Hearing It Wrong

Ever listen to a song and hear something that was never said? A phrase you thought was one way but it was actually another? Name the song and what you thought you heard. Did realizing the mistake alter your feelings towards the music?

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Blinded By the Light - what I heard ‘wrapped up like a douche’.

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I plead guilty on hearing “douche” myself. For years.

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I maintain that he sang exactly that. (The Manfred Mann version.) He sure didn’t sing “revved up like a deuce” as Springsteen wrote it. Always thought maybe they didn’t have a copy of the sheet music and had to do it all by ear.

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How they went with it on the day of the recording?

Somewhat obscure, but there’s a version of the Irish folk song “Star of the County Down” by a group called Enter The Haggis that had a line which goes: “Sure the coaxing elf, I’d to shake meself to be sure I was standing there”. First few times I heard it, I heard: “I’d to shag meself”, not shake.

You can hear a performance of the song here:

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Not music related but I always misheard the catch phrase for Cambot during season 5+ intro as “kill yourself” Instead of “show yourself”

Kind of a big mistake to make!!

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Big chunks of Nena’s 99 Red/Luftballoons, because my child’s ears didn’t parse her accent very well. For years I heard such things as “everyone’s a souvenir, and everyone eats Captain Kirk!”

It’s actually “everyone’s a super hero, everyone’s a Captain Kirk!”

Derp.

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I still eagerly look forward to hearing the Brenda Lee version of Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree each holiday season.

“Later we’ll have some f**kin’ pie, and we’ll do some caroling.”

I can’t hear it any other way.

Also, this:

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Purple Haze by Jimmy Hendrix. I heard “Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy” for the longest time. When actually it’s “Excuse Me While I Kiss The Sky.” I’m not alone though. It’s #1 on this list.

Funny cuz this just came up on my greatest hits playlist random play just the other day… “Shattered Dreams” by Johnny Hates Jazz. The original lyrics are:

And now you’ve given me, given me
Nothing but shattered dreams, shattered dreams
Feel like I could run away, run away…
From this empty heart…

but I swear it sounds like:

And now you’ve given me, given me
Nothing but shattered dreams, shattered dreams
Feel like I’ve got water wings, water wings
In this empty house…

That’s the way I sing it. Alot. They were a mid-level one hit wonder in the late 80’s… but that song drills into your BRAYNE… :brain:

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beetlejuice is not my thing…

As a young’n, I misheard “she loves you, and you know that can’t be bad” as “she loves you, and you know black cats be black”…

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For a long time I thought the opening line to Madonna’s “Hung Up” was “Time goes by so silly.”

To this day, if I listen for it as the true lyric (“Time goes by so slowly”) it obviously sounds like that, but if I listen for the “silly” version it sounds like she’s clearly singing that.

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I have a reverse situation. A friend was trying to parse the lyrics, so I listened and said:

Heavenly bound
cause heaven’s got a number
when she’s spinning me around
Kissing is a colour
her loving is a wild dog
she’s got the look

But he did not care for those lyrics. I think the World Wide Web had to be invented before we could confirm.

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The chorus to “Rocket Man” messed me up for years (I don’t think it’s just me though — I remember seeing a commercial where everyone was singing wildly inaccurate variations of what it sounded like he was saying haha)

Also Toto’s “Africa.” I always thought it went “I guess the rain’s down in Africa” instead of “I bless the rains down in Africa.”

These are just a few of many examples (I may have a bit of an auditory processing problem. Lol) But the worst one is “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift. I would always sing the end of the chorus as “Get a load of these Starbucks lovers/they’ll tell you I’m insane.” Which made no sense, of course. It was until just a couple months ago that I learned she actually says Got a long list of ex lovers. 🥲🤦🏻‍♀️

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For a long time I thought the opening line of Brown Eyed Girl was “Hey there, amigo”

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I always thought it was “I miss the rains down in Africa.” In fact, I learned the correct lyrics about a month ago. :slight_smile:

Bon Jovi’s song “It’s My Life”. I always heard as “Like Frankenstein, I did it my way.” The real words? “Like Frankie said, I did it my way.”

I maintain that my version makes a kind of twisted sense, too. :slight_smile:

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It’s much more clear in the original German.

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Also, I prefer “Hold me closer, Tony Danza” so I continue to sing it that way regardless.

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