A Lyric You Misheard ( Not The Usual Suspects , Please )

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Wildest cat from montana, Oct 15, 2020.

  1. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader Thread Starter

    Location:
    ontario canada
    What lyric (s) have you personally misheard?
    And when I asked that the usual suspects not be mentioned I meant ones like : " s'cuse me while I kiss this guy" or " the ants are my friends ")

    Me , I always thought Peter Gabriel was singing " she's so funky now " in ' Games Without Frontiers '. It was years before I realized the line was actually in French and was " jeux sand frontieres"
     
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  2. Evethingandnothing

    Evethingandnothing Forum Resident

    Location:
    Devon
    I always knew it was "jeux sand frontieres", but it still sounds like "she's so funky now".

    Used to sing "clothed in crinoline and smokey bacon crisps" to Simon & Garfunkel's - Emily
     
    wayneklein, Tuco, Jarleboy and 9 others like this.
  3. Eleanora's Alchemy

    Eleanora's Alchemy Forum Cryptid

    Location:
    Oceania
    The Dukes Of Stratosphear - The Mole From The Ministry , from the ever brilliant '25 O'Clock {1985}

    For years I thought I heard the lyric ''Only facts & figures are allowed'' when in fact the lyric was ''Moving facts & figures all around'' ... :whistle:
     
  4. Neonbeam

    Neonbeam All Art Was Once Contemporary

    Location:
    Planet Earth
    "1969" by The Stooges:

    "Well it’s 1969 ok" is clear. But what next? Is it "all across the USA", did Iggy "walk across the USA" or is there a "war across the USA"?
     
  5. Phil Tate

    Phil Tate Miss you Indy x

    Location:
    South Shields
    From Dylan's "Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts", I always heard

    "Rosemary combed her hair and took a cabbage into town"

    and

    "Lily took her dress off, Barry did a wee"
     
  6. Celebrated Summer

    Celebrated Summer Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    In the Jam's "Beat Surrender," the line before the chorus: "That chick is fat, don't even let her in the game."

    It turns out the real lyric is "The dignified don't even enter in the game." Who knew? This is one of many, many Paul Weller lyrics my American ears misunderstood.
     
  7. jmadad

    jmadad Forum Resident

    Location:
    NJ
    I was thinking David Bowie was saying "the smell of that chick threw my spine out of place" instead of "This mellow thighed chick just put my spine out of place". Happy to be wrong....
     
  8. MikeP5877

    MikeP5877 V/VIII/MCMLXXVII

    Location:
    OH
    Don't we have 10 active threads on this already?
     
  9. The Dark Elf

    The Dark Elf Curmudgeonly Wordwraith

    Location:
    Michigan
    My brother was only 3 when "Smoke on the Water" came out. He toddled around the house singing "Slow Cousin Walter".
     
  10. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    When I was a pup, I thought he was singing "she's so popular"...
    I could never figure out how that fitted with the rest of the lyrics, except perhaps all those people were fighting over her lol
    When I finally got the album a few years later, it was "oh, it's French!" Lol
     
  11. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    I always thought it was "this little fat chick...."
     
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  12. CrawdaddySim1

    CrawdaddySim1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indianapolis, IN
    "Born On the Bayou"--

    "And I can still hear my old hound dog barkin'
    Chasin' down a hoodoo there..."

    As a kid, I always thought Fogerty was singing "who-do-they." Granted, I had no idea what a "who-do-they" was, but figured it was some kind of funky cajun speak, like something Dr. John would say.
     
  13. Keam

    Keam Isn't it funny how the rain gets in?

    Location:
    Sweden
    On the traditional song "Green Green Rocky road", I've always thought the chorus was:

    "Green, green rocky road
    From a native green
    Tell me who do you love
    Who do you love?"

    The actually text says "Promenade in green", not "From a native green". Of course not being native to English I assumed it is just one of those weird word combos that people sometimes use. Now, I'm a bit smarter ;)
     
  14. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    I think a lot of my misheard lyrics were merely my perverted little mind sending me on a journey.
    Then there are some songs I have never even bothered to try and get, because the delivery was such that they could have been singing anything.... Mick Jagger and Steven Tyler, I am looking at you both
     
  15. 7solqs4iago

    7solqs4iago Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    shoot my capgun on this flight tonight - both Joni and Nazareth

    and all your money bought another minibike - ruined the song for a few fans of it when i told them...

    both childhood pursuits were on my mind at the time :D
     
  16. CrawdaddySim1

    CrawdaddySim1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indianapolis, IN
    Related to that, I always heard two other lines from that (Tim Hardin's version of the) song as:

    "If yo mama chew tobacco,
    Old Paducah soda cracker."

    But according to Google, the lyric is:

    "If your mama chew tobacco
    A tooka soda cracker."

    (I like my version better. Or maybe Tim changed the line.)
     
  17. nosticker

    nosticker Forum Guy

    Location:
    Ringwood, NJ
    I always thought it was "there's no fat chicks to put my spine out of place".

    Dan
     
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  18. CrawdaddySim1

    CrawdaddySim1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Indianapolis, IN
    Just found a webpage that appears to include the entire history of the song. Interesting. And from this, I can assume that Tim was actually singing, "hooka tooka soda cracker." ----Joop's Musical Flowers: Green Oak Tree! Rocky'o (1922) / Green Green Rocky Road (1950) / Ackabacka (1920's) / Icka backa / Hooka Tooka / Green Rocky Road (1961) / London Town (1964)
     
  19. 7solqs4iago

    7solqs4iago Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    the whole first side of Exile on Main St
     
  20. 7solqs4iago

    7solqs4iago Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    still not a clue on the chorus of China Crisis' Working with fire and steel
     
  21. fried

    fried Forum Resident

    Location:
    Paris
    [QUOTE="Wildest cat from montana, post: 25178882, member: 102952]

    Me , I always thought Peter Gabriel was singing " she's so funky now " in ' Games Without Frontiers '. It was years before I realized the line was actually in French and was " jeux sand frontieres"[/QUOTE]

    I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but I always thought it said she's so fruc-ti-ay. My wife is French and she didn't even understand it was 'jeux sans frontières'.

    I always thought that in The Rolling Stones' Sway that he sang it's just that needle that's got me in its sway....still not convinced he doesn't.

    And I was sure when I was young that Start Me Up was actually Scorpio...I was only about 10.
     
  22. Sear

    Sear Dad rocker

    Location:
    Tarragona (Spain)
    When I was a kid and I hadn't learned English yet I thought Smoke on the water meant smoking in the WC (here in Spain we say colloquially "vater" to refer to the WC). I thought it was a cool song because back then I was starting to smoke furtively in the WC of school and I felt this song was made for and about teen rebellious like me :biglaugh:what a disappointment when later I found out that the song was really about some boring story of fire in a Zappa concert I couldn't relate in any way
     
  23. Schoolmaster Bones

    Schoolmaster Bones Poe's Lawyer

    Location:
    ‎The Midwest
    Bee Gees "I've Gotta Get a Message to You": The preacher tortured me and he smiled...
    Steppenwolf "Born To Be Wild": Yeah, that'll go and make it happen...
    Beatles "I'll Follow The Sun": One day you'll find / That I have gun...
    AC/DC "For Those About To Rock": For those about to rock... FINE!
     
  24. 7solqs4iago

    7solqs4iago Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    you were supplied with a song about smoking in the WC shortly....
     
  25. 7solqs4iago

    7solqs4iago Forum Resident

    Location:
    Toronto
    heard the gun line off Beatles 65 when i was 4

    a few times the speakers have been set up so that I swear John is clearly saying **** YEAH! in I've Got a Feeling, other times not so much...
     

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