Misheard Lyrics

[UncleRogi]

Growing up, I always got this CCR song wrong:

"There's a bathroom on the right" ("There's a bad moon on the rise")

IIRC, John Foggerty sang just this back when he played a pre-Superbowl show,
the one McCartney headlined at the Half.

 

[scotpens]

Mondegreens even show up in church hymns.

We've probably all heard the one about "Gladly the Cross I'd Bear" being misheard as "Gladly, the Cross-Eyed Bear." But there's no known actual hymn by that name. The hymn "Keep Thou My Way, O Lord," written by Fanny J. Crosby, does have the line "Kept by Thy tender care, gladly the cross I’ll bear."

 

[Gryffindorian]

Robert Palmer:
"My anus will fix it, you're addicted to love"
(Might as well fix it)

My understanding of the lyrics was:

"Might as well fix it
You're a jig-gigolo."

Aerosmith's Dude:
Do it like a lady ...
Do it like a lady ...
(Dude looks like a lady)

 

[Catarina]

"Blow a kiss. Fire a gun."
It is actually, " Focus. Fire a gun. We all need someone to lean on. "

 

[Catarina]

I was five, so the memory is faded but I remember the song. Mrs. Robinson. By Simon and Garfunkel.

I heard 'bake a cake' instead of something about debate.

I wish I could remember what my kid brain filled in for
We Didn't Start the fire.

 

[J.T.B.]

The most famous version of the country/folk classic "Wildwood Flower" has misheard lyrics in it. Originally it began:

Oh I'll twine 'mid the ringlets of my raven black hair
The lilies so pale and the roses so fair​

But Maybelle Carter sings:

Oh I'll twine with my mingles and waving black hair
With the roses so red and the lilies so fair​

Of course songs were passed around by word of mouth back then, but still, it doesn't make any sense.

 

[UncleRogi]

The most famous version of the country/folk classic "Wildwood Flower" has misheard lyrics in it. Originally it began:

Oh I'll twine 'mid the ringlets of my raven black hair
The lilies so pale and the roses so fair​

But Maybelle Carter sings:

Oh I'll twine with my mingles and waving black hair
With the roses so red and the lilies so fair​

Of course songs were passed around by word of mouth back then, but still, it doesn't make any sense.

Local dialect of some sort, mayhap?

 

[Pondwater]

Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” I thought was a song about someone named Brianna.

 

[Velocity]

Some hear Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" as Secret Asian Man.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I always (and still do) heard it as "I touched the rains down in Africa".

Has anyone ever heard those lyrics correctly?

God, there's really like, a whole, massive group of people who know this song only as "Theme to CSI Miami", isn't there?

It hurts.

Yeah, that makes me sad.

For me, it's Rockin in the Free World. I always thought it was:

There's one more kid
that will never go to school
Never get to fall in love,
never get to be a fool.

I liked that much better. Basically, he deserved the opportunity to screw up as well.

 

[Random_Spock]

Has anyone ever heard those lyrics correctly?



Yeah, that makes me sad.

For me, it's Rockin in the Free World. I always thought it was:

There's one more kid
that will never go to school
Never get to fall in love,
never get to be a fool.

I liked that much better. Basically, he deserved the opportunity to screw up as well.

I thought they were 'I blessed the rains down in Africa'.


Misheard this bit of 'Voices Carry' by Til Tuesday as this...

'Bush is scary' (as in Dubya)

Instead of:

'Voices carry'

 

[Gryffindorian]

Pretty Red Corvette by Prince
What I heard: "Do You Recollect?"

ETA: I even got the actual title wrong.

Little Red Corvette

 

[Random_Spock]

IIRC, John Foggerty sang just this back when he played a pre-Superbowl show,
the one McCartney headlined at the Half.

Found another one he did where he sung that!

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Big thanks go to the fan who taped it. It's too funny.

 

[scotpens]

The first few times I heard the Rolling Stones' classic "Ruby Tuesday," I thought the first line of the chorus was "Goodbye, Groovy Tuesday."

Well, the word "groovy" was supposedly hip slang back then, but nobody actually used it! (In fact, it dates from the 1940s.)

 

[Refuge]

We don't talk anymore. I just Googled it to check and it's just so wrong and yet so wrong. He's wearing a gold top and it's fabulously Seventies. Cliff Richard he says "It's so funny we don't talk" but really it sounds like "Piss off honey".

 

[Random_Spock]

Here's some of my more recent misheard lyrics:

Spoiler: since it might be rather long

A new mishearing, this one from Lacuna Coil's "Falling Again":

What I heard...

I pray, looking into the sky
I can feel this rain
right now it's falling on me
fly, I just want to fly
life is on Mars


What the lyrics really are...

I pray, looking into the sky
I can feel this rain
right now it's falling on me
fly, I just want to fly
life is all mine


An old one:

Beck -- Loser

What I thought it was: So open the door

The real lyric: Soy un perdedor

Wasn't even close on that one .


Man in the Long Black Coat as done by Emerson, Lake and Palmer

What I heard: Crickets are chirpin', the water is high
There's a soft rotten (ew... -- enunciate better sir -- but at least I can understand most of the song, unlike Dylan's version sadly...) dress on the line hangin' dry

The real lyrics: Crickets are chirpin', the water is high
There's a soft cotton dress on the line hangin' dry


Was just listening to some Disturbed (Just Stop) and I heard this:

All I wanted was a meal with salsa on it and compassion.

instead of...

All I ever wanted was to be a real source of compassion
From the moment that we found ourselves drowning in
All I ever wanted was to be a real source of compassion
From the moment that we found ourselves drowning in

Thank you David Draiman and your strange way of singing sometimes. It makes some lyrics just indecipherable .


From 'Like a Stone' by Audioslave:

The real line: On my deathbed I will pray
To the gods and the angels
Like a pagan to anyone

What I thought it was: On my deathbed I will pray
To the gods and the angels
Like a paint gun to anyone

 

[MANT!]

When I first heard Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody..
One line escaped me..
But I'm just a poor boy and nobody loves me
He's just a poor boy from a poor family
Spare him his life from this monstrosity
Easy come easy go will you let me go
Bismillah! No we will not let you go - let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go - let him go
Bismillah! We will not let you go let me go
Will not let you go let me go (never)
Never let you go let me go
Never let me go ooo
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go
Beelzebub has a devil's sideboard for me... (Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me)
For me
For me

 

[Sgt_G]

Aerosmith "Dream On", I always thought the line "Sing With Me" sounded more like "Sin Women", which puts a totally different meaning on the song.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Aerosmith "Dream On", I always thought the line "Sing With Me" sounded more like "Sin Women", which puts a totally different meaning on the song.

I thought it was "sing, women."

 

[Sgt_G]

The real lyrics are:

Sing with me, sing for the years
Sing for the laughter, sing for the tears
Sing with me, just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away​

But I always heard:

Sin women, sin for the years
Sin for the laughter, sin for the tears
Sin women, just for today
Maybe tomorrow, the good Lord will take you away​