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...things just don't make sense. There is a song, Speedo, that I was sure went "Well, now they often call me Speedo but my real name is Raymond Burr". Raymond Burr was on the TV tonight in some old movie, and I asked my husband why in the world anyone would call him "Speedo". Blank stare. Silence. Then (because he knows me so well) "No, his real name is not 'Raymond Burr', his real name is 'Mister Earl'".
And I can't be the only one who has been caught singing "There's a bathroom on the right."Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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You know, Tante, even John Fogerty sings it that way sometimes now.
You know the old song, "Secret Agent Man", by Johnny Rivers? I swear, there are times when it sounds like he's saying "secret Asian man". Sorry if that's politically incorrect, but that's what it sounds like. Go listen if you don't believe me.
When I was in sixth grade, there was a guy in my class who swore that instead of the Beatles' lyric being, "Penny Lane is my ears and in my eyes," that it was really, "Then Elaine is in my ears and in my eyes." And because he thought that was the lyric, he insisted further that the song must have been written for me (my name is Elaine). Silly.
I love misunderstood lyrics. Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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So I'm not the only person who thought that was the actual lyric at one time? And I can't listen to that song without thinking about it, either.
I can't recall anything recent. I look up lyrics for new songs, to avoid any confusion. I already learned my lesson more than once. Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:Originally posted by littlemissattitude: You know the old song, "Secret Agent Man", by Johnny Rivers? I swear, there are times when it sounds like he's saying "secret Asian man".
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There's a song by my favourite band (Carbon Leaf) called "Blue Ridge Laughing." The first line of the song is "Caught a red moonrise..."
I heard it forever as "Carter at moonrise," which is actually funny because the guy who plays the mandolin (and various guitars) in the band is named Carter. I thought it was some sort of secret desire to be in NASA or something. Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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quote:You know the old song, "Secret Agent Man", by Johnny Rivers? I swear, there are times when it sounds like he's saying "secret Asian man". Sorry if that's politically incorrect, but that's what it sounds like. Go listen if you don't believe me.
Yeah, my brother-in-law used to think that's what it said when he was little; now every time we hear that song, my husband and I can't help looking at each other, cracking up, and singing with really bad 70's-tv Asian accents, "Deah's a man who rive a rife of dan-jah... Seek-uh-rut, Asian man!" I know, it's really bad. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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In the song "Ball and Chain" by Social Distortion, there's a line that says:
"Well I passed the bar on the way to my dingy hotel room I drank all my money; I've been drinking since a-half past noon."
I didn't so much mishear as misunderstand--I always hear "Passed the bar" in the sense that he can now legally practice law . . .
Posts: 1894 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I used to think that, in CCR's "Traveling Band", the lyric that ends "trying to get a hand/playing in a traveling band" was "trying to get a hand/hey, a little traveling band." Took years for me to figure out all the lyrics, especially in the fast parts. But, not only have I figured them out, I can keep up with them on a good day.
Oh, and I'm glad I'm not the only one on the "Secret Agent Man" thing.
Edited to add: I just remembered another one. In the Rascals' "Groovin'", there's one line that says, "You and me, endlessly." For years I thought it said, "You and me and Leslie". I always wondered, when I heard that song, just exactly what those three were up to. Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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I had the hardest time with "We Didn't Start the Fire," because I was five and had no idea of recent American history. Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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When it first came out I thought John Mellencamp's "What if I Came Knocking" Was "What if I didn't like it"
Posts: 555 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Oh no fair everybody, I'm too culturally illiterate to get the joke if you just put the misunderstood lyric without linking to or writing out the real one! Bathroom on the right? Canary in a coma?
And Blinded by the Light is just plain incomprehensible. Has anyone ever understood those lyrics just by listening?
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I assumed Canary in a coma was Canaray in a coal mine.
I don't get Bathroom on the right.
Actually, the most disturbing lyric I've ever heard was "Hike up your skirt little boy and show the world to me."
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Goody Scrivener: Blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche, another runner in the night...
oh yeah, that is still how i sing it, i like it better that way.
one of my friends thought that in the Blind Mellon song "No Rain" they sang "pull some teeth or two," instead of the actual lyric, "pour some tea for two."
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by The Pixiest: Actually, the most disturbing lyric I've ever heard was "Hike up your skirt little boy and show the world to me."
wait, isn't that "hike up your skirt a little more and show the world to me"?
Posts: 2596 | Registered: Jan 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Uprooted: Oh no fair everybody, I'm too culturally illiterate to get the joke if you just put the misunderstood lyric without linking to or writing out the real one! Bathroom on the right? Canary in a coma?
And Blinded by the Light is just plain incomprehensible. Has anyone ever understood those lyrics just by listening?
Not really. The worst is "Long Tall Woman in a Black Dress". The lyrics actually make complete sense, unlike "Blinded by the Light", but I've never met anyone who was able to hear the lyrics by listening to the song unless they'd seen them in writing first.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche, another runner in the night...
I actually don't know what the real words are.
"You're a candle in the window and a corndog when it's night."
Love your version.
"Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night." Which is, of course, meaningless, and I would have never known without the Internet.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I always thought it was "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress" -- and I have no idea what the rest of the song is about, which I guess proves your point!
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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OK, starLisa, just went and looked it up online and it IS Long Cool Woman. But you're right, they lyrics tell this story which I never caught at all before -- although it's sure a catchy tune to work out to.
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by The Pixiest: I don't get Bathroom on the right.
It's really "There's a bad moon on the rise", from Creedence Clearwater Revival. It's one of the most famous of the misheard lyrics. The funny part is, once it was pointed out to John Fogerty that so many people thought that the line was about a bathroom on the right, he began singing it that way in concert sometimes. Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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"Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night."
Why is that meaningless?
How about "She's so popular" Or "In the thunder crash, you're a thousand miles, within a flash"(Peter Gabriel)?
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Not exactly a mishearing of the lyrics, but when I first heard the Snow Patrol song "Spitting Games," not knowing they were foreign, I for some reason thought that they were mocking Chingy (of "Right Thurr" fame). There's this line:
I find it easier to sit and sturr Than push my limbs out to what's you right thurr
quote:Originally posted by Glenn Arnold: "Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night."
Why is that meaningless?
Well, that would be because I never looked it up online before to find out what meaning of "deuce" could possibly involve being "revved up" . . .
Which led to another epiphany directly related to this thread:
The lyrics to that hitherto incomprehensible Beach Boys song are "My little Deuce Coupe . . ."
I'd forgotten but I have spent long minutes puzzling over, "Huh? My little Blue Scoop? What the heck???" I mean, it sounded like "Coupe" and that's what made sense, but since I'd never heard of a Deuce Coupe I just couldn't make it parse!
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Does anyone know what they actually SAY in that Grand Theft Audio song "Stoopid A**?"
Because to me, it sounds like, "Stoopida** sucka, such a bad *@?(*%?(# with an uzi."
And it makes no sense at all. Are you mocking some guy with an uzi? And then he starts saying something about a cold shower...you get turned on by mocking the guy with the uzi and have to take a cold shower?
I'm sure no one else remembers them. I think I only remember them because the singer was this cute blonde spikey haired dude. But their music pretty much sucked.
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My kid must have been between 3 and 4 years old at the time. He was riding his tricycle on the sidewalk and managed to scrape his knee. I cleaned it up and covered it with band-aids and kisses, and he went back to riding his tricycle. Singing loud as you please, "Oh Susanna! Don't you cry for me. I come from Alabama with a band-aid on my knee."Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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My brother had a friend who insisted that the Hanson song "Mmm Bop" contained the lyric "Wanna be a flower." That's stuck with the song now, even though our whole family knows it's not really in there.
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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It does contain a lyric about planting flowers like you said, but it says nothing about wanting to be a flower. And this person was insistent that the lyric "I wanna be a flower" came during the mmm bop part of the song. *shrugs*
Posts: 1960 | Registered: May 2005
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The only one I can remember at the moment is that All American Rejects song "Swing Swing". I always heard "Swing swing swing from the table saw..." I think the actually lyrics are "swing swing swing from the tangles of", which doesn't make that much sense to me. Every time I hear that song though, it reminds me of my seventh grade shop teacher who was telling us about safety around the tools and told us about this one time when a women he worked with got her hair caught in a drill press. I always picture someone swinging by their hair from a table saw.
Posts: 298 | Registered: Sep 2004
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signal, it's "Swing swing swing from the tangles of my heart is..something something..."
It's like that children's song about like. "Behind the frigerator, there was a piece of glass. Miss Suzy sat upon it and broke her little ASK me no more questions, tell me no more lies! The boys are in the bathroom, zipping up THE FLIES are in the medow, something something..."
Edit: And by that, I mean that one line carries into the next.
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Louie louie, Oh baby, if you gotta know, why why why why why why
A bald little girl, from cross the sea, blind little baby, wake and see
BTW the history behind this song is that the Kingsmen all got really stoned, hooked a mike to the ceiling and did it in one, take, thus it is icomprehensible and awesome. Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Here's something not misunderstood, but incomprehensible to me:
From Sheryl Crow's "Good is Good" "And everytime you hear the rolling thunder You turn around before the lightning strikes"
My problem with the song is that lightning strikes, then you hear thunder. (Light travels faster than sound.) It's impossible to go the other way. Just hearing that song bothers me. (I guess I'm too picky.)
Posts: 2034 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Love your version.
