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

The first couple times I heard this, it was on the radio, and I could not for the life of me make out what he was singing. The best I could come up with was "Be parlayed."

 

Until recently, I heard the smae song's "rising like Olympus above the Serentegi" as "rising like a lepress above the Serengeti." In my mind, "lepress" was somehow obviously a leopardess.

 

Like many others, it was only recently that I learned the line is not actually "I'm not talkin' 'bout the linen." In fact, I think I initially heard it as "the Lenin," but figured it must be "linen," since the song didn't seem especially political.

 

Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" I got totally wrong. There is a line that sounds like "Had my uncle's Chevy and a place of my own" but it is actually "had my old gold Chevy and a place of my own."

 

Despite it being my absolute favorite album, for well over a decade (before seeing the printed lyrics) , I found many of the lyrics to King Crimson's Red album unintelligible and got several others wrong. For example, in "Fallen Angel," the line I thought was "Sleep in, tired, you'll wake in a while" turned out to be "Sleeping, tired, blue wicked and wild." At least I more or less got the gist of that song. For "One More Red Nightmare," I could make out very few of the lyrics whatsoever, but I imagined them to have some deep historical resonances, with references to "the Stuarts" and "the Catholics." Turns out it was just about a bad airplane flight (with the British historical references turning out to be "The stewardess made me, but the captain forbade me").

 

Not as kids but my girlfriend told me back in 1988 that the soft rock radio station had been playing a really annoying Elvis song that kept saying Embageddo.
I said It's called In The Ghetto.
I said did you really not try hard enough to figure it out instead of assuming it was a non word?
A few years later I met a girl who said she used to think Return to Sender was Return Lasenda as if it was a girls name.
I swear, such lazy listeners.

 

Going through a breakup/ bad marriage and fully understanding Blood on the Tracks.

 

That only Paul sang the She Loves You part and the end of All You Need is Love and that it was Paul not John echoing Ringo at the end of Yellow Submarine.

 

At the end of "Come on Eileen", I thought he was saying "Well, that does it" because the song was fading out, instead of "Well, they're dirty".

 

The guess who - No sugar tonight.
They mention "a bag of goodies and a bottle of wine"... Being how I was probably 7 or 8 at the time when i first heard it, I figured the bag of goodies had something to do with candy and Dolly Madison treats. But the confusing part for me back then was that they had specifically said "no sugar tonight".

Laura Branigan "gloria". I thought she was saying, "I think they got your area that you been living under." Before that she said "i think they got your number" so I was thinking if they needed the area (code) then it would be a long distance call, and not cheap.

Shalamar "dancing in the sheets". All I could think at the time was, "What the heck does it mean to dance in the sheets?"

Kiss "Heaven's on fire" - The line "You're coming closer i can hear you breathe" - I thought maybe his girlfriend had asthma.
Then when he says, "You drive me crazy when you start to tease" I thought maybe she was dancing around and saying, "Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah."

Yeah i had a pretty sheltered childhood. Maybe I used to over-anylize songs

 

When I was a kid the '60's, my old man would always try and convince me that "Olive" was the unnamed reindeer in the song and that the cartoon was wrong. I just got abused on the playground when I rolled that theory out. Glad to see I wasn't the only one.

 

James Brown - "I Got the Feelin'" was misinterpreted as "Pocket Fever- baby, baby, Pocket Fever". Is there not a real dance song out there that would instruct someone to take hold of their partner's back pocket?

"We Can Work It Out" - I thought the Beatles were warning that "Lightning's very sharp, and there's no time for fussing and fighting".

My parents made a recording of me at the age of 4. I sang the first line of Cracklin' Rosie and was not even close: "Ahh, back n forth we go rolling".

 

I got into an argument with a friend about whether it was David Bowie or Queen who sang "Under Pressure."

 

Back in the '70's, as a kid, whenever I heard the Van Halen song 'Panama' on the radio (I didn't have the record yet) I always thought he was singing "Had Enough!" which didn't seem to "fit" the other lyrics of the song. When I learned the name was "Panama" I still didn't get it. I do, now.

 

Etcha sketch, etcha sketch hey seniorrrriiittaaaaaaa....

 

The Go-Go's walk with an erection, Pat Benatar's hit me with your wet snot. Yeup I was and still is immature. Keeps me young!

 

Same here except I wasn't even a kid anymore.

 

Louie Louie ,still getting it wrong.

 

Pilot, It's Magic. I always thought it sounded like 'It's my d(i)ck'.

 

Hang on...

 

The Bangles??

Yeah. Susanna is still sexy.

 

I thought that The Standells Dirty Water was saying "Lovers F%@%ers and Thieves".

 

This is a darn good thread! Kudos to the op!

 

In the 70s? Wasn't that mid-80s?

 

Van Halen is a late 70's on up band. Eruption rules!!!