As I kid, I heard the song before seeing the TV program, and I heard “Secret ASIAN Man”. I thought to myself, “Well how big a secret can it be? And why is it a secret?”
Secret Asian Man
Secret Asian Man
They’ve given you a number
And taken 'way your name
I was a pretty sophisticated kid (I thought), and thought this was something the Communist Chinese did.
It was, of course, Johny Rivers singing Secret AGENT Man (FYI for you young kids who’ve never heard the song and who’s very existemce remind me of how old I am).
As a matter of fact, Rush Limbaugh played this tune using those twisted lyrics whenever he used to discuss the illegal Clinton campaign contributions from the Chinese scandal.
“Big Ol’ Jed and Lina,” instead of “Big ol’ jet airliner,” by the Steve Miller Band. I figured Jed and Lina were some obese couple who couldn’t carry each other very far (next line being, “Don’t carry me too far away”).
Even though I know the real lyrics, I still hear Johnny Rivers singing “secret asian man.” Every time. It’s amazing how much he slurs those syllables.
Also, in “Jokerman,” by Bob Dylan, I always heard a great, wonderfully descriptive, line about “a small dark look on his face.” I was stunned to find out the real lyrics were, “A small dog licking his face.” What was he thinking?
In the CCR song “Bad Moon Rising,” my friend thought John Fogarty said “There’s a bathroom on the right” instead of “There’s a bad moon on the rise.” And in Steve Miller Band’s “Jet Air Liner,” he thought it was “Bingo Jeb had a light on.”
One of the SD books, the blue one, I think, has a discussion of this in it lifted from (I beleive) the old AOL boards. Wouldn’t be surprised if the old-school Dopers were in that one.
Funny thing about “Secret Agent Man”: I play on an intramural hockey team, and last year one of the players was Asian. SOmetimes, a couple of the fans that came to our games got drunk, and whenver that guy did something good in the game, they would actually sing “Secret ASIAN Man,” yelling the Asian part as load as they could. Needles to say, they got in trouble a few times when other people of Asina decent just happen to be at the hockey game (and when I say a few, I mean a lot, since we got to a school with a very high percentage of international students)