Four Hundred Children and a Crop In the Field

[mct1]

May 21, 2013 9:47:27 GMT -5 tarobe said:

"Some underworld spy or the wife of a clothespin" ("You're So Vain," Carly Simon)

I heard the last part of that line as "the wife of a postman", I guess meaning that James Bond was into all the ladies, not just those in high society.

A few more:

As a small child, I heard the phrase "the comet exploded" in Paul McCartney & Wings' "With A Little Luck" as "the town just exploded".

When the Eagles' "Heartache Tonight" was popular, my father thought the name of the song was "Party Tonight".

The line "the papers want to know whose shirts you wear" in David Bowie's "Space Oddity" is often misheard as "the papers want to know who shot you where".

There are different degrees of these. The best are the ones where it truly sounds like the misheard lyric could be what is being said, and the misheard lyric actually makes a certain amount of sense (although to the extent that we heard these as small children, we may not have yet known enough to judge what made sense and what didn't). Others could be misheard if you aren't paying that much attention to the song, but don't hold up to repeated listening, or they really don't make sense in the context of the song, which has to make you think they may not be right. A few more in this category:

The title phrase in Peter Gabriel's "Shock The Monkey" kind of sounds like "Jacques The Monkey".

The phrase "cool on craze" in Wang Chung's "Dance Hall Days" is often misheard as "cool on Christ", although the latter would be an odd thing to say against the context of the rest of the song.

In the early 1990s, I saw Bob Costas interview Bob Seger on television, and at one point the conversation turned to misheard lyrics, in Seger's songs as well as those of other artists. Costas said that the first time he heard the phrase "may the Bible Belt come and save my soul" in John Cougar's "Jack And Diane", he thought it was "Frankie Lymon come and save my soul" (although Costas acknowledged this this was clearly in the "you could hear it that way if you weren't really paying close attention, and you'd have to think that it probably isn't right" category). I thought that was funny, because when I first heard that song, at age 11, it sounded to me like "may the Bottle Bill come and save my soul", the Bottle Bill being the then-recent Mass. state law that created 5 cents deposits on soda and beer containers. For his part Seger recalled having a girlfriend who thought Van Halen's "Panama" was called "Cannonball".

[JMW]

Some of my misheard lyrics over the years.

1) Hearing the line "And if you sail away I will follow you" in Phil Collins' One More Night as "And if you say no way, I will fondle you".

2) "Crystal Light is changing" instead of "As the light is changing" in Janet Jackson's The Pleasure Principle.

3) Thinking that "I come a little late at night 'cause we only act like children" in Simply Red's version of If You Don't Know Me By Now was "I I come a little late at night 'cause we only have black children." I truly didn't know how it really went until I heard the original years later.

[Ponderous Man]

I remember WMGK (the classic rock station in Philadelphia) airing a commercial on the radio around 15 years ago where 3 callers wanted to request a song & they used different lyrics. I forgot what one of the songs was, but the other two I remember were one caller wanting to hear "I ain't Jed" ("Angie" by the Rolling Stones) & another caller wanted to hear "pick out Jed in the lineup" ("Big Old Jet Airliner" by the Steve Miller Band).

[1finemrg]

May 21, 2013 9:47:27 GMT -5 tarobe said:

"Some underworld spy or the wife of a clothespin" ("You're So Vain," Carly Simon)

Same song. A friend of mine insisted Carly was singing "Grounds in my coffee" instead of "Clouds in my coffee".

[skuncle]

Heard it this morning and I had to look it up because I've been singing this line since forever, in Van Morrison's Domino I've always thought the line was "gay kids are going underground...." but I just had to look it up and it's "in that case I'll go underground". Learn something new everyday!

[pb]

May 19, 2013 22:26:00 GMT -5 MrGeno502 said:

a friend of mine thought Pilot was singing "My D**k" instead of Magic.

One time my uncle referred to ELO's "Strange Magic" as "Strained My D**k."

[tarobe]

"Andy Warhol said hello" ("The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia," Vicki Lawrence)

[chrislc]

Jun 16, 2013 8:18:45 GMT -5 tarobe said:

"Andy Warhol said hello" ("The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia," Vicki Lawrence)

OMG The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia was the all time #1 misheard lyric song for me.

"He was on his way home from Candle Talk"

"A big bellied sheriff cracked his gum and said "whydya do it?" (I was picturing Rod Steiger chewing gum)

"Don't trust your soul to no backward Southern lawyer"

And probably a couple more I don't remember right now.

[skuncle]

Just this morning while driving in to work John Mellencamp's "Check It Out" came on the radio. I've always loved the song and even though I've long since learned the correct line, I still continue to sing along with the wrong words.... "all your chili d**n bills have been paid...." which makes zero sense. The correct line is "all the utility bills have been paid..."

[1finemrg]

Actually I think this one works even when misheard, but the meanings are different

Hold On Loosely - 38 Special

You see it all around you
Good lovin' gone bad
And you used to think it's too late when you...
Realize what you had.

The third line actually is:

And usually it's too late when you...

[Shadoe Fan]

Jun 21, 2013 17:06:34 GMT -5 skuncle said:

Just this morning while driving in to work John Mellencamp's "Check It Out" came on the radio. I've always loved the song and even though I've long since learned the correct line, I still continue to sing along with the wrong words.... "all your chili d**n bills have been paid...." which makes zero sense. The correct line is "all the utility bills have been paid..."

I always used to think that's what he said too.

[rayshae3]

Any falsetto-filled song from the Bee Gees can be a candidate. From “You Should Be Dancing”, It was years before I found out it was “What you doin in the back” instead of “You shouldn’t be in bed” among others.

[pgfromwp]

Bumping it up ...

Every time I heard "Soul Man", I thought the singers claimed to be educated at Woodstock, when, according to lyrics, they were educated from good stock.

[Deleted]

Addicted To Love by Robert Palmer

Might as well face it, you're a d**k with a glove.

Africa by Toto

There's nothing that a hundred men on Mars could ever do.

We Built This City by Starship

We built this city on logs and coal.

Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr.

Who ya gonna call? Those b******s!

Hungry Like The Wolf by Duran Duran

I smell like a cow, I'm lost and I'm found.

[80sat40fan]

From this week's 80s show (4/11/87), in The Breakfast Club's "Right On Track", I always thought the lead singer was singing, "Is dad gonna get you back?" It's simply, "Is that gonna get you back". I wondered why the singer would mention dad in a song...