Misheard lyrics

[moodygirl86]

We all know how easy it can be to think that song lyrics are something they're not, especially rock songs with lots of distortion and slurred vocal styles! My all time favourites are the following:

 

1) Idlewild - When I Argue I See Shapes

REAL LYRIC: When I argue, sit back it makes me laugh

MISINTERPRETATION: When I argue Sid Barrett makes me laugh

 

2) Manic Street Preachers - The Masses Against the Classes

REAL LYRIC: The masses against the classes/I'm tired of giving a reason/When the future is what we believe in

MISINTERPRETATION (mine): No more sex against the classes/I'm tired of giving an income/A refridgerator's what we believe in

 

3) The Who - Boris the Spider

REAL LYRIC: Boris the Spider

MISINTERPRETATION (mine): Sorry Mr Spider (bit thick of me as this was the title - luckily I noticed it on the back of the CD before I showed my ignorance by singing along to it as that, and having to pretend I was just pissing about).

 

4) Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK

REAL LYRIC: I wanna destroy a passerby

MISINTERPRETATION (ex-boyfriend): I wanna destroy a power supply

 

5) X Ray Spex - I Live Off You

REAL LYRIC: See we gotta be exploited

MISINTERPRETATION (my brother): See we gotta be a fried egg

 

6) Green Day - X-Kid

REAL LYRIC: Probably would but hardly would instead I'm gone

MISINTERPRETATION (mine): Probably would but Hollywood is dead and gone

 

7) The Damned - Lively Arts

REAL LYRIC: It's gonna be a life of style for me

MISINTERPRETATION (mine): It's gonna be a life of scaffolding

 

 

Please contribute your own, the weirder and more hilarious the better!

[moodygirl86]

Also:

The Clash - White Riot

REAL: White people go to school where they teach you how to be thick

MISHEARD: White people go to school where the teachers have sympathy

[dairyfreelife]

Black Sabbath: Paranoid

Misheard: I tell you to end your life

Real: I tell you to enjoy life

Clearwater Credence Revival: Bad Moon on the Rise

Misheard: There's a bathroom on the right

Real: There's a bad moon on the rise

Bruce Springsteen original/Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Blinded by the Light

Misheard: Wrapped up like a douche, another rubber in the night.

Real: Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.

Elton John: Tiny Dancer

Misheard: Hold me closer, Tony Danza

Real: Hold me closer, tiny dancer

Jimi Hendrix: Purple Haze

Misheard: 'scuse me while I kiss this guy

Real: 'scuse me while kiss the sky

Lourde: Royal

Misheard: You can call me green pea/bean

Real: You can call me queen bee.

[bBvideo 560,340:49nxp019]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF_41D6UQEs[/bBvideo]

My bf thought it was green pea, so she's not only one.

[lawlifelgbt]

Um, here's an old one!

Real lyric: "Stop! In the name of love before you break my heart.

I misheard as: "Shop! In the name of love..."

I honestly thought it was about a girl who really wanted an engagement ring.

[moodygirl86]

Black Sabbath: Paranoid

Misheard: I tell you to end your life

Real: I tell you to enjoy life

Wasn't there that hoo-ha about two Iowa teenagers having a suicide pact after listening to Sabbath? Wonder if that's what the moralists thought the "subliminal messages" were? Poor Ozzy. It's not his fault he sings Brummie...

[dairyfreelife]

Wasn't there that hoo-ha about two Iowa teenagers having a suicide pact after listening to Sabbath? Wonder if that's what the moralists thought the "subliminal messages" were? Poor Ozzy. It's not his fault he sings Brummie...

People blamed rock and heavy metal for all sorts of evil, so yeah, that was one issue. Ozzy had to publicly tell people what he was really saying because apparently the misheard lyrics above caused some unnecessary outrage.

Edit, just thought of another one my bf and I both misheard.

Sia-Chandelier

Misheard: One, two, three, one, two, three, three

Real: One, two, three, one, two, three, drink.

[moodygirl86]

The Strokes - New York City Cops

MISHEARD: New York synagogues

Generation X - Wild Wild Wild Youth

MISHEARD: Wild wild wild juice

Green Day - Ashley

REAL: You're crying on my cold shoulder

MISHEARD: You're crying on Michael's shoulder

And another Clash one - Complete Control.

REAL: C-O-N Control

MISHEARD: Cigarette control

Somebody did a hilarious lyric video on this one - Joe Strummer's vocals are a pleasure for this because he always sounded so slurred!

[PennySycamore]

There's a name for misheard lyrics: mondagreens.

Here's the Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen

Two classic mondagreens of my teenage years were "Bad Moon Rising" by Credence Clearwater Revivial which some people heard not as "There's a bad moon on the rise" but as "there's a bathroom on the right" and Jimi Hendrix's classic line from Purple Haze " 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" which some heard as " "Scuse me while I kiss this guy".

The name of the Christmas cartoon Olive, the Other Reindeer comes from people mishearing the lyrics toRudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer.

[moodygirl86]

There's a name for misheard lyrics: mondagreens.

Here's the Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondegreen

Two classic mondagreens of my teenage years were "Bad Moon Rising" by Credence Clearwater Revivial which some people heard not as "There's a bad moon on the rise" but as "there's a bathroom on the right" and Jimi Hendrix's classic line from Purple Haze " 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" which some heard as " "Scuse me while I kiss this guy".

The name of the Christmas cartoon Olive, the Other Reindeer comes from people mishearing the lyrics toRudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer.

ha ha! I can't believe the FBI wasted two years "investigating" the Louie Louie lyrics. I remember us winding up our RE teacher when she asked us about examples of characters named in hymns - "Gladly the cross-eyed bear, Miss? We sing about him in assembly."

[shedemei]

Classic 80s song "I'm your penis"

Bananarama - Venus (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO): http://youtu.be/NkcU2_Vs7Xw

[moodygirl86]

Having nothing better to do today, I rang round some friends and family asking them about some of their lyrical misinterpretations. They came up with the following:

1) One of my mum's favourite tracks in the 80s was Belinda Carlisle's Heaven Is A Place On Earth.

REAL: We'll make heaven a place on earth

MISHEARD: Your mate Kevin a place on earth

2) and 3) My two older brothers were obsessed Britpop fans as teenagers in the 90s, Blur and Oasis being their respective favourites. That didn't stop them misunderstanding the following lyrics of Blur's The Universal:

REAL: Yes it really really really could happen

MISHEARD: He said ready ready ready could I come

and Oasis' Magic Pie:

REAL: An extra-ordinary guy

MISHEARD: An extra row of cabbages.

4) My mate Y mentioned Shania Twain's That Don't Impress Me Much

REAL: I can't believe you kiss your car goodnight

MISHEARD: I can't believe you kiss your cock at night

and Spice Girls' Say You'll Be There

REAL: Any fool can see they're falling

MISHEARD: Any fool can see bathwater

5) My other mate M said he was driven nuts when Wamdue Project's King of My Castle came out. He swore the lyric sounded like "Free in my trassle". He thought, what the hell is a trassle? Although he didn't particularly like the song he just HAD to know what the lyric was. He waited until it was on Top of the Pops and stuck the teletext on. He then realised the real lyric was "trapped soul". It was one of those lightbulb moments, apparently!

Also, I saw a local punk band recently, who closed their set with a wacky version of Baby One More Time. I couldn't resist asking the lead singer at the end, "Who's Hugo?" (blank look from him). "Well you said in your last number, I shouldn't have let Hugo. Who's Hugo and what shouldn't you have let him do?"

[16strong]

Can't forget lock the cash box/rock the casbah. The Clash. It's probably the most classic of all misheard lyrics.

As a kid, I always thought Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here was saying "a n**** in a cage." :?

It's actually "and did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?" Glad I know that now, because I was always pretty horrified whenever I heard the song, but for some reason I never asked my parents about it.

I did, however, ask my mom what the word horny meant one time after listening to Nirvana's Lithium. I really wish I could remember what shade of red she turned afterwards. :lol:

[moodygirl86]

Anastacia's Left Outside Alone just came on the radio, but she could just as easily be singing "Left outside a loo."

[Quiverfullofit]

Eggs delight, eggs delight!

Take my hand, off to never never land.

-Enter Sandman, Metallica.

[SpeakNow]

Bon Jovi- Livin on a Prayer

Misheard- Gina must've died of old age.

Real Lyrics- Gina works the diner all day.

Taylor Swift- Style

Misheard lyrics- Likes it rough, he's taking off his clothes

Real lyrics- Lights are off, he's taking off his coat.

[moodygirl86]

Sex Pistols - Submission

REAL: I picked you up on my TV screen

MISHEARD: I picked you up on my teenage dream

[LadyCrow1313]

A friend always thought that "Suicide Blonde" by INXS was "sit inside a rock".

I know this isn't specifically a misheard lyric, per se, but when Marilyn Manson did his cover of the Depeche Mode song "Personal Jesus", I could finally understand all the words. I could've never done that with the original.

[moodygirl86]

A friend always thought that "Suicide Blonde" by INXS was "sit inside a rock".

I know this isn't specifically a misheard lyric, per se, but when Marilyn Manson did his cover of the Depeche Mode song "Personal Jesus", I could finally understand all the words. I could've never done that with the original.

Much as I love the internet, in some ways, I think the ubiquity of the worldwide web these days takes away some of this daft fun trying to guess what the singer is really saying! I mean, you used to look inside CD lyric sheets (assuming the artist provided one) or put the Teletext on if the song was on telly. Now it's only a Google away.

[Quiverfullofit]

Dirty deeds, and the thunda kid!

-Dirty Deeds, AC/DC

[smittykins]

Dirty deeds, and the thunda kid!

-Dirty Deeds, AC/DC

I also heard it was "Thirty thieves and the thunder chief"

And for "Rock The Casbah," I've also seen "Rock The Catbox." :wink-kitty:

[moodygirl86]

Turbonegro - Zillion Dollar Sadist

Misheard: Cynical Mercedes

[julie paradox]

Beelzebub! Has the devil got a sack for meeeee?

[DaffyDill]

Queen – We Will Rock You

Wrong: Kicking your cat all over the place

Right: Kicking your can all over the place

The Go-Gos - Our Lips Are Sealed

Wrong: Alex the Seal

Right: Our lips are sealed

AC/DC - Dirty Deeds

Wrong: Dirty deeds and they're done with sheep

Right: Dirty deeds and they're done dirt cheap

[doggie]

Never mistook those lyrics

[smittykins]

Queen – We Will Rock You

Wrong: Kicking your cat all over the place

Right: Kicking your can all over the place

I've also seen "Big disgrace" misheard as "Big disc brakes." :lol: