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There's that bit in "We Didn't Start The Fire" that sounds like "children of the little mind" but which I'm pretty sure is "children of thalidomide" (reference to the birth defects caused by that drug).
I mis heard it as that as well. Along with another part of the song.
I finally understand the lyrics from Billy Joel's song, We Didn't Start The Fire. For years I misunderstood two parts from it...
What I thought the lyric was: Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather Homicide, Children of The Little Mind...
* Keep this in mind, I was a little kid when I first mis heard this, I wasn't being disrespectful to people in any way. I only finally understood the lyrics this year. Thank you Mr. Joel and your singing.
What it really was: Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather Homicide, Children of Thalidomide...
The other misunderstood one: Buddy Holly, Ben-Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U2, Cinnamon Ring, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo
* Ok, this one makes no sense at all , but that's what I hear EVERY time he sings that part of the song.
What it really was: Buddy Holly, Ben-Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo
I've mis heard way too many...
From Elton John's song, Tiny Dancer...
I thought the lyrics, "Hold me closer, tiny dancer", were "Hold my clothes and tie me down sir" and also I thought that the lyrics, "Count the headlights on the highway", were "Count the headlice on the highway" ...
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "With birds I share this lonely view..."
I thought that line, was "Mr. Veshetti is lonely for you..."
The Eurythmics - "Sweet Dreams are Made of this"
I thought that this line, "We travel the world and the seven seas", was "We travel the world in our BVD's" . Also, some radio person thought the same thing as well .
'With Open Arms' -- Journey
'I come to you with elephant arms...' (just what in the heck 'elephant arms' are, I have no clue ...) <-- what I thought it was
'I come to you with open arms...' <-- the real lyric
Old Time Rock & Roll -- Bob Seger
What I thought:
Just take those old records on yourself ( )
What the lyrics really were:
Just take those old records off the shelf
I was singing this song and got the lyrics messed up by mistake, due to being somewhat tired .
I mis heard it as that as well. Along with another part of the song.
I finally understand the lyrics from Billy Joel's song, We Didn't Start The Fire. For years I misunderstood two parts from it...
What I thought the lyric was: Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather Homicide, Children of The Little Mind...
* Keep this in mind, I was a little kid when I first mis heard this, I wasn't being disrepectful to people in any way. I only finally understood the lyrics this year. Thank you Mr. Joel and your singing.
What it really was: Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, Bridge On The River Kwai
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather Homicide, Children of Thalidomide...
The other misunderstood one: Buddy Holly, Ben-Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U2, Cinnamon Ring, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo
* Ok, this one makes no sense at all , but that's what I hear EVERY time he sings that part of the song.
What it really was: Buddy Holly, Ben-Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go
U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo
I've mis heard way too many...
From Elton John's song, Tiny Dancer...
I thought the lyrics, "Hold me closer, tiny dancer", were "Hold my clothes and tie me down sir" and also I thought that the lyrics, "Count the headlights on the highway", were "Count the headlice on the highway" ...
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "With birds I share this lonely view..."
I thought that line, was "Mr. Veshetti is lonely for you..."
The Eurythmics - "Sweet Dreams are Made of this"
I thought that this line, "We travel the world and the seven seas", was "We travel the world in our BVD's" . Also, some radio person thought the same thing as well .
'With Open Arms' -- Journey
'I come to you with elephant arms...' (just what in the heck 'elephant arms' are, I have no clue ...) <-- what I thought it was
'I come to you with open arms...' <-- the real lyric
Old Time Rock & Roll -- Bob Seger
What I thought:
Just take those old records on yourself ( )
What the lyrics really were:
Just take those old records off the shelf
I was singing this song and got the lyrics messed up by mistake, due to being somewhat tired .
Well, you're where you should be all the time
And when you're not, you're with some underworld spy
Or the wife of a close friend postman,
Wife of a close friend postman, and
You're so vain
While the postman is two-timing some other shlep, this guy is with the postman’s wife. Of course he’s so vain!
Well, you're where you should be all the time
And when you're not, you're with some underworld spy
Or the wife of a close friend postman,
Wife of a close friend postman, and
You're so vain
While the postman is two-timing some other shlep, this guy is with the postman’s wife. Of course he’s so vain! View attachment 4449
And there's a wino down the road -- I think that was a fairly common Mondegreen. That's the "name" for this phenomenon, BTW, Mondegreens. From the lyric, ...and laid him on the green, misheard as and Lady Mondegreen.
Just remembered a favourite of mine. Brian Wilson with Love & Mercy. This was a recording from later in his career post-stroke (I Just Wasn't Made for These Times documentary soundtrack) and as a result some of his words come out mumbled:
What I heard:
I was lyin' in my room and the nude came on T.V.
A lotta people out there hurtin' and it really scares me
Real:
I was lyin' in my room and the news came on T.V.
A lotta people out there hurtin' and it really scares me
I remember thinking, wow, just a simple context really changes things.
Yes. I was a high school freshman at the time. It wasn't even remotely my taste, but there was no escaping it (and now I've got a bit of an earworm for it). Reputedly, Springsteen (who wrote it a few years earlier) once remarked that it didn't really take off until Manfred Mann rewrote it to be about feminine hygine products.
*****
Mondegreens even show up in church hymns. And sometimes what you think has to be a Mondegreen, that couldn't possibly be right, turns out to be the real text. An example of the former turning out to be the latter, from one of the less-used verses of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Hail Thee Festival Day (Easter version):
Show us thy face once more,
that the ages may joy in thy brightness;
give us the light of day,
darkened on earth at thy death.
I was sure, hearing the only known commercial choral recording over and over again on my car CD, this past Easter, that it couldn't possibly be "Give us the light of day" ("Jesus, the light of day" seemed a more likely candidate), and was floored when I looked it up, and found out that the seeming Mondegreen was the real text. (All the more embarrassing, because I've got every known variation of every verse known to have been translated into English for the RVW tune, and most of the English-translated verses for an older [and generally regarded as obsolete] tune, in the notes and draft of a treatise that I might finish writing someday!)
Hey! Thinking about Hail Thee, Festival Day managed to exorcise the aforementioned earworm!
I was pretty disappointed when I found out that the line in Toto's song "Africa" is not "I miss the rains down in Africa" but "I bless the rains down in Africa." Like...what? Bless the rains? The fuck is he talking about?
I love that song but I still wish it was "miss the rains down in Africa."
I can't remember specifics (cuz I'm old), but a lot of Elton John songs in my youth were far
different, "Rocket Man", "Levi", and "Love Lies Bleeding" the worst.
I've looked them up, of course, but still don't hear them correctly in my mind.
. Also, some radio person thought the same thing as well 
.
