# Songs With Factual Inaccuracies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 25, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650 "2012-08-25T22:46:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/1 "2012-08-25T22:46:51Z")
**Sade: _Smooth Operator_** _Coast to coast, L.A. to Chicago_ Nope, Chicago does not represent the other coast. If we consider Chicago coast-to-coast, we’re leaving off 2/3 of the country. She could have said “Coast to coast, L.A. to Miami” and retained the meter of the line. Of course, she’d have been out of luck with a rhyme for the next to line (“Across the north and south to Key Largo”), but that’s her problem, not mine. What else? ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2012, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/2 "2012-08-25T23:05:57Z")
I was just listening to U2’s “Rattle & Hum” earlier today. “Pride (In The Name of Love)” has the line: _Early morning, April 4. A shot rings out in the Memphis sky._ Except MLK was shot in the evening, not in the morning. ---
**Author:** ![Rollo\_Tomasi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/58956e/32.png) [@Rollo\_Tomasi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rollo_Tomasi)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2012, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/3 "2012-08-25T23:07:07Z")
In Chuck Berry’s “Brown-Eyed Handsome Man,” there are two lines referring to baseball saying, “2-3, the count with nobody on/He hit a high fly into the stand.” If the count were 2-3, the batter would have struck out already and wouldn’t get the chance to hit that high fly. ---
**Author:** ![LC\_Strawhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@LC\_Strawhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LC_Strawhouse)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2012, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/4 "2012-08-25T23:17:40Z")
Gordon Lightfoot in “If You Could Read My Mind”… mentions an “old time movie, about a ghost from a wishing well”. (meaning something sad and gloomy) Unfortunately there **are** no old-time movies about ghosts in wishing wells. Someone looked this up and the only thing that comes close is a goofy Abbot & Costello movie that would hardly be the inspiration for the song. It’s too bad that there isn’t a real “ghost in a wishing well” movie. Someone should make one. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2012, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/5 "2012-08-25T23:20:47Z")
Kim Wilde: Kids in America. Outside a new day is dawning. Outside Suburbia’s sprawling everywhere. I don’t want to go baby. New York to East California. There’s a new wave coming I warn you. No, _nothing_ is happening in east California, there is fuck all there! You have never actually been to America, or met any of the kids there, have you? ---
**Author:** ![MarkD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@MarkD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MarkD)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2012, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/6 "2012-08-25T23:33:07Z")
King Bee Slim Harpo, Muddy Waters and others. “Well I’m a king bee Want you to be my queen Well I’m a king bee, baby Want you to be my queen” King Bee? What is that? ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2012, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/7 "2012-08-25T23:40:59Z")
Joan Baez - _Diamonds and Rust_ > [@](#): > > And here I sit > Hand on the telephone > Hearing a voice I’d known > A couple of light years ago > Heading straight for a fall A “light year” is a measure of distance not of time. I doubt she means that she’s traveled 12 trillion miles since she last heard the voice. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2012, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/8 "2012-08-25T23:41:47Z")
“It’s April 21st, and everybody knows today is Earth Day…” Earth Day is April 22 ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2012, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/9 "2012-08-25T23:43:04Z")
People always have fun with “Born and raised in South Detroit” around here. the Song is probably 5 times more popular because of it. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2012, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/10 "2012-08-25T23:58:48Z")
[Wikipedia](Mariners’ Church of Detroit as “The Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral”) lists a slew of errors in “the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” including the misidentification of the Mariners’ Church of Detroit as “The Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral.” Gordon Lightfoot is, clearly, a songwriter and not a journalist. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/11 "2012-08-26T00:08:02Z")
Rain on your wedding day isn’t ironic. Well, maybe if you’re a meteorologist, and your bride had suggested one date for the wedding, but you insisted on another on the grounds that the weather would be better (and the day she suggested turned out to be sunny). ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/12 "2012-08-26T00:09:37Z")
> [@MarkD](#): > > King Bee Slim Harpo, Muddy Waters and others. > > “Well I’m a king bee > Want you to be my queen > Well I’m a king bee, baby > Want you to be my queen” > > King Bee? > > What is that? That reminds me of a line from Johnny Cash’s “The Man Comes Around” when he says “The father hen will call his chickens home.” What the heck is a father hen? ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/13 "2012-08-26T00:16:36Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > No, _nothing_ is happening in east California, there is fuck all there! You have never actually been to America, or met any of the kids there, have you? If we sort all the land area in California by its longitude, LA and San Diego are in the eastern 1/4. LA is actually east of Reno. Hey, speaking of Johnny Cash and Reno, why did he end up in the California State Prison at Folsom for shooting a man in Reno, Nevada? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/14 "2012-08-26T00:41:55Z")
> [@GreasyJack](#): > > Hey, speaking of Johnny Cash and Reno, why did he end up in the California State Prison at Folsom for shooting a man in Reno, Nevada? He used one hell of a sniper rifle. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/15 "2012-08-26T00:43:17Z")
_Think I’ll spend eternity in the city Let the carbon and monoxide choke my thoughts away_ No, Mr. Hall (or is that Mr. Oats?), you can let the carbon monoxide choke you, or just let the carbon choke you, but monoxide cannot choke you. Monoxide means an oxygen atom in any given molecule, in this case, linked with one carbon atom to form the toxic gas carbon monoxide. And the oxygen is not choking you. I feel better now. That line makes my teeth grind every time I hear it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/16 "2012-08-26T01:00:03Z")
The one in the OP sounds fine to me: The whole trip is coast-to-coast. The first leg of the trip starts on one coast in the city of angels, heads north to I-80 or I-90, then across to Chicago, and from there, the trip continues to Key Largo, on the other coast. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/17 "2012-08-26T01:03:40Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > Rain on your wedding day isn’t ironic. Well, maybe if you’re a meteorologist, and your bride had suggested one date for the wedding, but you insisted on another on the grounds that the weather would be better (and the day she suggested turned out to be sunny). You could spend all day pointing out every misapplication of irony in that song. For example: [QUOTE=Alanis Morissette] Mr. Play It Safe was afraid to fly He packed his suitcase and kissed his kids goodbye He waited his whole damn life to take that flight And as the plane crashed down he thought “Well isn’t this nice…” [/QUOTE] That’s just bad luck. In order to make that ironic she should have specified (somehow) that he was an Airline Safety Inspector. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/18 "2012-08-26T01:11:19Z")
“below that old White Mountain, just a little southeast of Nome.” - North to Alaska White Mountain is actually a little _northeast_ of Nome. Even a lower case white mountain would be problematic, as everything southeast of Nome is pretty much water. ---
**Author:** ![PaulParkhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@PaulParkhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulParkhead)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/19 "2012-08-26T01:16:08Z")
There will not be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover. I assume that was some sort of metaphor, perhaps, but bluebirds are not found in Europe. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/20 "2012-08-26T01:53:32Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > Gordon Lightfoot in “If You Could Read My Mind”… mentions an “old time movie, about a ghost from a wishing well”. (meaning something sad and gloomy) > > Unfortunately there **are** no old-time movies about ghosts in wishing wells. Someone looked this up and the only thing that comes close is a goofy Abbot & Costello movie that would hardly be the inspiration for the song. > > It’s too bad that there isn’t a real “ghost in a wishing well” movie. Someone should make one. _The Ring_? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650.md?page=2)