Songs with more than one version of the lyrics

The Velvet Underground's "New Age" had a lyric that was almost entirely different when they started performing it: "Waiting for the phone to ring/diamond necklack 'round my shoulder" etc. Lou Reed also sang it, not Doug Yule. Wonder if the "Frank and Nancy" reference was about the Sinatras?

 

against Springsteen's original lyric which can be heard on various 78' shows + official LIVE 75~85 Box.
when Bruce finally released an 'official' studio version with "The Promise" set back in 2010, he re-did the vocal using Patti's lyric.

 

The original version of weezer's We Are All On Drugs has the line:
"I want to confiscate you drugs, I don't think I can get enough" this was changed on later pressings to
"I want to reach a higher plane, where things will never be the same"
There are also versions that change 'on drugs' to 'in love' as MTV and some radio stations wouldn't play the song.

 

Dan Fogelberg changed the lyrics of Since You've Asked, with Judy Collins' permission.

Rick Roberts rewrote the lyrics of It Doesn't Matter. Not sure what the opinions of Stills & Hillman were about that.

 

Soft Machine's "Moon In June"....the lyrics changed for the BBC session...and very fitting indeed!

 

Didn’t Dylan have to change some of the lyrics in “Hurricane” for legal reasons? (Don’t know if any other versions were ever released, though)

“Stray Cat Blues” - the age of the groupie was changed from 15 to 13 on Ya Yas.

“Purple Haze” - kiss the sky/this guy.

“This Land is Your Land”

 

Kiss the sky is the only lyric. Kiss this guy is just mishearing those words.

 

José Feliciano gave it another interpretation (at 0:46) :

 

It’s been well documented that he changed the words several times when he played the song live (most likely in response to people misinterpreting the line).

@0:55

 

At the '69 LA Forum show he said:
"Excuse me while I kiss this policeman over there."

(Or something along those lines.)

 

In live performances, Joe Walsh is known to change a line in Life's Been Good:
I have a limo ride in the back, I lock the doors in case I'm attacked
becomes
I have a limo ride in the trunk, I lock the doors in case I get drunk

Warren Zevon did a similar thing with Werewolves of London, where
I'd like to meet his tailor
becomes
Now he's coming for James Taylor

 

The Boomtown Rats - Rat Trap

"Billy don't like it living here in this town
He says the traps have been sprung long before he was born
He says "hope bites the dust behind all the closed doors"
And pus and grime ooze from its scab crusted sores"

had it's last line changed to something like:

"Where blood and tears pour
Down the drains and the sewers"

for radio and TV as well as many copies of the 7" single. Bob Geldof mumbles the line so it's not totally clear what he's singing.

 

Has anyone mentioned Candle In The Wind yet.

Had a cursory glance through the thread and didn't spot it.

 

Black throated wind, grateful dead. Weir tried out some lyrical changes in 90 when the song was revived before deciding it was already just exactly perfect

Us blues also had an earlier incarnate, although that one is often acknowledged as a different song completely wave that flag

 

Kate Bush - The Sensual World was updated as Flower Of The Mountain on Director's Cut
The Jam - The Modern World had expletive deleted on the 7" version
Lily Allen sings "baking bread" in place of the rhythmically similar sexual reference of the LP version on "Not Fair"

 

OK, my bad.

 

It's actually a mix of Tony's & Mike's lyrics.

 

Does 1 word count? How about Barry Manilow's "I Write the Songs", redone by Frank Sinatra as "I Sing the Songs":

 

The USA Remix of U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" has different verse lyrics, as well as a slightly different arrangement, and an added intro part sung by Bono that's not on the regular album version.

 

I love the pre-Zeppelin versions of this song.

 

Most people know the much-loathed Charlene version of "I've Never Been to Me", but there's also a version from a more manly perspective. The Temptations did it in the early '80's. There are some shared lines but enough changes to mark it as a different set of lyrics, I think.

 

This Yardbirds number is "Train Kept a-Rollin'" with new lyrics written by the band. Vintage performance from the movie 'Blow-Up,' featuring both Beck and Page:

 

Kinks Lola. Coca Cola/Cherry Cola.

 

Plant has the best lyrics.

 

Tumbling Dice

Rolling Stones
Linda Ronstadt