I’ve seen Ozzy tell an anecdote about someone angrily confronting him for telling people to “end your life” in “Paranoid”. He said he was stunned, no idea what the person was referring to, so he ran through the lyrics in his head real quick and realized the person had misheard “enjoy life” as “end your life”. And then he laughed and said that for years he had thought Jimi Hendrix was kissing a guy (“'scuse me, while I kiss the sky”).
"Mondegreens" where you are utterly convinced that you are right, and the rest of the world is crazy
I hate you.[/Professor Fate]
Smut Queen. It absolutely has to be Smut Queen. Well, that’s how I’ve always sang it, and will continue too.
I think this may have been mentioned in a thread recently, but a quick search didn’t reveal anything so maybe I dreamt that (or I’m remembering it from another site). Anyway, I have two from Dire Straits’ “Romeo and Juliet.” The first line often appears on lyrics sites as:
A love struck Romeo sings a street sus serenade
This is obviously someone mis-hearing the real lyric:
…sings the streets a serenade
…because the first lyric is gibberish, while the latter makes perfect sense. But the second example is a bit more ambiguous. Where I hear:
- And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be
All I do is keep the beat, the bad company
And all I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme
Juliet I’d do the stars with you any time
many (most?) people hear:
- And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be
All I do is keep the beat, the bad company
And all I do is kiss you through the bars of Orion
Juliet I’d do the stars with you any time
“Through the bars of a rhyme” obviously means that the only way he can show his love for her is through song: the serenade he sings to the street and the song he’s singing right now. It resonates with the mention of “beat” in the previous line (beat, bars, rhyme, all songwriting stuff).
Now to me they do sound very similar, and I can sort of hear “bars of Orion” if I try really hard, and there is some resonance between the constellation Orion and the stars mentioned in the next line. But there are no “bars of Orion!” He has a famous belt, and a less famous bow, a dagger/sword, and even a freaking hunting dog nearby, but he doesn’t have any bars! It makes no sense!
Oh, man. I really wanted to try not to do this in this thread, because I just keep thinking of this XKCD comic, but I love the music of Dire Straits, so I had to respond here.
Maybe this is down to something we’ve been missing with the advent of digital music - the absence of liner notes. Dire Straits always printed the lyrics to all their songs in the liner notes, so this has a definitive answer. The line as written (and sung) is “A lovestruck Romeo sings a streetsuss serenade” - which is not gibberish. The OED (sorry, not online) defines “sus” in their 1993 Additions as “Know-how, savoir-faire; understanding” therefore Romeo is singing what can be otherwise described as a street-smart serenade. He’s singing specifically to Juliet; why would he sing the streets a serenade?
As for “bars of a rhyme,” that is correct, of course. Wasn’t aware there was any question about it.
Well he would say that, wouldn’t he, with idiots angrily confronting him about about it.
Confirmed. Liner notes for my copy of The Spirit of the Radio.
“Snub queen” makes sense. He’s asking her to go home with him. He says that people call her the snub queen, i.e. that she turns everyone down, but that he doesn’t believe them. I don’t see how “smut queen” makes sense. “Snuff queen” is definitely out. That would either be saying that she snorts snuff - with no obvious connection to the conversation - or else that she stars in movies where people are murdered. Actually murdered.
As in, “Let me go suss that out for you.” Getting the lowdown, the skinny, the straight dope.
The “Dancing Jews”.
I’ve actually heard that the liner notes read “streetsuss,” but always assumed it was just some record company pion transcribing the words wrong. Your definition of “suss” makes sense, it’s not uncommon to say “suss out the details” or “suss out what’s wrong,” but I still like my version better! He’s singing to the street figuratively, belting out his love song to everyone on the street. Everyone who hears it is affected by it. Eventually he makes his way to the streetlight beneath Juliet’s window and calls up to her (“You and me babe, how 'bout it?”). To back me up, this sequence of events happens in the opening of the music video. Maybe “streetsuss” works too, but it just seems funny that such an archaic/obscure word form would be used when the rest of the song is written in very plain language.
I realize that you may very well be correct. Perhaps you’re even most likely correct. But I’m not gonna lie, unless I hear it from Mark Knopler himself (or I get some confirmation that he himself transcribed the lyrics into the liner notes) I’m going to keep singing it my way. 
Thread title noted, there are several YouTube videos of it being performed live by JF and he clearly says flying spoon.
Interesting though, there is a video of him singing “tangerines and Elvis are playing in the band”(1:25) on the second chorus.
Hey, rock on, I don’t mind. And I’ll freely admit it works either way.
For me, when I listen to music, I’ve always liked getting the lyrics with the albums; in fact, I would be seriously annoyed when they weren’t included (hence my reference to the all-digital download era - I know there are “digital booklets” included with digital purchases sometimes, but that seems to be the exception rather than the norm). Anyway, I would usually listen to new music with the lyrics in front of me whenever possible, so some of the things in this thread just seem downright ridiculous to me.
And I’ll just note that “suss” is not at all archaic or obscure in the UK.
Fogerty has been known to play with mondegreens in his live performances - listen here for “Bathroom on the Right”.
Paul McCartney got soooo much grief for “In this ever-changing world in which we live in”–years later, when called on it, he insisted it was “…in which we’re livin’.” That’s not how I hear it sung in the original recording, but I’ll give it to him just to have it corrected!
I just listened to a bunch of live versions of the song on Youtube, hoping to figure this out. Maybe Mark Knopfer himself doesn’t know anymore, because in every live version I could find he merely says " 's got sweet serenade" or “sings a serenade” or some such, getting rid of the controversial syllables. I guess it really doesn’t matter!
I love this. Fogerty obviously has a sense of humour.
John Mellencamp does the same thing in “Small Town”:
“No I cannot forget from where it is that I come from.”
Makes me shudder just a little.
That’s how it’s usually quoted, with three "in"s altogether. But whether it’s really “live in” or “livin’,” the first part is definitely “But IF this ever-changing world…”
Which makes more grammatical sense! That’s got to be it!
When McCartney played the opening bars at a concert I attended, my friend looked over at me and said to Mr. Editor-Me, “I know why you’re laughing.” Now I feel I owe him an apology!
Without ever thinking about it, I always thought it was “It’s as easy as fishin’”, but I think you’re right. The ‘if it were’ makes no sense and doesn’t fit in any way with the sounds I hear.
I always thought ‘mirrors on the ceiling, they put champagne on ice’