What are your funniest misheard lyrics?
11@dagirlgenius got me thinking of funny misheard lyrics with one of her comments, and since most people have them, I’d love to hear yours!! 
Our family has a bunch, but two that stand out to me is when my sister thought the beginning of the Beatle’s ‘Paperback Writer’ was saying ‘Make a back right turn’, and my daughter thought Bon Jovi was singing ‘Shot to the heart and you’re to blame…You give love a band-aid’. I laugh every time I hear them.
I had no idea there is an actual term for it, though. 
Mondegreen:
A mondegreen is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning. Mondegreens are most often created by a person listening to a poem or a song; the listener, being unable to hear a lyric clearly, substitutes words that sound similar and make some kind of sense.
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So there’s a name for my condition! This should be interesting!
Stone temple pilots.
Ham and mustard shake. 
@riskybryzness What’s the correct line?
@Kyeh I actually had to Google it: “a hand in rusted shame”
@riskybryzness I like yours better.
@Kyeh me too. It’s how I sing it still
@Kyeh @riskybryzness I love this song, but had to listen to see what you were talking about…and OMG I am ROLLING!!
He totally sounds like he’s saying that!! 
@k4evryng @Kyeh I really like this song too but I’ll admit it took me about ten years from hearing it before I googled the lyrics. Which btw, if you Google ham and mustard shake song, it’ll bring this up. Lmao
When I was a kid I always heard “From sea to Chinese sea” instead of “shining sea” in America the Beautiful. And then in "I’d Really Love to See You Tonight " I still always hear "there’s a warm wind blowing the stars around" instead of “The stars are out.”
Also of course, the Springsteen song that sounds like he’s “wrapped up like a douche,” Creedence Clearwater’s “Bathroom on the right” and Hendrix’s “Excuse me while I kiss this guy” are familiar to everyone.
@Kyeh yessssss!
(to this day I sing that because I never took the time to see what the actual words are. And it’s funny so why change it? 
I was going to mention ‘wrapped up like a douche’ because I TOTALLY thought that’s what he was saying (probably because as a teen in the 80’s, douche bag was something all the kids were saying, lol!). I tried so hard to hear something else, but nope…it was douche all the way.
I sing ‘excuse me while I kiss this fly’ based on a comedian years ago singing that while they were imitating Jeff Goldblum in The Fly. It stuck in my head permanently, lol!
@k4evryng
Euwww - “kiss this fly.”
@k4evryng @Kyeh
Fun reading…
@chienfou @k4evryng @Kyeh Today I learned it’s not “there’s a warm wind blowing the stars around”.
@chienfou @k4evryng @Kyeh
My HS Girlfriend had that book ( might still)
@k4evryng @Kyeh It’s actually “Blinded by the light, Revved up like a deuce, Another runner in the night”.
@IndifferentDude @k4evryng
Yes, I know that NOW, but for years I just heard douche and thought it must be some sort of street slang I didn’t understand.
And not knowing a lot about cars, the real lyrics would never have occurred to me.
@IndifferentDude @Kyeh
Wow — I know I’ve heard that song before, but none of it made sense to me. All just a bunch of words (or near-words).
Even now, it certainly sounds like “wrapped up like a deuce” — which would make me think it’s the euphamism deuce rather than the car. Knowing it’s “revved up” instead, that leans more toward a car reference.
But what about the rest of the lyrics? As just one example,
Is that something about his heavy [work] load, a pun on “chip on his shoulder,” or a slang reference to a bra?
And do I dare ask what is meant by an adolescent who pumps his way into his hat?
@IndifferentDude @xobzoo I just looked it up and found this article that quotes him on it:
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/bruce-springsteen-blinded-by-the-light/
It does seem kind of like he’s imitating Bob Dylan’s early talking blues songs with the wild rambling lyrics.
@Kyeh that wasn’t Springsteen. it was Manfred Mann’s Earth Band
@Kyeh @Thatroom Springsteen wrote it (at 23, if that helps explain anything) and performed it first. Mann covered it, and had a hit.
Springsteen’s words were “cut loose like a deuce”.
In the article above (thanks!) Springsteen gives some explanations, and says “Don’t overthink the rest”.
@IndifferentDude @k4evryng @Kyeh
Nevermind…others best me to it …
@IndifferentDude @k4evryng @Kyeh
I totally thought it was douche too
@Kyeh @blaineg @xobzoo I knew Springsteen was the original writer, but I hear douche with his version as well.
The song always seemed kind of silly, but it had a cool sound and a catchy chorus, so I never delved deeper.
I’m sure I learned that it was ‘wrapped up like a deuce’ a couple of different times over the years (especially since it’s one of the most common misheard lyrics)… but since douche made about as much sense to me lyrically as deuce (maybe more!), I never bothered to remember it correctly because douche was just funnier.
I never claimed to be mature.
Elton John, Bennie and the Jets. “She’s got electric boobs, her mom has too, you know I read it in a magazine.”
There was this rock song that was a cover of a country song and I swear to this day he was singing Purple Haze. At least he was a good guitar player.
Wife’s in Kenny Chesney song songs “a chickadee bad attitude!” Instead of typically bad attitude. I want to see the angry chickadee.
Mine in Garth brooks friends in low places always heard “salts and craces” instead of social graces. Neve understood it but figured because I was not high class enough to know what fancy salts and craces were.
@raccoon81 so funny! This chickadee looks angry to me.
@raccoon81 Here you go:
@raccoon81
Oh, hah - @k4evryng beat me to it!
@k4evryng e a toy what chesney would be writing a song about!
He does look like a bad attitude!
The most ironic example that i can think of is Vance Joy’s “Riptide” where he sings, “…and I got a lump in my throat cuz you gone & sang the words wrong” (a very common Australian expression), but every place I’ve seen the lyrics written out or heard other people covering the song, they sing, “…cuz you’re gonna sing the words wrong,” including Taylor Swift! I read an article a long time ago (so long ago, i can’t remember where), that made me believe he’s never corrected any of these because he gets a kick out of mondegreens. Hence the lyrics, i guess, but it drives me a little nuts.
Btw, I was curious about where the word came from & found this in a New Yorker article:
https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/science-misheard-lyrics-mondegreens
The term mondegreen is itself a mondegreen. In November, 1954, Sylvia Wright, an American writer, published a piece in Harper’s where she admitted to a gross childhood mishearing. When she was young, her mother would read to her from the “Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,” a 1765 book of popular poems and ballads. Her favorite verse began with the lines, “Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands / Oh, where hae ye been? / They hae slain the Earl Amurray, / And Lady Mondegreen.” Except they hadn’t. They left the poor Earl and “laid him on the green.” He was, alas, all by himself.
@ircon96 The differences between mondegreens, malapropisms and eggcorns seem quite subtle. This article discusses the distinctions:
https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/articles/spoonerisms-mondegreens-eggcorns-and-malapropisms.
@ircon96 @macromeh very interesting!
I love the mondegreen story…it’s funny that a misheard phrase became the name for misheard phrases, lol!
@ircon96 Wow! I had no idea it wasn’t “you’re gonna sing the words wrong”!! Yes…the irony of those particular lyrics and the mondegreen is perfect!!…
I’m not sure I can change it up since I’ve been singing it wrong for so long!
@macromeh I love Grammar Girl articles, but i never came across that one. I had heard of the others over the years, but eggcorn was a new one for me, so thanks for the link!
@k4evryng Vance Joy will be very pleased that your brain is properly stuck!
Slow Motion Walter.
I think I heard that from someone in jr. high, loved it ever since.
@blaineg oh that’s funny!
Poor Walter couldn’t get away from that fire in the sky very fast, could he?
I’ve made a bit of a game with my self, changing as few words in a song to change the meaning completey.
Started with Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West”
replaced only one word (well every instance thereof)
replace West with Sex.
“we’re going Straight, To, The wild wild Sex”
also Smith’s Character becomes Jim Sex, but…
plenty of other examples that I’m to distracted to think about now.
@earlyre I do that all the time as well! Sometimes I think I’m the illegitimate daughter of Weird Al Yankovic, lol!
Some of my greats include:
Broken Arms by Journey, and
Owner of a Homely Tart by Yes.
Sometimes it’s just a word or a line, and sometimes it’s a whole verse or more if it’s funny enough to me. So glad to see I’m not alone!
@k4evryng I mean… if it’s a song Al has parodied, and the original comes on, I hear/sing the Al version…
@k4evryng
“toniiiiiight… We’re on Drugs…”
@earlyre yup! Me too! Another One Rides the Bus and Eat It can not be sung the correct way…ever.
He’s very clever and his stuff sticks in my head permanently, lol!
@earlyre @k4evryng You guys are too much!
@earlyre
I do the same thing with vagina, poop, sex, weinis, & pretty much everything gross.
@StarkRaV6Mad66 I generally replace ( the words) “love” with “drugs”… “You” with “Jews”, etc…
I never said I kept it PC.
" I’m in love with the shape of Jews"
@earlyre @StarkRaV6Mad66 I’m a middle aged woman with the maturity level of a 12 year old boy a good deal of the time.
Let’s just say my kids do a LOT of eye rolling. I, however, choose to think that I’m just keeping things amusing…even if I’m just amusing myself most of the time.
@StarkRaV6Mad66 the ruder the better…
@k4evryng 's example of “owner of a lonely heart”
she said "owner of a lonely tart, I’d more likely go with Fart…
@earlyre @StarkRaV6Mad66
Fart was actually featured in my next line…
I ‘wrote’ this in high school and sing it to this day…
Owner of a Homely Tart
(Much better than)
The owner of a smelly fart”
Unfortunately my immaturity level did not necessarily decline with age nor post high school education. Life is too serious to not be silly sometimes…and when I taught elementary school, I fit right in with the kids.
Princess Gary…
It helped that I never knew the title of this song, Just heard it on the Radio/Muzak/etc…
“ooohhooohhoh, we’ve been down now, Princess Gary”
@earlyre That’s definitely different!
That song is an old favorite of mine and I hear it frequently on my playlist rotation…I’m going to chuckle the next time it comes on, lol!
@earlyre I originally heard it as
It took quite a while before I’d heard it clearly enough to figure it out. (but I didn’t hear it very often, so I’ll blame it on that)
@earlyre @xobzoo
That actually makes sense, too.
@earlyre i thought it was “you’re so hairy”
@Thatroom OMG!! That just made me bust out laughing! I scared my cat!
@k4evryng in my mind even as a child when I first heard “Princess Gary”, I see a large bearded man ( think Kevin Smith pre-Heart attack) in a full princess peach costume…
Nile ‘Black Seeds of Vengeance’
I switch the words to ‘Sliced Beef in Gravy’. I used to sing it to my cat when I would give her a treat.
Hmmm… in a ‘weird coincidence’ this popped in my browser today at work!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/wrapped-up-like-a-deuce-and-other-famous-lyrics-you-may-be-getting-wrong/ss-AA12vuav?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=469ea74d00824c699d3eb68ca74a6992#image=1
@chienfou A lot of good ones in there. My favorites are “the dawning of the Age of Asparagus” and “Like a virgin, touched for the 31st time”
@chienfou
@chienfou
Are those Reebok or Nike?
@zhicks1987
Hunh?
@chienfou
@chienfou @zhicks1987
Muy bueno!
@zhicks1987 that’s funny!
Pat Benatar’s “Love is A Bag of Eels”
My personal fave
Big old Carolina
“Jet Airliner” by the Steve Miller Band: What the Steve Miller Band is actually singing “Big ol Jet airliner”.
/youtube JHa1hiFYbFQ
And there’s the one I read before, comes from one of the joke pages of a Readers Digest.
The song that was screwed up was “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John
/youtube yYcyacLRPNs
What Elton was actually singing “Hold me closer tiny dancer”, what this person heard “Hold me closer Tony Danza”
Always love seeing posts on misheard lyrics. Some I personally thought I heard:
Secret Agent Man = Secret Asian Man
Papa Don’t Preach = Papa Don’t Bleach
Dirty Deeds and They’re Done Dirt Cheap = Dirty Deeds and The Thunder Chief
@JT954
1st one on the list!
@JT954 Those are good!