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Ever not understand the lyrics to a song?

Posted - April 11, 2018

Responses


  • 3523
    In the Beatles song "I'm Down" the words sounded like, "Brim bram brum bittle ohm brittle aye.  Same old thing happens every day.  I'm down."  When actually the words were, "Man buys ring, woman throws it away.  Same old thing etc."  How dumb is that?
      April 11, 2018 9:16 PM MDT
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  • 19942
    Frequently, especially with today's "music."
      April 11, 2018 9:26 PM MDT
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  • 5614
    .. and yesterday's music.

    Blinded by the Light
    Manfred Mann, Manfred Mann's Earth Band
    Blinded by the light
    Revved up like a deuce
    Another runner in the night
    Blinded by the light
    Revved up like a deuce
    Another runner in the night
    Blinded by the light
    Revved up like a deuce
    Madman drummers bummers
    Indians in the summer
    With a teenage diplomat
    In the dumps with the mumps
    As the adolescent pumps
    His way into his hat
    With a boulder on my shoulder
    Feelin' kinda older
    I tripped the merry-go-round
    With this very unpleasin'
    Sneezin' and wheezin
    The calliope crashed to the ground
    The calliope crashed to the ground
    Well she was
    Blinded by the light
    Revved up like a deuce
    Another runner in the night
    Blinded by the light
    Revved up like a deuce
    Another runner in the night
    Blinded by the light
    Revved up like a deuce
    Another runner in the night
    Blinded by…
      April 11, 2018 10:13 PM MDT
    1

  • 52905

    AC/DC's 1976 hit "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" has this line:
    Dirty deeds and they're done dirt cheap
    I used to think it was, dirty deeds and the Thunder Chief


    When Culture Club released "Karma Chameleon" in 1983, many people misunderstood this line:

    Loving would be easy if your colors were like my dreams
    Red, gold, and green, red, gold, and green…

    They thought it said,
    Loving would be easy if you karma-shellack my dreams
    They're golden streams, they're golden streams

    [The assumption was that the song referred to deviant sex, gay sex, and golden showers.]
    ~
      April 11, 2018 10:06 PM MDT
    2

  • wow i always thought that line said thunderchief as well until i just read this. it’s like my whole life was a lie 
      April 11, 2018 10:38 PM MDT
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  • 5614
    Aye, indeed but no matter if it has a rhythm, beat or melody universally understood to be good. This post was edited by O-uknow at April 23, 2018 7:23 PM MDT
      April 11, 2018 10:16 PM MDT
    2

  • 7775
    Happens to me most of the time. So all I got left now are the sounds the music makes and I'm fine with that.
      April 11, 2018 10:16 PM MDT
    5

  • 1633
    Donna Summer's 1979 hit  Hot Stuff.  In the second verse, I always heard, "Wanna share my love with a woman lover; wanna bring a woman back home."  I found out recently that she is actually singing, "Wanna share my love with a warm blooded lover; wanna bring a wild man back home."

      April 11, 2018 10:26 PM MDT
    3

  • 16199
      April 12, 2018 12:55 AM MDT
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  • 5835
    That's called a mondegreen. The name comes from a Scottish song "Bonnie Earl o' Moray". Listen to the first line "They have slain (mumble) and laid him on the green" and see if it doesn't sound like "lady mondegreen". You might spend a lot of time wondering who Lady Mondegreen was.

      April 12, 2018 3:09 AM MDT
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  • 16199
    Every time I see that castle, I picture a French guy saying, "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!"
      April 12, 2018 4:36 AM MDT
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  • 2217
    Happens especially with foreign languages. 
      April 12, 2018 3:22 AM MDT
    2

  • 5835
    Not so. Everybody knows and loves "there's a bathroom on the right." And "scuse me while I kiss this guy" was so popular that Jimi Hendrix changed the song.

    How many reindeer did Santa have? Ten: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph, and Olive the other reindeer.
      April 12, 2018 1:34 PM MDT
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  • 7280
    https://www.donder.com/


    S
    upposedly, "Donder" became "Donner," but I just saw on the internet that someone says it was "Dunder," 

    Never heard  of "Dunder" before.

    And "Olive" was a dog who though he was a reindeer, no?---and quite a late arrival on the scene. This post was edited by tom jackson at April 12, 2018 3:24 PM MDT
      April 12, 2018 3:22 PM MDT
    0

  • 5835
    It was originally Donner. Some people were more familiar with German donder, suggested by German Blitzen, "thunder and lightning". I never heard about Dunder.
      April 12, 2018 3:38 PM MDT
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  • "Absolutely!!"  Enya sings in ten different languages, two of which were created by her team and I only understand in one language.  :)

      April 12, 2018 4:53 PM MDT
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  • 16199
    Eithne Ní Bhraonaín only sings in one contemporary invented language, Loxian - because she tried Latin, English, Irish Gaelic and even Japanese for one particular song but "couldn't get it to sound right". Its inventor, Roma Ryan, isn't exactly part of her "team" either, she's a poet/linguist and was a friend before they became business partners. Ryan was never in Enya's employ.
    She does sing in multiple languages - those five plus Welsh, Scots Gaelic, Spanish, French and Sindarin Elvish, invented by JRR Tolkien before Enya was born so he's not part of her team either.
      April 23, 2018 7:47 PM MDT
    2

  • Well ... I'm glad you're here to save me from the falsehoods of the Web. Thank you.  :)

    P.S.  I really liked your answer/video to the original question .... very good! This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at April 24, 2018 10:43 AM MDT
      April 24, 2018 1:51 AM MDT
    2

  • 22853
    I'm taking your question in a slightly different way --  I "hear" the words to this song correctly, I just don't understand the overall meaning to the song and its lyrics. It remains a huge favorite of mine.

    I even asked a friend of mine who teaches high school English about the lyrics and she shared the song and lyrics with the classes and asked for the students' interpretations --  the answers were fascinating to me.

    I tried to find a video with the entire song and the lyrics printed but this is the only full version of the song I found -- it's a 4:50 minutes-long song and all the others were at least under four minutes. why people are "edit-ting" the he** out of this song, I don't know.


    "Twist in my Sobriety"   Tanita Tikaram


    This post was edited by WelbyQuentin at April 23, 2018 5:20 PM MDT
      April 23, 2018 5:19 PM MDT
    0

  • 16199
    Imagine my horror when I heard my daughter, then eleven, blithely carolling along with Robbie Williams:
    "I've got the d**k, gonna stick in in the girl"
    (I've got the gift, gonna stick it in the goal) This post was edited by Slartibartfast at April 23, 2018 8:16 PM MDT
      April 23, 2018 5:41 PM MDT
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  • 22853
    Ha!
    :)
      April 23, 2018 5:45 PM MDT
    1

  • 44175
    Hell...I don't even understand the question.
      April 23, 2018 7:25 PM MDT
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  • 52905

      (That's because it's in English.)
    ~
      April 23, 2018 8:17 PM MDT
    2