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It's Been a Hard Day's Night and I've been Walking Like a Dog - Share Your Most Embarrassing Mondegreens

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
We've all been there, you hear a song on the radio and you love it! But, you don't have access to the liner notes and you're sure that you got those lyrics right. Until a few days, or maybe even years, later you hear the song again, this time with a friend and everyone is having a great time until your friend turns to you and says, "Wait, what did you just sing?"

There's actually a word for your misheard lyrics - mondegreen and an entire site dedicated to chronicling them, Am I Right. Now's the time to come clean and share with all your internet friends the song lyrics you got terribly wrong!
 

Falselogic

Lapsed Threadcromancer
(they/them)
I'll go first. Sophomore year of high school my good friend got his first car. Freedom is ours! We are driving around just to drive around! We are blasting the stereo at obnoxious levels. But, see, we're two sheltered Mormon kids who haven't had access to the anything more rocking than the late Beatles, until now.

He's got AC/DC's Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and we're rocking out to it. Singing a long. And somehow after listening to the title track we become convinced that the line is not "dirty deeds done dirt cheap" but instead "dirty deeds and the dondo king." To this day I don't know how we came to that conclusion. There is no mention of a king, royalty, or anything else in the song that would make you think the song would have a king in it. And only the Lady knows what a 'dondo' is.

 

nosimpleway

(he/him)
Friend brings up nylon guitar strings.
Me: "Oh? I thought those were the preferred kind, as immortalized in AC/DC's 1980 ode to their own instruments, 'You Should Be All Nylon'."

it wasn't a serious mondegreen but the joke completely bombed so that was pretty embarrassing anyway.
 

Torzelbaum

????? LV 13 HP 292/ 292
(he, him, his)
No, it's "dirty deeds dunder chief".

(Hey, did you know that Joan Jett and the Blackhearts did a cover of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap?)

For an embarrassingly long time I thought the line in The Beatles' Can't Buy Me Love was 'I don't care to hump* for money" when it was actually "I don't care too much for money".

*As in bust my hump / work hard

And can we post instances where we knew the actual lyrics and had to correct someone who didn't know them?
 
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lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
When I was a kid, I thought this one went "dirty deeds and a thunder jeep". I still don't know what a thunder jeep might be, but you gotta admit it sounds pretty boss.

Also when I was a kid, I thought the chorus of CCR's "Fortunate Son" started with "g'day me, g'day me".
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
“Standing on your mommas corpse” instead of “standing on your mommas porch”. Put a wild twist on Mr. Adam’s’ summer jam.

Also, my mother thought “Rock the Casbah” was “Fuck the gas bar“ and was surprised that a song with so much cussing on was on the radio so often.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
"There's a bathroom on the ride" for Bad Moon Rising. At some point I realized that didn't make sense, listened more closely and determined it was "there's a bathroom on the right."

"Yes" said my brain, "that makes sense. Case closed."

It was a long time before I bothered to think about it again and realized it was "there's a bad moon on the rise."
 

Büge

Arm Candy
(she/her)
When we were children, my brother and I thought Eric Clapton was singing about propane.
 

Octopus Prime

Mysterious Contraption
(He/Him)
She also thought the DA-DADADA part of 500 Miles was "Dial the Laughter"

I corrected her, and she said "Well that's just gibberish"
 

WildcatJF

Let's Pock (Art @szk_tencho)
(he / his / him)
"Blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche another rumor in the night"
 

Vaeran

(GRUNTING)
(he/him)
Mele Kalikimaka is a wise way, to say Merry Christmas to you.
omg me too!

There's a line in Black Hole Sun that goes "steal the warm wind, tired friend" that I always misheard as "steal the warmth inside a friend." I kinda like my version better.
 

Mr. Sensible

Pitch and Putt Duffer
I always thought REO Speedwagon's "Ridin' the Storm Out" sounded more like "right in the storm house". I want to visit the Storm House, it sounds pretty dope
 

Büge

Arm Candy
(she/her)
Also, when I heard Steve Winwood's "Higher Love", I thought he was singing "bake me a pie of love".
 

Torzelbaum

????? LV 13 HP 292/ 292
(he, him, his)
In high school I knew a guy who thought the line from Metallica's Enter Sandman was "off to devil devil land".

I always thought REO Speedwagon's "Ridin' the Storm Out" sounded more like "right in the storm house". I want to visit the Storm House, it sounds pretty dope
I don't know - I hear that they're almost out of wine...
 

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
It took me a long time listening to David Bowie's Quicksand that the line is "Knowledge Comes With Death's Release". I heard "Knowledge comes with next release." Sounds small and not weird but it changed the meaning of the song. I thought it was someone promising wisdom in commodifiable installments, like maybe a series of expensive self-help tapes.
 

Kirin

Summon for hire
(he/him)
Also, when I heard Steve Winwood's "Higher Love", I thought he was singing "bake me a pie of love".
This one for me too.

It also reminds me of one in a song on the We <3 Katamari soundtrack, though it has the excuse of Japanese pronunciation:

I can sing a song for you and me / I can sing a song for old froofy love
 
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Paul le Fou

24/7 lofi hip hop man to study/relax to
(He)
I can sing a song for you and me / I can sing a song for old foofy love
YES

Mine is from the CHVRCHES song Empty Threat. Towards the end of the song there's a segment where a backing voice under the main vocals repeats "I gotta tell ya."

It doesn't sound like that to me. It sounds like "Like a good Italian." I've listened to it many times since knowing the lyrics and it doesn't sound like anything except "Like a good Italian." They're just emphatic about emphasizing right and proper conduct for people from Italy I suppose.
 

jpfriction

(He, Him)
Friend and I used to sit at the one spot in his house where you could just barely get the top 40 station to come in and write down songs we liked to look up later or try to catch on MTV etc.

Coolio's big 90s hit was "Ester's paradise??" for a couple of weeks.
 

clarice

bebadosamba
Let's see what i can remember... In Spark's Can I Invade Your Country i always heard "can i change your country?". It's in the title yeah, i know. Ah, and i could never differentiate "Love rain on me" and "Love reign o'er me" in the The Who song. That might be because english is not native language and my hearing is not that good, though.

Ah, i also always heard "Innovation" before discovering that the name of that Persona 4 song is "Your Affection". Erm...
 

Exposition Owl

more posts about buildings and food
(he/him/his)
It's a free forum!

Or, as Tom Petty might put it,
It’s a freeeeeee
Free fooooruuuum


Anyway, in the Radiohead song “Optimistic,” I used to mishear the lines “fodder for the animals / living on Animal Farm” as “fought off all the animals / living on Animal Farm.”

Also, I assumed for years that I was mishearing the chorus of the Aretha Franklin song from the 80s as “Who’s Zooming Who.” Then last year’s boom in videoconferencing prompted me to check what the real lyrics were, and I discovered that I’d been hearing them right all along.
 

Torzelbaum

????? LV 13 HP 292/ 292
(he, him, his)
Here are some lyrics I've misheard in Stormbringer by Deep Purple:
"Ride the rainbow, rock the sky"
(It's actually 'crack the sky')

"You gotta get ready
Stormbringer's coming"
(It's actually 'you got to get/keep running' but I'm not 100% sure about that next to last word.)

That might be because english is not native language and my hearing is not that good, though.
Can you think of any instances of this in your native language? I would be interested in hearing about that.
 

clarice

bebadosamba
Can you think of any instances of this in your native language? I would be interested in hearing about that.

Ah, it happens in portuguese, too. For instance, i've always heard "que é malpassado e que não vê" instead of "que ama o passado e que não vê" in the Belchior song Como Nossos Pais (it never made sense to me, so i was happy when i discovered i was understanding it wrong haha).

For curiosity's sake, do native speakers usually differenciate between "Love rain on me" and "Love reign o'er me" in Love, Reign o'er Me or is it a common mistake too?
 
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