It's likely everyone has listened to a song they liked and misheard the lyrics. That's not unusual.
However, have you ever thought your misheard lyrics were better or more interesting than those of the actual song? That replacing the actual lyric with your version might make it more thought provoking or meaningful?
I'll give you a couple of examples for myself, one obscure, one famous:
There was a band from Boston called Human Sexual Response from the 80s. They had a song called Marone Offering that I really liked, but I never had a lyric sheet. The song starts out mid tempo, then changes to a much more uptempo beat about ⅔ of the way. During that uptempo portion, there's a lyric they repeat over and over. Before the advent of the internet, I thought that lyric was:
"It's justified when you walk away"
Which I personally thought was really interesting. Of course, years later and I find out it was:
"It's just a five minute walk away"
Kind of a letdown in my opinion.
Another instance was the very well known Don't Fear the Reaper. For years, I'd thought the third verse began:
"Love of two is one
Please put down that gun"
Obviously a somewhat more sinister implication.
Of course, the actual lyric is:
"Love of two is one
Here but now they're gone"
Nothing wrong with it, but part of me prefers my version.
Now, it's highly likely I think about song lyrics more than most people, but I'm curious, and I wonder if anyone else has misheard lyrics they prefer to the actual ones.
Replies
I misheard the lyrics of "Yesterday" but only slightly.
The actual lyrics are...
I said something wrong
Now I long for yesterday
...but I heard it as...
I said, "Something wrong?"
Now I long for yesterday.
I wouldn't say I prefer the way I originally heard it, but I had an entire scenario worked out in my head.
It's tricky, because there's lyrics that I've mis-heard, but none that I could say that I "preferred", per se. I'll have to think about this a while.
I always heard Creedence Clearwater Revival's "There's a bad moon on the rise" as "there's a bathroom on the right." Like the others, I don't know that I prefer my younger self's version necessarily. They both work pretty well, if the bathroom is your refuge, where you hide from bad things.
There's a Neil Diamond song, "Forever In Blue Jeans" that I misheard as "Reverend Blue Jeans," like it's about some youth pastor. I remember years ago finding out I wasn't the only one. On an episode of MST3K, someone is greeted as "Reverend" and one of the bots followed up with "Blue jeans."
A friend of mine misheard "tropical drink melting in your hand" in the Beach Boys' "Kokomo" as "Got the cocaine money in your hand," and I absolutely prefer that one.
I just thought of one, from The Who's "Pure and Easy":
Actual Lyric:
All men are bored
With other men's lives
"My" Lyric:
All men aboard
With other men's lies
I took that to we all must go through life with lies we have been told since childhood.
I kind of like that one.
Ha! That actually came up in an episode of King of Queens. Doug insists that it is "Reverend Blue Jeans" and he and Carrie argue over it.
Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod) said:
I doubt I'm alone in not understanding the "wrapped up like a deuce" line in "Blinded by the Light." I always heard "Wrapped up like a douche," which made no sense. Then I was told the real line sometime in the past, and it still didn't make sense. I've since heard that "deuce" is a kind of car? If so, it still doesn't make sense to me.
That's what it's always sounded like to me.
Captain Comics said:
That's "revved up like a deuce," ya know, as in "Little Deuce Coupe":
And while I'm at it, this bears repeating:
Just a little deuce coupe with a flat head mill
But she'll walk a Thunderbird like it's standin' still
She's ported and relieved and she's stroked and bored
She'll do a hundred and forty in the top end floored
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