This is mega-annoying because it's a really cool song but I can't listen to it anymore.

Smells Like Nirvana

Lyrics:

What is this song all about?
Can't figure any lyrics out
How do the words to it go?
I wish you'd tell me, I don't know
Don't know, don't know, don't know, oh no
Don't know, don't know, don't know...

Now I'm mumblin' and I'm screamin'
And I don't know what I'm singin'
Crank the volume, ears are bleedin'
I still don't know what I'm singin'
We're so loud and incoherent
Boy, this oughta bug your parents
Yeah

It's unintel-ligible
I just can't get it through my skull
It's hard to bargle nawdle zouss
With all these marbles in my mouth
Don't know, don't know, don't know, oh no
Don't know, don't know, don't know...

Well, we don't sound like Madonna
Here we are now, we're Nirvana
Sing distinctly? We don't wanna
Buy our album, we're Nirvana
A garage band from Seattle
Well, it sure beats raising cattle
Yeah

And I forgot the next verse
Oh well, I guess it pays to rehearse
The lyric sheet's so hard to find
What are the words? Oh, nevermind
Don't know, don't know, don't know, oh no
Don't know, don't know, don't know...

Well, I'm yellin' and we're playin'
But I don't know what I'm sayin'
What's the message I'm conveyin'?
Can you tell me what I'm sayin'?
So have you got some idea?
Didn't think so -- Well, I'll see ya
Sayonara, sayonara
Ayonawa, odinawa
Odinaya, yodinaya
Yaddayadda, yaaahyaaah
Ayaaaaaah!

It brings visions of Rem Koolhaas searching hystericaly through his minimally futuristic loft for his knickers.

now another one for readers who understand Dutch (not many I guess). A friend of mine thought that in 'Vicious' Lou Reed actually sang the dutch word 'visjes' which means 'little fish'

Little fish You hit me with a flower

Ah well. I used to hear "I'll get another job at night" from XTC's "Earn Enough For Us" as "I'll get another job at *nine*". (i.e. back to work at 9 am the next morning, which makes sense)

Gary Numan, his love is real, but he isn't? ;-)

Maybe
I don't really wanna know
How you got engrossed
'Cause I just wanna play...

I marvelled at the way the guy with the eyebrows stretched out that syllable "gross", as if solely to disgust anyone who expected a sense of decorum from him. I had a new favourite great white hope. Of course, I soon found out the lyric was actually "how your garden grows", which is just so lame.

I never really got over that.

That's funny, I only count one per head.

It's great when misheard lyrics mean the opposite of the real thing. I spent months singing along to Wilco's "Radio Cure" as "distance has a way of making love understandable," when the lyric is "no way." Shucks.

What an interesting life I lead.

oops, but that's the way I heard that line, from Dylan's 'All Along the Watchtower', listening to Mad Sheer Khan's live version of the song on the radio tonight

Can anyone guess which one this is? These might be the real words, for all I know.

Jesus, I think you have ruined this one song for me. I used to love it but I have the feeling that since this day I'll be hearing John Foxx singing "underpants!" everytime.

It sounded like she was singing "Your toxic come dripping down my body" or summat. That can't be right though can it? I mean, she's not putting (or rather, her songwriters aren't) THAT much innuendo in her songs yet are they? Although that thing where she fiddles with her breasts in the video clip lead me to believe that it's not far off.

ihttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v134/tracerhand/kingoftheroad.gif

MOTHERFUCKER! A recent detour to a Beastie Boys lyrics site disabused me of the following lyrics to "Hold It, Now Hit It:

As transcribed: "Every day I drink O.E. and I don't go to work."
As heard in my brain for the past 20 years: "Every day I take a wee and I don't go to work"

Goodgod y'all, is nothing sacred?

In Kristin Hersh's version of "Cuckoo" on Hips and Makers, I know it's "Oh the cuckoo / She's a pretty bird / She warbles / As she flies" -- but I always hear (prob bcz I want to hear) "... / She wobbles / As she flies".

As A kid I listened to Mariah Carey's Breakdown millions of times and I always thought the last line of the chorus was 'I tell my mother lies and then I breakdown and cry.'

"just because of love what does?"

-devin the dude

I heard Unbelievable at Skate King and thought the chorus was "you're ugly and bald"

the fact that I heard it at Skate King was very relevant btw

Torche - "Across the Shields"

Can't be right:

Harsh mad anger all the time! Soothsay big on your dime! Send all your kingdoms porn! And pray mother keep us all!

I don't know if its right or not, but i like those Torche lyrics.

For a really long time I thought ZZ Top was singing "Every girl's crazy 'bout a shy gas mask." In fact, I found the actual lyrics quite disappointing.

As heard in my brain for the past 20 years: "Every day I take a wee and I don't go to work"

Still prefer this.

there's another, longer thread on this

Misheard lyrics

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/lotr/images/d/de/Sword.jpg

well i crossed my old man back in Aragorn, don't take me alive

The Jags - 'Back Of My Hand'

When I was younger, I kept hearing "you're not unreadable, you're not unbeatable" as "get out of Weinerville, get out of Weinerville"

alan alda's all we are

Someone in this usually very quiet Huntington Beach neighborhood is gettin' all crunk this Saturday evening, presently to the sound of C+C Music Factory's 1990 single 'Gonna Make You Sweat.' This has reminded me that, when the song was current, me and my ten year old friends had a joke that the lyric was actually, "Everybody, pants down!"

I thought for years that the line in 'Daydream Believer' was 'my shaving razor's cold and it stinks'. That's when it's time to buy a new one, Davy. Gross.

"i'm just liberal nerves and feelings" - Joni Mitchell, "People's Parties"

Nelly Furtado:

"I am like a bird, I'll only fly away. I don't know where my phone is."

she's little miss prissy
and she love you, gene, baby, all the time
baby all the time!

Let's dance
Let's shout
Shake your body and do the brown

invest in a stool softener, man

or, y'know, drugs are bad

i did see this humorous transcription of Two Chainz's verse on Rick Ross's "Fuck Em":

"I'm chain smokin loud
Like it's a newborn"

I've got a Japanese edition of R.E.M.'s Monster with a lyric insert included - of course, as with all R.E.M. albums before 1998, the UK/US edition didn't include the lyrics, so someone clearly was hired to write down what they thought was being sung. Stipe's lyrics are hard to make out in general, particularly when you consider that Monster's production is quite murky in places, so of course the lyrics printed in the book are completely wrong!

Here's an excerpt from 'Circus Envy':

Here comes that awful feeling again
Make way for monstor (sic) jealousy
The strove man kicks in ending my breakfast
Cereal Bowl, I spell your name with Oaties
Oh, I messed it, messed it, messed it up

I got my car stolen there in the haystack
I am tired of your dark warm circus eyes
Put pepper in my coffee, I forgot to bath
Encore man

definetely an improvement.

tbf hardly matters if you mishear Jon Anderson lyrics

I just heard Rodriguez Sugar Man for the first time in a deserted Duke of Hawarden and this guy going on about his jumpers and coats was really putting me on edge

In "Call me maybe" I always thought she was singing "I've heard Satan is real" but it's actually "At first sight and it's real".

I've misheard Ramones "I wanna be well" as "I wanna be whipped" for years.

My brother and I thought the Mr Belvedere theme was:

Streets on-a China
Never met him before

That's all for everyone
Must be just too sexy, what I need

Just saw the lyrics to “Do Ya” and what I thought was “Commander!” or “ Amanda!” is supposedly “C’mon now.” I believe I am not alone in this.

Until last year I thought the chorus of Dancing Queen was "You can dance / You can die / Having the time of your life."

Unfortunately no

Ah okay, I looked it up

Rather puerile but for a long time on 'Today' by Smashing Pumpkins, I thought Corgan was singing "My angel wings were bruised and restrained, my willy stings".

lol

lately this has been stuck in my head: "IIIIIIIIIIIIII liiiiiiiiiiiiike the Christian Right"

LOL. Someone right wing nutjob of a musician should record that! You up for it, Morrissey?

Another on the Corgan tip:

Sail
Down in Oahu
Sail
I am one

lol that's p good

Deftones - "Elite"

Chino has heavy vocal effects and he's shrill screaming, so the verse sounds like

"When you're ripe
You're Billy Joel
You're Billy Joel!"

Found out it was "bleed out of control" and can't hear it the old way anymore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdUoPaleNK8

1:04
In a crowded room
I won't text too much

For some reason I was thinking about this recently: When I was a little kid, back in the days of AM Gold, I used to hear "The Night Chicago Died" all the time. I was far too young to have any context or reason for knowing who Al Capone was, and my little dumb kid brain didn't really hear what it was they were singing. So for some reason, I parsed it as something like, "A man called Bobbabone." Which struck me as a hilariously unlikely name even then.

Me and my friends had that issue with Barbara Ann.

We thought it was Bob Beran

En skikkelse lå der på bakken
Så vond at de blomster rundt visnet
En dyster sjel lå der på bakken
Så kald at alt vann ble til is
En skygge da falt over skogen

Da skikkelsens sjel visnet bort
For skikkelsens sjel var en skygge
En skygge av vondskapens makt

I always mishear it as 'skkkgwhaaahhwooowwwggghh'.

Okay, here is what might be the dumbest example itt: even though the song is titled '867-5309 (Jenny)' and I have known the full title for almost as long as the song has existed, I just realized a minute ago while quietly singing along that I've been mishearing the lyric as 'Daaaanny, I've got your number' for literally decades now.

And I'm fully aware that they evoke Jenny's name multiple times elsewhere in the song. I have no idea who the fuck Danny was supposed to be.

I'm in a state of shock. I just realized that the lyric of "The Bare Necessities" is not actually "Wherever I wander, wherever I roam, I couldn't be found there in my big home", as I'd thought for many years, but is actually "I couldn't be fonder of my big home".

Ours is a very Cocteau-positive household so, because I am generally a dipshit, you may be able to imagine my gf's consternation wrt my interpretations of certain Cocteau Twins lyrics. Her least favorite likely being the chorus to 'Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops', which I insist ends with Liz Fraser singing 'bicycle in chicken sauce'.

Haha

Me and my friends had that issue with Barbara Ann.

We thought it was Bob Beran

― master of nuggets (Neanderthal), Wednesday, December 4, 2019 3:05 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Bopper Ann, for me.

I mean tbf whatever they're singing it isn't in any way a clearly-enunciated 'Barbara Ann'.

Talking of the Beach Boys, the coda of "Break Away" is surely not:

"Fecal vibrations and all the sensations, break away"

I'm in a state of shock. I just realized that the lyric of "The Bare Necessities" is not actually "Wherever I wander, wherever I roam, I couldn't be found there in my big home", as I'd thought for many years, but is actually "I couldn't be fonder of my big home".

― van dyke parks generator (anagram), Friday, December 6, 2019 3:04 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

My theory - Phil Harris sang "I couldn't be ... found? .. Of my big home", and they never corrected it.

When they made Jungle Book 2, they re-sang "Bare Necessities" and corrected it to what you said.

When i was a kid i thought "Soul Man" went..

COMIN TO YA
ON A CASSEROLE

I sang along with PJ Harvey's "O Stella" in the car this morning: "Baseball players only!". Had to look up what she's actually singing

Beyonce - Countdown
'Whoo-oah killing me softly / Caspar the Friendly Ghost'

That seems to be how Casper would do it, very gently and with great kindness

I always thought the first line of redemption song was “ oooh a pirate’s just a rabbi”

Hahaha

True in so many ways.

The mohel of the merchant ships
Minutes after they took
Foreskin from the penis

It's all i ever had

broadcast it: revolution don't pay
shacked up freaks on a lazarus plane
and i can just by your client, and i can tell you bide your style
i was born to raise some venus, i'll be mating here awhile
a meta-super-sonic jerk-off who forged into the game
a nearly sub-atomic genius who just deserves to pay
i will die nigh you, i will die nigh you, baby

Can I Graduate
Can I look into the faces that I meet,
Can I get my podcast off the street,
I've been living on for so long

Doolally - “Straight From The Heart”

Show me that big sloppy dick! Show, baby, yeah yeah!

I was listening to Radiohead play "Just" on their recent concert stream, a song I hadn't heard in aaages, and I realised I didn't know whether the line in the last verse was "teach you how to get to purest hell" or "teach you how to get to purist hell". I think the second one is pretty funny.

Glorified version of a pelican

Always keep it low fed!

I'm not sure we can say with 100% certainty that Stereolab's 'Plastic Mile' doesn't contain the line 'twisty penis hand'

From 'Cherub Rock': Who wants that hiney?

Junior Byles, "Curly Locks"

"Curly Locks
Your father is a *pork chop"

The real lyric appears to be 'Pope chap', which is, in itself, pretty weird.

I thought it was poacher!

LOL, it might be! I thought Pope Chap was a dismissive Rasta name for a Catholic - given that they really do not like Catholics very much.