# Misheard Lyrics

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [April 5, 2000, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354 "2000-04-05T16:05:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Jeannie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e480ec/32.png) [@Jeannie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeannie)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2000, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/61 "2000-04-09T07:16:00Z")

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In that Melissa Etheredge (sp?) song “I Wanna Come Over,” when she sings, “To hell with the consequence,” I could swear she was singing, “To hell with the concert plans.”

I still like it my way better.

* * *

I never hate myself in the morning. I sleep till noon.  
–Sig line courtesy of Wally 🙂

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**Author:** ![Chrome\_Toaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Chrome\_Toaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chrome_Toaster)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2000, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/62 "2000-04-09T08:27:00Z")

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I remember asking my Mom what “too-rah-hin” was, because that’s what the Jeffersons needed a whole lot of “just to get uppa that hill!”  
(ahh yes, 70’s tv!)

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**Author:** ![Zico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a88e4f/32.png) [@Zico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zico)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2000, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/63 "2000-04-09T13:53:00Z")

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Let’s not forget the mother and father of duff lyrics :

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen…

“Beelzebub’s got a devil for a sideboard.”

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[Lying](http://porkypies.tripod.com) - it’s not big and it’s not clever

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**Author:** ![neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ab097/32.png) [@neuro-trash\_grrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neuro-trash_grrrl)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2000, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/64 "2000-04-09T20:03:00Z")

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Zico, thank you for reminding me of yet another one.

“The algebra has a devil parasite for me, for me, for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”

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Heck is where you go when you don’t believe in Gosh.

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**Author:** ![Anti\_Pro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Anti\_Pro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anti_Pro)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2000, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/65 "2000-04-10T03:55:00Z")

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My most infamous is a Queen song, and it took my son to tell me that I was wrong, and I STILL sing it as: ‘your big disc brakes!’ rather than the real thing  
‘you’re a big disgrace!’

## See, in MINE, he just has car problems!

Judy

and MysterEcks, I HAVE that Jackson Browne cassette! I thought rosie was his girlfriend! NOW you tell me!! :o

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“Muck should replace ‘suck’. For ‘muck’ is yucky, while ‘suck’ feels very lucky. So, don’t stay stuck on suck, switch to MUCK, today.”

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**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2000, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/66 "2000-04-10T07:19:00Z")

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How about SUblime’s “bad FisH” ?

It always sounds like Bradley’s saying “fat bitch”.

LoL

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**Author:** ![pennystheman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d78d45/32.png) [@pennystheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pennystheman)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2000, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/67 "2000-04-10T08:05:00Z")

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there’s an eminem song where he says:  
bought lauren hill’s tape so her kids won’t starve.

i thought it said:  
bought lauren hill’s tape so her kids could star.

meaning, they could be on one of her tape someday; if she kept selling records.

my friend thought it said:  
bought lauren hill’s tape just to get it off the shelf.

there’s an insane clown posse song that is talking about being in a house of horrors, and starts out:  
ticket, please, thanks, walk through the doors

i thought it said:  
kick it, please, thanks, walk through the doors

it’s amazing how much better you can hear and understand music lyrics when you’re under the influence.

* * *

I am not who you think I am.  
I am not who I think I am.  
I am who I think you think I am.

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**Author:** ![chillas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e56c9b/32.png) [@chillas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chillas)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2000, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/68 "2000-04-10T18:32:00Z")

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Back in the 80s Bananarama remade the song Venus. A friend of mine asked me if I heard the song on the radio that said: I’m your penis.

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**Author:** ![SwimmingRiddles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SwimmingRiddles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwimmingRiddles)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2000, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/69 "2000-04-10T18:45:00Z")

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My sister got QUITE angry when I informed her Alanis didn’t think “It’s a Spanish fly/In your chardonay,” was ironic. The correct lyric is “black fly.” She insisted it was, because “chardonay is classy, but Spanish Fly is sleezy.” I had to play her the song.

I think it’s the Massive Attack song, where the female vocalist sings what sounds like “And sweet cornflakes.” It’s “sweet consequence.” I didn’t realise this till I asked a coworker (I was working at a modern rock radio station at the time) why they were talking about cornflakes. Oy.

* * *

A little persistance goes a long way. Announcing:

“I go on guilt trips a couple of time a year. Mom books them for me.” A custom made Wally .sig!

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**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2000, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/70 "2000-04-10T18:51:00Z")

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**R.E.M.** story:

While rehearsing the then-new song “I Believe” Michael Stipe sang/mumbled the lyrics:

“What do you do between the hours of the day?”

A friend who was listening came up afterwards and said how much he loved that lyric about being between “the horns of the day”.

Michael liked the mis-heard lyric so much that he changed it for the actual recording, using the “between the horns” version.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2000, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/71 "2000-04-19T03:33:00Z")

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The words Genesis sang: “She seems to have an invisible touch, yeah.”

The words I heard: “She seems to have a busy butt, touch it.”

* * *

Work is the curse of the drinking classes. (Oscar Wilde)

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**Author:** ![Fillet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/2acd7d/32.png) [@Fillet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fillet)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2000, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/72 "2000-04-19T04:48:00Z")

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**milroyj** said:

> [@](#):
>
> Another one from college, but I can’t for the life of me remember the song title or band:
> 
> “You spin me round, round, like a record baby” was heard as:
> 
> “You spin me round, round, like a rabid baby”

And the answer is… ::drumroll:: “You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)” by Dead or Alive. The line is:

“You spin me right round, baby, right round  
Like a record, baby, right round round round”

[hijack] I saw these guys once in college - Peter Burns (the lead singer) is the only man I’ve ever seen who could stroll seductively like a woman. [/hijack]

In days of yore I worked at Sam Goody; we heard tons of stuff, but for some reason the only one that sticks out in my mind now is “I sing for the city” (“Synchronicity II” by The Police).

Then there’s a minor variant, the misunderstood lyric. A friend of mine nearly lost it once when an older woman marched up to her with a copy of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA,” pointed to the song title “I’m Going Down” and said, “This better not mean what I think it means! I’m supposed to give this to my grandchildren!”

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**Author:** ![ella](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@ella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ella)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2000, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/73 "2000-04-19T06:47:00Z")

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I feel pretty silly about this one, but there is a line in Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” that goes, “the dark sacred night.” I have ALWAYS thought (until very recently) that he was singing, “The dogs say goodnight.”

The real line makes _much_ more sense. :o

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**Author:** ![Gumby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@Gumby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gumby)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2000, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/74 "2000-04-19T07:00:00Z")

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I don’t know how many people know Cold Chisel, but it used to be pretty big in Australia. There was this song that I thought always said  
“Cheap wine and a teenage girl” I always thought the singer was a bit of a paedophile and that the song itself was a bit seedy. The correct line is “Cheap wine and a three day growth” I guess he isn’t as bad as I thought.  
doh!

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“Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is like expecting a bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian.” Dennis Wholey

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**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2000, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/75 "2000-04-19T13:19:00Z")

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Madonna"s “Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie, Put your hands all over my body”.

On the Cold Chisel front, the misunderstanding is not surprising, given that they did record an EP called “You’re Thirteen, You’re Beautiful and You’re Mine”.

A Curly-Whirly, by the way is an English chocolate bar: a chewy toffee lattice covered with chocolate.

picmr

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**Author:** ![JonF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JonF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonF)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2000, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/76 "2000-04-19T13:57:00Z")

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Also [Misheard Lyrics to 80’s Songs](http://www.amiright.com/misheard/archive.shtml).

* * *

jrf

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**Author:** ![tethys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9c0ed/32.png) [@tethys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tethys)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2000, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/77 "2000-04-23T08:44:00Z")

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How ‘bout that classic by the Kentucky Headhunters "Let’s all go down t’ do Miss Walker"? (Let’s all go down to Dumas Walker)

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What if there were no hypothetical situations?

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**Author:** ![Chloe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@Chloe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chloe)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2000, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/78 "2000-04-24T05:10:00Z")

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Everytime the Rolling Stone’s song “Beast of Burden” comes on (God forbid), by boyfriend and I break out with - I’ll never leave your pizza burnin’…

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**Author:** ![Chloe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@Chloe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chloe)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2000, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/79 "2000-04-24T05:19:00Z")

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Sorry, I failed to notice that there was a second page to this thread (cut me some slack, my mind is mid-boggle from working on a lit. analysis)and it appears this has already been mentioned by Green Bean…

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**Author:** ![Greyson3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/258eb7/32.png) [@Greyson3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greyson3)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2000, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misheard-lyrics/16354/80 "2000-04-23T20:12:00Z")

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When I first heard the Peaches song by the Dead Presidents, I thought they were saying  
“…moving to the country, gonna eat a lot of paint chips…” And I think it makes perfect sense.

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