There are many songs that I listened to, and liked, for years without realizing that I had one of the lyrics wrong. Usually I don’t feel like it matters, but there are some songs where I actually feel disappointed when I learn the real lyric - because I feel that the lyric I had in my head was better (more poetic, I guess.)
For a long time, the only version of Van Morrison’s song Caravan was the one from the Last Waltz. And I always thought the second verse was:
And the caravan is painted red and white
That means everybody’s staying overnight.
And the barefoot gypsy boys 'round the campfire sing and play
and the Roman soldiers walk away.
I didn’t know exactly what the last part was supposed to mean, but I thought it sounded great. I was really let-down when I learned the real line: “And the woman tells us of her ways.”
Likewise, for many years, I loved the song Strange Overtones by David Byrne and Brian Eno. However - I always thought he was saying: “Strange ARE the tones.”
Strange are the tones…in the music you are playing.
I thought this was such an awesome line, “strange are the tones,” because of the archaic, poetic sounding syntax. I was devastated when I found out that the title, and hence the lyric, was “Strange Overtones.”
For years, I thought the second line of “Sunshine of Your Love” was “I’ll soon be with you, my love, to give you my dull surprise”. I liked it. It sounded psychedelic and weird.
Then I found out that it was “dawn surprise” instead of “dull surprise”, and realized the entire song was just a metaphor about having sex in the morning.
I’ve never liked that song quite as much since then.
I always thought Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones was a song about heroin disguised as a love song, or a love song about a woman that tastes so good. I liked the ambiguity.
Turns out its pretty explicitly about slave rape, if you could actually make out the lyrics in the actual song I doubt it would have become a hit.
I am almost certain that you had it right the first time. The guys who wrote it, Lowen and Navarro, definitely say “embrace”. Where did you get the word “rephrase”?
In The Wire’s first season, the detectives are complaining to each other how hard it is to understand what’s being said on the intercepted pay-phone calls between gang members.
Out of the blue, Det. Pryzbylewski slowly recites that line. Everyone looks at him like now they now know Prez is off his rocker. He then explains that as a kid he pressed his ear against his stereo speaker until he deciphered the right words to “Brown Sugar”. He then goes on to explain what the drug dealers are really saying to each other through all the static. Cool scene.
I thought Springsteen’s “Rosalita” went “and your poppa suddenly knows that I don’t have any money.” But it’s really "and your poppa *says he knows *that I don’t have any money.
I liked it better the way I heard it, like Rosie’s dad is “suddenly” throwing obstacles between his daughter and her suitor now that he realizes she might run off with a deadbeat.
Relistening to it, I think he sings it both ways over the three times it repeats.
This reminds me of an R.E.M. story. The boys had been rehearsing “I Believe” which included the line:
What do you do between the hours of the day?
Anyway, a friend came up to Stipe and told him how much he liked that line “What do you do between the horns of the day?” Michael was so amused and liked the mondegreen so much that he changed the lyrics of the song to include the misheard line.
