Misheard Lyrics (Mondegreens): There's A Bathroom On the Right

[Sandman87]

I remembered one from the '80s, from Joan Jett singing "Bad Reputation."

The actual line: Living in the past, it's a new generation

What I heard: Living in the pants, it's a tuna variation

[AntiBeeSpray]

From 'Like a Stone' by Audioslave:

The real line: On my deathbed I will pray
To the gods and the angels
Like a pagan to anyone

What I thought it was: On my deathbed I will pray
To the gods and the angels
Like a paint gun to anyone

[GaT]

52 minutes ago, AntiBeeSpray said:

From 'Like a Stone' by Audioslave:

The real line: On my deathbed I will pray
To the gods and the angels
Like a pagan to anyone

What I thought it was: On my deathbed I will pray
To the gods and the angels
Like a paint gun to anyone

LOL, paint gun. :-)

[Shannon L.]

I have a hard time deciphering most of the lyrics in Money Talks by AC/DC, but I was sure that I kept hearing something about "pixie dust" which I knew was probably wrong, but was still amused by.  Apparently, it's "fine cigars".  :)

[Snow Apple]

After all these years, I just learned the correct words to Leather and Lace by Stevie Nicks and Don Henley is:

Lovers Forever Face to Face and not Love is Forever Face to Face.

Both about love, but still a difference in meaning even if it's small.

[bilgistic]

There's another terrible song on the radio now (because they are all terrible and I am old) that my local station plays. I listen only to the drivetime show in the morning on my commute, but they play the worst songs during show breaks. Anyway!

The song is "Body Like a Back Road", which makes me think the singer's paramour's body is made of dirt, full of ruts and floods when it rains.

What I heard and can't stop hearing: Body like a back road // Driving with my asshole

My sister told me the words are actually: Body like a back road // Driving with my eyes closed

[rmcrae]

Madonna's Human Nature

Actual line: "And I'm not sorry, it's human nature"

What I heard: "And I'm not sorry, it's you and me, Chuck" (WTF is Chuck?! LOL.)

No Doubt's Spiderwebs

Actual line: "And it's all your fault, I screen my phone calls"

What I heard: "And it's all your fault, I scream my bones off" *blushes*

[Frozendiva]

Manics - Removables

Real - A bronze moth dies easily

What you hear - I bronze my thighs easily

[ennui]

Adele, Water Under the Bridge

I hear: I love you unto the breech

Real: Our love ain't water under the bridge

What makes this amusing is that there is a song called Unto the Breach, about Hobbits.

[GaT]

An absolutely hysterical routine by comedian Peter Kay about misheard lyrics:

[AntiBeeSpray]

I just saw that I got a couple of lines from All along the watchtower by Jimi Hendrix way wrong.  XD
What I thought I heard... 

Business men, they drink my wine
Plowman dig my herb <-- guess I had marijuana on my mind when thinking of this one (meaning that they were doing it while singing this song) XD
None were level on the line
Nobody up at his word
Hey, hey


The actual lyrics...

Business men, they drink my wine
Plowman dig my earth
None were level on the mind
Nobody up at his word
Hey, hey

Edited November 21, 2017 by AntiBeeSpray

[Sandman87]

Malcolm Young's recent passing reminds me that I had trouble with the opening lines from "Highway to Hell" when I was in high school:

Ebeneezer, livin' free

Season ticket on a woman ride

I wondered if they were singing about Scrooge, or the guy in the Bible, or what. Of course, the actual lyrics were:

Livin' easy, livin' free

Season ticket on a one-way ride

[potatoradio]

Hadn't heard Dido's White Flag in a while, but once I did, I realized I'd misheard the chorus for the years the song was on the radio 24-7:

Actual lyrics
I won't go down with this ship

I won't put my hands up and surrender

 

What I heard

I won't down with this ship

I won't poke my eyes out...and surrender

 

I thought...holy shit, wait...is this song about an Oedipal complex that she won't give up? 

I mean, it's Dido, so I should have known better, but...

[spaceytraci1208]

My little sister used to think Hootie & The Blowfish were singing "Hold My Ham..."

[AntiBeeSpray]

From Tonight, Tonight, Tonight -- Genesis

What I thought I heard:

I'm coming down, coming down like a monkey
But it's alright
Like a lone running back you can't see
Oh, but it's alright
Try to shake it loose, cut it free
Just let it go, just get it away from me, oh

What the lyrics actually are:

I'm coming down, coming down like a monkey
But it's alright
Like a load on your back that you can't see
Oh, but it's alright
Try to shake it loose, cut it free
Just let it go, just get it away from me, oh

The latter ones make a lot more sense than what I was thinking they were.  XD

Edited December 17, 2017 by AntiBeeSpray

[SunnyBeBe]

In college, my roommate thought that Falco's Rock Me Amadeus they were saying:

Hot potatoes, hot potatoes, rock me hot potatoes. (lol)

It's actually:

Amadeus, Amadeus, ........

 

I've had quite a few misunderstandings of lyrics over the years. It's rather embarrassing.  It probably happens to us all, though.  

[BookWoman56]

Recently I've been watching various Cheap Trick music videos on YouTube; these are mostly songs from the late 70s and early 80s. I eventually got around to listening to the live version of "Surrender" again and looked up the lyrics to refresh my memory. Part of the song has these lyrics:

     Father says, "Your mother's right
     She's really up on things
     Before we married, Mommy served
     In the WACS in the Philippines.”

For the past however many years, I have heard/interpreted those lines to be instead:

     Father says, "Your mother's right
     She's really up on things
     Before we married, Mom made sure
     To wax enough yellow beans.”
 

WTF was I thinking? You don't wax yellow beans; they're called wax beans because of their slightly waxy appearance that is natural.  And even if one did wax yellow beans, the context makes no sense other than me just thinking vaguely that it meant the mother was nutritionally conscientious or something. I am mortified and hoping like hell that I have never engaged in discussion with anyone about those lyrics. The thing is, Robin Zander's enunciation is usually very good, so I don't know why I failed to catch the correct lyrics. Now when I watch the video, I listen to that part and it's perfectly obvious what he's singing. 

Edited January 15, 2018 by BookWoman56

[xls]

Peg: Steely Dan

lyrics

It will come back to you
Then the shutter falls
You see it all in 3-D
It's your favorite foreign movie

What I hear:

It will come back to you
You sure love Star Wars
You see it all week
It's your favorite foreign movie

[DisneyBoy]

Quote

 

Actual lyrics
I won't go down with this ship

I won't put my hands up and surrender

 

 

Technically it is "I will go down with this ship.." because even though the romance is doomed and one-sided she won't give up on it. Just a nitpick there!

 

I always heard "come, a/come, a/come, a/come, a/come, a chameleon!" Like come look - a chameleon! Not that different from the real lyrics (karma chamelon) but still wrong.

[DisneyBoy]

Song currently plaguing me on the radio:

 

"Ooh ooh, I'm a manic with a pit stain

I've been feeling it since 1966 and...."

 

Actual lyrics? Beats me. I hate the damn song and I'd rather not know.

[xls]

Led Zeppelin Immigrant song

Actual lyrics;

Our only goal will be the Western Shore

What I heard for years;

Our only goal will be some rest & chow 

[xls]

On ‎12‎/‎31‎/‎2017 at 4:39 PM, SunnyBeBe said:

In college, my roommate thought that Falco's Rock Me Amadeus they were saying:

Hot potatoes, hot potatoes, rock me hot potatoes. (lol)

It's actually:

Amadeus, Amadeus, ........

 

 

I've had quite a few misunderstandings of lyrics over the years. It's rather embarrassing.  It probably happens to us all, though.  

They're hilarious! lol

[SunnyBeBe]

14 hours ago, xls said:

They're hilarious! lol

I thought so. Do you mean the artists?  My boyfriend and I LOL a lot over it, but, not in front of her.  She was a pretty smart girl, but, Mozart wasn't at the forefront of her brain.  lol  She didn't think it was that unusual........lol You know, like an easy mistake.

  Oh well......I've had my moments too.  I misunderstood when Elton says 'sheets of linen" in Tiny Dancer for years.  I can't even recall what I thought it was, but, not sheets of linen. IMO, Elton really mutilates some lyrics.  Ever tried to sing along with lyrics of Saturday Night is Alright for Fighting? OMG.  STILL, LOVE the guy. 

Edited February 14, 2018 by SunnyBeBe

[WendyCR72]

2 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

Friday Night is Alright for Fighting

*Whispers* It's actually Saturday Night...

[SunnyBeBe]

12 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

*Whispers* It's actually Saturday Night...

Told you I had trouble with it.  lol  Got it. 

[rmcrae]

The spoken intro of Janet Jackson's You Ain't Right

Actual line: "This one's for the clubs"

What I heard: "This one's for the clones"

Actual line: "Ooh hoo, I'm sick and tired!"

What I heard: "Ooh hoo, shake it tight!"

[xls]

Quote

 

 

Manfred Mann - Mighty Quinn 1967

 

Lyrics

 

Some are building monuments
Others jotting down notes
Everybody's in despair
Every girl and boy
But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here
Everybody's gonna jump for joy

What I hear instead of "gets here"

is when Quinn the Eskimo gets you

every time! LOL :D

[Sandman87]

So everyone's going to be overjoyed when Quinn gets you? Talk about being unpopular.

[xls]

8 minutes ago, Sandman87 said:

So everyone's going to be overjoyed when Quinn gets you? Talk about being unpopular.

Imagine hearing it like that for decades! ????

[Bill1978]

On ‎6‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 5:30 AM, GaT said:

An absolutely hysterical routine by comedian Peter Kay about misheard lyrics:

Thank God I'm not the only one who hears that line in the Shania Twain song.

[Jeebus Cripes]

On 11/21/2017 at 5:43 PM, AntiBeeSpray said:

I just saw that I got a couple of lines from All along the watchtower by Jimi Hendrix way wrong.  XD
What I thought I heard... 

Business men, they drink my wine
Plowman dig my herb <-- guess I had marijuana on my mind when thinking of this one (meaning that they were doing it while singing this song) XD
None were level on the line
Nobody up at his word
Hey, hey


The actual lyrics...

Business men, they drink my wine
Plowman dig my earth
None were level on the mind
Nobody up at his word
Hey, hey

YES! I thought it was dig my herb for the longest time, too.

So I hear my mom singing Sister Christian by Night Ranger the other day:

"Motorhead, what's your price for flight" The lyrics are of course, "Motoring, what's your price for flight. 

[xls]

omg found another one!

Bruno Mars Uptown Funk:

actual lyrics:

Girls hit your hallelujah (whoo)
Girls hit your hallelujah (whoo)
Girls hit your hallelujah (whoo)

what I hear:

Girls' sexy hallelujah (whoo)
Girls' sexy hallelujah (whoo)
Girls' sexy hallelujah (whoo)

LOL

On ‎12‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 3:08 AM, spaceytraci1208 said:

My little sister used to think Hootie & The Blowfish were singing "Hold My Ham..."

cracking up! 

[BuyMoreAndSave]

When my husband first heard the song "Lose Yourself to Dance" by Daft Punk and Pharrell, he thought they were saying "You just s*cked the d*cks," LOL...when we looked it up we saw other people had misheard it as well.

Edited February 25, 2018 by BuyMoreAndSave

[rmcrae]

On ‎2‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 12:56 PM, xls said:

omg found another one!

Bruno Mars Uptown Funk:

actual lyrics:

Girls hit your hallelujah (whoo)
Girls hit your hallelujah (whoo)
Girls hit your hallelujah (whoo)

what I hear:

Girls' sexy hallelujah (whoo)
Girls' sexy hallelujah (whoo)
Girls' sexy hallelujah (whoo)

LOL

cracking up! 

I thought it was "girls text you hallelujah". Ha!

[AntiBeeSpray]

I love this new Toto song,  Struck by Lightning. Only thing is... I don't get some of the lyrics. XD

 

What I hear:

You're choking up on Angel Smoke

You can't go home, you just keep throwing stones

 

The real lines:

The heavens opened up, and an angel spoke:
"You can’t go home, they’ll just keep throwing stones."

Edited March 13, 2018 by AntiBeeSpray

[KWalkerInc]

I have a few embarrassing ones that come to mind.  When I was a kid, I would listen to my sister's copy of the Vision Quest soundtrack, but apparently didn't pay too much attention to the song titles.  When I would listen to "Lunatic Fringe" by Red Rider, I was sure that they were saying "Lemme Take French" and would sing this and somehow not get any strange looks.

Similarly, during Madonna's "Lucky Star," she would sing "Yeah" in an exaggerated fashion like "Yee-ah!"  I thought she was singing about someone named "Pierre."

Once in college, I had some videos on early in the morning and dozed off a little.  I thought that in "A Long December" by Counting Crows, he was singing "A lot of horse poo but no pearls."  I figured out from the context that he actually said "oysters," and that woke me up in a hurry.

In House of Pain's "Jump Around," I had many problems.  I misheard "Sho' nuff I get props" as "Shut the fuck up, drop" and wondered why it wasn't censored on the radio or MTV.  I also thought that "I got more rhymes than the Bible's got psalms" was "I got more rhymes than Nirvana's got songs."

In "Me Against the Music" by Britney Spears and Madonna, I didn't mishear so much as misinterpret one part.  The line is "To hell with stares/ The sweat is dripping all over my face," but I briefly thought it was "To hell with stairs/ The sweat is dripping all over my face" like they were upset that the elevator was out and they'd had to trek up the stairs.

My favorite though is from "Frontiers" by Journey.  I swear the song starts "All this lice, into our lives / Got a fountain.  A fountain!"  I think the real lyrics are something about progress flying into our lives, but it really doesn't sound like that.

[xls]

"Heart Killer" Gossling

Actual lyrics :

I'll have it, so you don't know
I'm nothing but a mean foe

What I always hear:

I'll have it, so you don't know
I'm nothing but a nympho

 

LOL

 

 

[SunnyBeBe]

I have trouble with a lot of the lyrics from Uptown Funk.  Too many to even bother with figuring out even. lol 

[rmcrae]

Brandy's Sittin' up in My Room

Actual line: Cause every time you smile, I feel trembling in my heart

What I heard: Cause every time you smile, I feel triplets in my heart

[AntiBeeSpray]

From The Police's Everything you do is Magic:

Actual lines: 

 

I resolve to call her up a thousand times a day
And ask her if she'll marry me in some old fashioned way
But my silent fears have gripped me
Long before I reach the phone
Long before my tongue has tripped me
Must I always be alone?

 

 

What I heard:

 

I resolve to cholera a thousand times a day (a big thanks to Sting and his singing lol)
And ask her if she'll marry me in some old fashioned way
But my silent fears have gripped me
Long before I reach the phone
Long before my tongue has tripped me
Must I always be alone?

[rmcrae]

In the Fasten Your Seatbelt interlude on Janet Jackson's Velvet Rope record I thought Janet and her friends were chanting "Put your arms, put your arms in position", but it turns out they were saying the famous "But ya are Blanche, ya are in that chair!" from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. Lol.

Edited June 13, 2018 by rmcrae

[KWalkerInc]

In "Enter Sandman" by Metallica, I always still hear "keep you free from sin" as "keep your free throws in."  The only time I heard it correctly was when the band performed it live on Craig Ferguson's talk show.

After hearing the song the other day, I remembered that as a kid, I used to screw up the chorus of "Voices Carry" by 'Til Tuesday.  Instead of "Hush, hush, keep it down, down, voices carry" I would sing "Oh shush!  Even downtown, voices carry."

[Shannon L.]

Not a song, but the opening music to a tv show:  In the first season of So You Think You Can Dance, I thought the voice was saying "Shoo-be-doo-be-doo.....dance!"  Then, I learned it was was "So you think you can...dance!".  To this day, I still hear the former. 

[AntiBeeSpray]

13 hours ago, KWalkerInc said:

In "Enter Sandman" by Metallica, I always still hear "keep you free from sin" as "keep your free throws in."  The only time I heard it correctly was when the band performed it live on Craig Ferguson's talk show.

After hearing the song the other day, I remembered that as a kid, I used to screw up the chorus of "Voices Carry" by 'Til Tuesday.  Instead of "Hush, hush, keep it down, down, voices carry" I would sing "Oh shush!  Even downtown, voices carry."

Nice ones!

 

I heard that Til Tuesday one as 'Bush is scary' (as in Dubya -- not being political, it's just how I heard it as XD, guess I need to clean out my ears more lol).

 

Your mishearing makes just as much sense as the original line!

[KWalkerInc]

The other day I heard "Oh Sherrie" by Steve Perry, and it reminded me of a misheard lyric from my childhood.  The chorus goes "Oh Sherrie, our love / Holds on, holds on."  But for some reason, I would hear the second line as "Clothes off, clothes off." 

 

At around the same age, I would mishear Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love for You."  She sings, "You say, 'Be patient.  Just wait a little longer.'  But that's just an old fantasy!"  However, I heard it as "That's just an old bathtub scene!"  I don't quite know what that means, maybe that Whitney and her married man were having the conversation in the bathtub?

[rmcrae]

Aaliyah's More Than a Woman

Actual lyric: "Taste me, feed me"

What I heard: "Hate me, beat me"

Actual lyric: "Morning massages with new bones in your closet"

What I heard: "The newborn's in your closet"

[KWalkerInc]

I also thought Aaliyah was saying something like "newborns in your closet."  I thought it meant that she'd learned he had kids out there that he hadn't told her about.

[BuyMoreAndSave]

6 hours ago, KWalkerInc said:

I also thought Aaliyah was saying something like "newborns in your closet."  I thought it meant that she'd learned he had kids out there that he hadn't told her about.

When I was a kid for some reason I thought the "Try Again" lyrics were "you can dust it off in childcare"...LOL. Actual lyrics are "you can dust it off and try again."

Also yesterday I was listening to This American Life and it was an episode about supremacist groups, and at the end they played this song "Hi We're the Replacements" by They Might Be Giants. The actual lyrics are "hi we're the Replacements, and we're in a rock and roll band," but possibly due to the episode's content (and the fact that my headphones are dying), I thought the lyrics were "I'm living with Muslims, and we're in a rock and roll band."

[shang yiet]

Simon  and Garfunkel's 'The Boxer'   - about this poor guy who comes to New York seeking a job  -  has one line which I thought was 'I get no offers but a come-on from the horse on 7th Avenue'.  Later I learned that word was whores on 7th Avenue.

[AgentRXS]

On 8/5/2018 at 12:42 AM, rmcrae said:

Aaliyah's More Than a Woman

Actual lyric: "Taste me, feed me"

What I heard: "Hate me, beat me"

Actual lyric: "Morning massages with new bones in your closet"

What I heard: "The newborn's in your closet"

I heard "Hate me, beat me" and "Newborns in your closet too" . I thought it was some kind of wierd thing where she meant that the babies that that made together would have a bassinet in the closet or something.