Song lyrics you misheard

The Year of the Cat by Al Stewart

"Well morning comes and you're still with her And the bus and the tourists are gone And you've thrown away your choice you've lost your ticket So you have to stay on"

I hear the lyrics as:

Well morning comes and you're still with her And the BOSTON tourists are gone And you've thrown away your choice OF LOBSTER ticket So you have to stay on"

I was trying to understand how he ended up from an exotic locale to the city of Boston and what the hell was a lobster ticket. I recently acquired the album and read the lyrics and went, Aah. That makes sense now.

Sweet dreams are made of this/Who am I to disagree?

I heard (for 37 years): Sweet dreams are made of this/Who had a mind to disagree?

Call me angel in the morning. Just touch my feet before you leave.

Billie Jean is not my lover, she's just a girl who claims that I am the one, but the chair lift's not my son

When I was a little kid, I heard "Our Lips Are Sealed" and thought they were singing "How does that feel?"

I thought it was "Alex the Seal"

Blinded by the light....wrapped up like a douche ...

'Scuse me while I kiss this guy.

Dirty Deeds Thunder Chief!

"our lips are sealed"

thought it was "honest, I'll see you"

"chocolate goolies I believe" AKA "tropical the island breeze"

DJing in the 70s we used to make up lyrics for the disco hits. Hues Corporation discs lended themselves well. “I caught your act” = “I fucked your ass” From Rock the Boat: “So I’d like to know where you got the notion” = “So I’d like to know where you got the lotion” “We’ve been sailing with a cargo full of love and devotion” = “We’ve been sailing with a cargo full of KY and lotion”

Instead of If I were green I would die, I thought it was Zebedee zebadai

"Oh, George. Even downtown, it's so scary."

"Step on a brick, break your mama's back." And

"Tattoo detective, it's not too late."

That's what I thought they were saying in "Whip It."

I can see clearly now, the rain is gone

I can see all lobster claws in my way

Big black nemesis, a Sega Genisys

In The Clean Up Woman by Betty Wright, I thought she was saying the peanut woman. Other than maybe referring to Rosalyn Carter, I didn’t know what a peanut woman was.

"Angus cooking in the city heat" Patti La Belle - Stir It Up

"Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of Reverend Mother" Madonna - Justify My Love

Four-legged love is all that you need" Whitney Houston - How Will I Know

"Hush, hush. Keep it down now. This is scary!" - Til Tuesday - Voices Carry

"'Cause the George in the town's got love stains on his hands." - The Night the Lights Went out in Georgia

From Dancing in the Sheets:

"Love is always born on a chance

So Red Ferrari and baby let's dance

Dancing in the sheets."

Hot Potato Hot Potato oh oh Hot Potato

Amadeus by Falco

"The ants are my friends, they're blowin' in the wind..."

"I've got the Swedish hangover

I don't wanna get over

Swedish hangover..."

everybodys talkin about the new south funny bunnies still rock n roll to me

Billy Joel

From another thread:

"Don't throw briquettes at me..."

From [italic]People Will Say We're In Love[/italic]

From Kylie Minogue's "Slow:"

"Trackin' on this feelin'

Poor fuckers, close up you and me..."

In "Little Red Corvette," I thought Prince sang:

"I guess I should've known by the way you popped your clutch that way

That it wouldn't last."

"Daddy's on the mountain top. Burning like a silver flame" - Venus by Bananarama. Actual lyrics are "Goddess on the mountain top..."

I thought 'voices carry' was "Mrs. Kerry" and I couldn't figure out how that fit into the song until I finally learned the title of the song.

On the Rio

Oh oh oh oh oh

On the Rio

I grew up with them, but I never realized the lyrics to Michael Jackson's songs were so stupid until today.

“Evil Woman” by ELO still sounds like “medieval woman” to me.

The Pointer Sisters' "Jump:"

"When you are next to me

Oh, I come alive

You're the perfect size."

"The girl with colitis goes by..."

Speaking of the Pointer Sisters, I thought these were part of the lyrics to "Automatic:"

"All I can manage to push from my lips

Is a string of obscenities."

I guess maybe I thought Ruth had Tourette's.

"You ain't woman enough to be my man"-Loretta Lynn

"Hold me closer Tiny Dancer, count the head lice on the highway"

John Stewart : "Heart of the Dream." For one brief minute I thought he was singing "Livin' in a hollow tree" rather than "Livin' in the heart of the dream."

She's sweet by recycle. You gotta reCYCLE.

My husband thought "Kind of a Drag" by the Buckinghams was "Canada Dry".

"Good lovin'" - thought it was "Do the lovin'"

R23 LOL.

For years I couldn't figure out half the time what Mick Jagger was singing. It sounded good, though.

Whoa oh oh it's my dick.

Never believe it's not so.

I got a rock in the morning and the boogie woogie blues

Crazy for You--instead of hearing "trying hard to control my heart", I heard "trying hard to control my fart".

R3 I thought it was “Just crack my teeth before you leave me.”

Also this one, from Take My Breath Away: “In all that body lotion somewhere there’s a loving flame” (it’s “Haunted by the notion somewhere there’s a love in flames.”

Rain on me - I would have sworn the line was "I'd rather be drunk but at least I'm alive" not until the mtv awards did I realize it was I would rather be dry.

Elder here so you might now know this one: You Belong to Me by Jo Stafford:

"See the pyramids along the Nile" became "See the pyramids of old New York" in my head.

"See the market place in old Algiers" became "See the monkey place in old Algiers"

r47, I thought it was "somewhere there's a loving flame"

There may be a few who will find it interesting that mishearing or misinterpreting song lyrics actually has a name: Mondegreen. From Wikipedia:

[quote]A mondegreen is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to clearly hear a lyric, substitutes words that sound similar and make some kind of sense. American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, writing that as a girl, when her mother read to her from Percy's Reliques, she had misheard the lyric "layd him on the green" in the fourth line of the Scottish ballad "The Bonny Earl of Murray" as "Lady Mondegreen".

"Was that a fart?"

"My fault I fear..."

Glynis Johns playing a joke on Len Cariou while rehearsing the reprise of "Send in the Clowns".

I used to think Hang on Sloopy was "Hey you're stupid"

Is it the look in your eyes, or is it these dancing Jews

Bruno Mars, Marry You

"Just brush my teeth before you leave me"

Dusty Springfield:

"You don't have to say you love me just be close at hand" is the lyric but I always thought it was:

"You don't have to say I'm lovely just because I am"

Children of thalidomide = children of the little mind

Give me a dime, hit me baby one more time

Britney Spears, Baby One More Time

Last night I dreamt of some bagels.

Sadly, the cross eyed bear.

R59 And to continue with that...

"Young girl with eyes like potatoes..."

“Tripped the Light Fandango”

I heard it as “Spent the Night in Bangkok”

My ex used to mishear the Beatles’ “Here, There, and Everywhere”: instead of “when she’s beside me I know I need never care,” he heard “I know I need Medicare.”

"I would throw a grenade at you, jump in front of a train for you"

Bruno Mars, Grenade

Has anyone ever deciphered what is said at the 3:50 mark in Love Shack?

"Tin roof...rusted."

You're my penis! You're my power and joy!

R7 ...(continued) .... bag in the middle of the night

Melissa Etheridge:

"I wanna come over

To hell with the concert friends..."

[quote]"Is it the look in your eyes, or is it these dancing Jews?" - Bruno Mars, "Marry You"

I was so sure of this in the Glee version, I told a friend he should make it his wedding song. He agreed, but his fiancee let us know it was "dancing [italic]shoes[/italic] ."

There's a bathroom on the right

R65, no need to decipher. Songs have written lyrics, easily found on what is known as the internet. They can be found easily through searching on what is called google. How long have you been asleep? Is Rock Lobster the last song you remember before nodding off?

Lyrics from the Mary Tyler Moore Show theme:

Who can turn the world on with her smile? Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? With a Jew girl, and you should know it…

I thought that was a reference to Mary's friend, Rhoda Morganstern.

I thought "Devil Inside" by INXS went "words are weapons / shadowy knives", it actually goes "words as weapons / sharper than knives", I like mine better,

Eat it, eat it, eat it like ya fuckin mean it....

It would help, in such R's as r75, r71, and r66, to name but a few, if you were to tell us the name of the song and the correct lyric.

R76

I'm r75 I was referring to Beat It by MJ.

Tin roof rusted is what Cindy Wilson says in Love Shack. Apparently it was some made up term for being pregnant. That's why Fred yells out before, "You're WHAT?"

I guess no one watched Pop Up Video.

I thought that Dusty Springfield song ("You don't have to say you love me/Just be close at hand") was "You don't have to say you love me just because I can."

The Bangles cover of Hazy Shade of Winter:

Instead of a patch of snow on the ground I heard

a fascist snow on the ground.

I was disappointed to hear the original. The misheard lyrics always seemed to be such great imagery to me.

r80, I like your misheard lyrics better!

Eat me I'm a Danish.

Amadeus by Falco

Toni Basil's "Mickey." I thought she was singing:

"Now when you take me by the hooves, ever gonna know."

"Jajaji in my thighs, and a look in my eyes, and I bla bla bla"

Janet Jackson, If

I prefer R83's lyrics

So Barbara says you've got one life to live....

R86 I always thought it was "So Bopper says..."

I just recently found it's "Soap opera says..."

R87, it took me about 20 years before I realized what the actual lyrics was

I'm your penis, i'm your vagina joy, desire

R88 Same here.

All albums should've come with lyrics on the sleeves.

R91 A lot of them did back in the day, but then again, a lot of them didn't, either.

Earl! Earl!

Earl don day-dee

wick-a-doo wick-a-doo

day dee do

Opening lyrics to The View:

World's gone crazy I think there's, I think there's, I think there's Only one thing to do Go crazy I think that, I think that, I think that We should go crazy too

The first time I heard "Constant Craving" by K.D Lang I thought she was singing "Long-Stemmed Crazy"

The plastic's off the merchandise New ways to experience Have you ever been had in Clubland

Hold me closer, Tony Danza

My favorite misheard lyric.

As a kid, I always heard Cher's "Gypsies Tramps and Thieves" as "Beans, Beans, Frank and Beans." I was always so confused as to why she was singing about it. I don't think I ever knew the real lyrics until I was much older, probably in my 20s.

'Woman, take me in your arms / Drop the baby...'

r98, I like your lyrics better than the real ones!

In "I've Never Been to Me," I thought the lyrics were:

"You're a discontented woman

And a rich invented wife"

It wasn't until years later I found out the actual lyrics were "a regimented wife."

How many of us thought in "Car Wash," the lyrics were "Keep those black limousines humming" and not "Keep those rags and machines humming?"

On KISS' Love Gun album (which I played endlessly that summer of 1977) there's a Paul Stanley song called Tomorrow and Tonight

The line is 'Take me to the cellar, let me be your fella'

Because I'm half retarded (not full blown) I thought the Love Object (so-called before he was StarChild) sang:

'Take me to the cellar, let me see your bella'

So for quite a bit of my early teen years I thought 'bella' was sex slang for a female's naughty bits!

^Take it IN the cellar, let me be your fella

even dirtier than I remember

I thought Grace Slick ended White Rabbit by singing

"Keep Your Head" not "Feed Your Head"

I thought it was a further Alice in Wonderland reference about the Red Queen threatening to cut everyone's head off.

That would be terrifying when you're on acid, which I thought was the point.

Of course I hadn't read the book yet to know the Dormouse said that, I thought the Dormouse was warning us to keep our head cuz here comes that crazy bitch Red Queen.

Until I saw it in writing just a couple of years ago, I always thought that the [italic]Daydream Believer[/italic] line, "Cheer up, sleepy Jean, oh what can it mean," was "Cheep cheepy chee, oh what can it be."

Which actually makes as much sense as what it's supposed to be.

Looking in your eyes, I see a pair of dice. Starship/Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now

I used to work with a guy who was always fucking up song lyrics. He'd sort of sing to himself under his breath sometimes, and if I was around him, I'd actively listen to what he was saying. One of my favorites was the time he was singing [italic]Ferry Cross the Mersey,"[/italic] only he kept repeating, "So very, ordinary." He got the tune right, though.

When I was growing up, there was a hit that went, "Arizona, take off your rainbow shade."

My brother always sang it, "Air is so nice! Take off your rainbow shade."

Baby tonight by the fire, you and me we'll perspire. Reverend Bluejeans!

I am the SUN and the AIR...

(of nothing in particular)

"Turn My Swag On" by Soulja Boy:

"I got a pussy, why they hating on me?"

(It's really, "I got a question, why they hating on me?")

An old roommate of mine thought that the lyric, "Livin' life is fun and we've just begun" from "We Are Family" was "N**ger life is fun..."

He sang it out loud once while we were in the car and I was shocked. He said he always thought it was a terrible lyric, too, but he figured that if Sister Sledge sang it, then it was okay.

When I informed him that wasn't the lyric at all, he was mortified.

Fuck r113, I’m laughing so hard that my head hurts.

R114 And for days afterward, he freaked out wondering how many times he had sung that in front of people who never said anything to him. :-)

"Nes-ca-fe

We'll have a good time

Nes-ca-fe

Leave your worries behind"

I don’t know what song it is they used for the theme of the Reese and Rachel drama, but the only word we can make out is the refrain, where the Nina Simone wannabe sings “Mah-Jong. Mah-Jong.” But that can’t be right.

One line in the Rolling Stones song "Paint it Black" sounded like this to me:

"No more will ugly seagulls turn the people blue"

(Real lyric: "No more will my green seas go turn a deeper blue.")

"Gonna take a lot to drag me away from you.

Ain't nothin' that a hundred men on Mars could ever do."

- Africa

"Gloria, I think they got your number.

I think they got the evidence that you've been living under."

Every time I heard Johnny Kemp's "Just Got Paid," this is what I heard:

"Just got paid

It's Friday night

Holly Hunter

Face is right."

Jane, Jane, Jane...Jane’s a fool...

Like a bridge ov’r a tub a water, it’s now I’m gonna lay it down

Love Child! Always gotta pee, Love Child!! Going through puberty! Hold on, hold on to that meatball sub.

P- p -p -poker face, p-p- poker face

More more more, 'talian Ices, "talian Ices!

And I always thought the lyric went "Mem'ries like the corners of my mind." for years and I couldn't understand what the point was until I heard someone else sing it and it was "light the corners of my mind."

r125 — Until you just said it, I, too, thought it was "Mem'ries, like the corners of my mind." Yeah, I guess it makes better sense now,

“Girls on Film” by Duran Duran.

My mum was disgusted that that song was about “girls on pills” while her sister my very camp aunt was sure it was “Joan Blondell”.

My aunt is my godmother - I never stood a chance!

I didn't know for years that Kurt Cobain ended "Smells like Teen Spirit" by yelling "a denial." I thought he was just screaming "ay yay ya ya," lol.

R128 I still don't understand most of the lyrics to that song.

You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille! 400 children and crops in the field!

R130 I thought that was the lyric when I was a kid, too.

When I first heard Janet Jackson's "Feedback," I thought these were the lyrics:

Crank it up, give it to me, come on

Crank it up, give to to me, come on

I want a feedbag, feedbag

Feedbag, feedbag

I thought the lyrics to Donna Summer's "Heaven Knows" were:

Baby, please, please don't take your love from me.

I am yours forever more.

'Til they turn us in.

For some reason, I thought it was a song about felons in love and on the run.

Prince - Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?

Actual first line: There's some talkin' goin' 'round town, that you really don't give a damn.

What I heard for years: There's some Tropical Wonton, but you really don't give a damn.

Hootie & The Blowfish: I Only Wanna Be With You:

I’m such a baby and endorphins make me cry.

(i’m such a baby, yeah dolphins make me cry)

Someone I know, that wasn't very bright, misheard lyrics from Man in the Box;

"Feet my eyes; can you sew them shut?

Jesus Christ, deny her make-up

He who tries will be wasted

Feeeet my eyes

Now you've sewn them shut"

I had to explain to her that it was FEED my eyes, not "feet, my eyes" and that it was "deny your MAKER", not "deny her make-up"

This was back in the nineties when we were little kids, but still...she hasn't gotten much better since then.

I had bad hearing as a child, so I heard...

Oh rush, we've been down now, this is scary

Some misheard lyrics:

"Excuse me while I kiss this guy!"

“Kicking your cat all over the place”

“Blue seal in the sky with diamonds”

“I can see clearly now, Lorraine is gone”

“Money for nothin’ and chips for free”

"RUCKSACK, you don't have to put on the red light"

“Let’s pee in the corner, let’s pee in the spotlight”

“Here we are now, in containers”

“Every time you go away, you take a piece of meat with you”

"A year has passed since I broke my nose”

“Bald-headed woman… bald-headed woman to me”

“See that girl, watch her scream, kicking the dancing queen”

“Sweet dreams are made of cheese”

“Poppadom Peach”

“Or should I just keep chasing penguins”

“It doesn’t make a difference if we’re naked or not”

“Then I saw her face, now I’m gonna leave her”

“I want to hold your ham”

“I like big butts in a can of limes”

“Wrapped up like a douche, another rumor in the night"

“I got my first real sex dream...”

“The girl with colitis goes by"

"The algebra has a devil put aside for me"

“Like a virgin, touched for the thirty-first time"

"She's got electric boobs and mohair shoes"

“I just died in your barn tonight"

“There’s a bathroom on the right"

"take my horse to a hotel room"

"Take me down to prairie-dog city"

"I've got shoes, they're made of plywood"

"The sheep don't like it, rockin' the cat box"

“Might as well face it, you're a dick with a glove"

“I've got two chickens to paralyze"

I don't care too much for mommy

Mommy, can't Bobby love?

Stand Back - "You'll be standing in a line and I'm the prize."

The misheard lyrics are better than the real ones!

In the Police's "Don't Stand So Close to Me," I thought the lyrics were:

"It's no use

He sees her.

He starts to shake his cock."

Kylie Minogue's "Wow:"

The way you walk

The rhythm when you're dancing

Every inch of you smells of desire.

Who you're gonna call? - THOSE BASTARDS!

R145 That's hilarious!

"Don't Go Breaking My Heart":

Oh, honey, if I get arrested".

I thought the "Bootylicious" lyrics were:

"Move your body up and down

Make your booty testify"

R147 I used to think that was the lyric, too.