Today, I ask you folks to name a song where you misheard the lyrics and the song’s meaning was changed due to those misheard lyrics.
Pop Culture Theme Time is a feature where I put a question to you to see what you think about a particular theme. I might later revisit the theme for a future Drawing Crazy Patterns or Top Five.
As you all know, we ALL mishear song lyrics all of the time. However, most of the time, they tend not to really change the meaning of the song that much. For instance, I love San Fermin’s “Sonsick,” but it really doesn’t matter if they’re saying “summer kind of sickness” or “summer-calling sickness” here (I honestly don’t know what the “official” lyric is as different sites have given different lyrics (one friend once suggested “certain kind of sickness”), as none of those phrases really stands out as changing the meaning of the song
However, sometimes misheard lyrics DO change the meaning of a song, so I’d like to hear some examples that you can think of.
My pick is “Champagne Supernova” by Oasis, specifically this section:
But you and I, we live and die
The world’s still spinning ’round, we don’t know why
Why? Why? Why? Why?
Like many of you, I am sure, I thought he was singing, “But you and I, we’ll never die.”
Changes the whole tone of the song a lot, right?
Okay, no share me your picks!
Feel free to suggest other topics for future Pop Culture Theme Times to me at brian@popculturereferences.com.
I always wondered why there were horses in the Hotel California. Years later I realized there were voices, not horses, down the corridor…
For a long time I thought Billy Joel’s “Tell Her About It” was “Tell Her About Us”… that is, he was asking his male lover to come clean with his girlfriend about his bisexuality, and I thought it was remarkably progressive. Now granted, I rarely paid that close attention to the other lyrics, so there were certainly lines that just didn’t work with this interpretation (unless he was expecting the lover to just carry on a poly relationship with both of them)… like “She’s a real nice girl / And she’s always there for you / But a nice girl wouldn’t tell you what you should do” (if she really loves you she should just accept this part of you!)
When I was little I thought the repeated chanting of “remember” in “Fame” was “Break my butt!” In my defense, the downbeat is on the third syllable, and “rememBER” is pretty awkward.
I never thought he was singing “We’ll never die.” It’s always been “We live and die” for me!!!!!
The Romantics:
“I hear the secrets that you keep/ when you’re talking to your sheep.” (Talking in Your Sleep)
INXS:
“You want to take her/ to a soup and salad bar.” (Suicide Blonde)
Mine comes from Daryl Braithwaite’s The Horses. (A coverof Ricki Lee Jones’ song which appeared in Jerry Maguire) The lyric is “If you fall I’ll pick you up” I heard “If you fall, I’ll kick your ass” which completely changes things
This morning on the radio, Mr. Mister told me to “Carry a laser down the road that I must travel…” (Kýrie eléison)
Lord have mercy…
White Wing Dove by Fleetwood Mac still sounds like One Wing Dove to me.
My buddy Herb though We Are Family was Three Car Family – “that’s nice, they can afford 3 cars”
AC/DC – Dirty Deeds & The Thunder Chief
Yardbirds – Putty In Your Hands sounds like Party In Your Pants.
My wife thought the Buzzcocks sang “Hallway In Your Head” not harmony.
There’s tons!