Non-funny mishearings that you prefer to the 'real' version

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On Tuesday I listened to REM's '(Don't Go Back To) Rockville' and I went to bed unable to get the line "It's not as if I really need you / If you were here I'd only leave you" going round and round my head. It was just so wonderfully out of the blue after he'd been pleading for this person not to go back to Rockville. I was thinking of adding it to my old cruellest lines thread. And I was thinking about how, like "a simple prop to occupy my time," cruel isn't quite the word for it. Maybe it just expresses a kind of coldness or dissociation from the world that some people are cursed with.

But then yesterday I discovered the line actually ends "I'd only bleed you" and I wasn't sure what that meant (short for "bleed you dry, emotionally"?) but I was sure that I didn't like it half as much.

Have you ever realised you've been hearing a lyric wrong and preferred it the way you thought it was?

I'm not talking about 'my ears are alight' type comedic mishearings. That's a thread of its own. In fact I think there's a whole website devoted to it called 'scuse me while I kiss this guy' or something. I mean things that actually moved you in a way the correct version doesn't.

Any takers?

― Nick, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I was always confused when I heard that Hall&Oates song. They were singing about a woman being a man eater. But I thought they were singing she wasn't a "man either". huh? What can I say, my English was worse then (near zero).

― Stevie Nixed, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I thought they were singing about a cannibal.

― DG, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Maybe the song should have ended up on the Cannibal Holocaust soundtrack then.;-)

― Stevie Nixed, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Used to think that at the end of 'Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?', Lloyd Cole said 'Amen'. It's really 'baby'. I don't like the word 'amen', but it's perhaps a little more interesting than the uninteresting 'baby'.

― the pinefox, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

i thought they were talking about a prostitute.

nick, i'm almost afraid to put forth an answer. there are so many requirements and i'm afraid you'll grade me harshly. it's like you're forcing us to think.

but hey, how's this. on "rock n' roll," i always thought lou reed was saying, "my pants are gonna be the death of us all." like ginny is a young girl, on the verge of sexual maturity and that once she gets started, look out! it just sounded seedier. but it's actually, as everyone in the rest of the sane universe alredy knows, "my PARENTS are gonna be the death of us all."

― fred solinger, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

The Pixies 'Debaser' : 'don't know about you but I am un chien andalusia'.

Not realising Black Francis was switching to Spanish, and being in a somewhat unsteady relationship at the time, I was convinced he sang'...but I am going shit, I could lose you'. Fear of loss in all that giddy euphoria, yeah I could relate to that...wrong! So someone tell me what 'un chien andalusia' means please?

― Stevo, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

That is the worst answer I ever heard, Solinger. F----. Get off our land. Etc.

I always sing the song Yes wrong, which is peculiar because I know what's being said and it kind of is my favorite song ever or one of like 5 favorite songs ever, but I can't stop saying it wrong. I always go during the chorus "It's part of the business, desire - the weak have none" instead of "Power produces desire, the weak have none". I have no idea why I sing it that way, because it's clearly wrong and I don't think I prefer it, but I guess subconciously I do.

― Ally, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

stevo: un chien andalou is a film by luis bunuel, a surrealist classic, it's the very movie frank is talking about when he sings, "got me a movie...slicing up eyeballs." in the film, amongst other grotesque and esoteric images, the eye of a pig (?) is sliced with a razor.

― fred solinger, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Oop: shout goes out to the local pedantry. Sheep, I *think*, Fred.

― mark s, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

mark, i thought i smelled the foul scent of the pedant patrol hot on my heels! quick research on the net sez that it's actually a calf's eye although legend has transformed it into a pig.

in my mind, it was reversed. mind, going back to stevo's question, it was supposed to represent a woman's eye and like REALLY freak you out, but there's something more surreal and disturbing about slicing up a cow eye.

― fred solinger, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Cheers Fred.

― Stevo, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Hmm...always thought that in "Mountain Song" by Jane's Addiction, the chorus was, "Cause you know, honey, cause you mess me up," instead of "Cash in now, honey, cash in Ms. Smith." Frankly, I prefer my version.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Prior to "Tigermilk"'s official release with lyrics and all, in Belle and Sebastian's "I Don't Love Anyone" I aways thought the line, "If there's one thing that I learned when I was still a child, it's too take a hiding" was "take uphiding" which I thought better complimented "If there's one thing…it's to be alone." Still do, actually.
― scott p., Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Blinded by the light/Wrapped up like a duoche/Another runner in the night

Oh, you said non-funny, didn't you? I used to think that the last verse of "Just Like Heaven" went "...Found myself alone alone alone above the raging sea/That stole the only girl I loved/And drowned her deep in sorrow." That seemed to be a really poignant thing to say. When I later discovered it was "..And drowned her deep inside of me", I was annoyed because it seemed like a copout for a rhyme.

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I just finished listening to 'Rock'n'Roll'. That's my idea of a coincidence.

Another one. 'Panic': 'the Leeds side streets'. I thought it was 'the neat sky-sheets'. That's my idea of an Image.

― the pinefox, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Beck used to regularly have people ask him what the real lyrics to the chorus in 'Loser' (soy un econodor - 'I'm a loser')were, then tell him what they had thought it said, and he said their versions were more interesting: I can remember 'soy on a corndog' and 'flying on the wings of a pentacle.'

I had the opposite experience to the one you're actually asking us to talk about: I thought a song I liked was saying how great it was to be a junky, and I could never really accept that, then I found out that it was actually wittily saying the opposite, and felt very happy. ('Looking for a Kiss' by the New York Dolls. If you've heard that song please don't look upon me too harshly.)

― Maryann, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Boy, Dan, I used to think the last line of "Just like Heaven" said"...and drowned her deep in sodomy", which vexed me.

― 1 1 2 3 5, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I never realized that in the "Some evil mothers..." line "mothers" was meant to be "motherfuckers".

Honestly, I never scrutinized the lyrics to that one. Just that one though.

― Keiko, Thursday, 31 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I like 'take up hiding', too. Sort of like riding buses for a hobby.

In 'The Clarke Sisters' by the Go-Betweens, there's a line that goes "the bees have stung the softball girls", which is fine, very evocative. For some reason, I always thought it ended "the softball groans", which just sounds silly. But to me, it meant that time in the song had slowed so that you could trace the arc of the softball through the air. The stillness of a summer afternoon, when the girls wore white dresses on green lawns, and the buzzing of the bees was the only audible sound.

― youn, Friday, 1 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

When I would hear Medium Medium's "Hungry, So Angry" at NY clubs in the early 80s, I used to think the singer was chanting "we're so punk we're so gay we're so punk we're so gay" instead of the title. I thought it was a right on anthem for disaffected showtune-hating East Village homos like my friends and I. Of course, now I love showtunes.

― Arthur, Friday, 1 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

At the end of radiohead's "fake plastic trees" and i can't help but feeling / i could blow through the ceiling / if i just turn and run I always heard as if i just touch the ground Which I still prefer....

― bnw, Friday, 1 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

You can love showtunes so long as you still love things that are *not* showtunes as well. Otherwise you are cursed to listen to Bette Midler FOREVER. Or should that be Mandy Patinkin? Or Michael Feinstein or...

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 1 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Hahaha. I love this topic! Anyone heard the song "Voices" by Disturbed? the singer comes out with "Insane... you're gonna die when you listen to me. Let the living die, let the living die!" However, when I first heard it I thought he said: "N'Sync - you're gonna die, will you listen to me!? D-d-d-d-die! D-d-d-d-die!" And I prefer this rendition.

I have an album by Death Metallers At The Gates. One song contains the lines: "My Judas window stays shut, shut for ever more..." I thought, due to the screamed nature of the vocals, he had uttered: "My Judas window stays shut. Shut for Roger Moore."

― Kodanshi, Friday, 1 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Isn't Loser Soy un perdedor ( a spanglish word for lsoer)? Oh well, They split up on the docks that night - DYlan, Tangled Up in Blues, reality - They split up on that dark sad night. Preferred: I can hear you through the wine. Reality: I can hear you through the whine, J Webb, Witchita Lineman,,,sounds the smae so I keep it with mine.

― Geoff, Friday, 1 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Geoff -- I never knew I had that Dylan rhyme wrong. I always thought "...docks that night" and I definitely prefer it.

― Mark, Friday, 1 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Yeah Ned, I've been thinking of broadening my tastes a bit. Maybe a little light opera? Hey, did you hear Jane Olivor's back? I think she's playing next weekend in Thousand Oaks! Har har, anyway, here's another mishearing from a bygone era: I used to think that in "Rockaway Beach" Joey Ramone was singing "Bus ride is too slow/the Clash and the Pistols on the radio" instead of "they blast out the disco on the radio." I thought it had to more to do with '77 London/NY rivalry than any "Disco Sucks" attitude.

― Arthur, Friday, 1 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

"...And drowned her deep in sodomy" would have been a totally vicious metaphor! If I ever start writing songs again, can I use that?

― Dan Perry, Friday, 1 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I used to think that same Ramones line was "punk rock is too slow" and that they preferred the disco on the radio (more lively than the Eagles for sure !).

― Patrick, Friday, 1 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

If you're including annoying, overplayed radio pap, I mistakenly believed Eiffel 65's 'Blue' had the chorus: "I'm blue and I would bleed, I would die", and as such respect the song for its in-depth treatment of the sacrifices of love. Then I found the true lyrics and felt like a twat.

On a similar note, everytime I have to listen 'Rendez-vous', I always translate the vocodery lyrics into: "I've got you in my heart, I've got you in my head, your negligence surrounds me". Which would be a good line if it made any sense.

― Bitterguy, Saturday, 2 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Bitterguy: "If you're including annoying, overplayed radio pap, I mistakenly believed Eiffel 65's 'Blue' had the chorus: "I'm blue and I would bleed, I would die", and as such respect the song for its in- depth treatment of the sacrifices of love. Then I found the true lyrics and felt like a twat."

Haha! When I first heard it I thought they sang: "I'm blue, in Aberdeen I will die..." and, as such, thought it referred to me personally - I came into the world in Glasgow; would I leave it in Aberdeen?

― Kodanshi, Saturday, 2 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

i thought that johnny hates jazz's "shattered dreams" went "i feel like i could run away/from this sense of awe" instead of "from this empty heart."

― sundar subramanian, Saturday, 2 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

If I like a song and there are some parts of the lyrics that I can't hear what they actually are but that I like how it sounds I avoid reading the lyrics because if I know what they sing it might take away some of what's good about the song.

― hmmm, Saturday, 2 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

At the end of Jeff Buckley's "Lover, you should've come over", a song about an affair falling apart, he sort of mumbles something. I always thought he said "and I grieve for you," which moved me, but upon looking at the lyrics a few days ago I found he says "and I waited for you". I suppose it works too, but i prefer the grieving line.

― Ms Snit, Sunday, 3 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

hey hmmmm: good point! I often end up disliking a song when I find out what the lyrics _really_ are. I try to avoid reading lyric sheets as well. In answer to Nick's original question: there are tons of songs where this has happened to me. and now it just happened again: I thought it was "I'd only leave you" also! Thanks alot! (smiley face here [i never figured out how to make them]) Also: in general this happens to me often when I find out that a song is about a disturbing social evil instead of something more whimsical: I thought the sundays "I kicked a boy" was a melancholy rememberance of a "boyfriend" who was kicked when the narrator was a little girl, and now she regrets what she did it because the relationship was ruined. now I know that the song is about child abuse. ughhh... too depressing to enjoy anymore.

― Blake, Sunday, 3 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

I remember that when Blue came out and quickly became one of those overplayed at the office staples, many of my co-workers were (oh so scandalously) *convinced* that he was singing about being "in need of a guy". Their disappointment was bitter, to say the least.

― Kim, Sunday, 3 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

Well, my favourite mishearing is not so much the lyrics, but the context. When I first heard "Rhythm and Blues Alibi" by Gomez on the radio, I thought it was a jolly good slag off of certain "rock star" type personalities and those obsessed with ancient images of rock 'n' rock to the exclusion of everything else including the music. I was therefore most disappointed when I heard on a radio interview with the Gomez crew, that it was a actually just another sixth-form rant about how artists R Kelly, Missy Elliot, et al Are Not Real R&B etc., ... So I just prefer to mishear it like I originally did- which is quite interesting given that my original interpretation could be interepreted as a bit of a criticism of Gomez's attitude!!!!

Old Fart!!!!

― Old Fart!!!!, Monday, 4 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-five years ago)

one year passes...

"What's love but a second hand in motion?"

― Paul Eater, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

And the joke is
when he awoke his
body was covered in goat piss

Makes the all they see is the yellow line more, um powerful.

― mr noodles, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It also makes it a song about Ronan.

― Dan Perry, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

There was mid 90's country radio hit that I thought was "My Heart Has A Disco Beat." How ballsy is that? Turned out to be "Hi-sto-ree" What a letdown.

― GCannon, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

The old classic "Loser" is nothing but a long laundry list instances where the actual lyric isn't as cool as what I thought I heard. What I thought was "Starved with skulls with the beefcake pantyhose" was apparently "Dogfood skulls..."; "Sunlight on Armageddon" is actually something like "Soy un (sic) Perdidor {sic)"
and so forth...
I just hope that "get crazy with the cheez whiz" is the real line thats been a slogan of mine for years. I'd hate to find out the real line is something like "bet lazy with the breeze fritz"

― Lord Custos III, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, by the way...in case anyone is interested "un chien andalou" means "The Alsatian Dog"; Don't ask me why. Ask the surrealists.

― Lord Custos III, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I believe it means "An Andalusian Dog."

― Sean, Friday, 16 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

Pavement: "How do I make my body shed around your metal scars" I always thought was "How do I make my body shed around your mental scars," which I found a lot more poetic and sensical for that matter.

― Ben, Monday, 1 December 2003 22:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze"--I always thought the line "Actin' funny, and I don't know why" was "I've got money, and I don't know why." I think my version better emphasizes the "lost" feeling of the spaced-out-ness.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 1 December 2003 23:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Im so fucking pissed to find this topic was already thought of two years ago. Anyway the best Weezer line ever is 'she's got a tattoo and two best friends,' which is not actually a Weezer line.

― Brian Mowrey (Brian Mowrey), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 00:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Dave Davies - Susannah's still alive (1966)

first line
Oh, Susannah's bedraggled
But she

Me (at five)
Oss so sos so so so chuck a budgie.

(I still prefer mine)

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 2 December 2003 10:42 (twenty-two years ago)

ten months pass...

I used to think it was "take a hike". As in, people were always telling him to get lost. "Hiding" doesn't scan. "Hike" is better.

― Alba (Alba), Saturday, 16 October 2004 11:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Funny how people still mishear Beck's "Loser" a decade later. I originally thought it was "Sooooooo / we're identical / I'm a loser, baby", which I still like better.

More recently: Phoenix, "If I Ever Feel Better". I keep hearing "Hang on to the good things / I can lean on my friends" as "Hang on to the good TAKES", as if they were admonishing their producer not to erase their best performances. It makes me chuckle.

A friend once misheard Mousse T's "Horny" as "I'm mourning / I'm mourning, mourning, mourning" and thought that was an interesting lyric for a dance tune. He was really disappointed when he found out what they were really singing: "I'm horny / I'm horny, horny, horny."

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Saturday, 16 October 2004 13:38 (twenty-one years ago)

There's a song on Steady Diet of Nothing (I forget the title) where Ian sings "Your only answer, your only prayer" in this barking voice. I always thought he was saying "Your only antidote will be prayer" and thought it sounded much cooler.

― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 16 October 2004 14:14 (twenty-one years ago)

from "pinball wizard"--- i just hope my pinball's not too big

i like that one so much, i haven't bothered figuring out the actual words

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Saturday, 16 October 2004 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe not non-funny though

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Sunday, 17 October 2004 00:38 (twenty-one years ago)

On Velvet Underground's "Venus In Furs", I always thought Reed said "Taste the whip, now bleed for me". I used to love the rawness and how he kinda grunts right after. When I figured out that it was 'plead' for me, I didn't like the sentiment nearly as much.

― Rollie Pemberton (Rollie Pemberton), Sunday, 17 October 2004 01:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm pretty sure it's bleed!

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 17 October 2004 01:31 (twenty-one years ago)

i got into a drunken argument that led to googling and in most cases, lyrics had it as 'plead'.

― Rollie Pemberton (Rollie Pemberton), Sunday, 17 October 2004 03:40 (twenty-one years ago)

tell me it's bleed so i can hit my friend with a chair in victory.

― Rollie Pemberton (Rollie Pemberton), Sunday, 17 October 2004 03:42 (twenty-one years ago)

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