Misheard Lyrics

[Benji]

Listening to my favourite album (Echo Park by Feeder), and I'm remembering when I first got the album and misheard the lyrics from "Tell All Your Friends".

Young me had heard "tell all your friends, neighbours too, CNN, baby, Sea World News", and thought Feeder were wanting to tell Shamu about the contents of the song.

Turns out "baby, Sea World News" was "BBC World News", which makes a lot more sense in context, but Shamu still lives in the back of my mind.

What are some of the misheard lyrics you've heard over the years?

[Bobfoc]

I've always heard "All the single ladies" as "I'm a cigarette".

[Dan B.]

When Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic" first came out - and for probably an embarrassingly-long time afterward - I thought the line 

"You've got gall, you've got guile"

was

"You've got corn, you've got cob"

 

Relatedly, I still want to hear somebody work the line "I'll stir-fry you in my wok" into a wrestling trash-talk promo.

[Schlitzbrille]

I'M BAKING THE LEMON INSIDE YOU

THE PANCAKES ARE RIGHT BEHIND YOU

[andrethegiantstopfan]

As a kid I thought Abba were singing about chicken tikka, not Chiquitita. Still hear it even now.

Last year a friend of mine told me he misheard Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee.
"Later we'll have some fuckin' pie and we'll do some carolling". Again, can't unhear.

[King Ellis]

In the song Bette Davis Eyes for the longest time I thought she was saying "All the boys think she's a spaz" instead of "All the boys think she's a spy".

All those mispent years trying to cancel Kim Carnes...

[Meacon Keaton]

I always thought "Blinded By the Light" said "Revved up like a douche", but it's "Deuce". 

[Hellraiser]

 

[GoGo Yubari]

🎵 Youuuuuu can dance /

You can diiiii~iiiiiie /

Having the time of your liiii~iiii~iiiife 🎵

When I learned ABBA were actually singing "You can jive" I was very disappointed. Really reduces the stakes!

[Benji]

5 hours ago, Meacon Keaton said:

I always thought "Blinded By the Light" said "Revved up like a douche", but it's "Deuce". 

Eagles of Death Metal covered it and changed the lyrics to exactly that.

[Lint]

Don't go out tonight!

Cuz its bound to take a life!

There's a bathroom on the right!

[Hobo]

8 hours ago, Meacon Keaton said:

I always thought "Blinded By the Light" said "Revved up like a douche", but it's "Deuce". 

Springsteen jokes that that Manfred Mann changing the song to be about a feminine hygiene product is what made it a hit.

I originally thought that the "i hate people when theyre not polite" line in Psycho Killer was "i hate people when they're not alive".

 

[Bobfoc]

6 hours ago, GoGo Yubari said:

🎵 Youuuuuu can dance /

You can diiiii~iiiiiie /

Having the time of your liiii~iiii~iiiife 🎵

When I learned ABBA were actually singing "You can jive" I was very disappointed. Really reduces the stakes!

I remember reading that the chorus is one of the most commonly misheard in pop music. Apparently, some have heard it as "See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen."

In the same article, several people polled said that they heard Madonna's lyrics as "Like a virgin, touched for the thirty-first time."

[Naitch]

10 minutes ago, Bobfoc said:

"Like a virgin, touched for the thirty-first time."

Is this why Papa don't preach?

[VerbalPuke]

The Doors Break on Through.

There's a line that says "I found an Island in your heart, poetry in your eyes...Arms that chain us". 

That Arms that chain us line, I thought he was saying Officer Chavis. Which was the name of our 5th grade dare officer. Obviously it's absurd to think a band in the 60s would reference a DARE officer in.the 90s but I wasn't a clever 10 year old. 

Officer Chavis by the way is a cousin of Chris "Tatanka" Chavis. 

[probablyoliver]

Not a misheard lyric, but until last year I thought they were called the Manic Street Peaches.

I owned multiple of their albums. It was all really very embarrassing.

[Hobo]

5 minutes ago, probablyoliver said:

Not a misheard lyric, but until last year I thought they were called the Manic Street Peaches.

I owned multiple of their albums. It was all really very embarrassing.

and if you tolerate this then your children will pee next.

[Gorka]

I used to think Dua Lipa sang:

"I got new rules, I'll tell him."

But it's actually: 

"I got new rules, I count 'em."

...which is weird because I thought my version made more sense.

[Adam]

I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I just wanted to say that the word for this phenomenon is mondegreen which has always been one of my favourite words.

The two most common ones are often "There's a bathroom on the right" in Bad Moon Rising (as @Lint has already said) and "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy" in Purple Haze. A more recent one I have thought of, is that a lot of people (myself included) thought that "Got a long list of ex-lovers" in the Taylor Swift song Blank Space was actually "got a list of Starbucks lovers".

56 minutes ago, Gorka said:

I used to think Dua Lipa sang:

"I got new rules, I'll tell him."

But it's actually: 

"I got new rules, I count 'em."

...which is weird because I thought my version made more sense.

But the New Rules which Dua Lipa lists are for herself, not the guy. If she reminds herself of these new rules by counting them, she is less likely to 1. Pick up the phone, 2. Let him in, or 3. Be his friend.

[GhostMachine]

On 09/10/2023 at 20:11, Meacon Keaton said:

I always thought "Blinded By the Light" said "Revved up like a douche", but it's "Deuce". 

To be fair, with Manfred Mann's version (its a Springsteen cover), I've listened to it a LOT over the years, and I swear he does say "douche" the last time.

Also, "Purple Haze": Acting funny, but I don't know why. `Scuse me while I kiss the sky. Its offten misinterpreted as `Scuse me while I kiss this guy.