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OT: songs you misunderstood in your youth


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I always felt sorry for Six. Why the hell did the first five numbers not have to work too?

 

hey, at least you got to hear it on the radio. XTC didn't get much airplay in the USA IIRC.

I think they got something where I was, it might have been MTV. I know I heard a few tunes from them back then.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

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I had a hard time with parts of American Pie -- like...

 

"Oh, and while the king was looking down

The jestice stole his corny crown

The courtroom a germ

No, heard it was returned

 

And while Lenin read a book on Marx

The court that practiced in the park

And we sang 'judge is in the dark'

The day the music died

And its Fall on the grass

The players tried for a forward pass

..."

 

I couldn't figure out what he was singing about (granted, my radio back then wasn't too great). Funny thing, though, after I learned all the correct lyrics, I still didn't know what he was singing about -- until much later when someone wrote a piece that explained it all.

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Of course, there were other songs where I had a heck of a time trying to figure out the lyrics, and eventually learned that they were even more impossible than I thought. For example,

https://genius.com/The-doors-roadhouse-blues-lyrics currently has for Roadhouse Blues:

"You got to beep a gunk a chucha

Honk konk konk

You got to each you puna

Each you bop a luba

Each you all bump a kechonk

Ease sum konk"

 

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When I have time, I'll try to remember and write down what I used to sing in REM's "End of the World as we Know It". I know the words now, so it may be hard to remember what I used to sing. But in those days there was no internet so I had to just pick them up off the recording. I resorted to phonetically writing down the syllables as I heard them and learning it that way - it made no sense whatsoever, but nobody ever noticed or called me out on it. Once I had access to the real words, some of them made me laugh and others I realized I was basically singing without knowing it.

 

Then there were others that I thought I was most likely singing wrong that ended up being correct! Like They Might Be Giants' "Don't Let's Start":

 

Singing Deputy dog dogga ding dang depa depa deputy dog dogga ding dang depa depa D world destruction over and overture N do I need apostrophe T means it's torture.

 

I thought most of that was jibberish until I saw the lyrics, and punctuation makes a big difference. DON'T:

 

D = World Destruction

(O = )Over and Overture

N = Do I Need?

'T means it's Torture

Dan

 

Acoustic/Electric stringed instruments ranging from 4 to 230 strings, hammered, picked, fingered, slapped, and plucked. Analog and Digital Electronic instruments, reeds, and throat/mouth.

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As a kid when the Rascals' Groovin' was a hit, thought the line was "life would be esctasy, you and me and Leslie".

 

(you and me endlessly)

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And you are English native, imagine if you are French...!!!! But even in French, I really don't hear that much about lyrics, I Have the score scrolling in front of my eyes so, I know the notes, I Hear the notes but a lot of time, I can barely understand the lyrics....My daughter tells ne that I'm stupid because the lyrics are the most important in a song....

Ok, I know a lot of Beatles songs and Pink Floyd songs as well...They were in the cover and I was learning English at that age and was relying on English songs to improve...

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Everyone hears "douche" for "deuce" in Blinded By The Light, but the line that made me go "WHAT DID HE SAY?" is:

 

And little Early Pearly

Came by in his curly-wurly

 

Honest to God, it still sounds to me like:

 

And little Early Pearly

Gave my anus curly-wurly

 

I didn't want to know what the hell that was about.

aka âmisterdregsâ

 

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I pointed out to the relative youngsters in the OR that this whole transgender stuff wasn't even new when either "Lola" or "Walk On The Wild Side" came on the classic rock station. A surgeon and a nurse born in the middle of the baby boom had no idea!

 

Really? What did you think they were talking about?

aka âmisterdregsâ

 

Nord Electro 5D 73

Yamaha P105

Kurzweil PC3LE7

Motion Sound KP200S

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QSC CP-12

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These were 2 big ones in my youth...

 

QUEEN - We Are The Champions

 

"You got mud on your face, you're a big disgrace"

mis-translated as:

"You got mud on your face, your big disc brakes"

 

...and...

 

STEVIE NICKS - Edge of Seventeen

 

"Just like the white winged dove, sings the song, sounds like she's singing"

mis-translated as:

"Just like the wide window, sings the song, sounds like she's singing"

 

:laugh:

Kurzweil PC3, Yamaha MOX8, Alesis Ion, Kawai K3M
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I remember hearing Springsteen's "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out" on the radio when I was in middle school, and having to ask my dad what Bruce song had that chorus that sounded like "Ted Devil in the free line" or something.

 

The thing is, the correct answer didn't make any more sense to me.

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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"Captain Midnight -- We're going to let it all hang out."

(Clapton's "After Midnight")

 

Speaking of ELP, the first line of "Love Blind" was transcribed, officially, as "I'm a Love Blind", which made about as much sense as if Lake had sung "I'm a duck blind." The reality is that he was singing "I'm love blind", but he was voicing the initial phoneme of the "L" in "love" on a separate pitch. Weird that that made it to the album (CD) cover.

 

As for Tarkus, I'm not sure that Lake or Sinfield understood what it meant either. :-)

-Tom Williams

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PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

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On the Young Rascal's 'Groovin' in 1967 ... because I was so obsessed to have my 1st Leslie...I selectively heard...which is a bit different that - mis-heard .... "You and Me Endlessly" as "You and Me and Leslie"....but I mean 'every single time' I heard it on the radio or whatever, my mind would slip it in instead of the original words....even today I will do that!

 

I finally got my Leslie 120 late in '67 and a brand new 145 from the old Silver and Horland in downtown Manhattan (Chinatown) in late '68 or early '69....the 120 was just not the real deal w/o a top rotor!

 

 

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OK, here's another one I remembered from the Doobie Brothers--their "Long Train Runnin" song.

 

I thought they were singing "See them poultries run, and you watch them disappear." I figured it was a song about wild chickens. :facepalm:

 

 

giphy-downsized-large.gif

 

 

 

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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I never knew that "Every Step You Take" by the Police was about a stalker. That didn't come through at all for me. I never knew till just a few years ago that "A Whiter Shade of Pale" was about a girl getting drunk and sick at a party and turning pale. I thought it was a much nobler narrative than that.

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A very much misunderstood song for me would be the first time I heard Volare, back in the 1960s. When he sang "Felice di stare lassù", I thought he was saying "Felicia just started the soup".

 

Definitely not a cooking song as I learned a bit later. :laugh:

 

Oh, and I almost forgot the "I love parrots in the springtime" song.

 

When an eel hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's a Moray.
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