The only one I can think of that I always misheard was "Voices Carry" by either Aimee Mann or Til Tuesday. For YEARS, I thought it said "hush, hush, keep it down now, THIS IS SCARY" instead of "hush, hush, keep it down now, VOICES CARRY".

Now my little brother has come up with lots of funny ones.
"What is Love" (Fat Joe, maybe?), he thought was "What is up"
"Comfortably Numb", he thought was "Come for blue rum"
And then one day, we were again listening to Pink Floyd, and he says, "That song is so racist". I was pretty confused because I did not hear any racist lyrics in Pink Floyd. (He was about 7.) Where the song says "a lead role in a cage" he thought it said "a negro in a cage". Well yeah, that would be pretty racist! I corrected him and he now sings the correct lyrics.

Know the song called "As I Lay Me Down" by Sophie B. Hawkins? Well next time you hear it, there's one section in the chorus where it sounds like: "As I lay me down to sleep, yes i pray (do you like tacos?) that you'd hold me near." Something like that.

And for the longest time, my coworker and I have been wondering about certain lyrics to American Hi-Fi's "Flavor of the Weak." In the chorus section, do I hear the word "Nintendo???????????" Or are we just totally trippin?

Yes, they do say "Nintendo". The song is about how this girl has a boyfriend who doesn't treat her right. This boyfriend doesn't pay any attentin to her because he's "too stoned, nintendo." They're not singing in a complete sentence, but they're saying he'd rather do drugs and play video games than give her attention.

Here are the words:

Her boyfriend, he don't know
Anything about her
He's too stoned, Nintendo
I wish that I could make her see
She's just the Flavor of the Weak


.....Kelly :)

I thought I was the the only one who thought those were the words!!!LOL I feel SOO much better now!!

Aimee, the word is enunciate !! LOL

Ha AH! I was at the bar with some of my buddies last week and Missy Elliot came on
" is it worth it, let me work it, put my thing down flip it and reverse it"
Well after that she starts mumbling in backwards, but my buddy was singing along like " and kitty works the pity when wet"

That's hilarious! It actually does sound like that, though! haha

My favorite one is Elton John's "Tiny Dancer"

"Hold me close young Tony Danza"

:D

the first time my best friend/roommate played that freshman year (it's her favourite song), I thought the same thing!!

HAHAHAHA

Also, "Hold me close, I'm tryin' to dance, sir!"

Every time that song comes on, I think of the Friends episode where Pheobe says that... hehehehehe :D :D :D :D

One of the most misunderstood lyric has to be in Jimi Hendrix's song "Purple Haze."

He sings: "Excuse me while I kiss the sky"

It sounds like: "Excuse me while I kiss this guy"

Now it makes sense though because I'm pretty sure Jimi didn't play for that team.

That's what Phoebe on "Friends" thought he was saying too!!LOL

For Scarlet Begonia by the Grateful Dead

I thought they wrote:
"In the thick of the evening when the dealer got robbed"
Instead it's:
"In the thick of the evening when the dealing got rough"

What makes me go HUH? is when people mishear the NAME OF THE SONG!!! I guess that's why "Bad Moon on the Rise" and stuff like that drive me nuts...if you flip your CD case over, or listen to the little announcer dude on the radio, you'll have it right.....

[/stupid 8am rant]

On Fergie's new song London Bridge, she says "How come."

I thought she was saying "popcorn."

:(

Y'all didn't know that these misheard lyrics are called mondegreens....

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


A mondegreen (also sometimes spelled "mondagreen") is the mishearing (usually accidental) of a phrase, such that it acquires a new meaning.
Y'all didn't know that these misheard lyrics are called mondegreens....

The word "mondegreen" is itself a mondegreen. The American writer Sylvia Wright coined it in an essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen", which was published in Harper's Magazine in Nov. 1954. She wrote

When I was a child, my mother used to read aloud to me from Percy's Reliques. One of my favorite poems began, as I remember:

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl Amurray, [sic]
And Lady Mondegreen.

The actual line is "And laid him on the green", from the anonymous 17th century ballad "The Bonnie Earl O' Murray". Wright gives other examples of what she says, "I shall hereafter call mondegreens," such as:

* Surely Good Mrs. Murphy shall follow me all the days of my life ("Surely goodness and mercy…" from Psalm 23)

* the "wild, strange battle cry Haffely, Gaffely, Gaffely, Gonward." ("Half a league, half a league,/ Half a league onward," from "The Charge of the Light Brigade")

The columnist Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle has long been a popularizer of the term and a collector of mondegreens. He may have been the chief link between Wright's work and the general popularity of the notion today.

While mondegreens are a common occurrence for children, many adults have their own collection, particularly with regard to popular music.

My friend and I, when we were little, always thought the Janet Jackson song, "Miss You Much" said "I miss your nuts" instead of "I miss you much." I still laugh to this day about that mistake.

The same friends brother thought that Paul Youngs song "Everytime You Go Away" said "Everytime you go away, you take a piece of meat with you," when it really said, "Everytime you go away, you take a piece of me with you." This one was on www.kisstheguy.com!

I actually thought that was what it was saying too for a while, I thought what a stupid f'in song...

In Guy's song, "you can have a piece of my love", in the intro it sounds like he's saying dumb bi***.

Of course, many radio stations don't have the little announcer dude any more.

Remember "Saturday Night Fever"? For a while there, Ms. MysticCat was convinced that "More Than a Woman" was "Bald-Headed Woman."

I am not making that up.

That's too cute!! :)

For a long time, I thought that in Back in the U.S.S.R. the Beatles were singing on the way a paperback was all I needed, man I had a good ol' flight. The real lyrics are on the way a paper bag was on my knee, man I had a dreadful flight. Kinda completely changes around the meaning of the song.

I yelled at my mom one day, because we were in the grocery store and she started singing with the radio. My mother can't sing to begin with, but then she was singing "The tide is high, but I'm MOVING on." I said, "Mom...it's 'The tide is high, but I'm HOLDING on.'". She said "Same difference." I said "No, moving on and holding on are exact opposites." She gave me a dirty look. I know that look. I shut up.

this is the funniest thread. i have tears coming from my eyes.

my STOOPID sis swears up and down the line from "Baby got back" is L.A. face with an open booty (as opposed to OAKLAND) booty.

I messed up that song Will and Carlton danced to.. i don't know what it's called but for the longest time i thought Jamponi (JUMP ON IT)

We're both stumped by the michael jackson gibberish... is it "Imma sing on the side of a mountainside"... i thought it was Mama Say Mama Sigh Ma Makusi... but who knows?????

So, as we already noted, he IS saying "You're a vegtable", but he also says during that part "You're just a buffet, people eat off of you" :eek: iMacs have this cool thing where you can play a song on your iTunes and the lyrics scroll at the same time. We had Macs at my old job and a co-worker found it.

I might be spelling it wrong, but it is in fact:
Mumma say
Mumma sah
Ma ma kusah

In Chris Brown's "Run It" I always thought he said:

My AIDS won't slow us down, :eek:
but the real lyric is my AGE won't slow us down.

I always thought why does he want to advertise that he has AIDS. :o

I remember when I was in grade school, I use to think Madonna's song Borderline went like this:

real lyrics: "borderline!/feels like I'm going to lose my mind."

what I thought: "bored am I/feels like I'm going to lose my mind."

I use to think, man if he's that boring than I wouldn't want to hang out with him either!!

I cannot believe this thead has gone on for so long without a single mention of Louie, Louie. The lyrics? Completely incomprehensible -- going way past being misunderstood.

But at least with "Louie, Louie," the incomprehensibility was intentional to fuel speculation that the lyrics were risque.

You never know how reliable information from the web can be, but since it was brought up, here’s what this site http://www.xs4all.nl/~tdg/lyrics.html has to say about "Louie, Louie."

The only acceptable way to sing the lyrics (phoenetically):

Looweeloowhy ono sadday we gowgow
yeh yeh yeh yeh yeh sadday looweeloowhy oh bebay
sadday we gowgow

Ayfain liyelkurwl away onee
eektatsh ahip oconstalee
ale wine shit wine all alowe
eenever acow aamay gitome

Aloowee loowhy nanananana heywegowgow
Oh no addeeloowee loowhy oh bebay
Heddeweegoddegow

Wenite andayo afaildefee
kaykogorld ocontoflee
a on ay shit awayteedair
agul ayrow mowinherrair

Aloowee loowhy oh no heddewegowgow
ya ya ya ya ya sadday loowee loowhy oh bebay
Heddeweegowgow

OWKAYLITSGITITOOWERITENEOW

teey.... teteeynow ingamymoowabow
theymuppeelow they peepeealow
theypayinarhear my artegen
aymebber ay mebbelayergen

Looweeloowhy ono sadday we gowgow
yeh yeh yeh yeh yeh sadday looweeloowhy oh bebay
sadday we gowgow
Ayseddewegoddegownow
Beybeeconnoweekot
Etco!
:D:D:D



The Actual Lyrics (based on the story of a Jamaican sailor’s ramblings to a bartender)

Louie Louie, oh baby, me gotta go.
Louie Louie, oh baby, me gotta go.

A fine little girl, she waits for me.
Me catch the ship across the sea.
I sailed the ship all alone.
I never think I'll make it home.

Louie Louie, me gotta go.

Three nights and days we sailed the sea.
Me think of girl constantly.
On the ship, I dream she there.
I smell the rose in her hair.

Louie Louie, me gotta go.

Me see Jamaican moon above.
It won't be long me see me love.
Me take her in my arms and then
I tell her I never leave again.

Louie Louie, oh baby, I said we gotta go




I like the phoenetic version better. It just makes more sense.

Lol I kept wondering why they weren't censoring this on the radio....
my lyrics for Buttons, Pussycat Dolls

"Hollywood type of fucka
I'm likin the physical..."

Real Lyrics
"Hardly the type I fall for
I'm liking the physical
Don't leave me asking for more
I'm a sexy mama"

I'm glad I found this thread....Modest Mouse...what does he say for Ocean Breathes Salty? I cannot understand half of that entire album. It's a good album. I guess the lyrics fit. :confused:

Go to www.lyrics.astraweb.com

They're pretty good on having whatever lyrics you're looking for.

All I know is my dad had to pay MAJOR penance for singing that song when he was younger. He had slowed his record player down to try to catch some of the words. What he came up with in one of the verses was:
"At night, in bed, I play a little game, F*** all the girls, all kinds of ways"
My grandparents didn't like it too much. Of course, karma is a biatch... I was in 6th grade or so when I forgot my surroundings and started singing "Me so Horny." I got grounded for 3 days. :p

Whew! It's good to know that I'm not the only one who thought that! I am the queen of misheard lyrics, and used to get teased so badly when I'd sing along with songs, that I don't sing out loud anymore. One of my classic blunders was, "She's so fiiiiine, my Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, Hemaphrodite." Obviously wrong!

I remember that song "The Power" (I think that's the title) by Snap or something like that (it was early 90s). For those of you who do soundtracks, it was on the Bruce Almighty soundtrack when Bruce goes around blowing up fire hydrants and skirts...

There is a portion of the song that says "It's gettin, It's gettin, It's gettin kinda hectic." My friend was singing the song on the way to a cheerleading competition and was singing the words "Skinny, skinny, skinny's got a headache."

This oughta get some laughs: My husband and I were listening to a classic rock station and I think the song is called "Time Changes." In any case, the end of the song goes: "Time may change me, but I can't change time." For years, he'd been singing, "Time may change me, but I can't trace time." I had to ask him, what on earth did he think that MEANT? :p

The song you're thinking of is called "Changes" by David Bowie.

And I think your husband is right, Every lyric sheet I googled for Changes had "I said that time may change me, but I can't trace time". Although in the actual song it does sound like he sings "change' instead of "trace".

My daughter has just admitted (on Facebook, of all places, and now she'll never hear the end of it) that for years she thought that in "Come Monday", Jimmy Buffett was singing,

"Come on, Dave, it'll be all right,
Come on Dave, I'll be holding you tight...."

:eek: Bet she was wondering why her dad played that DVD all the time.