In the Doors song I Can’t See Your Face In My Mind, there’s a part where Morrison sings,
“Insanity’s heart adorns the sky”
but I thought it was,
“Insamnites’ harp, adorns the sky”, Insamites being some classical or mythological personage.
For quite some time, I assumed Steve Miller was asking a question, not issuing a command in “Fly Like an Eagle”:
“How’s the people, living in the street?” :smack:
damn homophones
Politzania’s post reminds me of an article I read once that contained an odd non-musical mondegreen. One of former New York Mayor Ed Koch’s catchphrases was “How’m I doin’?” (How am I doing, of course). But the reporter apparently had no idea that this was what he was saying, and kept referring to it as “How my doing,” and how she thought it was a great saying…
Without pointing out that spelled out that way, it makes absolutely no sense. I have to wonder what it was she thought the phrase meant.
[QUOTE=Draelin]
Snickers, I always thought it was “funk’s yo brotha”, and then was informed by a friend that it was “funk soul brotha”. I decided I couldn’t be bothered to care.
Why, so it is. So I wasn’t so far off! Again, it’s Mr. Snicks with the wrong lyric. Hee hee.
I am normally really good at hearing words in songs (unlike my husband - he swears that Tom Petty is gliding down over Valhalla instead of Mulholland), but line from Dave Matthews Band’s Don’t Drink the Water tripped me up:
“I can breed my old mare, I can sleep more soundly.” (wow! Dave’s a horse-lover too!)
When it’s really “I can breathe my own air, …” (aw, crap)
It’s a nice theory, but the song was written by Kris Kristofferson and originally recorded by Roger “King of the Road” Miller. In the Miller recording it’s without the final la-da-da lyrics, and Bobby is a woman. Joplin seems to have added that and this part
*Now, when I called him my lover, called him my man
I said I called him my lover and did the best I can, come on
And that Bobby, lord, and that Bobby McGee, yeah
Lordy, lordy, lordy…
Hey, hey, hey, Bobby McGee*
Which is not so much a verse as a different take on the ending.
Ludovic, it’s “Where you going with that mask I found?”
I was about 12 when I saw the German-language version of Der Blau Engel, with Marlene Dietrich sitting on a barrel and singing, “Ich bin von Kopf bis Fuß . . .”
And (since she was in a cabaret), I thought she was calling for “Peas, beans and coffee, too . . .”
I actually knew that, but seem to have temporarily forgotten it. I still like the theory, though. 
And I always thought it was “Where you going with the master plan?”
That would make as much sense as the actual lyric, but I’m 90% certain that it’s correct as I posted it. The lyrics are written on the CD liner, so I can check whenever I get my discs unpacked (we just received our stuff from the moving company today).
Speaking of “I Believe” by R. E. M. – until I looked it up a couple months ago, I sang the opening as:
“When I was young and full of grace
My sprits hid a rattlesnake”
The actual verse is:
“When I was young and full of grace
and spirited – a rattlesnake”
And in the same song, an ANTI-mondegreen.
I was sure I was mishearing the line “What do you do between the horns of the day” but I’ll be damned, that’s exactly what Stipe is singing.
Sir Rhosis
There’s a miserable little country song I hear playing on the radio in the warehouse at work, whith this guy talking about some hottie he saw down at the county fair. I heard the chorus as “I got a barbecue stain on my wife’s t-shirt,” and I always wondered what he was doing wearing his wife’s clothes.
Chorus actually goes “white t-shirt”. 
I’ve posted this before - but in the Carly Simon song You’re So Vain, I always heard the line:
You flew your Lear Jet to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun…
as:
You flew your rear end to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun…
I thought Carly was just trying to avoid saying “ass” or something…
Ah, yes, and back when I listened to Def Leopard ( :smack: ), my sister though they were saying “Awesome sugar plumb, yeah!”, instead of “Pour some sugar on me.”
For a long time I actually thought she was singing:
Just like the wendigo
sings a song, sounds like she’s singin
So apparently I just accepted that Stevie Nicks knew something about the wendigo’s strange habit of singing… (And yes, at the time I was young and only knew of the Wendigo from Marvel comics, so I was doubly confused since I was pretty sure that the Wendigo was a big white werewolf-looking thing that liked to fight the Hulk and Wolverine. Singing was not what I would expect from it, and I was also pretty sure that it was a male…)
And my very first mondegreen…
I thought “Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo. Lordy Mama Light my Fuse”
was “Rock and Roll Poochie Poo. Lordy Mama Like my Shoes.”
I still sing it that way when I get a new pair of shoes.
To give credit where it is due, that’s an early, massive hit by folk singer Tom Paxton.
I thought the line in the OP was “dark starry night.” Well, it makes more sense than dogs saying good night.
I’ve heard people sing “Cheese & Rice, Superstar.” I think lyricist Tim Rice must get a kick out of that.
And I thought it was “dark summer nights.” Still better than the dog thing.
You, me, some adverb
The lyrics to Bruce Springsteen’s “Blinded By the Light” don’t make all that much sense to begin with, but if you listen to his original recording, there’s no doubt he’s singing “revved up like a deuce, another runner in the light.” If people misunderstand, it’s because the singer on Mafred Mann’s version mispronounced the words, and made it SOUND like “wrapped up like a douche.”
I THINK Springsteen’s song is supposed to be about New Jersey teens racing their cars, chasing girls and looking for trouble on summer nights. The line “revved up like a deuce” is supposed to mean that young Jersey males are pumped up, excited, and looking for action, just like a prime sports car (as in the Beach Boys’ “little deuce coupe”).
I originally heard it as “Indian Love Song”. Can be wrong… :smack:
My brother Mike was once listening to Higher Love when my dad asked why Steve Winwood was singing “give me an iron lung”. Mike is a musician, and one of the bands he’s been in recorded a song which contained a line about a girl who “sends her dad a postcard”. My father heard the lyric as “Cincinnati postcards”, and still refers to the song by those words.
A few months ago, I was about to correct a poster’s reference to Kung Fu Fighting. When I Googled the lyrics, however, I learned that the line was indeed “those cats were fast as lightning”, and that my ears had deceived me all these years into thinking the martial artists’ kicks were being praised.