# Song lyrics I misunderstood
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 27, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985 "2011-06-27T03:15:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bahia\_hombre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bahia_hombre)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/1 "2011-06-27T03:15:28Z")
Hall & Oates, “One on One”
One on one I wanna play that game tonight
One on one I know I wanna play that
One on one I wanna play that game tonight
One on one so slow
I guess I never even really knew the name of the song - until I recently bought the CD - or I would have known what they were saying. I thought it was a repetitive “Want, I want, I wanna play that game tonight…”
:smack:
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### Author:  [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2011, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/2 "2011-06-27T03:29:47Z")
Classic basketball song.
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### Author:  [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2011, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/3 "2011-06-27T06:18:51Z")
My favorite Mondegreen (as misheard song lyrics are called) was from a young girl who insisted that the Three Dog Night song about the party was “I’m a Troll in a Cup.”
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### Author:  [@Art\_Rock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Art_Rock)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2011, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/4 "2011-06-27T07:34:33Z")
Jim Croce Lover’s cross:
Actual lyrics:
Cause now it seems that you wanted a martyr, just a regular guy wouldn’t do - but baby I can’t hang upon no lover’s cross for you…
I always heard this as:
Cause now it seems that you wanted a mother, just a regular guy wouldn’t do - but baby I can’t hang upon no lover’s cross for you…
Confusion all around.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2011, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/5 "2011-06-27T08:04:40Z")
The Beatles: “The girl with colitis goes by.”
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2011, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/6 "2011-06-27T08:09:18Z")
A few weeks ago I was itching, for no particular reason to hear, a specific [Nine Inch Nails](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrcTsxs-anU) song. I had no idea what the name of it was, but that shouldn’t be a problem since normally you can just plug a few lyrics into youtube or google and come up with the song. I googled the only lyrics from the song I knew for at least an hour and came up empty handed. I even went through NIN’s catalog and started pulling up every song who’s title I didn’t know…I started to wonder if maybe it wasn’t a NIN song at all. Turns out I was so off on the lyrics that not even your normal “misheard lyrics” type websites mentioned it. At this point I still had no idea I had the lyrics wrong since I had known them forever. Eventually I ran across someone else on some other message board laughing at themself because they heard them the same way I did and their friend had just pointed out the correct lyrics to them. Anyways, since forever, I had heard “I was up above it” as “How is everybody.”
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2011, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/7 "2011-06-27T10:51:49Z")
I was never sure if the Killer Queen is as \*faithful \*as a pussycat, or as _graceful_.
Turns out, she’s neither.
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### Author:  [@NineToTheSky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NineToTheSky)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2011, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/8 "2011-06-27T11:17:10Z")
There’s the classic Jimi Hendrix one: ‘Scuse me while I kiss this guy’ is actually ‘Scuse me while I kiss the sky’.
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### Author:  [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2011, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/9 "2011-06-27T12:40:54Z")
The best ones are from kids.
Back in the day there was a popular song, “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.”
My friends young daughter used to sing, “Don’t It Make My Brownies Smooth.”
mmm
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### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/10 "2011-06-27T13:45:24Z")
Are you living in the East?
Strolling away the time?
Are you gathering up the years?
Do you have a diamond mine?
I thought it was about a rich Easterner wasting their life.
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### Author:  [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2011, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/11 "2011-06-27T15:46:47Z")
My favorite was Dave Barry’s _Help Me, Rhonda_ misinterpretation of the opening lines:
> [@Dave Barry misquoting the Beach Boys](#):
>
> Well, since she put me down/ There’s been owls pukin’ in my bed
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### Author:  [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/12 "2011-06-27T16:26:24Z")
ELP’s _Take A Pebble_
First line is “Just take a pebble…”
My lovely or talented wife misheard it as “Drastic apparel…”
.
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### Author:  [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/13 "2011-06-27T21:07:04Z")
In 1993 Coverdale and Page released an album called, well, “Coverdale and Page”, and since it was two of my teenage idols if you will I bought oit ut of curiousity. It pretty much sucked, but I liked ‘Shake My Tree’ and ‘Pride and Joy’. However, the last one was ruined by the line: “Purify my soul and pour the whole shit over me.” Even though I read the lyrics and found out he is actually singing, Purify my soul an’ pour _your ocean over m_e, I could never hear anything but the shit part. – Well, that’s what I got.
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### Author:  [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2011, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/14 "2011-06-28T03:33:15Z")
Speaking of Coverdale, inbetween Deep Purple and Whitesnake he did some solo work.
One song, that I love, is “Only my Soul”.
Actual lyrics, “Hear me crying out for love.”
What I heard, “Hear me crying out below.”
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### Author:  [@K1LL\_4\_FUN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K1LL_4_FUN)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2011, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/15 "2011-06-28T06:35:17Z")
Jimi Hendrix version of All Along The Watchtower. When Hendrix says “So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late” the first time I heard it I thought the lyrics where “So let us not talk falsely now, I was getting laid”
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### Author:  [@Rico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rico)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2011, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/16 "2011-06-28T06:37:45Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#):
>
> The best ones are from kids.
>
> Back in the day there was a popular song, “Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue.”
>
> My friends young daughter used to sing, “Don’t It Make My Brownies Smooth.”
> mmm
Back in my previous life as a disc jockey, we would call that song “Donuts Make My Brown Eyes Blue.”
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### Author:  [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/17 "2011-06-28T14:42:18Z")
“Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”
I used to think the opening words were:
“I can’t lie, no more of your darkness” until I heard Oleta Adams cover it. Then I realized it was:
“I can’t light no more of your darkness” makes more sense.
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### Author:  [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/18 "2011-06-28T16:05:01Z")
The daughter of a friend of mine thought “Don’t Wanna Be You Slave,” by the Stones, was “Don’t Wanna Be Your Slice.” The effect of this line coming out of a 5-year-old was pretty funny.
My own daughter was one of apparently many who thought the Fugees were singing “Killing me softly with insults.” I think I might have thought so too if I didn’t know the original.
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### Author:  [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/19 "2011-06-28T16:29:37Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#):
>
> Classic basketball song.
Yup with some dribbling and some shooting…which might result in more dribbling…😃
But in staying with the OP, I always thought Don Henley was singing…
_“I can see..your breasts get shiny in the sun…”_
when it is
_“I can see your **brown skin shining** in the sun…”_
I like my version better…
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/song-lyrics-i-misunderstood/586985/20 "2011-06-28T17:14:19Z")
“The Boxer” - Simon & G: In the quiet of a railway station, lettuce skin.
“Take a Chance on Me” - Abba: If you change your mind, I’m the first in line; allie oxen free, take a chance on me.
One from my ex-wife: “Treat Him Well, He is Your Brother” - Abba: Sleeping Willie is your brother.
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