Thursday, March 20, 2008

Misheard Lyrics

Everyone does it. We hear a song, and we swear we heard a particular phrase that gets locked away in our heads. Years later, your favorite line from an old song turns out to be something your own crazy mind made up. Here are my top ten. Let me know some of yours.

Tell me if any of these sound familiar, or if I’m completely off my rocker. Some of these I had wrong for years. Others, I was pretty sure I had wrong, but thought they were funny.

#10 “Purple Haze” by Jimmy Hendrix

Misheard: “Excuse me while I kiss this guy.”

Actual: “Excuse me while I kiss the sky.

I just learned there’s actually a website named after this. That figures. There are so many people that mishear this one, I thought it really needed to be in my top ten. I am another person.

#9 “Two Princes” by Spin Doctors

Misheard: “I know why the prince would have the heart to be Cid.”

Real: “I know what a prince and lover ought to be.”

Yeah, not all of these funny, but for years I couldn’t figure out what this line was.

#8 “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads

Misheard: “We are fain and we are blind. I hate people when they’re not blind.”

Actual: “We are vain and we are blind. I hate people when they’re not polite.”

It was only when I decided to sing this one at karaoke about a month ago that I realized I had the lyrics wrong. The song doesn’t make sense anyway, but I was disappointed that these weren’t the actual words; I thought they were brilliant.

#7 Gay Bar” by Electric Six

Misheard: “Jew! I wanna take you to a gay bar!”

Real: “You! I wanna take you to a gay bar!”

#6 “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey

Misheard: “Streetlights, people, loving just to find some moonshine, hiding some wine in the night.”

Actual: “Street lights, people, living just to find emotion. Hiding somewhere in the night.”

Frankly, there are a lot of people out there who whore themselves to get by just so they can get wasted as cheaply as possible, so again, I like the misheard one better.

#5 “Blinded by the Light” by Bruce Springsteen

Misheard: “Wrapped up like a douche, another runner in the night”

Real: “Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.”

What the hell does that even mean?

#4 “Jump” by Van Halen

Misheard: “Jump, Maxwell jump”

Real: “Jump! Might as well jump.”

My ex-girlfriend, N/A made relentless fun of me for this one. For years, I seriously thought Van Halen was telling his buddy Maxwell to jump. This is part of why I tend to keep this stuff to myself. I was 26 when this one was brought to my attention. Come on!

#3 “More Than a Feeling” by Boston

Misheard: “More than a feeling, when I eat that old sundae its cold.”

Correct: “More than a feeling, when I hear that old song they used to play.”

#2 “The Summer of ‘69” by Brian Adams

Misheard: “I got my first real sex dream.”

Actually: “I got my first real six-string.”

This is another one that apparently gets confused a lot. Frankly, it makes more sense. I knew what a sex dream was long before I knew anything about guitars.

#1 “Bohemian Rapsody” by Queen

Misheard: “Spare him his life from his mom’s sausage tea.”

Correct: “Spare him his life from this monstrosity.”

Gimme a break, I was a kid.

And finally, this isn’t necessarily a misheard lyric, but rather a misinterpretation. I could almost swear “Green Eyes” by Coldplay is about a toilet.

Honey you are the sea upon which I float

I came here with a load
And it feels so much lighter, now I’ve met you
And honey you should know, that I could never go on without you

Think about it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you've started a whole new area of psychoanalysis. Misheard song lyrics.
"I always thought it was 'Go and slay them, they are whore people', instead it was actually 'I can't get no satisfaction'"

I think the song attributed to Bruce Springsteen is actually by Steve Miller. Maybe Brucie does a cover of it. Not sure.

Anonymous said...

Here are a couple that never actually misheard, but stuck in my own lyrics anyway:

"Mysterious Ways" by U2
Real: "She moves in mysterious ways."
Mine: "Shamu the mysterious whale."

"Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple
Real: "Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky."
Mine: "Slow motion Walter, the fire engine guy."

Oberon said...

.......shave my wife, i'm going down for the last time......lol.

Annelie said...

I doubt that Coldplay would make a song about a toilet. They think of themselves more seriously than that. Weird Al Yankovic perhaps, but not Coldplay. :P

I have one song I misheard when I was little, like eight or something. I didn't find out the real lyrics of that part of the song until I was 15-16 years old.

With or without you - U2.

Misheard: We go without you, we go without you

Real: With or without you, with or without you.