# Ever been disappointed when you learned the REAL lyrics to a song? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 6, 2012, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-disappointed-when-you-learned-the-real-lyrics-to-a-song/608586 "2012-01-06T03:15:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-disappointed-when-you-learned-the-real-lyrics-to-a-song/608586/21 "2012-01-06T19:36:35Z")
Not a case of misheard lyrics, just not-listened-to lyrics: I initially thought “Smoke on the water, fire in the sky” was a pretty cool lyric. Then I find out it’s just about a hotel burning down, with emphasis on how inconvenient that was for recording an album. Zzzzzzzz ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-disappointed-when-you-learned-the-real-lyrics-to-a-song/608586/22 "2012-01-06T21:05:15Z")
Heh, I was going to post a similar thread (and kept forgetting about it-I really need to keep a “SD Thread Idea” notebook close at hand): “When your Mondegreen is better than the actual lyric.” Mine would be Lush’s “Sweetness and Light”. My version of the chorus is as follows: You are the Sweetness and the Light You are the purple in the sky The actual (apparent) one: You are the Sweetness and the Light You are an apple in disguise Which isn’t exactly horrible, exactly, but I still like mine better. Damned fuzzed out shoegaze vocals… ---
**Author:** ![FuriousGeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecae2f/32.png) [@FuriousGeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuriousGeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-disappointed-when-you-learned-the-real-lyrics-to-a-song/608586/23 "2012-01-06T21:21:34Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > From the old blues song, “Preacher’s Blues” – > > The real lyrics: > > He’ll eat your chicken > He’ll eat your pie > He’ll lead your wife out > On the sly > > This is not what I had first thought. Your thought is prolly what was meant anyway… ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-disappointed-when-you-learned-the-real-lyrics-to-a-song/608586/24 "2012-01-06T21:33:23Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Heh, I was going to post a similar thread (and kept forgetting about it-I really need to keep a “SD Thread Idea” notebook close at hand): “When your Mondegreen is better than the actual lyric.” > > … Mentioned a number of times before, but in Elton John’s _Someone Saved My Life Tonight_ I heard the following lyrics: > [@](#): > > Someone saved my life tonight… Sugar Bear… Which I thought I was mishearing… WTF does that even mean? I’ve gotta have it wrong, right? There’s no way EJ is referencing a cartoon character created to market cereal in a song about his suicide. So I figured out that what EJ _must_ be singing is this… > [@](#): > > Someone saved my life tonight… Should’ve they?.. Which makes more sense, imho. So I go along with this mondegreen until I mentioned it in another mondegreen thread here 'bout 2-7 years ago (I’ve been on these boards for a while), whereupon I was told that the original lyric (the [Sugar Bear](http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/images/Premiums/sugarbear-printedface.JPG) lyric) was correct. Faw! It is now obvious: Elton John (well, Bernie Taupin) knows shit about songwriting. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2012, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-disappointed-when-you-learned-the-real-lyrics-to-a-song/608586/25 "2012-01-06T22:18:11Z")
When I first heard the song “Tik Tok” I thought the line was “'Till we see the Satellite.” I thought that was a weird and interesting lyric for a pop song which made me like it. I later learned she was saying “Sunlight” which is Yawn. But I swear it still sounds like “Satellite” to me unless I say “Sunlight” in my head. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-disappointed-when-you-learned-the-real-lyrics-to-a-song/608586/26 "2012-01-09T16:34:29Z")
Funny thing… it happened just this past weekend. There’s a verse in Lou Christie’s “Make You Mine” that goes: _I’ll be a hard-lovin’, pushin’ kind of individual Knockin’ night and day at your door You’ll have to turn me away like an indestructible force_ All my life, I thought that last line was “indestructible boar,” and was a clever (and remarkably literate) reference to the Twelve Labors of Hercules. I’m disillusioned to find out that it’s not. And now that I think about it, it was the Nemean Lion, not the Erymanthian Boar, that was indestructible, so it would have been wrong anyway. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-disappointed-when-you-learned-the-real-lyrics-to-a-song/608586/27 "2012-01-09T16:46:24Z")
Yes, the Beatles’ “the girl with kaleidoscope eyes” is so uninspiring, compared to “the girl with colitis goes by.” And then there’s Billy Joel’s “I am an elephant man.” Some songwriters would do a lot better if they just sang the wrong words in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2012, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-disappointed-when-you-learned-the-real-lyrics-to-a-song/608586/28 "2012-01-09T22:57:44Z")
Just found one today, in Wolfpack by Syd Barrett, I thought he sang: “Magnesium robots and subs” which makes sense, since the lyrics can be interpreted as describing an attack by a wolf pack of submarines. And magnesium robots are pretty cool-sounding, and sounds like the sort of thing you’d throw into a psychedelic-era song about an oceanic battle (since magnesium does have a metallic-yet-oceanic-ness to it.) But it’s actually “Magnesium proverbs and sobs” … what does that even mean? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-been-disappointed-when-you-learned-the-real-lyrics-to-a-song/608586.md?page=1)