Who can forget the infamous “please excuse me while I kiss this guy” misheard lyric from Jimmi Hendrix’s Purple Haze, or “there’s a bathroom on the right” from CCR’s Bad Moon on the Rise. There are a ton of misheard lyrics out there. Here is my top 10 list. Feel free to add your own:
10.) We built this city on the wrong damn road.
credit: ymntd.com
Real lyric: We built this city on rock and roll (Starship: We Built This City)
9.) I left my brains down in Africa
Real lyric: I bless the rains down in Africa (Toto: Africa)
8.) Here we are now, in containers
Real lyrics: Here we are now, entertain us (Smells Like Teen Spirit: Nirvana)
7.) You made the rice, I made the gravy, but it just may be some tuna fish you’re looking for
Real lyrics: You may be right, I may be crazy, but it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for (You May be Right: Billy Joel)
6.) Ken touched this
Real lyrics: Can’t touch this (Can’t Touch This: MC Hammer)
5.) I’ve got flu, rickets, and parasites
Real lyrics: I’ve got two tickets to paradise (Two Tickets to Paradise: Eddie Money)
4.) My anus is the center hole
Real lyrics: My angel is the centerfold (Centerfold: J. Geils Band)
3.) Might as well face it, you’re a d**k with a glove
Real lyrics: Might as well face it, you’re addicted to love (Addicted to Love: Robert Palmer)
Thought he was talking about Michael Jackson there for a minute….anyway, I digress.
2.) Kick a chicken with it
Real lyrics: Gettin’ jiggy with it (Gettin’ Jiggy With It: Will Smith)
1.) Racked up like a douche I knew their runner every night
Real lyric: Revved up like a deuce another runner in the night (Blinded by the Light: Manfred Mann’s Earth Band)
Anybody wanna tell me what the heck the *real* lyric means on that one? I have no clue.
Some of these are better than the real lyrics.
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this was funny,
I remember some of those songs
Don’t mean to get too nitpicky, but the Blinded by the Light lyric should be attributed to Springsteen. I think I read somewhere that it doesn’t actually mean anything. Much like the “pompitus of love” that Steve Miller sings about in The Joker.
I actually have a book of these somewhere.
Enjoy your blog
Mr. Pugnacity.
Thanks for the trip down Amnesia Lane. Before I found my current career and this brio for blogging, I was in radio.
I can’t tell you the myriad of delusional phone calls I would get about lyrics run-a-muck. This was great. But, here’s a few others that could found on the Wall:
REM: Losing My Religion (Go figure, I would pick this one) – “Let’s pee in the corner” instead of “That’s me in the corner”
QUEEN: Bohemian Rhapsody – “The algebra has a devil for a sidekick eeeeeee” instead of “Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me” (Again, go figure)
SIMON & GARFUNKEL: Mrs. Robinson – “She is the sluttiest woman you will know” other than, of course “Jesus loves you more than you will know.”
And, U2: One – “Have you come here to play Jesus with leopards in your hair” as opposed to “Have you come here to play Jesus to the lepers in your head.”
Peace,
HiScrivener
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I don’t know the band that recorded it, but “All Right Now” has a lyric in it that sounds like, “Let’s move before they raise the f**kin’ rent”.
I know that’s not the real lyrics, but try as I might I can’t figure out what they are really singing.
Mark,
Lol..that’d be by Free, and the lyrics are “lets move before they raise the parking rate.”
revved up like a deuce another runner in the night
Bruce Springsteen. [manfred who?]
2 barrel carb. cars[deuce] in a drag race rev slower than 4 barrel, so they often do a brake stand, or rev the engine way up before the flag.
I am old . I know these things.
Willohroots,
Wow! That’s interesting. Also slightly funny. It makes sense (sort of) now.
Feel free to stop by and drop some more tidbits on the Irishman…:)
Ok, your content is a great read to start the day. From your About me, you may have an interesting take on my post, The Harding Church of Christ and Judo. I would be very interested!
And I never said drag racing in Jersey made sense, especially not with a 2 bbl. In my day you needed a Holly 4 barrel or walked!
A friend of a friend used to sing “Poor old Jason Waterfall” instead of Don’t go chasing waterfalls.
These crack me up! Thanks for sharing!
I have another funny mishearing: “Hey, we’re going to eat pizza”. The actual lyric is “Hey, we’re going to Ibiza” by Vengaboys.
In “Beat It” by Michael Jackson, I always hear “Show ‘em no mercy, hot pockets, rice”
“Revved up like a deuce” might mean something about a particular car or motorcycle. Springsteen’s lyrics, especially the early years, are all about cars and bikes. Symbols of freedom from life and all that.