| Author | Message | ||
     Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 206 Registered: 09-2006 |
OK, totally frivolous, totally obvious thread time...I was in the store today and heard Yvonne Elliman singing "If I can't have you/I don't want nobody, baby." Caused me to remember that for quite awhile I thought that second line actually went "I don't want your body, baby." I actually like my version better, because it's a hair more interesting: the actual lyric is just typical lovesong bombast, but the other one has her saying "If I can't have you heart and soul I don't want a one-night stand." So, what about your favorites...ones you and/or friends misheard? One's you read about? I've got a fair number, especially because I sometimes deliberately mishear them... "When the record starts spinnin'/You can wrestle with a chicken/At the hop" "We're an American Man" (My, what atrocious grammar! Well, I guess it's part of being a young rock & roll rebel.) One I read in a Stones review (his interpretation of a line from "Street Fighting Man.") "My name is Gorgeous Gurmous." There's a whole bunch better than those, but they're what come to mind at the moment. Probably the oddest one came to me at a party in the early 80s, under the influence of some polio weed. The Michael Jackson song "Get on the Floor" was playing, and mid-song he goes into one of those patented chants: "Get up, go on get down, shake your body won'tcha go on, get down." In my stupor it sounded exactly like "Get up, Gore Vidal, shake your body won'tcha, Gore Vidal." This was immediately followed by a mental image of Michael up on stage, exhorting Gore down in the crowd, and Gore flinging his body about spasmodically in an Old Rich White Guy Boogie kinda way. Of course, no one else found it half as amusing, but I could not stop laughing for a long, long time... | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 38 Registered: 10-2006 |
Well, combining this thread with the Gobies themselves, for a long time I though the line on When she sang about angels went: When she sang about a boy, Kurt Cobain, I thought what a shame it wasn't about Tamburlaine... which I though was a typically educated & well-read Forster comment... very disappointed, really, when I read the correct version! And I still hear "Tamburlaine" every time I listen... | ||
| John B. Member Username: John_b Post Number: 99 Registered: 10-2006 |
There was this 90s hit "So Bizarre" from a New Zealand group. For quite a long time I thought they were singing "Parmesan" - must have to do with my love for Italian food..... | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 226 Registered: 04-2005 |
The Bay City Rollers ("Shang-a-lang" I think) were for a long time 'all in the nude with our blue suede shoes' for me. Turned out to be 'in the news', a much safer and warmer notion. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 363 Registered: 08-2006 |
My favorite misheard lyric story dates from high school. Some friends and I were driving around, that (at the time) ubiquitous Flashdance song came on the radio and a friend in the back started singing along. Without a hint of irony, she sang, "take your pants off and make it happen." I don't know when I've laughed harder since; she really believed those were the words. For them's lucky enough to have escaped the malicious reach of the song in question, the lyrics are "take your passion and make it happen." But I'll never be able to hear it that way again. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1571 Registered: 03-2006 |
There's a song by Richard Thompson, called "I Misunderstood". My girlfriend thought he was singing "I'm missing the stew". Now I sing along to the record that way...the hilarity for me was along the lines of your incident, Rob. What, did she think some woman made stew so danged good, a guy wrote a song about it? | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 366 Registered: 08-2006 |
Does your girlfriend like stew, LK? Maybe that was a pre-Valentine's Day hint? Or maybe she's iron-deficient? | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1573 Registered: 03-2006 |
Naw, not particularly...this happened a coupla years ago, anyways, so if it was a hint, I've been pretty slack on it... You know the song,though, right? It really does sound like that's what he's singing.... | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 367 Registered: 08-2006 |
I just popped it up on iTunes, and it really does sound like that! Funny. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1575 Registered: 03-2006 |
I've never really gotten stew - it always seemed like something people cooked to get rid of all the leftovers they had in the fridge: old meat, vegetables, methadone, etc. Maybe your Irish stew you mentioned would eradicate that impression. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 368 Registered: 08-2006 |
I do recommend it, LK. It's one of those dishes I fantasize about on days like today: 12 degrees (a heat wave!), a steady snow falling to augment the 11 inches we got yesterday, my ceramic heater huffing puffing to keep me from freezing to the keyboard. Interesting, stews aren't just poular among those of us in the cold, dark places. They also figure prominently in Caribbean and African cooking. As you can tell, I've made sort of a study of this. As a single guy, I make a lot of stews and soups 'cause I can eat them over several days. And because it happens to be cold as the bejesus here. | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 369 Registered: 08-2006 |
Just so I'm not responsible for totally derailing this thread, here's a link to The Archive of Misheard Lyrics. http://www.kissthisguy.com/ Now, back to thinking about stew... | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1576 Registered: 03-2006 |
Would you have a recipe for that stew, man? Maybe I'll try it...it's down to a nippy 60-65 degrees here in So Cal. Brrr... | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 370 Registered: 08-2006 |
You got it, my friend. I'll send 'er to you. Guaranteed to cure what ails you. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1257 Registered: 05-2005 |
LK that's bubble and squeak over here!!!!! | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1577 Registered: 03-2006 |
Is that a description of the actual dish or what goes on in your belly after you eat it?  You Brits and your strange sounding dishes. You probably follow that with some bangers and mash (whatever that is)... Which reminds me - where has that ole haggis-eater, Kevin, been? | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1258 Registered: 05-2005 |
b&M is sausage and mashed potatoes. bubble and squeak was the name of the dish, basically as you said, all the leftovers thrown in together and eaten!! kev is probably tuckin in tae some mince 'n tatties!!!! or stovies! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1001 Registered: 03-2005 |
Bubble and squeak. Sounds like Captain Beefheart's "Blabber and Smoke" but I guess it's not. Hello to all of you from super tedious jury duty in Los Angeles County Superior Court. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1578 Registered: 03-2006 |
hmmm, mince n tatties...stovies! Maybe that's my ticket to the bigtime: open up a restaurant in So Cal called "LK's Mince & Tatties"... There's a place in Mexico called "Pappas & Beer" that packs 'em in (pappas are potatoes), so why not? | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 1240 Registered: 04-2005 |
I've got a stupid Go-Betweens misheard lyric story because I tend to ignore the lyric sheets in CD booklets. For a long time, I thought the first line of "Draining the Pool for You" was "Remember Genet?/evidently you've forgotten mine" instead of "Remembered your name/evidently you've forgotten mine." But, then again, RF did mention Genet in another song ("Karen"). By the way, my publishing company is doing a 2007 version of a misheard lyrics book; there was one in the late '80s or '90s called "Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy." I'm not too thrilled about our book--I hate knockoffs--but the title is funny: one of the mishearings of "Tiny Dancer." It's called "Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza." (This is not meant as a sales pitch; nobody here would like the book.) | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1259 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy congrats on your hitting the big K!!!! Hope the jury duty isn't bogging you down, yet to do one meself. jury duty that is, not time! LK, i'll design your logo, and I'll be first in your new restaurant! Kurt hope you managing to get back ok. I reckon Kev is managing The Fall in the USA! As I believe most of the band on the new record are from The States now the others have walked... A couple of misheard lyrics: Fredie Mercury, is it called Living on my own? My mate picked this one up, there's a line, "Gotta beat some git on the head!", that is actually "Gotta be some good times ahead". The other was a tiny bit embarrising when I was 9 or 10, i was a very young punk. My Mum made my heair stand up on end with some soap, then I ripped my anorak, a padded one and wrote on it various things, names of bands, slogans atthe time, non of them expletives I hasten to add, but one line I wrote on my jacketin eyebrow pencil was "Shadowbag", thinking it was from the Stranglers song Peaches, "there goes the Sharrabang" | ||
| Michelle M Member Username: Michelle Post Number: 27 Registered: 09-2004 |
2 to report. Mine: for decades I thought that a line in "Sitting on the dock of the bay" was: I left my home in Georgia Headed for the crystal bay It was only when LK mentioned the song recently that I started to sing it and it suddenly dawned on me that it may well be "Frisco" and of course it is. I am from Aust. Daughter when she was in early teens told me she liked the song (and I had to google the lyric to find the song) Pepper by the Butthole Surfers. She started to sing a bit of it 'they were all in love with Diane' I had to tell her that they weren't in love with Diane at all. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1588 Registered: 03-2006 |
Huh...it's funny, I think I like some of the misheard versions better..."Crystal Bay" is very evocative. California trivia: I haven't lived in CA all my life, so I don't know if it was ever seriously called that, but all the people I know from that area get peeved when I've used the word "Frisco". Most of them, when they don't refer to it in full, just call it "the city". I guess things were different back then, or Otis was cool enough to get away with it. I DEFINITELY like "Hold me closer, Tony Danza" better than the original lyric. Don't know the Butthole Surfers song you refer to, Michelle, but knowing them, I'm guessing it was a tender love ballad... | ||
| Allen Belz Member Username: Abpositive Post Number: 209 Registered: 09-2006 |
I have no idea of the truth, but I'm supposing that the term "Frisco" was used by the residents until everybody in the rest of the country started calling it that, at which point they disowned it. My five-year-old brother used to think that the chorus of the Cher song "Half-Breed" went "Ant Pee!" It does fit the song...if there's anything lower than ant pee, I don't know what it is... | ||
| Michelle M Member Username: Michelle Post Number: 28 Registered: 09-2004 |
LK, I should have stated that the line was: They were all in love with dyin' which is repeated a few times through the song. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 1009 Registered: 03-2005 |
Spence, if the Winnebagos haven't chosen a title for their second LP yet, seriously consider "Shadowbag." It'll be a great album title and it can remain your own little personal joke. That is if Caroline doesn't mind the album title being your own little personal joke. Michelle, your story reminds me of how often I wonder about place names in GoBees and Triffids songs. I haven't a clue so I just make out what seems reasonable. Your "Crystal Bay" seems totally reasonable to me. In fact I didn't even know the correct pronunciation for "Brisbane" until too recently--after I'd written a fairly decent song of that name utterly dependent upon my incorrect pronunciation of "Brisbayne." Oh well. Hardin, referring to SF as the "The City" always seemed the most pretentious, provincial thing imaginable and as a Los Angeleno I refuse. New Yorkers can call their home "The City" if they like (which they don't) but, seriously, calling SF "The City" is only possible if your universe extends no further than the outer reaches of Contra Costa County. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1590 Registered: 03-2006 |
They get a little precious about that, don't they? Calling it "the city" IS pretentious and provincial, isn't it? Solipsistic, to boot...Do you know anything about the "Frisco" thing, Randy? Was it ever called that by locals? It also cracked me up to find out that lots of San Franciscans look down on Angelenos. Because they're too "shallow", lacking in culture, etc. Which is obviously silly and unsupportable. There's more culture, art, just plain richness of experience in L.A. than you could ever explore in several lifetimes. For instance, have those pompous peeps from "the city" ever heard of a little thing called "the Getty"... Like that foggy, chilly raggedy MF is the center of the universe. They can have it - at least in So Cal we're not freezing our tuchuses off in July. I dunno about you, man, but I've really been enjoying the weather the last couple days. I'm sure it's been even more clement in L.A. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1593 Registered: 03-2006 |
Speaking of Toots, as you were on another thread, Randy, there's a lyric I've sort of wilfully misunderstood for years. My first Toots album was "Funky Kingston", given to me when I was 13 or so, by my hip older brother. Of course, with Toots' thick patois, good luck making out lyrics. But it's always sounded to me, that on "Pomp & Pride", he's singing "Every man has to give an ass a little kiss, now"...There's a certain truth there, even if those aren't the lyrics... | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 385 Registered: 08-2006 |
Hey, knock off the clement-type talk, wouldya? Some of us are using sled dogs and icebreakers to get around right about now. After the latest snow dump, I got plowed into my parking spot, followed by zero-degree temps that night, so unless I buy an ice pick or find someone with a blow torch, I may not see my car 'til spring. And I think that's my mailman I see freeze-dried to my front fence. So no sun-and-fun talk from the Angelinos 'til April, at least. | ||
| Little Keith Member Username: Manosludge Post Number: 1594 Registered: 03-2006 |
Sorry, man, got carried away... I feel your pain. The other (balmy) night I was drinking a frozen margarita on the balcony of a restaurant and got one of those brain-freeze headaches...I was traumatized...brrr.... | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 386 Registered: 08-2006 |
Truth be told, I actually like winter. Summer in Chicago is so jammed-packed with everyone trying to make the most of the nice weather that by the time the cold comes, you're actually ready to hibernate. Winter here is kind of catch-up, dig-in time. I read more, I write more and it's an excellent excuse to share a bed with someone. You know, strictly for heat conservation. That's not to say I wouldn't jump at the chance to experience a brain freeze that didn't involve a -15 degree wind chill. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 124 Registered: 07-2006 |
i once knew a hunky barman who went under the name of "alex the seal". true story. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 1291 Registered: 05-2005 |
Inspired by chat on another thread I'm listening to Bruce Springsteen's Tunnel Of Love right now. Hearing the track Brilliant Diguise reminded me that for years I heard that chorus - despite the title evidence - as: "Is that you baby, or just a bridge in disguise?". I just thought "Wow. That's pretty bitter." | ||
| XY765 Member Username: Judge Post Number: 212 Registered: 01-2006 |
Magnetic Fields, Crazy for You (but not that crazy) from 69 Love Songs..: "I performed acts of devotion as if you were Ganesh, but now I'm crazy for you but not that crazy". First few times I heard this I thought he said Guinness instead of Ganesh heh heh, which doesn't make any sense really. I suppose an Irishman might think that and there is a song on the album called Abigail, Belle of Kilronan so..... Hmmmm, now I feel like a pint of the black stuff.... | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 1360 Registered: 05-2005 |
That song Enter Sandman, I always thought the hook line as Adel Weiss!!!! |