that "secret agent man" was "secret asian man". I don't know why.

does make it sound like "secret Asian man".

I had the luxury of hearing it as the theme song of a TV show of the same name, so I always knew it was "agent" instead of "Asian"

English is my second language

David Ippolito, "That Guitar Guy In Central Park". His cover of Rocket Man:

I'm a rocket man,
Bernie Taupin sleeps with everyone



(it's "Burnin' out my fuse up here alone", as heard in an ad for a car stereo).

I couldn't figure out why they said "'Cause we're living in a world of fruit, breakin' us down". I knew it made no sense, obviously they weren't singing "fruit", but that's what my nine-year-old ears heard.

At 6, I heard the line "and you come to me on a summer breeze" as "and you come to me on a submarine". High five!

(prepare to be disappointed)

CHORUS:

Louie Louie, oh no
Me gotta go
Aye-yi-yi-yi, I said
Louie Louie, oh baby
Me gotta go

Fine little girl waits for me
Catch a ship across the sea
Sail that ship about, all alone
Never know if I make it home

CHORUS

Three nights and days I sail the sea
Think of girl, constantly
On that ship, I dream she's there
I smell the rose in her hair.

CHORUS

Okay, let's give it to 'em, right now!

GUITAR SOLO

See Jamaica, the moon above
It won't be long, me see me love
Take her in my arms again
Tell her I'll never leave again

CHORUS

Let's take it on outa here now
Let's go!!

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/onehitwonders/louielouielyrics.html

wrapped up like a douche another roamer in the night.

it's just the most nonsensical hodge podge of crap ever written.

You mean like those lyrics?

Well sorta close anyway

Cool Whip in my hair...

instead of Bad Moon on the Rise. I think a lot of people heard bathroom on the right.

I just knew it contained the acid-head line

"No dark star chasm in the classroom"

More recently there was
"Bing boom basher on the 45" for "Brimful of Asher"

i heard...
that stained glass curtain you're hiding behind
never LET SIN THE SON...


and it was like a bolt of lightening when i finally realized it was:

that stained glass curtain you're hiding behind
never lets in the sun...

i love moments of clarity.

And there's a wino down the road.

"She loves to move.
She loves to groove.
She loves eleven things."

(Even though that's clearly only two things!)

The Halls of Shambala

Sounds like " I'm a lo-oo-oo-oo-ser" looked it up and it's ah ah oo ooooooo o (not words at all)

That'd give it a different flavor, yeah?

From Misty Mountain Hop by Led Zeppelin.

It's actually "Please hey, would we care...to all get in line, get in line..."

We were so sure it was Whoopie Cat, we named our cat that.


TO be fair, though, I discovered Led Zep and weed at exactly the same time - so the first million times I heard MMH I was hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh as fuck...

Last edited Fri Sep 7, 2012, 11:38 PM - Edit history (1)

man o man did I mishear all the lyrics in Black Dog, I looked up the lyrics a couple of months ago, and I was not hearing the right words, but actually the guitars and the drums are what makes that song awesome, not so much the lyrics

All along the watchtower-Hendrix: Businessman they drink my wine, Plowman dig my earth
I hear: Business man they drink my wine, and come and take my herb

Purple Haze-Hendrix: Excuse me while I kiss the sky
I hear: 'cuse me while I P*ss in the sky hahaha

Shannon-Henry Gross: SHANNON IS GONE I HOPE SHE'S DRIFTING OUT TO SEA SHE ALWAYS LOVED TO SWIM AWAY
MAYBE SHE'LL FIND AN ISLAND WITH A SHADY TREE JUST LIKE THE ONE IN OUR BACKYARD
I hear: Shannon is gone I heard, she's driven off to the city, she always known she'd went away, maybe she is fine and I will wear the shade that's pretty, just like the one when all said and done (I still hear this when I listen to this song, I thought it was about a girl who left home for the city, actually it's about Shannon, Carl Wilson's Samoyed)

Break on thru to the other side-Doors: I found an island in your arms, country in your eyes
I hear: I found an island on your arms, poultry in your eyes.....

You must have been the only person not hearing "Excuse me while I kiss this guy"

Wow! I'm speechless. First pluto is not a planet, then Brontosaurus is not a real dinosaur. Now this. Was anything I grew up believing real?

It was the 60's, psychadelic music.....wait, brontosaurus is not a real dinosaur??!!! WTH

There was accidentally an extra neck bone in the skeleton of a... padosaur???

It was a few years back. Does anybody remember this or heard it?

Here it is:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/371/is-it-true-the-brontosaurus-never-really-existed

So, no, the Brontosaurus never existed.

He was my favorite.

I'm sticking with "come and taste my herb," which is what I've heard all these years. I like my version better. I could always just see a stoned Jimmy there gesturing for the guy to come have some of his pot.

I'm your fire and your desire!

I think they lost something in the translation

And then they go on to sing:

"Her werp er were er crystal meth
Making every man insane
Black as the dark knight she was
Got what no one else head..."

Heard the song when I was young, and for a long time I thought that was how the song went.

The ants are my friends. I'm blowing in the wind...

I suppose I liked the mental image.

Was heard as..."don't fear the reefer". Of course I obliged...no fear...I embraced the reefer.

He sang: "Oh, baby, oh, baby, then it fell apart"

I heard: "Oh, baby, oh, baby, can I telethon?"

It didn't make much sense, but then so MUCH in life doesn't, either.

Silly girls just find out early, how to open doors with just a smile...

My personal "Rocket Man" misheard lyrics, from when the song first came out. The rocket blasted off, the people were standing too close, so the Rocket Man was burnin' all the shoes off everyone.

Correct lyrics: "Burning out his fuse up here alone..."

I always thought he was saying " Rocket man, burning up the trees on every lawn"

I used to think "Groovin'" was a kinky song about a threesome until a few years ago, when I realized the line was really "You and me endlessly groovin'"

What I heard: All I suggest is a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.
Actual: All lies and jests
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest.

It's just a subtle difference.

"all eyes in jest..."

Never did make sense.

I heard "All eyes ingest..."

Thought it was poetic for taking everything in...

I thought for a long time that the singer had 'squandered my resistance for a pocketful of marbles' (instead of 'mumbles')

By red rider.

I heard: "Lemme take French."

So take French. What do I care and why are you writing a song about it?

that I had the lyrics to "California Dreamin'" all wrong.

I always thought they said, "Got down on my knees, and I pretended to pray."

I still think my version is more in keeping with the song.

Mona Lisa Brown.....

Then after I found out what it really was I though "why would anyone want to put a lime in a coconut?"

It was a mess

can be somewhat undecipherable

From Wikipedia:

A commonly related story says that the song's title was originally "In the Garden of Eden", but at one point in the course of rehearsing and recording, singer Doug Ingle got drunk and slurred the words, creating the mondegreen that stuck as the title. However, the liner notes on 'the best of' CD compilation state that drummer Ron Bushy was listening to the track through headphones, and could not clearly distinguish what Ingle said when he asked him for the song's title. An alternate explanation given in the liner notes of the 1995 re-release of the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida album, is that Ingle was drunk, high, or both, when he first told Bushy the title, and Bushy wrote it down. Bushy then showed Ingle what he had written, and the slurred title stuck.

Thanks.

made more sense than what I was hearing...and they don't. But at least I can sing along now (rather than inserting my own filler words: "Evenflow, something something BUTTERFLIES!&quot

I mean we know he can be understood, the words to "Jeremy" are perfectly-clear...but much of the time he sounds like he's got a mouth crammed full of oatmeal or pudding that he's trying not to spit on the floor.

sounds like he just left the dentist's office with a mouthful of novocaine.

Yes, I really am that stupid.

I was young when the song came out.

A B C D,
E F G,
H I J K,
elemental peas,
Q R S,
etc

"Elemental peas?" That's poetry!

I thought it said:

"I feel that acid slowly melting"

Since it had been years since it's been clear, I figured they were talking about Mr Natural.

vice

Little darling
I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling
It seems like years since it's been clear

Actual lyrics:

There's a place up ahead and I'm going
Just as fast as my feet can fly
Come away, come away if you're going
Leave the *sinking ship* behind.

What I hear:
Leave the *stinking shit* behind.

growing up I thought Neil Diamond was saying "reverend blue jeans" instead of "forever in blue jeans"

England Dan and John Ford Coley "I'm not talkin about the linen" instead of "I'm not talkin about moving in"

Kenny Rogers "400 children and a crop in the field" instead of "four hungry children and a crop in the field"


As I got older I realized the last two song didn't make sense, but finding out I was wrong about this cool, regular guy reverend I had pictured in my mind was a let down.

There was some guy writing a column for the Tulsa World at the time who also said that's how he heard it.

I also remember a friend of my mom's saying, at the time, "Wow, with 400 children, no wonder Lucille left!"

for “Poetry in motion” (Poetry in Motion sung by Johnny Tillotson)

Oh, a tree in motion, walking by my side

The chorus goes:

Now I'm out
Oh out of control
Now I'm out
Oh out of control


I heard:

Now I'm out,
Oh I, I'm a troll!

My boyfriend at the time thought I was going insane, I laughed so hard the first time I (mis)heard it on the radio!

"Sundown, you better take care
If I find you've been drinking my Labatt's ale..."



(does Labatt's even exist any more???)

what he was really saying:

"Sundown, you better take care
If I find you've been creeping round my back stairs"

There is a Robert Burns song with the lines:

Sae bide ye yet, and bide ye yet.
Ye little ken what may betide ye yet.

Until I actually read the lyrics quite recently, it always sounded to me like:

Bide ye yet, and bide ye yet.
Your little kimono and tidy hat.

I knew it COULDN'T be that - kimonos were obviously not typical clothing for 18th-century Scottish lassies! - but that was what my ears kept telling me!

I also always heard the line in 'Groovin', 'You and me endlessly' as 'You and me and Elsie'.

My friend as a child understood the lines, 'You don't have to say you love me; just be close at hand' as 'You don't have to say I'm lovely, just because I am!' I still prefer her version.

in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta:

"O'er the la-and of the fre-e,
And the home of the Braves!"

"Lead us not into Penn Station..."