Well you have to sleep sometime!
A “Glide” is one of those on-the-porch (or in-the-yard) gentle swings that can “glide” slowly back and forth. The perfect place for “spooning” (kissing and light makin’ out), which is why I thought I’d finally unearthed the real meaning – “won’t you take a ride /on the glide. we’ll spoon” = “Let’s sit on the porch swing and kiss.” Only, apparently, that’s not it. Bummer.
But both Pepper Mill and I independently came up with that interpretation, and were convinced it was right.
I’ve heard David Bowie’s “Fame” many, many times, but I didn’t realize that one of the lines is “I reject you first.”
All these years, I thought it was “I reject your breast.”
There is an old rock song, That i had a much better version of for a long time, until a DJ actually gave the name and wrecked it.
"I don’t wanna work,
I just wanna bang; and get drunk all day."
I found out is not about sex and beer all day long 
"I don’t wanna work,
I just wanna bang on these drums all day"
very disappointing.
And all my life I’ve been hearing:
After all the hell we’ve been through
Sister Goldenhair
Heard: I’ve been won for Boris Karlov
Lyric: I’ve been one poor correspondant
I surely can’t be the only one to mishear Peter Gabriel’s Games Without Frontiers.
The lyric:
Jeux sans frontieres
What I heard:
She’s so popular
or
She’s so frumpy, yeah.
I just heard a bible school song on my boyfriend’s Bioshock video game last night. As a kid, I always knew the words were:
Jesus loves me this I know,
Cause the bible tells me so.
Little one’s too himby long,
They are weak but he is strong.
I didn’t know what a himby was or how it could be too long. But it all makes sense now.
In Dusty Sprigfield’s classic “I Only Want To Be With You”, I always heard her singing
“I fell into your broken arm”
instead of “open arms”
possibly that’s because it’s what I wanted to hear.
Four two nine gotta leave that nine to five up one yourself
And just enjoy yourself
Cool! Mathematics in the music get to you
Life ain’t so bad at all
If you live it off the wall
Hey, I was a kid and I though Michael Jackson simply liked Math as much as I did.
In “Lonesome Day” from “The Rising” by Bruce Springsteen., I hear:
which didn’t seem right to my ears. The correct version is:
I heard it as “She’s so funky, yeah.”
“Jeux sans frontieres”, eh? I’m glad I finally know that now. “She’s so fump-pee-eh” made so little sense. :smack:
Ooh, here’s another one I’ve mentally butchered. **The Who’s ** *We Won’t Get Fooled Again. *
I hear this:
The farting on the left
is now the farting on the right.
Instead of the correct:
The parting on the left
is now the parting on the right.
Even though I know the correct lyric I can’t stop hearing “farting.”
Of course the mental imagery that comes with that is well, it’s a gas I tell ya.
Isn’t this related to “Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear” ?
When I was at a Heart concert at the Hard Rock, the PA system played the Who’s Eminence Front as part of the muzak-so-the-masses-wont-riot-before-the-show music. The girls sitting next to me were singing:
“Livin’ in a butt
livin’ in a butt
it’s a put-on”
But I don’t think they actually thought those were the lyrics.
My daughter once thought the words to Eminence Front were “Eleven o’clock…eleven o’clock…it’s a put-on.”
-As a kid, I thought that one of the lines in the French lyrics to “O Canada” (“Et ta valeur, de foi trempée” - and your valour steeped in faith) was “Et ta valeur, deux fois trompée” (and your valour, twice fooled).
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I had no idea what Tori Amos was singing in the first verse of “Tear in Your Hand.” It’s actually “If you need me, me and Neil will be/Hanging out with the Dream King/Neil said hi, by the way/I don’t believe you’re leaving 'cause me and Charles Manson like the same ice cream.” I thought it was something like “If you need me, kneel, need me, hanging out with the Dream King/Kneels are high, write a word/I don’t believe your leaving puts me in trust/Men should like the same ice cream.” As you can see, the real lyrics don’t make substantially more sense, sort of like “the black of the blackest ocean”, which I thought was “the black of the black nasturtium.”
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The Pet Shop Boys song “Decadence” contains the lyrics “this fin-de-siècle pretense” which I thought was “this kind of painful pretense.” Likewise, “A Red-Letter Day” really says “What does it matter if there’s no one here to share/The flowers in the garden, the wine/The Waiting for Godot and so much modern time,” which I thought was “…a thousand dollars the wine/The waiting forgotten, and so much modern time.”
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I thought Mylène Farmer was singing “Je cherche un ami pour m’aider.” It’s actually “Je cherche une âme qui pourra m’aider.” Not substantially different.
Mine for years were “Hunting the honey black trowel” and “Where the dog star so silently howls” respectively.
The first I can only assume referred to the songwriter pining for the loss of his favorite gardening instrument. The second clearly deals with the nostalgia of being in the theaters watching the pre-talkie Lassie movies.