# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Scupper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Scupper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scupper)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/101 "2012-08-27T19:07:46Z")
> [@](#): > > Deadly for ten thousand years is Carbon-14. – Sting, “We Work the Black Seam” In any kind of nuclear meltdown or waste situation, Carbon-14 is the least of your problems. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/102 "2012-08-27T19:16:24Z")
It’s possible now that the Chunnel’s been built, but when Berlin sang: "I was on a Paris train /I emerged in London rain " it wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/103 "2012-08-27T19:20:19Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > I shall commit seppuku at once. > [@drewtwo99](#): > > Always remember, [the internet is serious business](http://www.techi.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/The-Internet-is-Serious-Business.jpg). It was a metaphor, dear. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/104 "2012-08-27T20:25:06Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > 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? Around he-ah, we call that - I say, boy - we call that a “roostuh”. [aside]That boy’s about as bright as a burnt-out lightbulb. [/aside] [/Foghorn Leghorn] > [@GuanoLad](#): > > That’s just bad luck. In order to make that ironic she should have specified (somehow) that he was an Airline Safety Inspector. But “Well isn’t that nice” seems pretty ironic. > [@flodnak](#): > > Not without pharmaceuticals, you haven’t (at least on Earth). The sun will always appear to rise in the eastern half of the sky, and appear to set in the western half. It cannot set in the east. I think this is a reference to being in the east (like Tokyo) and the west (like Texas). Not which direction you’re looking. > [@Hermitian](#): > > Uh, no, it doesn’t work that way. While it is true, the thunder you hear happens after the lightning that caused it, it is possible to hear thunder in the distance and then run inside before the storm gets overhead and lightning strikes where you are. That is, presumably, what she meant. “The storm is coming, run for cover!” ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/105 "2012-08-27T21:35:45Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > More to the point… > > [Is not.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benoit_Mandelbrot) WHAT THE HELL, Johnny-C? 🙂 Check the dates. [Mandelbrot Set](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Tradition_Meets_Tomorrow) was in 2004. Mandelbrot death was in 2010. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/106 "2012-08-28T00:25:32Z")
Tinie Tempah’s recent hit “Written in the Stars” goes “written in the stars a million miles away …” I think he’s grossly underestimating distances to stuff in outer space. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/107 "2012-08-28T07:52:32Z")
Geddy Lee of Rush has admitted he mispronounced “Barchetta” in the song Red Barchetta. He pronounced it with a “ch” when really its pronounced barketta. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/108 "2012-08-28T09:47:50Z")
Close to the spirit of the OP, I was looking through old records at a yard sale the other day and come across one that featured “The Love Theme from The Flight of the Falcon.” The original movie. Which features no women. And no men that could be thought of as gay. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/109 "2012-08-28T12:17:18Z")
Georgie Fame should have sung: _Bonnie and Clyde were driving in the sunshine realized it was a trap and reached for their guns then got filled full of lead_ Not as evocative as the original, but far more accurate. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/110 "2012-08-28T13:01:21Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > Geddy Lee of Rush has admitted he mispronounced “Barchetta” in the song Red Barchetta. He pronounced it with a “ch” when really its pronounced barketta. That’s still better than Tom Cochrane pronouncing “Somalian” as if it rhymed with “coma lion” in White Hot. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/111 "2012-08-28T13:32:09Z")
> [@flodnak](#): > > It’s minor, but it’s annoying: Slade’s “Far Far Away” includes the line: > Not without pharmaceuticals, you haven’t (at least on Earth). The sun will always appear to rise in the eastern half of the sky, and appear to set in the western half. It cannot set in the east. But “the east” doesn’t refer only to “the east as viewed from my location”, it also refers to that part of the planet also known as the Far East or the Orient; the speaker was in the East watching the sun set to the west. I’ve watched the sun come up in the east many times, and I’ve watched it come up in the West, but I’ve never watched it come up in the East. The line is politically but not factually incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/112 "2012-08-28T13:38:48Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Ah, that song drives me nuts. The mother’s deaf and the father’s blind? How do they communicate? > > Both cloying and impossible. What, you missed that documentary with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder? [QUOTE=See No Evil, Hear No Evil] Dave: Why don’t you look me in the eye and say that? Wally: I would if I could, but I can’t; I’m blind. Dave: You’re blind? Wally: Yes I’m blind. What, are you fucking deaf? Dave: Yes, I’m fucking deaf! Wally: You’re really deaf? Dave: I’m really deaf. Wally: Then how do you know what I’m saying? Dave: Because I’m reading your lips! Now, you want the job or not? [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Hogfather65](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/7bcc69/32.png) [@Hogfather65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hogfather65)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/113 "2012-08-28T13:39:36Z")
> [@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. Thought thats was a reference to one of the [Topper](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029682/)movies, [Topper Takes a Trip](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032043/) or [Topper Returns](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034303/) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2012, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/114 "2012-08-28T21:59:55Z")
Don Black & Andrew Lloyd Webber’s song "Take That Look Off Your Face (from) “Tell Me On A Sunday”) has a British woman living in New York singing this line “He’s doing some deal up in Baltimore now.” Baltimore is not “up” from NYC. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/115 "2012-08-29T01:07:58Z")
> [@cosmosdan](#): > > “Momma couldn’t hear our pretty music, but she read our lips and help the family sing” > > Really? Momma was deaf and helped you sing. I wonder what that sounded like? She kept time by clapping her hands? > [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > The Battle of New Orleans: _“In 1814 we took a little trip…”_ > – But the Battle of New Orleans (the climactic battle) was in 1815. But I am pretty sure they actually headed down to New Orleans in 1814, since the Interstate system was not all that good then. Plus, the actual fighting started in late December, setting up the final battle. > [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > _“Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip”_ > – the battleground was up river from New Orleans. Say what? The British came from Lake Borgne and hit the Mississippi River about 9 miles down stream from New Orleans. Jackson marched and did a night attack on December 23, which he lost, but it kept the British in place, so the main battle took place very close to that spot. It was to the east of New Orleans because of the way the river bends, but it was definitely downriver. > [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > _“And we caught the bloody British in the town of New Orleans”_ > – no, they caught them outside New Orleans – preventing the British from taking the town was the point of the battle. By that reasoning it shouldn’t even be named the Battle of New Orleans, since the actual fighting never got close to it. > [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > _“We looked down the river and we see’d the British come”_ > – the British came by land, marching across from Lake Borgne. Again, they reached the Mississippi and started following it upriver to the city. > [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > _“they began to runnin’, On down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico”_ > – the British retreat was also by land, back across to Lake Borgne and into the Gulf. > Preventing them from going down the Mississippi, into New Orleans, was what the Americans were fighting for. And again, the British marched downriver away from the city, to reach the bayous then the Lake, which did eventually get them to the Gulf of Mexico. They did send some ships up the Mississippi after that to attack a fort protecting the mouth, but that didn’t last long. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/116 "2012-08-29T01:49:21Z")
> [@](#): > > Oh, give me a home where the Buffalo roam > Where the Deer and the Antelope play Buffalo are Asian, Antelope African. Almost all native Deer in North Americas lived in the Rockies, so in the ranges not on the range. The exception is the Elk which is technically a deer, so for clarity’s sake let’s go with: > [@](#): > > Oh, give me a home where the Bison roam > Where the Elk and the Pronghorn play [QUOTE=Tennyson] ‘Every moment dies a man,/ Every moment one is born’: [/QUOTE] I need hardly point out to you that this calculation would tend to keep the sum total of the world’s population in a state of perpetual equipoise whereas it is a well-known fact that the said sum total is constantly on the increase. I would therefore take the liberty of suggesting that in the next edition of your excellent poem the erroneous calculation to which I refer should be corrected as follows: ‘Every moment dies a man / And one and a sixteenth is born.’ I may add that the exact figures are 1.167, but something must, of course, be conceded to the laws of metre. — Charles Babbage Unpublished letter to Tennyson in response to his Vision of Sin (1842) ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/117 "2012-08-29T02:16:23Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > **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? [A Chicago group went to court and succeeded in having Lake Michigan declared an “arm of the sea”](http://articles.latimes.com/1986-04-27/sports/sp-24287_1_midwest-group). So, if the song writer is an America’s Cup yachtsman, it’s a perfectly reasonable lyric. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/118 "2012-08-29T02:17:46Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > 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. Not in England, or Australia, or somewhere… ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2012, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/119 "2012-08-29T02:28:33Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > … > > If the “Georgia Patrol” (I assume you mean the State Patrol) was flagged down by your brother’s shot, how did it happen that a “big-bellied sheriff” grabbed his gun. The State Patrol is state law enforcement, while the sheriff is local law enforcement. They’re not going to be patrolling together. The car-pooled to the Klan meeting? ---
**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 29, 2012, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650/120 "2012-08-29T02:57:02Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Not in England, or Australia, or somewhere… It would have been even later in those places; they’re all ahead of the U.S., time-wise. By the time MLK was shot, it wasn’t even April 4 in a lot of places anymore. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-factual-inaccuracies/632650.md?page=7)