Post your spectacular mishearings of rock lyrics here!

[uwe]

I'll go first. Heard the new Stone Roses compilation yesterday in the car. They are a band I know pretty much nothing about (aided by the fact that I always confuse The Stone Roses, Queens of the Stone Age and The Stone Temple Pilots with one another, but I'm good at telling the Rolling Stones apart, thank you!), save for the fact that Doug Stryker likes them and their bassist Mani, but then what does he know, he's Dutch after all.

Anyway, I listen to the first track, find it pleasantly catchy and hum the perceived chorus "I wanna be your dog" (all Brits are into SM, so it comes naturally to them) along, wondering just a little bit that this sounds nothing like the Stooges track of the same name (see out little Greek's Stooges thread!), maybe they just ripped off the title? Later on I look at the cover, wot, no "I wanna be your dog" listed?  

There it was/is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTxhIaS9GKs&feature=related

[gweimer]

Trying to extract lyrics from vinyl prior to the days of questionable internet translations, Queen was always tough to decipher.

"Killer Queen"
She keeps her Moet et Chandon
In her pretty cabinet
'Let them eat cake' she says
Just like Marie Antoinette
A built-in remedy
For Kruschev and Kennedy
At anytime an invitation
You can't decline

"Keep Yourself Alive"
Well I've loved a million women
In a belladonic haze



The singers in my band just mumbled where they weren't sure.

[uwe]

That is interesting, because I always understood Freddie on that track quite clearly, maybe because we're more used to Brit pronounciations from school than you guys. And of course he name-checks a lot of things familiar to a European.  

Much easier at least than Slade who on Thanks for the Memory



sing: "have a housemaid on your knee" (with the best intentions, I'm sure) where I as a teenager heard "have a house made of your knee" (given the UK's post-war economic issues I thought that they were once again maybe short of building material!  ). Goes to show we didn't have a lot of housemaids at home in our castle, at least not on my knee! I also thought that the Fender Rhodes intro was played on a bass with crispy-fresh new roundwounds ...   It is the bass sound (similar to the Fender Rhodes riffs at the start of Ike and Tina Turner's Nutbush City Limits) that I vainly attempted to get right for myself for years back then.  

[Chris P.]

British into SM? Wasn't Germany invading Russia also a form of it?

[TBird1958]

You just beat me to the Slade.........

As a young teenager (hell even today) I could never figure out what Naddy was singing in "Mama we're all Crazee Now"......

"I don't want to, drink my whiskey but still do......

Had enough to, fill up "H" Hill's left shoe".......

A very inside joke with the band, "H" was Dave Hill's nickname, refering to the musical term hortissimo - or very loud. I never figured it out until much later when I found a Slade song book.

[gweimer]

Then there's "Louie, Louie" - the song that spurred a controversy.  You can barely hear the words in the original, but Lemmy's version, believe it or not, is clear as a bell.

[uwe]

I saw Slade live twice - I think the badge "hortissimo" was squarely and fairly with Jim Lea, his bass was so loud it caused nose bleeding with audience members (no joke). And I remember him standing on top of the PA playing his bass solo and that was incredibly loud as well.

[Dave W]

Then there's "Louie, Louie" - the song that spurred a controversy.  You can barely hear the words in the original, but Lemmy's version, believe it or not, is clear as a bell.

The original was written and sung by Richard Berry, and it's clear.

[Highlander]

Sparks - Hasta Manana Monsieur

"You mentioned Kant and I was shocked ... so shocked"

Prior to studying philosophy this always a shock to the ear as it sounded remarkably like a rather coarse word...

[uwe]

I'm sure that was the Mael Bros' intention. Their lyrics were always sharp, see Amateur Hour from the same album, I thought the bridge "Well she can show you what you must do to be more like people better than you" was one of the most devastating statements of teenage angst:




"The lawns grow plush in the hinterlands
The perfect little setting for the one night stands
The drapes are drawn and the lights are out
It's the time to put in practice what you've dreamed about

Well she can show you what you must do
To be more like people better than you

Amateur hour goes on and on
When you turn pro you know she'll let you know
Amateur hour goes on and on
When you turn pro you know she tells you so

Girls grow tops to go topless in
While we sit and count the hairs that blossom from our chins
Our voices change at a rapid pace
I could start a song a tenor and then end as bass

So choose your partners everyone
If you hesitate the good ones are gone

Amateur hour goes on and on
When you turn pro you know she'll let you know
Amateur hour goes on and on
When you turn pro you know she tells you so

Dance laugh wine dine and talk and sing
But those cannot replace what is the real thing
It's a lot like playing the violin
You cannot start off and be Yehudi Menuhin

So amateur hour goes on and on
When you turn pro you know she'll let you know
Amateur hour goes on and on
When you turn pro you know she tells you so
Amateur hour goes on and on
When you turn pro you know she'll let you know
Amateur hour goes on and on
When you turn pro you know she tells you so"

Of course, bringing the Mael Bros to a largely American audience like here is an exercise in vain, you've disowned your own sons by commercially ignoring them through all these years. Do you find their quirkiness unsettling?

[ack1961]

I thought I heard Geddy Lee once sing "...and echoes with the sound of salesmen", but that can't be correct.

It must have been a mistake on my part - nobody would write that into a song, would they?

[Highlander]

Yes they would...!

Re Sparks, Uwe... Indeed, as I learnt at a later point... they had quite a good bass sound from what I remember... just a wierd look...

There are some really "in your face" ones that spring to mind when it comes to trying to offend without deliberately (sic) doing so, like Midnight Oil's "Lucky Country" (couldn't find a link), where Garrett sings the outro as "lucky c... , lucky c... , lucky coun tree-ee" but each time it is sung with a hard T... that's Aussies for you (ducking Bret's boomerang... ) wonderful track for his most words you can cram into a 30 second slot without taking a breath (or nearly none - there are live versions but they don't do the "fade")

You just beat me to the Slade.........

Was that a deliberate pun...

[lowend1]

Years ago, my band rehearsed in a studio rented by the hour. The previous occupant's vocalist had left his lyric book behind. It contained, among other songs, AC/DC's "Sin City" - with the line: "Little guineas, caviar".

[ack1961]

Frank Marino (Mahogany Rush) wrote "Ditch Queen" as an ode to groupies.
It was lyrically strewn with innuendo and delivered with some creative timing & emphasis.

"she thinks she's lady luck,
she's a ditch queen,
and likes to fu-llow me"

"you know she likes to rock,
she's a ditch queen,
and she loves my co-ntinental"

Childish, Sophomoric? Sure. Just another reason to love it.
He was also a monster on guitar - the break/solo in this song is an all-time favorite.

[Dave W]

"My girlfriend, she's Auntie Em"  

(not mine, but a number of people have heard it that way)