# Time for a new "Misheard lyrics" thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 20, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380 "2006-07-20T19:11:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2006, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/61 "2006-09-09T03:47:33Z")
_Oh, don’t lean on me, man, 'Cause you can’t afford the ticket, I’m just somewhat conceited! Oh, don’t lean on me, man, 'Cause you ain’t got time to check it, You know I’m somewhat conceited!_ -David Bowie, “Suffragette City” ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2006, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/62 "2006-09-09T04:01:20Z")
Saturday night I went downtown Working for my eff dee eye (whatever that means) Sitting with a nasty Batman Whiskey bottles by my sigh Bootlegger mumble on my left side Mumble mumble… people were doing wrong Just about to call up the DA, man When I heard this woman singing a song A pair of butterflies made me open my eyes My temperature started to rise She was a long cool woman in a black dress Just to find our beautiful song With just one look I was a bad mess 'Cause that long cool woman had it all La la la la… and so on. I finally Googled the lyrics the other day. She’s actually “five-nine, beautiful tall”, and there is no occurence of Batman in this song. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2006, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/63 "2006-09-09T04:21:30Z")
[QUOTE=Leaffan] That’s not how I heard it. I heard he was singing “Don’t bring me down, Ruce.” And that Ruce was an ex-girlfriend’s name? [/QUOTE] And now that I Googled it, I find I’m completely wrong, I actually have a pretty good ear for hearing the correct lyrics to songs. Hey the “Bruce, Groose, Ruce” thing is an honest mistake. I was baffled by Deep Purple’s lyrics in “Highway Star” for a while in my youth. It always sounded like “No body’s gonna take my girl, she drinks cole slaw every day” when in fact it was “No body’s gonna take my girl, she stays close on every bend.” Apart from that, my record’s clean. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2006, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/64 "2006-09-09T04:31:56Z")
[QUOTE=jsgoddess] “Precious and few are the moments we two can share” is not “Precious and few are the moments we toucans share.” Though I still hear it that way. [/QUOTE] You too, huh? I always pictured it as Toucan Sam singing a sweet love ballad to his beloved, after putting in long hours as the spokesbird for a bunch of Froot Loops! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![parrot\_recipes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@parrot\_recipes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parrot_recipes)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2006, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/65 "2006-09-09T04:39:46Z")
[QUOTE=Helen’s Eidolon] “I wanna be your dog”. I just thought it was some freaky BDSM thing. [/QUOTE] Is that by Iggy Pop or The Monkees? ---
**Author:** ![Lobelia\_Overhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@Lobelia\_Overhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobelia_Overhill)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2006, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/66 "2006-09-09T11:44:24Z")
Behind these hairy lies - Kelly Clarkson ---
**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:** [September 9, 2006, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/67 "2006-09-09T12:55:41Z")
[QUOTE=Rhubarb] Here’s an old one. When my daughter was about 5 or 6, watching re-runs of _The Mary Tyler Moore Show_, she turned and asked why Mary Tyler Moore was going naked. I admit, my ears perked up a bit, but of course, we asked what she meant and she told us it was from end of the theme song where they sing - “You’re going naked after all!” (You’re going to make it after all!) [/QUOTE] I always heard the line in ABBA’s “I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do” as No hard feelings between you and me If we get naked, but just wait and see. It’s actually “If we can’t make it.” And in Joseph: You naked, sordid group is actually: You make a sordid group. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2006, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/68 "2006-09-09T13:20:34Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] _Oh, don’t lean on me, man, 'Cause you can’t afford the ticket, I’m just somewhat conceited! Oh, don’t lean on me, man, 'Cause you ain’t got time to check it, You know I’m somewhat conceited!_ -David Bowie, “Suffragette City” [/QUOTE] Huh. I just realized that in the first verse of that song, he isn’t singing “The smell of fat chicks puts my spine out of place.” ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/69 "2006-09-09T14:53:52Z")
I couldn’t believe the apparent sexism in Jethro Tull’s Aqualung when I thought the line was "Sittin ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2006, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/70 "2006-09-09T14:58:47Z")
Oops. I couldn’t believe the apparent sexism in Jethro Tull’s Aqualung when I thought the line was “Sittin on a park bench/NINE little girl swith bad intent” instead of “EYEING little girls with bad intent”. In the Spinners “One of a Kind (Love Affair)” I thought the line “makes a blind man talk about seeing again” was “makes a blind man talk about sin again”. ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2006, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/71 "2006-09-09T21:16:35Z")
I always thought that Madonna was singing “I’m gonna kiss Don Pardo” instead of “I’m gonna kiss some part of” in “Die Another Day.” I guess I just really wanted that sentence to be complete. As much as I love Interpol, it’s very rare for me to be able to understand what the hell Paul Banks is singing about. “A Time to Be So Small” has some truly fantastic Mondegreens in it. I’ve always heard “Nursing an erection” instead of “Rehearsing interaction,” “The Pope will not stop moving” instead of “The boat will not stop moving,” and “When the cadaverous mob saves its drawers for the Thin Man” instead of “When the cadaverous mob saves its doors for the dead men.” I suppose it doesn’t really matter. Even the real lyrics don’t make a hell of a lot of sense. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2006, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/72 "2006-09-09T21:27:47Z")
For twenty years I thought the last line of “Werewolves of London” was “His hair was purple.” ---
**Author:** ![Leechboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9fc348/32.png) [@Leechboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leechboy)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2006, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/73 "2006-09-10T12:19:01Z")
I knew it was wrong the first time I misheard the line “Hell is worth all that” as “Hell is Football Bat” in Metallica’s “Mastre of Puppets”. But when I spent the next 3 hours trying to work out what the hell you would do with a bat on the football field, I came to realise that while obiously wrong lyrically, there was a sliver of truth to the phrase. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/74 "2006-09-10T13:21:14Z")
[QUOTE=cuauhtemoc] In Elton John’s _Rocketman_: _Rocketmaaaaaaaaan… Burnin’ bag’o’douche on heaven’s lawn_ Apparently the real lyrics are “Burnin’ out his fuse up here alone”. I never would have guessed that in a million years. [/QUOTE] The game _Fallout 2_ made reference to this- when your character is talking to a character nicknamed “Rocketman”, one of the dialogue options involves asking if “Rocketman” has heard the song, and if so, does he know what the lyrics actually are, since they’re kind of hard to understand… 😃 For years, I thought _“Werewolves of London”_ had lyrics about “Werewolves Asunder”, that “Billy and the Footballs” had “Big time happy feet” in _“Down On The Corner”_, and that the chorus to _“Rock The Casbah”_ was “Cherie don’t like it, Rock the Casbah!” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2006, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/75 "2006-09-10T16:17:13Z")
[QUOTE=Martini Enfield] and that the chorus to _“Rock The Casbah”_ was “Cherie don’t like it, Rock the Casbah!” :smack: [/QUOTE] And I just realized that I have no idea what they are saying. Actually, that whole song is a blur for me. Rock the Casbah, though, woo! ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/76 "2006-09-10T17:48:55Z")
Last week I saw a jeans ad which opened my eyes about the Stevie Wonder song, “Sir Duke.” You have to understand, my entire knowledge of the song was hearing snippets of it as a child, while Mom was listening to the radio. So I never really listened to the lyrics, just kind of got the chorus. To me it was, “You can feel it, our love, ah you can feel it, our love for people” Turns out “you can feel it all over.” D’oh! But \*nothing \* beats my mother’s interpretation of “Invisible Touch”: “She seems to have that invisible touch, yeah” Became “She’s a half-pint physical toucher” Sounds like Laura Ingalls hit the skids or something. My mother has never lived this down. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/77 "2006-09-11T02:20:01Z")
[QUOTE=cochrane] Here’s another lyric that probably everyone, myself included has misheard. Don’t bring me down, groos! Don’t bring me down, groos! From “Don’t Bring Me Down” by ELO. I’ve always heard the song as “Don’t bring me down, Bruce!” and wondered for a long time who the hell Bruce is. After looking it up on Wikipedia, I found out the word actually is “groos!” a word that Jeff Lynne apparently made up. [Don’t Bring Me Down (Electric Light Orchestra song)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Bring_Me_Down_%28Electric_Light_Orchestra_song%29) “A common mondegreen in the song is the perception that, following the title line, Jeff Lynne shouts “Bruce!”. However, according to liner notes, he is actually saying a made-up word “Groos”. This is similar to a German word for “Greetings”, grüß.” [/QUOTE] I sing song this fairly regularly at the karaoke club (I’ve even had requests for it–how cool is\* that\*?). The mondegreen is pretty widespread, for even the karaoke lyrics include it! I’m glad to say that I’d already heard the proper lyrics and sing “groos,” as is correct! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/78 "2006-09-11T02:25:23Z")
Oh, and one more. I was singing the ABBA song _Waterloo_, and the way the lyrics came up on screen should’ve gotten the name of the song changed to _Mondegreen_. I can’t remember all of the wrong words, but one of the lines stands out clearly: “Waterloo, knowing my baby’s been meeting you.” The proper lyrics are, of course: “Waterloo, knowing my fate is to be with you.” It was a good thing that I already knew all the words to the song, because that karaoke version had hardly _any_ of them correct. I had to stop looking at the monitor, because I was having to keep from completely cracking up! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/79 "2006-09-11T02:50:39Z")
“Well my soul checked out missin’ as I sat listenin’ To the Eise & Nix ticket away.” I thought Bruce was remembering back when he was a kid and the Eisenhower/Nixon ticket was barreling to the presidency. Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2006, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380/80 "2006-09-11T03:31:55Z")
I remember an ad for a prescription drug which featured Louis Armstrong singing _What A Wonderful Day_. The closed-captioning of this ad interpreted “The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night” as “The bright blessed day, _the dogs say good night._” Since the visual on the screen on the screen at this time was a yawning dog, I’m guessing whoever captioned the ad was thinking the song matched the visuals. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-for-a-new-misheard-lyrics-thread/365380.md?page=5)