Friday, September 29, 2006

lyrical confusion

Recently Jacob over at Think Frustrated wrote a post about how he used to sing "Hold me closer, Tony Danza" (along with some other odd lyrics), to Elton John's "Tiny Dancer". Thora from Useless Information discussed a similar dysfunction when she just recently realized that she had been singing the words of "Escape" by Enrique Iglesias like this—"You can run, you can die, but you can't escape my love." instead of this—"You can run, you can hide, but you can't escape my love." (which apparently are the correct lyrics).

And it got me to thinking about all the lyrical confusion in the world.

My friend Jaime was infamous for this. Even years later I can still specifically remember two such instances where she would mutilate the lyrics. The first was to Madonna's "Express Yourself". Instead of singing, "You've got to make him express how he feels", Jaime would sing—"You've got to make him expresso he feels". She didn't do this to be funny, this is what she thought the words were. The other song was Slaughter's "Fly to the Angels". She sang, "You've gotta flyyyy, fly to the hatred." Fly to the hatred. Come on Jaime, the lyrics you are screwing up are the name of the song!

But, she's not alone. I've also had my fair share of lyrical confusion. One I just discovered a couple of weeks ago. I was reading the trivia questions in our local paper and one of the questions asked what song included the following lyrics: "Her mind is Tiffany twisted, she's got the Mercedes Benz. She's got a lot of pretty boys, she calls friends." Now, I instantly knew it was Hotel California by The Eagles, but up until that very moment I always thought the words were, "Her mind is definately twisted..." Not "Tiffany twisted" and I never would have thought that had I not just read it and confirmed that was correct with Josh. Hmm...never to late to learn the right words—and in all the years I sang the wrong one nobody bothered to correct me. I wonder if they even realized I was singing the wrong word? Maybe they were singing the wrong word right along with me.

So, what songs have you screwed up? Come on, share with us...we promise not to laugh. Well, we won't point at you at least.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to sing "I got a job and the money's spent" instead of "Out of college, money's spent" and "Yellow Dorris Day, now where to go" instead of "Yellow lorry's slow, nowhere to go" to the Beatles You Never Give Me Your Money

Cupcake Blonde said...

One time my friend and I were driving in her car and "Spiderwebs" by No Doubt came on. When the line "It's all your fault I screen my phone calls" played I had to lower the radio and ask her what she just sang. She said then repeated "It's all your fault I screamed my balls off." I couldn't stop laughing and now any time I hear that song that is all I hear!

Bob said...

I coulda swore they were siging "why do they always sand the floor" instead of "why do they always send the poor" when I first heard BYOB by System of a Down. Sure makes more sense the correct way, LOL

Naynayfazz said...

When I was in high school, I loved the song "Machine Head" from Bush. My friend and I were convinced in the part where he says, "I walk from my machine. Oh, I walk from my machine" he was saying, "I waffle my machine." We were always like, "What the hell does that mean?" And when I got the cd and read the lyrics I knew what he really said. Oops!

Another funny one is in "Been Caught Stealing" by Jane's Addiction when it says, "Hey alright! If I get by, it's mine. Mine all mine!" we thought he said, "Hey alright, Pumpkin pie. Mine all mine!"

Maybe she and I were just hungry all the time or something but at 14 years old.... we SWORE those were the words. :)

cerberus70 said...

My older sister used to love this band called Red Rider when she was in high school. There was this song called Lunatic Fringe. Before I knew the name of the song, I always thought they were singing "Learn to speak French". Which is actually a better lyric anyways.

Lisa said...

Pixie and Mr. Pixie: From Bruce Springstein's "No Surrender," he says "we learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school," I've been singing, for twenty friggin years, "we learned more from a three man wrecking crew than we ever learned in school" To this day, my husband cracks up whenever he hears this song.

Cupcake Blonde said...

I just thought of another one that is more recent. Everytime I hear the Goo Goo Dolls' song "Stay With You" I think he says "And I'll stay with you. Mazeltoff before we do." The actual lyric I recently discovered is "the walls will fall before we do."

R2 said...

I'm pretty sure it's intentional, but the bf sings "Gimme the beat boys and feed my soul. I wanna get lost in your toilet bowl and flushed away," in place of, "Gimme the beat boys and feed my soul, I wanna get lost in your rock 'n roll and drift away." He thinks this is hilarious.

Tim said...

For Bell Biv Devoe's classic, instead of "Never trust a big butt and a smile", my dad would sing "Never trust a big brother who smiles." My dad was a huge BBD fan. Had the tape and everything.

Blogarita said...

We mis-hear things a lot around here. I think the best one was the song Kitty by The Presidents of the United States. We thought they were saying "buck-tooth kitty" when they were really saying "f*ck you kitty". LOL!

Lisa Armsweat said...

This girl we used to play with as kids totally gnarled up Madonna's Papa Don't Preach: she would sing, "Puppy dog freeze, I'm in trouble-ty."

Still cracks me up!

Violet said...

you know the theme song to "family guy?" there is a line that says

"All the things that make us laugh and cry" that until recently I thought said "Effing cry..."

Duh....

Anonymous said...

I will defy anyone to listen to uncle Kraker-follow me and not hear "and swim through your veins like a piss in the sea"

You should go to amiright.com it's where people send in their misheard lyrics

DutchBitch said...

OK hon... I keep wanting to read this whole post... and I have tried numerous times, but the sight of the words "Tony" and "Danza" in the same sentence makes me gag (Yes, again) and not able to read any further... Is he still alive anyway?

BO Snagley said...

blinded by the light.
i swear i thought he was saying

"Blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche another runner in the night"

It never made any sence.

Violet said...

oh, wait, i just thought of another one. remember the song "the freshman" by the verve pipe?

the second line goes: "and she a punk who rarely ever took advice"

my friend brandon used to think it was: "and Gina Punkarelli never took advice"

pretty funny... at least, we used to give him sh!t about it all the time.

Anonymous said...

How come I posted this and practically no one comments? What the fuck?

For Bo..the orignial lyrics, "cut loose like a duce," also make no sense. (It was originally a Bruce Springsteen lyric).

Anonymous said...

Oh, and much respect to Mr. Pixie for the Beatles reference. Just the fact that you took the time to listen to that gem says a lot. I've got a Beatles room at my house. It's actually a spare room, but it has lots of Beatles stuff (LPs framed, posters, crap).

The most common misheard Beatles lyric would probably be, "Koo koo ka-choo" in "I Am the Walrus," when it's actually "Goo Goo Ga-Joob."

Lynda said...

"We don't need no education."
"We don't need no birth control."

I sing it wrong on purpose, because my aunt sang it wrong on purpose. hahaha!

We had a local commercial that was Cal Worthington and his dog, Spot. Cal has done commercials with elephants, tigers, lions, etc. Well, I always sang Pussy Cal, Pussy Cal, Pussy Cal. Everyone I have ever talked to has heard Pussy Cal. Then I was visiting the webpage and it said at the top, "Go see Cal!"

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!

http://www.mydogspot.com/ is the website, if you want to hear what I mean.

Lynda said...

Oh, and Gin Blossoms, Hey Jealousy. I always hear Hey, Josie! which is my mom's name.

Jen said...

I finally thought of one! (at 5am this morning when Leo woke us up for a potty break). My dad listens to an "adult contemporary" radio station. We've been raised on sappy love songs. I don't know who sings "It's the stuff that dreams are made of..." but my sister spoke up one night, out of the darkness during a long trip home:

"Is she singing "It's to stuff that green tomato"?"

Jen said...

On Violet's comment: I always thought it was " a Chia Pet who rarely ever took advice".