Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Mis-heard song lyrics.

For the longest time, I could not figure out what Natalie Merchant was singing in the 10,000 Maniacs' version of "Peace Train." (I got the song on a mix tape that wasn't fully labeled.)

It sounded like she was singing "pea stain," but I knew that couldn't be right, so I convinced myself that she was singing "beastay" -- like "beasty" with a really odd accent.

It kind of made sense in an odd surreal way, with the lyrics talking about a "beastay" being "out on the edge of darkness," and then everyone "hopping aboard it."

When I first heard Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" it sounded like "Another Break In The Wall".

Not really funny, but it meant I'd completely gotten the whole concept wrong.

Not so much a misheard lyric but when I was little I heard Eddie Murphy singing a version of good golly Miss Molly that went "Good Golly Miss Molly, you look like a ho." It wasn't until recently that I found out that these weren't the real lyrics.

I'm sure that somewhere Karen Carpenter sings that "The best love songs are written with a broken arse."

Until just a few months ago, I was convinced that there was a line in Baltimora's "Tarzan Boy" about "leaving Ethiopia." (Turns out, he was singing about "living in the open.")

I thought for years that the song was making some sort of political statement, although I couldn't quite figure out what.

One of my favorite misheard lyrics is the opening lines of Spock's Beard's cover of George Harrison's Beware of Darkness, which many people have thought to contain the rather sound advice to "beware of farts that linger".

I don't know the original artist, but I always heard "Because the Night" (belongs to lovers) as "Meatloaf, the night belongs to lovers....
I always knew I was mishearing it.

Later, by a different artist (again I forget who) I thought it was "Be Close, the night belongs..." Much closer to the meaning at least.

When Natalie Merchant sang it, I finally heard it as "Because the night..."

Quis, "Because the Night" was originally recorded by Patty Smith and later remade by 10,000 Maniacs. I like your version, though. It would make a good slogan for a meatloaf ad campaign.

When Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?" was a hit, I thought the woman's line, "Give me a dime so I can call my mother" was "Give me a job so I can call my mother."

Gives a whole new meaning to her relationship with the man in the song.

Tears for Fears:
"Everybody wants to rule the world," was for years interpreted by me as, "Everybody wants to roll around."

Irene Cara:
"Take your passion and make it happen," only recently replaced my notion that she was singing, "Take your pants down and make it happen."

"Hold me closer, Tony Danza"

"F**k the catbox"

aka

Rock the Cazbah

"Excuse me, while I kiss this guy"

I can't remember the song, but I once thought a line that went "the body of christ" was "moderately priced."

Also, once I was in a book store and a kid was singing "Kiss From a Rose" by the magazine rack and he belted out, "My power, my pleasure, my brain!"

I like APB's falshdance lyrics better then the original.

There's a Madonna song that I thought had the line "young girl with eyes like potatoes".

I know that these are not the right lyrics but refuse to stop singing them when I hear the song.

I had all kinds of problems with the Hollies' "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress." The line "Just a five-nine, beautiful, tall" was heard by me as "Justify my beautiful song." The line, "Just about to call up the D.A. man" sounded like "If somebody thought I was a D.A. man" (which would make sense, meaning his life was in danger). And the line in the last verse that goes "Well, the D.A. was pumping my left hand and she was a holding my right" sounded like "She was a holding my left hand, and he was a holding my right," which conjures up all sorts of weird images.

Get it on, indeed.

Martina McBride has a song with the lyric "throwing pennies in the fountain of youth"


I could have swore she said "throwing my panties in the fountain of you"

Somebody help me out. Everytime I hear Manfred Mann's "Blinded by the Light" (I didn't know it was originally a Bruce Springsteen release that bombed), I can't make out the words. All I hear is : "Blinded by the light. Make out like a doucher and roll her in the night." Can somebody please tell me who knows what the real words are so that I can stop pressing me ears to the radio every time it comes on?

Owl, that's "Revved up like a deuce / Another runner in the night". I once found out what "deuce" meant in this context, but have long since forgotten.

As for my own prime example, as a little kid in 1963 I enjoyed a song that had soft Spanish lyrics, but I wondered why the refrain was in English, and was talking about a "One-Ton Tomato." That'd make a lotta ketchup, I thought.

It was ten years before I knew that the song's title was "Guantanamera," and that it was a Spanish poem with music adapted by that ol' folkie Pete Seeger. But I still have a mental image of oceans of ketchup when that comes over the air ...

Could it be a Deuce Coup?

I think a deuce is a twin-exhaust motorcycle.

I think is has to do with duel overhead cams, as it the "Little Deuce Coup" by the Beach Boys.

Although I am with Owl Lad. I grw up wondering what sort of freak wanted to be wrapped up in a douche.... or why they would choose to sing about their sick proclivities in a song.

Bennie and the Jets

"She's got electric boobs"

wishful thinking I suppose

"Jose can you see....? by the dawn's early smite..."

Yeah, i know it butchers the song, but thats what i heard.

Also, Lucy in the sky with diamonds was heard by me to be Lucy in disguise, with hymens. Don't ask me why, lol.

Also, i think ELO had a song that somewhere in there i heard "weasal woman", evil woman maybe?

Anyway, the songs i mishear could fill a song book truck, lol. It took me years to get "Hotel California" right by the eagles, and they damn sure didn't have any garbled stuff. They were so laid back.

But the worst was Dylan. Man, it took me years to catch his cadences. I still don't care for much by him except for "the Hurricane", and thats because of the lady on the fiddle. She knew how to tear it up.

Oh, as for the Springstein song, i thought for years it was "douche" as well.

Speaking of Springsteen, for years I couldn't figure out "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out." Remembering an old song called "Devil With the Blue Dress On" (by Mitch Ryder), what I heard was "Dev-Devil with a Bleeze Out." I figured it must be Jersey slang.

was surprised to find out that in Madonna's 'Bedtime Stories the line was "I'm not a bitch don't hang that $#!+ on me".

Thought the line was "I'm not a fish, don't hang that shirt on me".

Didn't really question it because Bjork wrote the demmed thing.

I'm still trying to figure out what a "pompatus" is (from "The Pompatus of Love")...

I read an article once that explained "pompatus." Apparently, Steve Miller misheard an old blues record with a made-up word, "puppetute" (puppet + prostitute).

I could have sworn for some time that Alanis Morrisette was singing about "a death-row hard-on two minutes too late."

Isn't it ironic?

There's a line in John Cougar's "I Need a Lover" that I swear sounds like, "Hey, I'm so weak somebody s--t on my fat lie right now!"