a fresh layer of "k's" fer ya ...

A friend's mother thought Huey Lewis' "I Want a New Drug" was "I Wanna Do Drugs." She thought that was a terrible message for a song.

This isn't lyrics, but I don't know a better place for it: When I was a kid watching Batman (Adam West), there was an episode (I think with Catwoman) in which Batman stopped Robin on the edge of a large hole, saying, "Watch it, Robin. It's a bottomless pit!" I had never heard that term before, so I thought he said, "Watch it, Robin. It's a bottom of spit!" I was picturing a large hole with saliva at the bottom of it, and figured he didn't want Robin to fall into it because it would be messy.

Also, I have no idea why, but for a while when I was a kid, I thought the name of the painting "American Gothic" was:

"Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass."

Trying to decipher the lyrics to "Come On Eileen" the other day, I was a little amused at the actual lyrics to part of the first verse:

You're grown, (You're grown up)
so grown, (so grown up)
now I must say more than ever

which I had originally thought went:

You threw (your mother)
silk rolls (your mother)
now I must say more than ever

I'm surprised you manage even to work that out, Sven. I've heard that song quite a few times and still can't understand a single word.

Seems silly now, but I always heard the main chorus line of Madonna's 'Into The Groove' as 'Get into your groups...'
I can't picture Madge as a schoolteacher myself....

Likewise, in Avril Lavigne's 'Sk8er Boi' I always heard 'He was a skater boy...' as 'he was a SKINNY boy...'

One of my favourite interpretations of misheard lyrics...

lol, Sven. I've got a friend who's a major Beatles fan. I'm going to have to send this link to him. One nit though, the Paul McCartney used is Macca from his days with Wings, if I'm not mistaken. Surely the creator(s) of that page could've found a comparable Beatles Paul to use.

np - You Gotta Try New Music Vol. 2 - various artists (It's a Blockbuster Music sampler disc.)

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

Actually, there's another nit for that clip - why Paul McCartney at all? The song's lead vocalist is John Lennon.

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

Thanks, Benn. That website has other animations with misheard lyrics - a few are X-rated and feature Simply Red's Mick Hucknall. But the Madonna and George Michael ones are hilarious.

I think they chose Paul from his Wings days because he looked happy and funny in that photo.

Is it just me, or does Boy George Michael Jackson look like Ringo Starr in that "Fat Slug" clip?

My Beatles buddy liked the "Chicken to Ride" clip, btw.

np - Heartbeat City - the Cars

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

What Styx sang: This will be the end today of the wanted man

What I heard: This will be the yesterday of the wanted man

I like mine better.

Even without an opera section, it's one of the most blatant ripoffs in rock music (Bohemian Rhapsody). Both are sung by apprehanded criminals to their mamas.

I still like it though.

"Fire Brigade" The Move

How it really goes: "See the building start to really burn"

What I thought: "See the children start to really burn"

What really bothers me is that I like my sick verson better. What does that say about me?

"There's a light over at the Frankenstein place. There's a light...."

Audience: "Where do you keep the children?"

"...burning in the fireplace."

Ah, yeeeeeeees, I love children... preferably boiled in oil.

Was listening to Big, Bad Leroy Brown today and when the guy sang "he's got an El Dorado, too" I remembered that when I was a kid I thought he sang 'he's got an L door 802' or something similar.

Was listening to Big, Bad Leroy Brown today

Sorry. I think you meant to post this on the misheard TITLES board...

Re: The Rolling Stones "Sympathy For The Devil"

The karoke machine at my local bar has an incorrect lyric for this song. After the line "I killed the czar and his ministers" it gives the lyric as "And a nation screamed in vain". The correct lyric is "ANASTASIA screamed in vain".

OK... I need someone who knows German...

What the heck does the opening line to Def Leppard's "Rock of Ages" mean?

Gunter glieben glauchen globen

Not to displace ScottN's question ...
But I heard the song "Angel of the Morning" by Merrilee Rush on the local oldies station today, and the DJ swears he hears her sing
"Just brush my teeth before you leave me"
instead of
"Just touch my cheek before you leave me" ...
Jes goes to show you that some DJ's are not playing with a full bag 'o jacks.

In response to the Def Leppard question:

Back in '99 when Euphoria came out, Joe Eliott and Phil Collen did a phone interview with 97.1 The Eagle (Dallas) and they answered some questions that people called in and asked. And one of them was what you just said. The answer was: it wasn't supposed to mean anything really, but they did hear that someone had claimed it meant "walking throught the forest silently." They said "he must've had too much time on his hands."

ScottN,

the way you wrote it, it doesn't mean anything in German. Gunter is a first name (old-fashioned). The other words don't exist in german, and at the moment, they don't remind me of any real words.

"walking through the forest silently" could be "still/ leise durch den Wald wandern/ spazieren" in german.

ScottN,


It means "Cuthulu awakes with pretty flowers." They wanted to say "Cuthulu awakes among his followers" but messed it up.

Scott, I got this from the Def Leppard FAQ site:

5.1 - WHAT DOES "GUNTER GLIEBEN GLAUTEN GLOBEN" MEAN?
Nothing in particular (although the band sometimes jokingly claims it means "running through the forest silently"). It's gibberish said by producer Mutt Lange during the recordings of "ROCK OF AGES", instead of the regular one, two, three, four.

( http://www.defleppard.com/faq/other.html#1}

np - The Chronic - Dr. Dre

"It's all one song." - Neil Young

In my younger days I used to think that Dorothy sang the following: "Somewhere over the rainbow. Weigh a pie!" in the Wizard of Oz.

I am still sure that Oasis sing "So Sally Give Way!" in don't look back in anger, obviously a song loosely dipicting a guy trying to teach his girlfriend to drive!

a few more misheard lyrics

Sister Sledge "We are family". I used to think they sang "We're giving love in the Pentagon!" Is that allowed??? Without the Cigar???

Rocksteady Crew. "B boys break it's electric, bugger you!!" It's boogaloo really!

Only Fools and horses theme tune: "Good bless Cookie Street!" and "See Mandys feet' Cookie Street!!"

I just found out that in the song "flying" from the Penguins, the refrain doesn't say

oooh, ooh, I'm flying,
ooh, ooh, ooh, when love turns base..

as I'd always heard. (It says: oooh, ooh, in open space).

Here's one I'd forgotten about since I learned the correct version many years ago. In fact, it's the title of the song, so I probably learned it as soon as the DJ announced it.

Anyway, there's a certain soul duo who had a certain hit that was covered by a certain SNL breakout project, the title of which is NOT 'I'm-a soooooo mad.'

Learning the correct title explained away the Chico Marx-sounding extra syllable to boot.

Let's see... When I was younger I thought that Steve Winwood's song Higher Love said "Great day in Ireland" rather than "Bring me a Higher Love".
Wilson Philip's song Next to you has a line that sounds like "Keep the canned banana", though it is actually "Keep the candle burning".
More recently, I kept thinking the song "Lonely no more" said:

Now it’s hard for me
When my heart’s still on the mend
Open up to me
So I can do your girlfriends.

intead of

Now it’s hard for me
When my heart’s still on the mend
Open up to me
Like you do your girlfriends.

I'm not sure of this one, so some help would be nice:

Iron Butterfly's "In The Garden of Eden" is also titled "In A Gadda Da Vida".

I read somewhere that the reason behind the garbled lyrics is because the singer was drunk.

Is this true?

It's not the lyrics that are garbled, John. It's the song's title. For more, check here.

np - "Saxophone" - Michael Brecker, who died earlier this year. (I'm playing back the first of two "Dedication" CDs I've made for New Year's Eve. The discs include songs by those who've died this past year. Going from Del Reeves to Oscar Peterson.)

Well, in a way I was right.

Quote From the Wiki link:

"A commonly repeated story says that the song's title was originally "In the Garden of Eden" or "In the Garden of Venus" but in the course of rehearsing and recording, singer Doug Ingle was intoxicated and accidentally slurred the words, creating the nonsense phrase that stuck as the title"

But as the article notes, the story is contradicted by liner notes in a couple of CDs. I should mention that that's the story I've always heard, John. So I was surprised to find that it may not be true after all.

np - "Yakety Sax" - Boots Randolph, who also died earlier this year.

What a puzzler!

Makes you wonder who to believe.

people who you would like to meet (from misheard song lyrics)?

I would like to meet Neil Diamond's friend Reverend Blue Jeans (actually "Forever in Blue Jeans")

Would also like to meet Leslie from the Rascals song "Groovin" (actually you and me endlessly)

I wanna meet Edna from the Searchers "Needles and Pins"

The Supremes refer to the Lord Christ fading in the air in "Love is Here Now You're gone" (actually the lonely cry fades the air)

Finally I wanna meet Connie Francis' Jewish friend from "Lipstick on Your Collar-said you were a Jew" (actually lipstick on your collar said you were untrue)

Any people you thought were mentioned in a song where lyrics were misheard that you want to meet?

The most famous is Lady Mondegreen (laid him on the green) which led to the term Mondegreen referring to misheard lyrics.

This one is a bit embarrassing but when I first heard the song Walking on Glass, I honestly thought it was saying Pokemon repeatedly. I don't remember making out the other lyrics, so more or less made up what I thought they were saying. Only when I saw the name of the song on a car radio that showed the name, did I realize my mistake. Now that I know what they're really saying, I tend to hear it right.

Do you ever get one of those days when you wish Jolene would actually just take your man

There is a song by the Canadian band, Rush, that has the lyrics "you call me, you call me."

I thought they were saying "you Commie, you Commie"!


For a long time, when I heard the song Bringing In The Sheaves, I thought it was Bringing In The Cheese