When you were a kid and listened to a song, what did you get totally wrong about it?

I remember when my older sister was listening to the Purple Rain album, I remember thinking I Would Die 4 U was "Apple Dapple You" for the longest time, I still hear it that way LOL

 

Me too!

I also thought "The Day Before You Came" was a happy song. I thought she was remembering how boring her life was before she met him, and she was now really happy because they're together. I always thought it was weird that such a happy song sounded so heartbreakingly sad.

Of course now I realise that she's saying "I must have..." because he's no longer around and she's alone again, and this is what her life's like now.

What a song.

 

I remember how disappointed I was when I finally got hold of an opened copy of the White Album and discovered that there were no Revolutions No. 2-8 to be found amongst the track listings.

 

From Zoot Allures :

'I lost control of my body functions
On a bald-headed lady's front lawn
But I can't help myself
'Cause I'm a wino man! '

This wonderful picture has been in my head since I was a teenager. Only today I discovered it's a roller-headed lady.

 

Willy and the Pope was a-playin'...

 

Could it be that many of us were/are accustomed to hearing things enunciated as young children, so when we hear inarticulate singing, we can't make out what is being sung, so we rely on phonetics, even though what we think we hear is totally wrong?

 

It's not!?!? Good Lord my life has all been a lie.

"Dawn surprise"? What the hell does that mean? On second thought do I want to know?

 

On Aquarius/Let the Sunshine by the 5th Dimension I had the meaning wrong in Sunshine. Instead of "Let the Sunshine, let the Sunshine in" I thought it was let the sun shine.....let the sun shine in" There really is a difference if you think about it. Sunshine is a noun. Sun shine is a verb or action of the sun shining in.

 

Roger Whittaker's 'The Last Farewell'. The line 'And I have loved you dearly, more dearly than the spoken word can tell'. I'm Dutch, and 'spoken' in Dutch is 'ghosts'. Very exciting for a 9-year old who couldn't understand English yet!

 

On a similar note... when I was a kid, I assumed the credits were just listing the members of the group. You can imagine why this led to a great deal of confusion!

 

Ultravox' Vienna was big just around the time I left school. I wasn't into Ultravox and never took the trouble to find out, but I did wonder idly what the duck was doing there, in the picture frame ('a man and a duck in a picture frame, so mystic and soulful'). A couple of weeks ago my wife was playing it and I mentioned this. I don't think I've said anything that made her laugh that much in ten years. Anyway now I know there is no duck. 'A man in the dark in a picture frame'. I see.

 

Hasn't Fogerty copped to singing, "Willie the negro can't be beat," on at least one occasion, instead of, "bring a nickel, stamp your feet?"

 

At the grocery store, I was charmed when a mother's group of young daughters sang along to the Corrs' Receptionist Rock classic, "Breathless." They thought the chorus was "C'mon, leave me breakfast."

 

Prince Computer blue: "til I find the righteous one, computer blue" sounded like "til i find a bat or swan, to get it blue" silly but funny... Also I always loved w.a.s.p. The real me...then after many years I found out it was The Who ! Phil Collins "you can't hurry love" the phrase "don't come easy" sounded like an italian priest "Don Camisi"

 

From Gerry & the Pacemakers:

We know that cryin's not a bad thing
But stop your cryin' when the dead sing

 

Life In The Fast Lane - The Eagles

Not the lyrics, but I thought they were singing about actually driving in the passing lane and what fun it was and about all the people in the car with him.

I was a very dumb 12 year old.

 

"Everytime you go...away.....you take a piece meat of with you"

 

I thought "Sister Golden Hair" was about a deacon ("I ain't ready for the altar") in love with the nun for whom the song was named, Sister Golden Hair Surprise (of an obviously progressive order).

 

"When you were a kid and listened to a song, what did you get totally wrong about it?"

Well, I was no longer a 'kid' but I did get a few songs totally wrong. For example: "Puff the Magic Dragon" had nothing to do with marijuana, "You're So Vain" was not about Mick Jagger, and "Louie Louie" had no references to sex at all.

 

From "All Good Gifts" (Godspell) - "No gifts have we to offer for all thy lovin' parts"

 

When I was about 5 years old I LOVED the guitar intro to Money For Nothing - Dire Straits. Too bad I didn't know that was a guitar, I would enthusiastically play air piano....

 

I had no idea what Nikki was doing with that magazine in the Prince song. I sang long to it anyway.

 

When I first heard Black is Black, I thought I had finally identified an artist from the song ... Gene Pitney!

 

I vaguely recall watching "Shindig" when I was seven years old and thinking that The Rolling Stones' rhythm guitarist and the Yardbirds' lead vocalist were the same person. Kind of understandable, since they both had the exact same hair.

 

In "Pinch Me" by the Barenaked Ladies (a radio staple when I was in elementary school), the line: "Take a drink right from the hose
And change into some drier clothes" always confused me for years. For some reason I always heard "drier clothes" as "dryer clothes" and was wondering why he specifically wanted clothes right out of the dryer and why it mattered in the context of the song