When I first came across Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android,” I heard the pre-last part as:
“Rain down, rain down,
Come on, rain down on me…
From a greyhound…
From a greyhound…”
Since I saw this on YouTube with the crazy music video, I had no particular reason to question this interpretation. Alas, looking up the lyrics has dispelled my belief that Thom Yorke desired to be peed on by a dog.
My all-time favorite was from a guy I went to college with.
Real lyric to Roadhouse Blues (The Doors) -
“… woke up this morning and I got myself a beer”
College guy’s lyric:
“… woke up this morning and I got myself some veal”
Of course, now I always sing “some veal” when I hear the song, in my mind I just picture this ultra-decadent lifestyle where you get up in the morning and breakfast on osso buco or saltimbocca.
The same with REM’s This One Goes Out To The One I Love, apparently they used to get people telling them how they fell in love to this rather creepy song about cold blooded murder.
I had a girlfriend from LA a few years back. I went to visit her there once, and to be cute, I broke out singing L.A. Woman while we were hanging out in a park. She got all (mock) offended because she thought the Doors lyric said “L.A. woman’s gonna have to do” (when in fact it’s “L.A. woman, Sunday afternoon”).
(Funnily enough, I used to mishear the lyric exactly the same way before it dawned on me what Morrison was actually saying.)