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I've just found out this minute that one of my favourite bands The Cocteau Twins actually had full lyrics for their songs. I've been listening to them since I was found under a basket on the Nile and I always thought that bar the odd dictionary-proof phrase here and there the gorgeous voice of our Liz breathed heavenly Elfish. Or something. And I used to sing along like. In full nonsense-language!
So, admitting that I don't really listen to lyrics, am I the only one to have the Idiot-Eureka moment years down the line and finally realise that I've been mouthing or singing the wrong gibberish?
"The opposite of love, after all, is not hate, but indifference."
My sister's a great one for dodgy lyrics. it's not that she mishears them so much as she doesn't hear them at all. She just belts out any oul' collection of words that scan in to the structure of the song. She's like a modern day James Joyce. Or a bit mad. One or the other.
"The opposite of love, after all, is not hate, but indifference."
I'm not sure if this counts as misheard lyrics so much as misunderstood lyrics but back in the 80's I used to stand on the Loft and sing happily along to "Spunky, Spunk, Spunky..." as we greeted our goalie. Took me fuggin' ages to connect the words "Spunky" and "Seaman". Had to have a big chat with myself after that one.
"The opposite of love, after all, is not hate, but indifference."
During the glorious reign of Gigi, I took 9-year old Master Sheen to Selhurst for his first awayday. Despite Clinton F***ing Morrison's equaliser, he happily sang "Neil Warnock, your daughter's blunt" all the way home.
In the Stranglers song 'Peaches' there is a reference to clitares, an item of female French swimwear, but it also sounds like clitoris. JJ Burnell always maintained it was the former when questioned about the word, but the jury is still out on that one. A devious piece of wordplay if ever there was one.
Interesting. I'm going to have a fumble around to try and find it but knowing my luck I won't be able to.
Remembered another one. None of us in school in Ireland could understand Weller. We used to spend hours with ears up against the speakers fiddling with treble and bass and still ended up guessing half of the lyrics.
The outro to Down in the Tube Station was any boy's guess.
The last thing I saw As I lay there on the floor Was Jesus sakes la la la la la la nutter Had a Brish rail bossory home and away day A cheap holiday, a Jewish fruit day A glass la la la mile la la la la mile Cuase they took cocoons And she'll think it's me etc
Actual lyrics, thanks to Google many years later:-
The last thing that I saw As I lay there on the floor Was "Jesus saves" painted by An atheist nutter And a British rail poster read "have an away day, A cheap holiday Do it today" I glanced back on my life, And thought about my wife 'Cause they took the keys, And she'll think it's me
Who knew?
"The opposite of love, after all, is not hate, but indifference."
Remembered another one. None of us in school in Ireland could understand Weller. We used to spend hours with ears up against the speakers fiddling with treble and bass and still ended up guessing half of the lyrics.
The outro to Down in the Tube Station was any boy's guess.
The last thing I saw As I lay there on the floor Was Jesus sakes la la la la la la nutter Had a Brish rail bossory home and away day A cheap holiday, a Jewish fruit day A glass la la la mile la la la la mile Cuase they took cocoons And she'll think it's me etc
Actual lyrics, thanks to Google many years later:-
The last thing that I saw As I lay there on the floor Was "Jesus saves" painted by An atheist nutter And a British rail poster read "have an away day, A cheap holiday Do it today" I glanced back on my life, And thought about my wife 'Cause they took the keys, And she'll think it's me
Who knew?
You are not alone on this one Brian. Weller's lyrics are often hard to decipher and are best left alone to your own interpretations. Not that he's a bad songwriter, it's just he sings many of them with little clarity. That goes for loads of other musicians as we have already seen on this funny thread.
Another one that got me for ages was Desmond Dekkers 'The Israelites'. The opening line for me was 'Get up in the morning wait for my breakfast', when old Des in his Jamaican Patois was warbling 'Get up in de morning, slave for my bread sir.'
Before I hit my teens me and a mate quite fancied Suzi Quatro. He had loads of her records and we would sing along to her songs if rather haphazardly at times. One that springs to mind is Can The Can. We always thought the opening line to the chorus was, 'Put your jam in the bandstand', when it was really ' Well make a stand by your man,honey'. Christ, we weren't even close!
Another one that got me for ages was Desmond Dekkers 'The Israelites'. The opening line for me was 'Get up in the morning wait for my breakfast', when old Des in his Jamaican Patois was warbling 'Get up in de morning, slave for my bread sir.'
I thought that too. Always thought he sang "my eyes are alight".
A song ("Friends of Mine") on the first Duran Duran album had the passage
"When will you realise/I'm sick of your alibis?"
But as a kid, perhaps not knowing the word "alibi," or just a bit thick, I always heard "I'm sick of your out of ice," fully imagining Simon LeBon going to the freezer and finding empty ice trays and storming out of the house.
Disco, I always thought Gabriel was singing "she's so f*ckin nice"...and wondered why Radio 1 didn't ban it
I remember a Weller debate at school going on for days about Eton Rfifes - was he singing "I was sick down my shirt" or "there was shit on my shirt" - split the class in two that one
1978. I'm hearing the new Clash single for the first time and I'm wondering why Joe Strummer Is singing about birdlife, namely a ptarmigan. Oh! .... Tommy Gun you say!