Greatest Mispronounciation In A Song

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I love the way Lemmy rasps - "Loowee-a-Looeye" in Motorheads version of 'Louie Louie.' Absolutely hilarious/classic!

― Davlo (Davlo), Friday, 7 March 2003 02:36 (twenty-three years ago)

in "Sugar Shack," they say "eXpresso coffee tastes mighty good..." - it bugs me

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Friday, 7 March 2003 02:37 (twenty-three years ago)

"Some people call me the space cowboy / Some call me the gangster of love / Some people call me Maurice / Cause I speak of the pompatus of love"

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 7 March 2003 02:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Sting famously mispronounced Nabokov's name in the Police's "Don't Stand So Close to Me."

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 7 March 2003 03:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Pop Will Eat Itself mispronounced Italian Parliamentary Porn Princess Ciccolina's name wrong in "Touched by the Hand of..." I believe.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 7 March 2003 03:58 (twenty-three years ago)

how *is* Nabokov pronounced? not "nab-uh-kov"?

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Friday, 7 March 2003 04:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think it's pronounced "Na-BOO-kuv"

― Davlo (Davlo), Friday, 7 March 2003 04:07 (twenty-three years ago)

pro-KO-fee-ev... no, I hear it pronounced nuh-BO-kahv most often but I pronounce it your way.

― Aaron A., Friday, 7 March 2003 04:07 (twenty-three years ago)

(roger's way i mean)

― Aaron A., Friday, 7 March 2003 04:08 (twenty-three years ago)

"like I was hooked on hero-wahhhhn" - Gift of Gab, Blackalicious' "Passion"

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Friday, 7 March 2003 04:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Shonen Knife's "Making Plans for Bison": "He's on the way to ex-tinc-a-shuuuun..." When Big Dipper covered it, they sang it the same way--there's no other way to make it fit the tune.

― Douglas (Douglas), Friday, 7 March 2003 04:35 (twenty-three years ago)

on one of those german beat group comps there is a hilarious version of "Purple Haze" where the singer goes,"Excuse me while I kiss that guy"! It's great! And the one note guitar solo is staggering! Brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it.

― Scott Seward, Friday, 7 March 2003 05:17 (twenty-three years ago)

what about Shonen Knife in the same song pronouncing ugly as ... ugg=uh-reeeeee?

― My life with the BurmaKitty (My life with the BurmaKitty), Friday, 7 March 2003 05:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Anar-kyst

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Friday, 7 March 2003 05:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Los Angeles.

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 7 March 2003 05:48 (twenty-three years ago)

oh, and plagiarise, as in "Don't plagiarise or take on loan"

― CharlieNo4 (Charlie), Friday, 7 March 2003 05:49 (twenty-three years ago)

John Cale - pity the green man who couldn't afford to or-ghee... also, Midnight Oil saying "re-NAY-sance" and "REN-a-sance" in the same song.

― Poppy (poppy), Friday, 7 March 2003 06:10 (twenty-three years ago)

obv. I meant both pronunciations in their *own* same song, not Cale's.

― Poppy (poppy), Friday, 7 March 2003 06:11 (twenty-three years ago)

"Carribean Queen" - I know you can say it both 'car-uh-BEE-in" and 'kuh-rIB-ee-un' but brother Ocean sings "ca-ra-byoo-in'

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Friday, 7 March 2003 06:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Gift of Gab: zealot = "ZEE-lot"
(Blackalicious/"Alphabet Aerobics")

― A.H. (A.H.), Friday, 7 March 2003 06:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes in their cover of Paul Simon's "America" - Michigan (hard "ch" as in "church") seems like a dream to me now.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 7 March 2003 07:38 (twenty-three years ago)

"People say we're an unlikely couple/Like Doris Day and Mott the Hupple" -Daniel Johnston

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 7 March 2003 08:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Not GREAT, but... the first time I heard Liam Gallagher mangle "Im-ag-in-a-shee-un" I realised that he didn't actually have one!

― kate, Friday, 7 March 2003 09:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Method Man, from Sub-Crazy: "sali-i-iva/ check the wicked flows I de-lye-vah/ oops I mean deliver like the hudson river"

― M Carty (mj_c), Friday, 7 March 2003 11:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Blinded by the light! Wrapped up like a douche...

Okay, that's more of a mondegreen than a mispronunciation.

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 7 March 2003 11:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Two songs destroyed by mispronunciation for me - MSP "The Everlasting", John Cale "The Man Who Couldn't Afford to Orgy"

― dave q, Friday, 7 March 2003 11:20 (twenty-three years ago)

The one that immediately springs to mind is Elton John's 'Sacrifice' which mysteriously morphed into "Sac-ker-rif-fi-i-ice". Clever, that.

And Bjork - she seems to mispronounce at least one word per song.

― russ t, Friday, 7 March 2003 13:12 (twenty-three years ago)

I could bring my little jetto blaster, there's more to life than this

― j0e (j0e), Friday, 7 March 2003 13:16 (twenty-three years ago)

Psycho Thurpy Psycho Thurpy Psycho Thurpy That's what they wanna give me.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 7 March 2003 13:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Billy Idol: "With a rebel yell / she cried "Moe! Moe! Moe!"

― tom (other one), Friday, 7 March 2003 13:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Don't know but I watched Bush's press conference last night and thoroughly enjoyed his repeated mispronounciation of the word "nuclear." How come nobody points this out? It's hilarious.

― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Friday, 7 March 2003 13:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Any track by an American artist with the word "Oregano" in.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Friday, 7 March 2003 14:30 (twenty-three years ago)

...or any song by an American artist with the word 'tomato' in it, definitely.....

Tom(the other one)..... but this was Billy's ode to the fantastic Big Moe Slater, didn't you know? He was way before his time, was ole Bill.

― russ t, Friday, 7 March 2003 14:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Klaus Meine to thread please

― Davlo (Davlo), Friday, 7 March 2003 15:04 (twenty-three years ago)

English people pronounce the great 20th-century novelist's name "NAB-a-kov." He himself pronounced his name "Vla-DEEM-er Nuh-BAWK-off."

The only pronunciation my American Heritage Dictionary gives for "oregano" is uh-REG-a-no." I understand that English folk say "to-MAA-to" but we don't over here. I do say "eye-thur" for "either" but that's just to sound more east coast, I could give a shit.

The best mispronunciation I know of is in Otis Rush's "Double Trouble," in which he says "Some of this generation are million-airies..." Blues music would be the most fertile ground for this, Sonny Boy Williamson, who ate some "ta-MAA-toes" (whilst) wearing a bowler hat, and drinking gin, in England, has a song in which he says "That's when the high sheriff happened to be camin' along." James Brown, in "Mashed Po-TAA-toes U.S.A.," mis-spells his own home town, Augusta, Ga., as "A G U S T A." Go figger.

― Jess Hill (jesshill), Friday, 7 March 2003 17:16 (twenty-three years ago)

.. and how does aluminum get to be pronounced aluminium? Is that second "i" in the spelling in the UK?

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 7 March 2003 17:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Any track by an American artist with the word "Oregano" in.

(There must be a ton of those)

That would be an accent, not a mispronunciation

― oops (Oops), Friday, 7 March 2003 17:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I like how Tribe Called Quest and Beastie Boys and other NYC rappers say "nice" like "NNOOOOOOOIIIIEEEEEECE".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 7 March 2003 18:16 (twenty-three years ago)

That's how you say "nice".

― Ally (mlescaut), Friday, 7 March 2003 18:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Chuck Berry has the two best ones in my book: "Working on a t-bone steak a-la-carty" ("The Promised Land") and, even better, "If I don't get me no constellation" ("Forty Days").

Also, when Steve Miller speaks of the pompatus of love, he's actually quoting an obscure doo-wop record. It's called "The Letter" (I think) but I can't remember who it's by.

― Burr, Friday, 7 March 2003 18:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Also, when Steve Miller speaks of the pompatus of love, he's actually quoting an obscure doo-wop record. It's called "The Letter" (I think) but I can't remember who it's by.

cecil adams says

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 7 March 2003 18:35 (twenty-three years ago)

That's great gygax. I did not know that. I think "pompetous" should be a word, meaning something like "pillow talk."

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 8 March 2003 06:24 (twenty-three years ago)

russ: I thought it was another example of the Stooges influence in modern rock music, but I could be wrong.

Motley Crue: "Fight fooooo your rights!" - Jesus fucking Christ, Vince, the word is FOR.

― tom (alternate), Saturday, 8 March 2003 06:47 (twenty-three years ago)

HANDS DOWN, the title goes to warren g on his first album: "what's next, what's next, what's N-X-E-T", which was a chorus repeated about 3-4 times...

― naturalaw-dp, Saturday, 8 March 2003 10:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Favourite Shonen Knife mispronunciation: Cat-a-p-ra.

The Cardigan's cover of Black Sabbath's Iron Man is great.
I-run Man. Did they not hear the original? Was it on purpose?

― mei (mei), Saturday, 8 March 2003 12:13 (twenty-three years ago)

"She was left behind and sour and she wrote to me equally dow-er"

Oh how we laughed.

.. and how does aluminum get to be pronounced aluminium? Is that second "i" in the spelling in the UK?

Yes.

― N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 8 March 2003 14:31 (twenty-three years ago)

A sub-thread of classic Shonen Knife's Japanization of the English language is in order.

― Randy Farang (TOOTHFANGCLAW), Saturday, 8 March 2003 16:01 (twenty-three years ago)

XTC, "Season Cycle", in which "umbilical" rhymes with the title.

Also, after Warren G, Andre Williams' "Glue": "glue, G-L-E-U"

Also: everything by Nico.

― Paul Eater (eater), Saturday, 8 March 2003 22:47 (twenty-three years ago)

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