not really misheard, but I guy I used to know in a band would always sing “two ticks and a parasite” instead of “two tickets to paradise”…
HAH!!!
Ha, ha. This is great. I don’t mind mishearing the lyrics, but when I mishear what people say that causes more problems.
Yeah, that can be a problem.
“how my pool hall aches with every step you take” —misheard Police lyrics
HAHAHAHAH That is one super sensitive pool hall
My friend in 7th grade thought The Go-Go’s sang “I love Cecile” instead of “Our Lips are Sealed”. She also thought The Police sang “Salami” instead of “So Lonely”.
I love Cecile…it actually works.
I remember thinking for an Alman Bros song whipping post. I thought it said women folk — tied to the women folk. Feel really dumb about that now.
Haha, that is awesome!
When we were kids, my brother thought the lyrics to the Bay City Roller’s song “Saturday Night” were “Rah, Beaver Rah, Beaver Rah, Yeah!” And recently, my son got a chance to perform Toto’s “Hold the Line,” which I ALWAYS heard as “For the lies, love isn’t always on time. . .” Nope. He’s now in a “Woodstock ’69” show at School of Rock and he is doing “The Weight” by The Band. I always thought it was “Take a load off, Manny.” Nope. It’s Fanny. But that’s OK, because the rest of the actual lyrics make no real sense at all. The 60s – a great time to get really high and write stuff.
Yes, yes it was a good time for that.
I still sing “Big ole Jed at a line up” instead of “Big ole jet airliner”. I was so sure about it.. Ha!
I will sing that song with those words from now until I die. HAHAHA..that is awesome
My friend Nick, just for laughs, sang “Fly Like an Eagle” as “slime keeps on drippin’ drippin’ drippin’ out of my suture…”
For a long time I heard the Rilo Kiley song “We’ll Never Sleep (God Knows We’ll Try)” saying “I want to throw up” instead of “I don’t want to go”, and really, neither of them made much sense to me.
Hahaha…slime keeps on dripping. That is both hilarious and disturbing, which is the best thing ever
My favorite is “hold my closer Tony Danza.” It still make me laugh and I have to sing it whenever I hear Elton John sing Tiny Dancer. Also, I was convinced Manfred Mann was singing “Revved up like a Deuce, you know a runner in the night.” Now I know it’s “Revved up like a Deuce, you know a runner in the night.” and is a street racing term. Oh well.
Tony Danza is hilarious. Another one I’ve heard is instead of “I’ll never be your beast of burden” was “I’ll never be your pizza burnin”
I have a weekly music-oriented post on my blog, and I’ve blogged a couple of times about “mondegreens” which is the kind-of technical term for misheard lyrics. Some of them are so hilarious I come close to wetting myself. (How’s that for Too Much Information?) I will tell you a misheard lyric which is like a private thing between my husband and me. (Private? Well NOT ANY MORE.) Years ago, Chicago had a song called “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” and, to this day, hubbie will swear the singer is singing “After all the hoo you’ve put me through” And I have argued with him: Is hoo even a word? (Please don’t tell me that it is). I explain the song clearly says “After all that we’ve been through….” So now, when I put him through hoo, I don’t have to say I’m sorry. I guess.
Hahahaha…no..there is no hoo.
I used to sing GaGa’s “Baby I was Born This Way” as “Baby I was Blown Away” until someone stopped me. My new favorite is at the end of Wanna Be Starting Something by Michael Jackson — “Ma-ma se, ma-ma sa, ma-ma coo sa”. Is forever now “I’m ashamed I’m ashamed of my moccasins”.
“Oh shush, keep it down now. This is scary”
This guy I used to party with, he used to sing Aerials at karaoke.
But he’d sing it “Areolas…. In my mouth….” there was more but I don’t remember and it was just so dumb. Uh, what?