Misheard Song Lyrics

American Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Actual Lyrics: "Well she was an American girl, raised on promises"

Misheard Lyrics: "Well she was an American girl, raised on the Provinces"

I thought the song meant that though she was American, she was raised in Canada!

edited 31st Aug '16 11:40:36 PM by Nintendork64

I thought it was

"Well she was an American girl, raised on Providence"

edited 1st Sep '16 5:13:59 AM by Halberdier17

Or raised in Providence

Listening to Vs. by Pearl Jam reminded me of a few for songs on the album:

When I first heard "Go" on the radio I had no idea what the chorus was supposed to be - my best guesses were "Don't you want me?" or more nonsensically "Dunk the walrus" - It's of course "Don't go on me".

I thought "Daughter" included the lines "Young girl, violins/ Center of a rhododendron", when in fact it's "Young girl, violence, center of her own attention"

Not having looked at the title, I thought the chorus to "Leash" was "Thought police, get out of my fuckin' face" instead of "drop the leash...". I was interpreting the song entirely differently when I thought there was a Nineteen Eighty-Four reference in it.

Finally, this one's not mine, but I've seen "Lick the dirt off a larger one's feet" in "Rats" interpreted as "Lick the dirt off Olajuwon's feet". The former only makes sense in context of the song's theme of comparing human society to rats, and the latter doesn't make any sense but wouldn't be the first time they made a basketball Shout-Out: They wanted to call themselves Mookie Blaylock after the NBA player, and when they couldn't for copyright reasons, they settled for naming their first album, Ten, after his jersey number.

edited 6th Sep '16 2:59:28 PM by MikeK

Livin Lovin Maid - Led Zeppelin

Actual Lyrics: "With the butler and the maid and the servants three"

I heard: with the butler and the maid and the cemetery.

Then I heard: with the butler and the maid and the symmetry.

Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin

Actual Lyrics: "How soft your fields so green. Can whisper tales of gore."

I at first heard: how soft your fields so green. That whispered tales of Thor.

Later I was close: How soft your fields so green. That whispered tales of gore.

I was close I heard "that" instead of "can" and I also kept hearing "whisper" in the past tense instead of present tense.

edited 18th Sep '16 2:45:27 PM by Halberdier17

The Weeknd's "Starboy" as "Cyborg". I choose to continue to hear it this way when it comes on the radio because 1) it was produced by two robots, and 2) "I'm a motherfucking cyborg" (as per the uncensored version) is just more badass-sounding as a boast than "I'm a motherfucking starboy".

edited 3rd Oct '16 7:01:00 PM by MikeK

I mishear lyrics all the time. It's part of why I tend to focus more on the music.

Examples:

Billy Joel - We Didn't Start the Fire

misheard — "Merchants in Afghanistan"

actual — "Russians in Afghanistan"

Living Colour - Cult of Personality

misheard — "I'm the coked-up personality"

real — "I'm the cult of personality"

edited 28th Oct '16 9:58:30 AM by gnomon

I just looked up the lyrics to Green Day's "American Idiot" and realized there were a couple lines I've had wrong for years. In the chorus, I kept hearing the line "all across the alienation" as "all across the idiot nation," which I think is understandable given the title.

In the first verse, I also heard "don't want a nation under the new mania" as "don't want a nation to govern the media," which I thought was either a reference to censorship, propaganda, or both.

edited 28th Oct '16 8:22:41 PM by FingerPuppet

My favorite "We Didn't Start The Fire" mondegreen maybe isn't properly a mondegreen because the actual words aren't being misheard, just their intended punctuation: "Space monkey mafia" instead of "Space monkey, mafia". He's supposed to be referring to the rise of the mafia and monkeys being shot into space as two separate events in American history, but the two phrases run together and make it sound like he's talking about monkeys running organized crime rings in space.

"Pretty Lavinia"- American Murder Song

Actual lyrics:

Misheard lyrics:

"Wake the Dead"- Creature Feature

Actual lyrics:

Misheard lyrics:

And also:

Turned into:

"Haunted"- Creature Feature

Actual lyrics:

Misheard lyrics:

Recently misheard "Nibelheim" as "Nipple High" in DA Games's song Slay for Honor.

It made me laugh really hard and I immediately knew it was wrong, but I can't unhear it.

Well, now that Christmas is coming... Sharon Jones insists that you got big... bulbs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFNGck5z6Os

Always misheard Van Halen's "Panama" as Animal, for whatever reason.

When I was younger I thought it was Pamela instead of Panama.

Ozzy Osbourne - "Crazy Train": "I know that pizza's good with broccoli" (instead of "I know that things are going wrong for me"). I do not agree with that pizza topping choice, Ozzy. And come to think of it, neither did Riley from Inside Out.

edited 22nd Nov '16 8:08:56 PM by MikeK

I suddenly got "Little Things" by Bush in my head today, and remembered how, before I knew the title, I thought the chorus was "it's that little piece of hell" instead of "it's the little things that kill". I thought "little piece of hell" was supposed to be some kind of play on calling a place "a little piece of heaven". Listening to the song again I think, if anything, Gavin Rossdale's accent makes it sound like he's singing about a "little piece of kale".

Rae Sremmurd's "Black Beatles"

Actual lyric: "That girl is a real crowd pleaser"

Misheard lyric: "That girl is a real proud beast"

I'm starting to like rap but I still can't completely shake off the "all rappers are insulting to women" stereotype. I think my brain somehow cranks up the "insane irrational SJW self-righteousness" level to make me think that the songwriters find women vain creatures ("proud beast") for some reason.

edited 3rd Dec '16 8:22:09 AM by tropeslave

"Smooth Operator" by Sade was playing in a store today, and I remembered grooving out to it as a kid, but also thinking it was called "Spook On The Radar". A "spook" can be a racial slur or a spy ^note and I guess maybe a spy would be likely to use radar in their line of work, but I was only familiar with the "ghost" definition and was imagining an apparition showing up on someone's radar screen.

Not mine, but one that came up in a mondegreen thread elsewhere: In Danzig's "When The Dying Calls" (1:07 into the song): "Down through the ages from the doughnut shop" ^note instead of "Down through the ages from the dawn of time.

edited 17th Dec '16 7:40:18 PM by MikeK

Wouldn't a spook want to stay off the radar?

From "Whiplash" by Metallica (which is actually a lot of it, but here are two examples):

Instead of "frenzied madness", I hear "forensic madness".

Instead of "cause this is what we choose", I hear something "cause this is run with Jews".

edited 11th Feb '17 8:18:07 PM by DreamCord

A misheard lyric from the Persona 4 soundtrack:

My version: "Your affection, your affection, take it from muffing, we'll swelter you and to make yourself a hero." (...I don't know either.)

Real lyrics: "Your affection, your affection, taking pride from fear, past will tell you when to make yourself a hero."

And here's another one from the Golden battle theme,Time To Make History (the full version).

My version: "And if you fall, get up bright like a baby, test your fate."

Real version: "And if you fall, get up, rise like a phoenix - that's your fate."

edited 16th Feb '17 10:01:03 AM by arimothereindeer

Blinded By the Light - Manfred Mann's Earth Band (Originally from Bruce Springsteen)

Actual Lyrics: "She got down but she never got tight" The rest of the line I had it correct.

Misheard Lyrics: She got down but she never got tired.

The official youtube video for Beck's "Wow" has subtitled lyrics, and I was disappointed to learn that it's "get loose with the luminous moves" instead of "get loose with the luminous moose". "Luminous moose" just sounds so much more like something he'd write.

Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water

Actual lyrics: Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky

Misheard: Smoking Marijuana, the pies are in the sky

This one was actually influenced by the fact that I was both tired and hungry at the time, even though I'd not been smoking, but the second part took me a while to 'unlearn' due to it being similar enough.

"Mama Roux" - Dr. John

Actual lyrics: She was the queen of the little red, white, and blue

Misheard lyrics: She was the queen of the Little Red Riding Hood

(I'm not sure how much I actually mistook the lyric, but it keeps coming to mind, so that's something, I guess)

edited 7th Mar '17 9:52:58 PM by DreamCord