# Misheard lyrics redux **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 20, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics-redux/309084 "2005-06-20T17:50:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Tazmanian\_Devil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@Tazmanian\_Devil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tazmanian_Devil)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics-redux/309084/61 "2005-07-02T15:42:16Z")
At the end of Michael Jackson’s ‘Wanna Be Startin’ Something’, the words are ‘Ma ma se, ma ma sa, ma ma coo sa’, but I at first misheard it as ‘I’m gonna sing the song that Michael sung’, and I wasn’t alone, as one of the radio stations in Chicago had people calling in to guess what that end line was, and several callers had the same guess as I. ---
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics-redux/309084/62 "2005-07-03T03:23:09Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > Here are [the lyrics.](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/jackson-5,-the/68457.html) Apparently you’re mishearing “gotta do”. The mystery is solved! But I am NOT mishearing gotta do. I was mishearing Jermaine’s “without the root”. You can see the similarity. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics-redux/309084/63 "2005-07-03T14:20:25Z")
When my brother and I were discussing these and other mondegreens, the classic menage a trois song was mentioned, _Life would be ecstasy, you and me and Leslie_ and my sister in law says, “That’s not what they’re singing?” :smack: Hilarity ensued. ---
**Author:** ![Phish\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9adbd/32.png) [@Phish\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phish_Head)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics-redux/309084/64 "2005-07-03T18:00:26Z")
_Dirty Deeds_…and the Thunder Chief! 😃 Next you hear it, check it out. **Thunder Chief** sounds so much better. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics-redux/309084/65 "2005-07-03T18:27:58Z")
Another one for me is in Jimi Hendrix’s version of “All Along the Watchtower.” In the part where the lyrics say “plowmen dig my earth,” I used to think jimi was saying, “come and dig my herb.” ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics-redux/309084/66 "2005-07-03T18:36:54Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > Another one for me is in Jimi Hendrix’s version of “All Along the Watchtower.” In the part where the lyrics say “plowmen dig my earth,” I used to think jimi was saying, “come and dig my herb.” Me, too **Dio**. ---
**Author:** ![Good\_Egg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Good\_Egg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Good_Egg)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics-redux/309084/67 "2005-07-03T21:41:14Z")
Ah, but he was, he was… ---
**Author:** ![mamboman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@mamboman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamboman)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2005, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics-redux/309084/68 "2005-07-04T09:43:52Z")
Carrying on the Hendrix theme, a good pal of mine who’s whole life reveolves around Hendrix always though “House Burning Down”'s first line was “well, I asked my friend/ where is that tax book( black smoke) coming from” and had to be long argued with to change his mind. Another guy I know for years thought Cat Steven’s "First Cut is The Deepest’ was actually “First Cousin to Jesus” And my personal _bete noir_, not so much a misheard as a consistently refused to hear properly - Dusty Springfield’s “I Only Want to be with You” - instead of “I fell into your open arms” I can’t help but sing “I fell into your broken arms” mm [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics-redux/309084.md?page=3)