What song lyrics have you misinterpreted?

Cafe Society
21

In the song “Welcome” from the Who’s Tommy, I thought Roger Daltrey was singing:

Milkman come in!
And you baker,
Little old lady welcome
And Jew shoe maker

The official lyrics are “you shoe maker”. Though in that case Roger’s “y” still sounds awfully like a “j”.

This is unrelated, but I sometimes misread signs with peculiar results. For example, the deli in the hospital where I work has a different couple of soups available daily, with little placards set above the tureens listing the soup variety. The other day I thought they were advertising “Medical Turtle” soup. Yum, how therapeutic.

When I got a litle closer, I saw it was actually “Mexican Tortilla”.

Still not very appetizing.

22

I used to think Billy Joel was singing,

“I’m an elephant man!”

23

“Every time you go
away
you take a piece of meat
with you…”

(what a bitch! why is she taking all his meat???)

“All I need is America
all I neeeeeeeeeed is you”

(make up your damn mind!)

24

For over a decade I thought the Beatles’ “Paperback Writer” was Take the back right turn.

Yes, really.

I never understood why the rest of the lyrics were about a guy trying to sell his book.

25

Classic Maxell ad

26

In Rocket Queen, when Axl sings, “I’m a sexual innuendo” I heard “I’m a bisexual innuendo.” Which you gotta admit, is a lot cooler.

27

My “Blinded by the Light” haluca hear is “little early burly gave my anus curly whirly”

28

Miniature highway, in the sunshine
Where the days are longer
The nights are stronger than moonshine
You’re gonna go I know

29

I also heard the “anus curly whirly” line.
We’ve done this before, my misheard lyric was from an Aerosmith song, “Lovin’ an Alligator”.

30

Counting Crows - Big Yellow Taxi

You don’t know what you’ve got 'till it’s gone.
It ain’t paradise, put on a fucking light.

The real lyrics are:

You don’t know what you got till it’s gone.
They paved paradise and put up a parkin’ lot

31

When I was a kid, I thought ABBA’s Waterloo went:

My, my, at Waterloo the pony did surrender

It’s actually:

My, my, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender

32

I love 'em.

33

There’s a Rob Thomas song called “Lonely No More”.

Part of the lyrics go:

Which, I swear to God, I always heard as:

Took me an embarassingly long time to figure that out.

Also, I heard “dogs say goodnight” instead of “dark sacred nights” in “What a Wonderful World”.

34

It’s a bit of a cliché, but for many years I seriously thought that CCR was telling listeners that they can find a bathroom on the right.

I only figured out the real lyrics after I found out the name of the song (Bad Moon Rising).

35

It’s because when Jose went to the ball game, all the seats were sold except for one in center field, next to the flagpole. The crowd just wanted to be sure he had a good view of the field.

Although I’ve never heard of a baseball game starting at dawn before.

“I led the pigeons to the flag…” :smiley:

36

This is fantastic!!:smiley:

Mine:

Love and adore you
Always lookin’ for you
And I’ll be there whenever you need me
Be my spiderwoman
I’ll be your spiderman

The Charlatans - One to Another

Always thought the last part was:
I’ve been inside a woman
I’ve been inside a man

:smack:

37

I always thought Eddie Vedder was singing:
“head at your feet, fool to your crown
pissed on my face, swallowed it down”
in Rearview Mirror. “Fist on my plate” is much less humiliating.

38

The Disturbed song Are You Breathing? has 2 sets of lyrics that, while I didn’t think these were the actual lyrics, sure sound like it, AND are much more entertaining this way.

Instead of:
Insane you’re gonna die when you listen to me

It sounds like:
N’Sync you’re gonna die when you listen to me
And instead of:
You’re still breathing, you’re making me glum.

It REALLY sounds like:
You’re still breathing, you’re making meatloaf.

No question about which version would be better!

39

In Crocodile Rock, I always heard “Suzie went leftist for some foreign guy…” Hey, it was the times, right?

40

"Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone … "

For the longest time I thought it was:

“Rocket man burning down the streets of Avalon”

I never could quite figure out what that meant.