'Paper Lace', cried a voice in the crowd; Mondegreen Thread

[Thesiger]

Time for another of your favourite misheard lyrics threads. Don't just post links to website lists (Excuse me, while I kiss this guy/ My ears are alight etc.). Let's have some lesser known ones.

Bob Dylan; Not Dark Yet - My sensitive manatee has gone down the drain
The Stranglers; No more heroes - They wash their own bum
Elton John; Tiny Dancer - Hold me close I'm trying to dance, ah! Count the head lice on the highway
Queen; Bohemian Rhapsody - The algebra has a devil for a sidekick, eeeee....
Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes; Up Where We Belong - The lift goes up when we get on
J. Geils Band; Centerfold - My anus is the center hole
Simon and Garfunkel: Mrs. Robinson - Put it in your pants. Re-wet your cupcake
Procol Harum; Conquistador - Like a seagull basted in wine
Del Amitri; Roll To Me - And I dont' think I have ever heard a slow slong in this place
Manfred Mann's Earth Band; Blinded by the Light -Wrapped up like a douche and then I roll her in the night
The Beatles ; Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds - A girl with colitis goes by
Billy Bragg; Levi Stubbs' Tears - With the money from her accident she bought herself a mobile phone

[Insouciant Western People]

Paul Young - Every time you go away, you take a piece of meat with you

Radiohead - I wanna be, wanna be, wanna be Jim Robinson

Simon and Garfunkel - Look around, Peter Brown


These are all from a university friend of mine called Becky. She told me once that she'd always wondered who Peter Brown was, and why Paul Simon was singing to him. She was equally puzzled by Thom Yorke's apparent desire to be the slightly grumpy Neighbours Robinson family patriarch.

[Hugh]

Bob Dylan : Rosemary combed her hair and took a cabbage into town.

I had that for my signature here for ages.

Sam Cooke: He's dancing with the chicken slacks.

From Native New Yorker : He dropped you off and he stayed in 3rd.

[BlueMeanie]

Creedence - There's a bathroom on the right (Bad Moon Rising)
Stones - I see a reptile and I want it painted black (Paint It Black)

A clutch of Beatles:

There's a frog upon a lake (Blue Jay Way)
Newpaper taxis and beer on the shore (Lucy)
Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease (Come Together)
Kangaroo dave (Jai guru deva - Across The Universe)
When you get to the bottom you go back to the frog on the slide (Helter Skelter)

[Hugh]

Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease (Come Together)

Is that wrong?

[BlueMeanie]

Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease (Come Together)

Is that wrong?

I thought it was supposed to be 'arms yeah'? Who knows what he's singing about anyway.

[sloopjohnc]

Karma Chameleon - Come on Leon

I used to be a counselor at a YMCA day camp for a summer job and I heard a little girl singing the chorus to Karma Chameleon as this.

[Piggly Wiggly]

Neil Diamond -

"You hardly talk to me anymore when I kung fu the door at the end of the day."

You Don't Bring Me Flowers

[zoomboogity]

A friend of mine told me about a gig he did in the early '80s playing in a Top 40 covers band. Some lady came up to him during their break and said, "Do you guys know that song, Chocolate Monkey?" It took him a couple seconds to figure out what she meant (Peter Gabriel), then a few more seconds trying not to burst out laughing as he told her no. Maybe she thought it was a French singer...

[eelpie62]

There's the story John Prine tells when he sings That's The Way The World Goes 'Round about the girl who says her favorite song of his is the one about the happy enchilada:
"But I don't sing a song about a happy enchilada."
"You know, 'That's the way the world goes 'round there's a happy enchilada and you think you're gonna drown'"

[king feeb]

I used to think that the Bee Gees' "More Than A Woman" was "Bald Headed Woman".

Come to think of it, that would actually be better...

[trans-chigley express]

Cutting Crew: "I just died in your arms tonight, it must have been some kind of cheese."

[bobzilla77]

Red Hot Chili Peppers, Velvet Shade - With the bird shit it's a lonely view, well... (this was an actual one... I knew it couldn't possibly be that but I really couldn;t hear real words there.)

Classic from one of the books:
Foreigner, Double Vision - My mind is bacon but my body's Sizzlean.

[Quaco]

I used to think that the Bee Gees' "More Than A Woman" was "Bald Headed Woman".

Come to think of it, that would actually be better...

I used to think ELO's "Evil Woman" was "medieval woman".

[Goat Boy]

I wanna fly, fly a phantom, I wanna jump, jump, jump, jump a mountain.

[Beebsy]

For Bohemian Rhapsody, we always sing, "Spare him his life and his pork sausages".

My friend Anthony used to sing, "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, I'm Mad After Midnight".

[frimleygreener]

"excuse me while i kiss this guy"
by frimleygreener » Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:17 am

we all know that one and several more like it....(indeed there is a "term" for mis-heard lyrics)...according to issue 22 of "mojo",(september 1995) in an article with regard to procol harum,the following words are quoted to "that" song...."so it's whiter later/as the mirror told the chair/that her face had burst just ghosty".

any other examples of totally misunderstood lyrics?

there are some great george ivan morrison ones....

[The Prof]

.46 seconds in.

"Fuck the navy, fuck the navy alright"

[Revolver]

Bee Gees - How Deep is Your Love...


"...and you came to me, on a submarine...."