Songs where the songwriter confuses A with B

Geto Boys, "My Mind Playing Tricks On Me":

I often drift while I drive
Havin fatal thoughts of suicide
Bang and get it over with
And then Im worry-free, but thats bullshit
I got a little boy to look after
And if I died then my child would be a bastard

A child's father being alive or not has nothing to do with his bastard status.

From the musical Hair (with the hit by the Cowsills) referring to having long hair:

"It's not for lack of bread, like the Grateful Dead."

In fact the Grateful Dead were very successful financially by that point, and could easily have afforded haircuts!

Maybe they mean the actual grateful dead, God rest their souls.

Although in that case I would have submitted their being dead as the main reason why they haven't gotten haircuts.

"Then someone played a BEACH BOYS song on the jukebox, it was "California Dreamin'" - wtf???

in "Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)," Beyonce seems to be under the impression either men really like women's fingers, or that they put wedding rings somewhere other than on their finger.

that post makes even less sense than the song

Single Ladies (Put A Sock In It)
Single Ladies (Put A Donk On It)
Single Ladies (Throw Some D's On It)

I shouldn't have laughed at that, but I did

And if I died then my child would be a bastard

A child's father being alive or not has nothing to do with his bastard status.

Unless you read this as "my child would turn into a bastard of a person if I died." (Which I don't.)

In "Being Boiled" by Human League Phil Oakey confuses Buddhism with Hinduism.

Where does that happen?

Er, pretty much in the very first line. From http://www.league-online.com/beingboiled.html ...

Academics were mystified and intrigued by the bizarre lyrics of silkworm torture and Phil admitted that it was all down to religious confusion on his his part as he explains here: '...I'd got some religions mixed up and I thought that like Buddhism was the same as Hinduism, and it was sort of a plea for vegertarism really against killing the silkworms to make socks or something? I got really confused about it.'

A child's father being alive or not has nothing to do with his bastard status.

― өөө (Pleasant Plains), Saturday, January 3, 2009 4:07 AM (14 hours ago) Bookmark

ya honestly i've always read that as "my son will turn out to be a dick if he grows up in the streets without my guidance"

A great song title by Luna:

"We're Both Confused"

Pavement's "Give It A Day":
"Increase Mather told her Dad, 'I roundly disagree with you'"

Increase Mather was a man.

REM: "Laocoön, and her two sons"

Laocoön and his two sons:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Laocoon_Pio-Clementino_Inv1059-1064-1067.jpg/570px-Laocoon_Pio-Clementino_Inv1059-1064-1067.jpg

That's what dropping out of art school will do for you, I guess...

In "Being Boiled" by Human League Phil Oakey confuses Buddhism with Hinduism.

Where does that happen?

Er, pretty much in the very first line. From http://www.league-online.com/beingboiled.html ...

Academics were mystified and intrigued by the bizarre lyrics of silkworm torture and Phil admitted that it was all down to religious confusion on his his part as he explains here: '...I'd got some religions mixed up and I thought that like Buddhism was the same as Hinduism, and it was sort of a plea for vegertarism really against killing the silkworms to make socks or something? I got really confused about it.'

― Special topics: Disco, The Common Market (grimly fiendish)

Cheers - that's all cleared up then.

On "Ice Cream", Raekwon the Chef confuses rape, the form of sexual assault, with a medical procedure.

In "Key Largo," when Bertie Higgins evokes the shared experience of the Bogart & Bacall characters in the movie Key Largo he confuses an idyllic romantic excursion with a terrifying hostage ordeal.

How would those Human League lyrics make sense even if he were talking about Hinduism?

(Maybe that's what moley was getting at?)

in "my president is black", nas confuses diameter and circumference in comparing the relative sizes of hulk hogan's arms and the rims on barack obama's car.

In "Allentown," Billy Joel confuses "graduations" with "diplomas"

In "Smooth Operator," Sade confuses Chicago with a city on the East Coast.

In "Kids In America," Kim Wilde confuses "East California" with the other side of the state.

Done this on another thread, but The Congos seem to be under the impression that the Ark of the Covenant contained many pairs of animals rather than the Ten Commandments, Aaron's Rod and manna.

I'll defend "graduations" as some attempt at poetry - this big major event of their lives turns out to be nothing but this flimsy piece of paper hanging on the wall. That never really helped them at all.

In "Smooth Operator," Sade confuses Chicago with a city on the East Coast.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51B6444C6WL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

to be honest I choose to view the directions in that song as discrete items:

- coast to coast
- LA to Chicago
- across the north
- south to Key Largo

which could describe a trip from Boston to LA to Chicago to Philadelphia to Florida

^ a common itinerary for pimps and other assorted operators

not sure 'east california' is wrong, she could be taking a sly dig at the residents of west california there

You know, in the "Allentown" video when BJ sings "well the graduations hang on the wall," they show a shot of those photo collages with the senior portraits, and then into a montage of more "candid" photos.

Maybe he meant a "graduation photos" in the song and just left the word off.

In "My Girls," Panda Bear mistakenly uses one's social status as an example of a material thing, rather than an abstract concept.

In "Welcome to Heartbreak," Kanye West confuses heartbreak with jealousy, as well as confusing a child's report card with an item that one could reasonably describe as "brand new".

Re: "Punk Rock Girl" I think the "California Dreamin'" mix up is intentionally inaccurate.

In "My Girls," Panda Bear mistakenly uses one's social status as an example of a material thing, rather than an abstract concept.

although they do both fall on the self-oriented axis of Schwartz's circumplex model of universal values. I suspect that's how they got confused.

Slayer 'Silent Scream' - "Scattered, remnants of life/ Murder, a time to die/ Pain, suffrage..."

what about Bruce's "one legged dog" in the Wrestler song? it seems like he meant 3 legged :/

Sam Cooke's "Another Saturday Night" and every other song in which the singer confuses Frankenstein with his monster

In "Chicago Seven," Memphis Slim confuses the alleged conspirators behind the 1968 Chicago DNC protests with dead people, like the four killed at Kent State's protests in 1970:

"Everybody's talking about Chicago Seven, four more in Ohio, that makes eleven. Nobody seemed worried about all the black blood spilled, but they began to take notice when some of their own got killed."

Wire - "I'm Confusing A With B"

In "Bangkok", Alex Chilton confuses Indonesia with Thailand:

"Here's a little thing that's gonna please ya
Just a little town down in Indonesia"

I took my wife to a little town in Indonesia once.

Jakarta?

NO, WE WENT THERE BY PLANE LOLOLOLOL

^_^

in 'one in a million', axl rose confuses "small town white boy" with "insecure homophobic racist bigot"

― Charlie Howard

lol everytime this thread bumps I cant help laughing at this.

In "Do You Remember Rock'n'Roll Radio?", the Ramones confuse the end of the '70s with the end of the century.

In "My Girls," Panda Bear mistakenly uses one's social status as an example of a material thing, rather than an abstract concept.

this is next-level

"It's the end, the end of this centipede"

In Dig, by NOFX, Fat Mike confuses the value of gold in its raw form with the value of gold as a historic cultural artifact.

The excavation was a financial success
With artifacts of gold
The arrowheads went straight to the Smithsonian
The rest was melted down and sold

Even if you change the line to the right show, what exactly are Brooklyn Academy getting at there? I'm sure I would have heard about an episode of Seinfeld in which Kramer had "niggaz in his mouth".

― Dorianlynskey, Wednesday, November 26, 2008 10:17 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif

Wire, "Practice Makes Perfect"

"'Cos you see up in my bedroom
I've got Sarah Bernhardt's hand"

... she had a leg missing not a hand

he sings "leg"