What are some lyrics on which almost everyone makes mistakes?
I can think of two:
For R.E.M.'s “Losing My Religion”, it seems that everyone (including Weird Al!) misquotes the line “Trying to keep up with you” as “Trying to keep a few”.
In Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight”, I’ve most often heard “I can feel it coming in the air tonight, O’ Lord” as “I can feel it coming in the air tonight, hold on”.
" 'Scuse me while I kiss this guy…"
Though that is a rather famous mis-heard lyric, I’ve never actually met anyone who thought those were the lyrics to the song.
“Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The online lyrics sources disagree with each other, and with the sheet music I saw back in the 90s. It’s not “Oh no I know a dirty word,” it’s “And all I know are dirty words.”
“I’m a pool hall ace” for “how my poor heart aches” in that Police song. I felt really dumb for thinking that when I found out the real lyric, but then over the years I’ve realized that pretty much everyone else thinks it too.
Other than the Purple Haze lyric, I’ve never heard of any of these mistakes before.
But I’ve seen plenty of Dopers miss the "boo boo boo"ing of George Wallace in Sweet Home Alabama. The song stinks either way, but if you miss the boos it changes the meaning and tone substantially.
I always thought it was “Trying to keep a view” and never knew what the heck he meant by that.
Are you saying the actual lyrics are O’ Lord? Because I’m pretty sure it’s Hold on.
That song by Stevie Nicks where she sing “Just like the white winged dove” gets misheard a lot. I thought she said “Just like the one we love.” I don’t know why I thought that.
What about the Sara Lee jingle? Everybody (including me, for years) thinks it’s “Nobody does it like Sara Lee.” It’s actually “Nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee.”
Some other attempts at this thread concept:
Name that tune Misheard Lyrics Edition
What song lyrics have you misinerpreted?
Oh, so that’s what they’re singing!
Worst misunderstanding of lyrics ever
D’oh! Misheard lyrics in an oft-heard song
Enjoy reading.
There’s the Rolling Stones song “I’ll Never See Your Pizza Burning.”
See you, me, and Julio, down by the school yard
Back to what the OP wanted: lyrics most people got wrong:
Seal. “I’ve been kissed by a rose on the grave” Actually, despite nearly everyone thinking it’s “grave” the actual word is grey. Which makes far less sense…
Oh my god, are you sure? I’ve always thought it was gray, and then someone recently told me it was grave and I thought: :smack:. Didn’t the guy who sang it on American Idol this year say grave?
Seal himself has never said (to my knowledge) what the lyric he sang is. He HAS stated in the past that he doesn’t provide “jacket” lyrics because the song is whatever you hear, and what difference does it make what he actually sang? I’ve always thought that was a cop out for poor diction, myself…
By the way, we’ve discussed Seal’s lyric to death before…
If my ears do not fail me, even Hendrix flubbed this line from "Watchtower’:
Buisiness men they drink my wine
Plowmen dig my Earth
But none of them along the line
Knows what any of it is worth…
The second verse of “Yesterday”. Everyone in the world, including probably Paul McCartney, THINKS this verse goes as follows:
“Suddenly I’m not half the man I used to be. There’s a shadow hanging over me; oh, yesterday came suddenly.”
I, OTOH, maintain that the lyric actually IS “… oh yes, today came suddenly.”
It makes more sense (because that verse is talking about now, not before) and is cleverer. IMHO.
I have personally smelled that song, and found the aroma quite pleasing.
Responding to the OP, from “Blinded by the Light”, the line is:
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
There is no reference to female cleansing products as many sing in bars.
None ever knew what I meant when I talked about Mick Jagger falling in love with a canadian football player.
“Yukon Runningback, Yukon Runningback, to me, me, oh me…”
AC/DC’s famous song: Dirty Deeds, Thunderchief
I always thought the R.E.M. line was “Trying to keep an eye on you.”