J. Giles Band had a song called “Freeze-Frame”. I remember me and my friends loudly singing “Freeway! Freeway!” during the chorus. LOL! So many misquoted lyrics. Good times.
I love to proudly die a thousand deaths on the misheard song lyric mountain because I'm just more amused by what I think it is than what it actually is. Here is one I will STILL sing: Don Henley's "Boys of Summer:" (my lyric): "I can see you/Your bra strap shining in the sun." AND (my lyric): "After the poison/summer has gone." Mine is better, Henley. Fight me.
1. That changes all the time. Pre-15 I was a Zeppelin Stan all the way, then Pink Floyd was my favorite for many years, until I discovered Pixies, who I rocked religiously for like a decade straight. A few years back I went deep into the Deep Purple catalog (midlife crisis, perhaps?). All that is to say, my favorite rock band is Soundgarden.
2. That the music of the era wouldn't last.
3. Like, all the lyrics.
4. Not knowing much about Weird Al outside his most famous parodies, my guess is he prefers original ideas.
5. Tapes to CDs to streaming. One of my few accurate predictions in the mid-noughties was the death of "physical" media. I refused to buy any more CDs and purchased zero Blu-Ray discs -- knowing movies would go the way of music and be fully streamable. Of course, I didn't predict the fragmentation and licensing problems with respect to video, so now I don't have my classic DVD collection AND I can't watch my favorite movies on demand.
Streaming killed music, but at least most songs are available in one place. The real problem is pricing. How much should it really cost per month to have instant access to almost every popular song from the last eighty years? $25? $50? $100? $500? $1,000?
I guess the argument du jour is AI is going to kill us all anyway, so: Fuck it, Dude, let's go bowling.
3. “I got the rockin pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu” - for some reason I sang “blues” instead of flu and my aunt had a field day with it. And I am making myself extremely vulnerable right now by sharing this.
1. The first "tape" I ever bought with my own money was The Bangles. Followed by INXS (under the guidance of my big sister who was a die-hard The Cure fan at the time.) Honestly, I spent most of the 90s in a boy band/pop princess/R&B wormhole that I never fully escaped from.
2. That all R&B songs would feature that one verse that was just a deep voiced guy (usually the one that never got to sing lead) talking to you like you were the only person in the room.🔥
3. I'm a stickler when it comes to movie quotes, but song lyrics getting butchered doesn't bother me. One of my favorites is from Steve Miller Band: "Big orange hat in a lineup... " aka "Big old jet airliner."
And my classmates and I definitely sabotaged our own junior high school dance one time by screaming "FUCKING HORNY" instead of "MONY MONY." And didn't help that we inserted the phrase "hey, hey, whattaya say, let's get fucked!" during the interlude between Billy Idol's lyrics. We were bad. 🫤.
Until this morning, when I looked it up, I thought I'd been mishearing Michael Jackson in "Wanna be startin' something" when he said, "You're a vegetable." But turns out... that's what he WAS saying all along. My new favorite is by this guy Kid LAROI - in the song "Without You." This is what I hear in the first line, "You cut out a PIZZA me, and now I bleed internally, LEFT TIT without you..." Listen for yourself and tell me I'm wrong: https://open.spotify.com/track/1KMkcUvF7m3SDChDOa7i5L?si=5ed3da0635084e22
4. Weird Al and Lisa Kudrow would make an amazing couple. Also, Weird Al is my idol.
5. We still own a massive collection of CDs/DVDs and we still use them. I also have all my old mix tapes saved in a box somewhere, knowing they'll never be played again. My big sis (The Cure fan) recently let us piggyback on her family Spotify plan, so that's been pretty sweet. The beauty of streaming is the variety - almost too much to choose from. But the departure from physical media makes me a little melancholy, not just as a person who appreciates the finicky behavior of a CD as you pry it out of its brittle AF case, but also as an author who will likely never hold a physical copy of her own BOOK in her hands or expect anyone else to. I mean, what the hell are our kids' school project time capsules going to be like? Just like a zip drive? Or a QR code? That's fucking lame. 😩
For me, it's Marillion's Script For A Jester's Tear. Over the years I have acquired (not presented in acquisition order) original CD, original vinyl, remastered 2CD, remastered vinyl box set. To be honest, if they released another version tomorrow, I'd give it serious consideration.
The chorus of John Prine's song "Sam Stone" has the line"Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose." My friend thought, for many years, that Prine was saying"Jesus Christ died for nothing, assholes." More pissed off, less reflective.
Another misheard lyric that might be peculair to one person is in the Beatles song "Michelle" where Paul sings a a line or two in French. A friend of mine's sister heard the lines in English as "Sometimes monkeys play piano songs. Play Piano songs. Piano songs."
And I can't hear the first line of "Help Me, Rhonda" after learning that some people hear it as "Since you put me down there's been owls puking in my bed" without thinking that might be the actual lyrics.
I thought it was “THERE’S a bathroom on the right” NOT “take the bathroom on the right” that would definitely not make sense 🤷🏻♀️
J. Giles Band had a song called “Freeze-Frame”. I remember me and my friends loudly singing “Freeway! Freeway!” during the chorus. LOL! So many misquoted lyrics. Good times.
I'm not sure how you define lyrics, but Manfred Mann clearly pronounce the word as douche. Unlike Bruce Springsteen, who wrote it. Please note https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/science-misheard-lyrics-mondegreens. BTW, I've read that, live, Hendrix actually said "while I kiss this guy" as a joke.
I love to proudly die a thousand deaths on the misheard song lyric mountain because I'm just more amused by what I think it is than what it actually is. Here is one I will STILL sing: Don Henley's "Boys of Summer:" (my lyric): "I can see you/Your bra strap shining in the sun." AND (my lyric): "After the poison/summer has gone." Mine is better, Henley. Fight me.
1. That changes all the time. Pre-15 I was a Zeppelin Stan all the way, then Pink Floyd was my favorite for many years, until I discovered Pixies, who I rocked religiously for like a decade straight. A few years back I went deep into the Deep Purple catalog (midlife crisis, perhaps?). All that is to say, my favorite rock band is Soundgarden.
2. That the music of the era wouldn't last.
3. Like, all the lyrics.
4. Not knowing much about Weird Al outside his most famous parodies, my guess is he prefers original ideas.
5. Tapes to CDs to streaming. One of my few accurate predictions in the mid-noughties was the death of "physical" media. I refused to buy any more CDs and purchased zero Blu-Ray discs -- knowing movies would go the way of music and be fully streamable. Of course, I didn't predict the fragmentation and licensing problems with respect to video, so now I don't have my classic DVD collection AND I can't watch my favorite movies on demand.
Streaming killed music, but at least most songs are available in one place. The real problem is pricing. How much should it really cost per month to have instant access to almost every popular song from the last eighty years? $25? $50? $100? $500? $1,000?
I guess the argument du jour is AI is going to kill us all anyway, so: Fuck it, Dude, let's go bowling.
3. “I got the rockin pneumonia and the boogie woogie flu” - for some reason I sang “blues” instead of flu and my aunt had a field day with it. And I am making myself extremely vulnerable right now by sharing this.
Intentionally misheard lyric: “Another one rides the bus! Got a bus pass, too! (“Another One Bites the Dust”)
1. The first "tape" I ever bought with my own money was The Bangles. Followed by INXS (under the guidance of my big sister who was a die-hard The Cure fan at the time.) Honestly, I spent most of the 90s in a boy band/pop princess/R&B wormhole that I never fully escaped from.
2. That all R&B songs would feature that one verse that was just a deep voiced guy (usually the one that never got to sing lead) talking to you like you were the only person in the room.🔥
3. I'm a stickler when it comes to movie quotes, but song lyrics getting butchered doesn't bother me. One of my favorites is from Steve Miller Band: "Big orange hat in a lineup... " aka "Big old jet airliner."
And my classmates and I definitely sabotaged our own junior high school dance one time by screaming "FUCKING HORNY" instead of "MONY MONY." And didn't help that we inserted the phrase "hey, hey, whattaya say, let's get fucked!" during the interlude between Billy Idol's lyrics. We were bad. 🫤.
Until this morning, when I looked it up, I thought I'd been mishearing Michael Jackson in "Wanna be startin' something" when he said, "You're a vegetable." But turns out... that's what he WAS saying all along. My new favorite is by this guy Kid LAROI - in the song "Without You." This is what I hear in the first line, "You cut out a PIZZA me, and now I bleed internally, LEFT TIT without you..." Listen for yourself and tell me I'm wrong: https://open.spotify.com/track/1KMkcUvF7m3SDChDOa7i5L?si=5ed3da0635084e22
4. Weird Al and Lisa Kudrow would make an amazing couple. Also, Weird Al is my idol.
5. We still own a massive collection of CDs/DVDs and we still use them. I also have all my old mix tapes saved in a box somewhere, knowing they'll never be played again. My big sis (The Cure fan) recently let us piggyback on her family Spotify plan, so that's been pretty sweet. The beauty of streaming is the variety - almost too much to choose from. But the departure from physical media makes me a little melancholy, not just as a person who appreciates the finicky behavior of a CD as you pry it out of its brittle AF case, but also as an author who will likely never hold a physical copy of her own BOOK in her hands or expect anyone else to. I mean, what the hell are our kids' school project time capsules going to be like? Just like a zip drive? Or a QR code? That's fucking lame. 😩
For me, it's Marillion's Script For A Jester's Tear. Over the years I have acquired (not presented in acquisition order) original CD, original vinyl, remastered 2CD, remastered vinyl box set. To be honest, if they released another version tomorrow, I'd give it serious consideration.
Michael: Here was my take on misheard lyrics from a couple of years ago. And, you’re right - you can find everything on the internet, including at “kissthisguy.com”. . .https://ruleofthree.substack.com/p/one-less-egg-to-fry
The chorus of John Prine's song "Sam Stone" has the line"Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose." My friend thought, for many years, that Prine was saying"Jesus Christ died for nothing, assholes." More pissed off, less reflective.
Another misheard lyric that might be peculair to one person is in the Beatles song "Michelle" where Paul sings a a line or two in French. A friend of mine's sister heard the lines in English as "Sometimes monkeys play piano songs. Play Piano songs. Piano songs."
And I can't hear the first line of "Help Me, Rhonda" after learning that some people hear it as "Since you put me down there's been owls puking in my bed" without thinking that might be the actual lyrics.