Misheard lyrics

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"i got my first real sex dream..."

minna (minna), Friday, 20 December 2002 18:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Mentioned before in a Meshuggah thread:

"I like juice and that's the truth!!"

original bgm, Friday, 20 December 2002 18:10 (twenty-three years ago)

"Sweet, hot cum." for "Sweetheart come."

Ian Johnson (orion), Monday, 23 December 2002 23:19 (twenty-three years ago)

In ODB's "Shimmy Shimmy Ya":
"Oooh baby I like it. RAAAAA!" like imitating a tiger noise, or something. But in fact, of course, it's "Oooh baby I like it raw!"

phil-two, Tuesday, 24 December 2002 09:31 (twenty-three years ago)

and that old Stranglers classic -
"..lays me down, with my machine gun.."

Fuzzy (Fuzzy), Tuesday, 24 December 2002 10:04 (twenty-three years ago)

For years I genuinely thought that "Killing An Arab" by F.Bob and the Boys contained the line "We terrorise Jews, it amounts to the same" until I saw the lyric sheet reading "whichever I choose" ..."

Darren, Tuesday, 24 December 2002 11:18 (twenty-three years ago)

didn't Manfred Mann actually change "deuce" to "douche" when he covered "blinded by the light"? if not, then i guess that's one of my misheard lyrics

anyone, my all-timer -- when i was a little kid, i used to think that the buggles' "video killed the radio star" was "vinnie, don't kill the radio star" (and listening to the song, it never made sense why "vinnie" wanted to kill the radio star)

and i used to think that the line from "le freak" by chic that goes "le freak, c'est chic" was "bo-beep, go sheep!"

Tad (llamasfur), Thursday, 26 December 2002 06:50 (twenty-three years ago)

First two lines of Labelle's 'Lady Marmalade':

'He met Marmalade down in old New Orleans/Struttin' her stuff for Mister Heath'

Fred Nerk, Thursday, 26 December 2002 11:38 (twenty-three years ago)

RE: Blnded by the Light ...
I don't know what Manfred Man sang .. but I thought Springsteen's version was "Cut Loose like a Deuce - another RUNNER in the night" .. and I don't know what that means... I think I've also heard live versions as "Let Loose like a deuce"

Also googled as:
"Wrapped up like a deuce"
"revved up like a deuce" (Seems to be the consensus on the Manfred Mann version.)


Wrapped up like a goose in the middle of the night
Held up by a ...deuce... another ruler in the night
...douche...
..."dooshent"...
Slapped up by a dude...
Knocked up by...

..From "The Straight Dope" :
"Bruce's lyrics were no paragon of clarity, but at least you could understand the words: "Cut loose like a deuce another runner in the night." Some claim the "deuce" being referred to is the 1932 Ford Coupe beloved of hotrodders (cf. the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coupe"). Maybe, but when you're talking about a song whose opening line goes on about madman drummers, bummers, and Indians in the summer, I'm not making any definite claims.

The Manfred Mann's Earth Band ("Quinn the Eskimo") did a cover version of the tune in 1976. It became a hit, no doubt because the band made the lyrics even more opaque than they already were. They changed the line in question to "wrapped up like a deuce."

What's it mean? I'm barely on speaking terms with my own subconscious. Don't ask me to explain someone else's."

dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 26 December 2002 14:11 (twenty-three years ago)

everyone's misheard "how soon is now," of course ... i originally thought that the opening lyric was "i am the sun and the air/of a shiner that is criminally vulgar." that is, that someone had punched Morrissey and gave him a black eye (or maybe that's me projecting?) what the "sun and air" had to do with getting a black eye, though, was an unsolved teenage mystery.

Tad (llamasfur), Thursday, 26 December 2002 20:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I initially heard the last part of the last verse of "Just Like Heaven" as "I found my self alone alone alone above the raging sea/That stole the only girl I loved/And drowned her deep in sorrow". I really thought it was cool that he broke the rhyming scheme for that image. Oops.

Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 26 December 2002 22:10 (twenty-three years ago)

A friend asked what the "Mancheerons" were in Golden Brown.
"with my Mancheerons"
"with my minds she runs"

Celeste (Celeste), Sunday, 29 December 2002 14:43 (twenty-three years ago)

'Ride a white swan' T Rex. I think I only ever understood the title line and a line that finished ' ... and in the morning you'll know who you are.' I'm even doubtful about that now!

pete porchos, Monday, 30 December 2002 13:53 (twenty-three years ago)

"Ants... rats snitch on one another for the ants..."

Everlast, watching the Discovery Channel.

jot eff pe, Tuesday, 7 January 2003 22:44 (twenty-three years ago)

"I'm a profiter"

(NERD - Provider)

man, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 14:29 (twenty-three years ago)

"take me down to a very nice city" - g'n'r - paradise city

also an ex-gf thought that brand new heavies - you are the universe was "you are my unicorn".

michael wells (michael w.), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 14:45 (twenty-three years ago)

"But if you go carrying pictures of Germans now,
You ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow."

Truer words were never misheard.

Colin Meeder (Mert), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 15:27 (twenty-three years ago)

two months pass...
I just realized that this one Fred Neil song isn't "I've Got a Seabreeze..."

hstencil, Tuesday, 1 April 2003 19:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I was fucked up on acid once a long long time ago and listening to Workingman's Dead - I thought the words were "I was having a HARD time living the good life," which I thought was the most beautiful lyrics ever, then I found out it was "having a HIGH time" - not nearly as good. Bummer, maaaan.

roger adultery (roger adultery), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 21:45 (twenty-three years ago)

four months pass...
to all of my ladies and my mens
and all my peoples in Depends

gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 1 August 2003 02:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Knee Deep in Doughnuts for "Lady Madonna" go ahead, listen to it...

Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Friday, 1 August 2003 02:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Eddy Money Two tickets to Paradise "I've got two chickens to paralyze"

Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Friday, 1 August 2003 02:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Cher, If I Could Turn Back Time: I heard "words are like weapons, they wound sometimes" as "words are like whale bones, they move sometimes."

Prude (Prude), Friday, 1 August 2003 03:05 (twenty-two years ago)

three months pass...
Slowdive, slowdive, you're taking me over.

man, Thursday, 27 November 2003 05:10 (twenty-two years ago)

"Like your Chick Corea depended on this ..." - Red House Painters, "Mistress" (should have been 'cheap career')

"You are everything to me/You are Wayne's World" - Containe, "You" (should have been 'you always were')

moral to the story: never assume a proper noun is the correct lyric.

doug (doug), Thursday, 27 November 2003 09:48 (twenty-two years ago)

R Kelly's Remix To Ignition: "I'm like so what, I'm drunk" - "I'm like Bill Ward on drums".

Philip Alderman (Phil A), Thursday, 27 November 2003 12:05 (twenty-two years ago)

"Anything you want, kid..."

Michael Jackson: "Smooth Criminal"


(In reality it goes: "Annie are you okay?")

Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 27 November 2003 12:36 (twenty-two years ago)

"I fell in love with some Dago"

Madonna: La Isla Bonita

The Spotlight Kid (kid), Thursday, 27 November 2003 13:20 (twenty-two years ago)

A bunch of U2 ones from a dear friend:

"Where the sheep have no name" instead of "where the streets have no name" (Where The Streets Have No Name)
"I have pierced holy lips" isntead of "I have kissed honey lips" (Where The Streets Have No Name)
"Hell, damnation" instead of "Elevation" (Elevation)
"Gonna take a walk with your sister Lorraine" instead of "Johnny take a walk with your sister the rain" (Mysterious Ways)

Miggie (Miggie), Thursday, 27 November 2003 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

"No it's not like any other love / this one is different because it sucks"


"You can go your own way / You can call it thunder and 'oh-nee-baaaay" (i know that one falls apart but when I was a wee lad that's how my sister and I sang it in the car)


"Living on a Cheerio pole" - male background vox on Material Girl - sang more as a joke, in retrospect - another Kerry-and-James-back-of- the-car-on-family-vacation classic


and another from that same era: Rick Astley's "Never gonna Give you Up" sang as "Then I'm gonna give you up, then I'm gonna let you down / then Im gonna run around and dessert you"


We'd also do this weird thing with our hands along with the opening descending keyboard riff in "Carribean Queen" that made it look like we were casting a spell and it never failed to make us giggle uncontrollably. Man, my parents were into some shitty music.

roger adultery, Friday, 28 November 2003 04:30 (twenty-two years ago)

"Carribbean Queen" shitty? You take that back!

Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 28 November 2003 05:52 (twenty-two years ago)

And I'm not having any of this love on the run, either. No more!

Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 28 November 2003 05:54 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...
I SWEAR I just heard Mr. Neil Young sing: "Love is a nose / you'd beter not pick it."

Ian Johnson (orion), Friday, 16 January 2004 12:30 (twenty-two years ago)

heh. good timing.

"Have a nose...what kind of fool am I?"

from Robert Plant's "Heaven Knows." my aunt used to babysit me when i was little, you see. she played guitar, and was avidly into Led Zep and Pat Benatar and Heart, amongst other things. she was more amused by this than i think i was, and one night we stayed up rewriting all the lyrics to the song, starting with what i'd heard. i don't remember them all, although "the finesse of the old grey goose" was involved somewhere...

janni (janni), Friday, 16 January 2004 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Cutting Crew - "I just died in your arms tonight. . .it must have been something I ate"

Kiss - "I want to rock and roll all night. . .and part of every day"

rainman (rainman), Friday, 16 January 2004 16:51 (twenty-two years ago)

three weeks pass...
for years i thought sm said "skull and bones on the island of chrome" on frontwards

angel duster, Thursday, 12 February 2004 00:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Wait, I thought it really was something about a douche, until just now. I feel a little better about the song now.

Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Thursday, 12 February 2004 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I guess everyone knows by now that "I am the son and heir of nothing in particular" is more or less out of Middlemarch. I happened to be reading it in college either right before or right after I heard "How Soon Is Now?" for the first time, so that made an impression on me.

Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Thursday, 12 February 2004 00:36 (twenty-two years ago)

(I never finished the book though.)

Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Thursday, 12 February 2004 00:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought "Hold me closer tiny dancer" was "On the close up, tiny dancer" (describing her being photgraphed or filmed or something).

Also, I think I've said before that I thought "Smoke on the water" was "Slow comin' home girl."

Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Thursday, 12 February 2004 00:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I was very sad to discover that the Red House Painters lyric is not "New Jersey ate the whole world."

Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 15 February 2004 03:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I had a girlfriend once who thought the song 'Heartless' was actually 'Hog Legs'.

webcrack (music=crack), Sunday, 15 February 2004 18:09 (twenty-two years ago)

"shut the light, shut the shade
you don't have to pee, afraid
i'll be your baby tonight"

t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 16 February 2004 23:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Doobie Brothers, "Long Train Running": I misheard the refrain of "Without love/Where would you be now?" as "Well now, look/We're the Doobies now!" - thought it was kind of a "Hey Hey, We're The Monkees"-type theme song.

Myonga Von Bontee, Tuesday, 17 February 2004 00:23 (twenty-two years ago)

I misheard Ian Curtis' "Day in, day out, day in, day out &c" as "The in, the out, the in, the out" for years. I always thought it was about sexual frustration; imagine my disappointment.

roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 01:33 (twenty-two years ago)

A friend of mine once showed me a Sebadoh lyrics page that transcribed "Together or Alone" thusly:

"It was never my intention
To blindly feed the boy cocaine"

*loses shit*

Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 02:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Ooh, made me think of my own Sebadoh one:

"volunteer your fear of the blue sky"

roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 02:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Both of those are DISTINCT improvements!

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 02:48 (twenty-two years ago)

1) It's my life
Don't you forget
Covered in crap
It never ends

I didn't realize it was "Caught in the crowd" until I heard the No Doubt version. I like mine better. Angst/depression/etc.


2) I thought that when the Doobie Brothers sang "Take me in your arms/Love me, love me a little while," it was "Take me in your arms/Lovely lovely Louelle." At the time, I had never heard of a woman named Louelle, but I was like 7, so I figured what did I know? More than 25 years later, I heard it in the car and said, "You know, I've heard of exactly one person, ever, who was named Louelle. Maybe they're saying something else." Once I empowered myself, it didn't take long to detect the lyric. I'd still like to actually meet a woman named Louelle, though.


Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 16:08 (twenty-two years ago)

"don't go out tonight/it's bound to take your life/there's a bathroom on the right." CCR, er, "Bad Moon Rising." Those books of misheard lyrics were assembled by a distinguished journalist who asked all his friends to supply him w/examples, and then compiled 'em and collected a check. Definitely a pre-internet approach to "writing" a book.

soniclifer, Tuesday, 17 February 2004 22:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Just maddening to think about. You feel like urgently alerting Neil - "Do you realise you could significantly improve one of your very best songs with no effort on your part just by making a minor edit to your offical website?"

Eyeball Kicks, Sunday, 25 August 2024 20:28 (one year ago)

“Lido……oh oh whoa………Lido”

calstars, Sunday, 25 August 2024 21:47 (one year ago)

Surely the argument against that Pet Shop Boys interpretation is that thoughts, by themselves, can't make amends with other people?

Halfway there but for you, Tuesday, 27 August 2024 21:37 (one year ago)

six months pass...

Thought the chorus of Jet Boy by New York Dolls was “Lockheed was my baby”. It makes sense with the metaphor!

Slayer University (Boring, Maryland), Tuesday, 11 March 2025 19:09 (one year ago)

four weeks pass...

Boyz II Men - It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday

Heard: The good times that made us laugh, I wait 'em back (whatever that could mean. I also thought it might be an egregious pronunciation of "I want 'em back")
Actual: The good times that made us laugh outweigh the bad

Realized my mistake upon hearing the original by G.C. Cameron.

peace, man, Thursday, 10 April 2025 10:44 (one year ago)

Maybe posted this before, but for many decades my Dad sang "I believe in Malcolm" along to the Hot Chocolate smash hit, as he thought it was about Malcolm X. When we pointed out that the next line was "Where you from, you sexy thing", he admitted that he hadn't quite thought it through.

Griff Sheridan, Thursday, 10 April 2025 12:57 (one year ago)

In my younger years, I used to think the song in Grease was 'Bode Easkal Drabba', some kind of Latin motto for Rydell High. It was only many years later that I reliased the song is called Beauty School Drop-out.

Griff Sheridan, Thursday, 10 April 2025 12:59 (one year ago)

I blame a poor quality VHS recording.

Griff Sheridan, Thursday, 10 April 2025 13:01 (one year ago)

Bode Easkal Drabba!
Where you from, you sexy thing

Doctor Casino, Thursday, 10 April 2025 13:15 (one year ago)

xp lol Griff, that's amazing

Paul Ponzi, Thursday, 10 April 2025 14:06 (one year ago)

four months pass...

For decades, I thought that the chorus to Peter Gabriel's "Animal Magic" included the lines

Look, I wave my wand
Watch the magic disappear

Just this week I learned that the line is "Watch the rabbit disappear." Ah well.

If you choose too long a name, your new display name will be trunc (SlimAndSlam), Wednesday, 20 August 2025 03:11 (nine months ago)

Seeing the fifth post on this thread reminds me that the first few times I heard "I'm Every Woman" (in the background, not really paying too much attention to it) I thought the lyric was "climb every mountain..."

henry s, Wednesday, 20 August 2025 11:07 (nine months ago)

How I Wrote Plastic Man?

Code:Selfish, Wednesday, 27 August 2025 01:10 (nine months ago)

one month passes...

Accidental British misinterpretation of Big Star's "O My Soul"

Sadly turns out Alex is singing "Go ahead and shake if you want", not "Come and have tea if you want".

But listen: they sound remarkably similar!

Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 23 October 2025 15:12 (seven months ago)

Alex was a refined Southerner he might well have been singing about tea.

Webinar in Wetherspoons (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 October 2025 15:24 (seven months ago)

five months pass...

This is one I figured out a long time ago, but

Buddy Holly - That'll Be The Day

Heard: Well, you give me all your lovin', and your dirty lovin'
Actual: Well, you give me all your lovin', and your turtle dovin'

peace, man, Friday, 3 April 2026 11:11 (two months ago)

Brandy, you're a fine girl
what a good wife you would be
but my life, my lover, my lady
is deceased

This one from Lee 626 a couple years ago made me just laugh out loud

Mollusk, Virginia (Boring, Maryland), Friday, 3 April 2026 12:56 (two months ago)

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."

woah, I always heard it as “seem like sods”

Mollusk, Virginia (Boring, Maryland), Friday, 3 April 2026 13:43 (two months ago)

M.I.A., "Fire Fire"

Actual: Growin' up, brewin' Up / Guerilla gettin' trained up / Look out, look out, from over the rooftop
Heard: Worry not, worry not/ Boy you're gettin' chain-chomped / Look out, look out, from over the rooftop

https://31.media.tumblr.com/89c9a590e3f97d8ba9fa1642da540d4e/tumblr_mkcsgo7M8X1qk26dzo1_500.gif

Mighty Morphin Is The Subject of My Sentence (Doctor Casino), Monday, 6 April 2026 20:23 (two months ago)

loool

kinder, Tuesday, 7 April 2026 16:15 (two months ago)

Jimmy Eat World, "Bleed American":

Salt, sweat, sugar, honey, asphalt
Our hearts, glitter in the topsoil
Sign up for the Biedermeier Chair Parade
Our lives are cold

Mighty Morphin Is The Subject of My Sentence (Doctor Casino), Friday, 10 April 2026 10:26 (two months ago)

woah, I always heard it as “seem like sods”

that was me too

henry s, Friday, 10 April 2026 15:16 (two months ago)


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