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Misheard Lyrics

From This Might Be A Wiki

Turned off my hearing aid...

Contents

[edit] Major mishearings:

[edit] Ana Ng

"Eighty dolls yelling small world after all, who was at the DuPont Pavilion, why was the bed still warm, who had been there/Or the time when the storm tangled up Newark, at the horn at the hole at the busty pole, Ana's back on the edge of hearing, these are the words that the voice was repeating"

[edit] Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head 

"I should probably look down closely at the personal factory..."

"As your body goes down thirsty..."

"As a body flows down third street
The pers'nal [or "first small", or Burmswell] factory closing up"

"Well it's a mighty zombie talkin' up some love 'n' posterity"

"All the bugs on the sidewalk are the
work of someone trying to please the bugs"

"Ads up in the subway 
Worker's summer tryin' to lose their boss
Another guy's opinion of what he wants 
Just to screw somebody else"

"Act up in the summer at the
Work of sunshine to piss you off,
And the guys in pink who don't do what they want
Just to please somebody else"

"Grant - MAAAAA!!! [or "NOOOOWWW!!!"]

Shut down at the carwash
Didn't have to write no one and nob'y I know
They said "The check's in the mail and I'll
See you in church and don'cha ever change"

[Interpreting according to these lyrics I got: A guy's little business shut down, and so his employee was sad, but he remembers the long hours and bad pay or whatever. He goes home, relaxes as he usually does by watching mindless daytime TV ("mighty zombie"). Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the station does a eulogy of the little business, and he realizes if he dwells on that he'll never get another job. So, in a burst of thinking, he decides to start his own business in some innovative way, but he loses his little epiphany when "Days of Our Lives" comes on and all that's left in his mind is the usual way to do business (putting his hand inside the puppet head). To work up some capital he gets a job writing ads but he hates his job and realizes after being fired that he was subconsciously doing bad work to get fired (conflict between his desire for pay and hatred of job). He realizes from this that the typical corporate structure is corrupt and ambition is stupid. Then he gets fired or the business failed ("shut down") at the car wash where he gets his next job. Apparently his vegetative lifestyle and hatred of his only social contact, work, have earned him no real friends: the ones who he might be friends with simply feed him polite nonsense when they see him leave.]

[edit] They'll Need A Crane

"Let's get this obvious: gal's glad this hangs upon the love of life..."

"...but then Scout says to Lad: Aren't men as bad, they cause a little pain They cause some pain..."

"...Gal thinks Jim Beam is handsomer than Lad He is, in fact Call off the wedding then Nobody wants to hear that one again That one again"

"Gal thinks Jim Bean is handsomer than Lamb, he isn't bad"


When I first heard this song, with the exception of "They'll need a crane," I couldn't understand a word of it, only picking out "Scout," which was actually "Gal," and once hearing "Jem." This made me think that the song was somehow about To Kill a Mockingbird.

[edit] Who Put The Alphabet In Alphabetical Order?

"Barking makes you tight! Barking makes you easy peasy So many took the tripe So many took the Jason fighting!

[edit] Minor mishearings:

[edit] A Ton Of Stuff 

"Planting a broom!"

[edit] Absolutely Bill's Mood

This is actually a misreading, rather than a mishearing: until very recently, I could have sworn that the title of this song was "Absolutely Billy's Mood!" Tutt 16:03, 12 Oct 2005 (EDT)MasterChivo 

"He calls when I'm stuck out in the rain/I've been saying"
"My room is comfortably small/With rubble on the walls"

After realizing the real lyric, my whole personal interp of the song changed. I get it now. 

"Life's just a movie/We're not allowed to see"
"I called school each morning when it occurred to me"

I honestly think this makes more sense than the real lyric. --ZippZapp 23:46, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Am I Awake? 

"And something else besides my head is growing from my head"

[edit] Ana Ng 

"Where the world goes by like the human hair" - [[Tgies]]

Linnell says this line instead of humid air frequently in live performances. Maybe he's balding. -Ed

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! That would be so tragic! ~Anna Ng hears your words. 21:54, 14 April 2007 (UTC) 
All along at the '64 World's Fair
Eighty dolls yelling "small girl after all"
Who was at the DuPont Pavillion?
Why was the bench still one who had been there?

"When I was driving once I saw this planet on a bridge"
"I Don't Want the World, I just want to wear hats"
To the horn on the pole in the rusty hole

I kind of thought like, pole and hole rhymed, so I just assumed that's what it was.. --Your Half 03:20, 5 July 2007 (UTC) 

"Listen in and hear my words"
Anna Thang and I are getting old
and we still haven't walked in the glow of each other's majestic parents
Listen Anna hear my words
They're the ones you would think I would say if there was one before you

[edit] Another First Kiss 

"Another furred kiss"

[edit] Au Contraire 

"Jodie Foster held two pair, Bobcat three of a kind"

[edit] Bastard Wants To Hit Me 

"And who the crud is he"

I still hear this, no matter how hard I listen or how many times in a row I play that line. Ahhh, my faulty ears. 

He's waving another so he can hit me

[edit] The Bells Are Ringing 

The bells are bragging: The people ran!

A gorrila gotten in her ears

[edit] Birdhouse In Your Soul 

"Lukinary in the outlet by the lightswitch"

"Blue canary in the attic by the lightswitch"

"Blue canary in the oven by the lightswitch
Blue washes over you"

"Say I'm the only B in your body"

 
"Say I'm the only East in your bunny"

"Who can hear you in the oven but the lightswitch?"

Who can hear me in the alley by the lightswitch...

"Bluebird of friendliness, like argent angels it's"

"Blue canary in the up ends by the lightswitch"

"Bluebird of friendliness, like guardian angel zits"

"Blue canary in the yellow by the light switch"

"After killing Jasonoff and countless screaming argument"
"Like the Longine's Symphony, it doesn't rest"
"Like the laundry, it's infinite, it doesn't rest"
"There's a big chair opposite me of my primitive ancestry"

[edit] Boat Of Car 

"Can you sing bass?"

"Have you seen base?"

[edit] Blind 

"S*** is for squares"

This was while listing to Clock Radio with the sound turned up real loud!


[edit] C Is For Conifers 

"Large junipers and fir"

[This error went unnoticed on the wiki for sixteen months.]

[edit] Contrecoup 

As if there's no cinnamon

[edit] Cyclops Rock 

"I'm fried, with a tombstone smile, all the children run away from me"

"It was sweet, like lipane [or "lippin'"] is sweet
But the after-effects left me paralyzed
I just stare, with my one-class eye, hoping
You won't be back again."

"Honey, Twist, Monkey, and Fugue
These are the things I taught to you
Hitch-hike, Boogie, Hypocrite Bop
I'm stuck in a vat outside of New York"

[These imply some sort of bad drug experience] 

"I'm stuck in a vat of cyber-time pork"

"I told you how to cyclops rock"

ITCHY BOOBIES, HYPOCRITE ROCK!!

My reaction to the above mishearing was "HUH?!?!"

[edit] Damn Good Times 

When it comes to opera she is awesome pie

[edit] D Is For Drums 

"D is for drugs!  Yes, D is for drugs!"

[edit] Dead 

"And I won't pay the rent ever anymore"

[edit] Destination Moon 

"Soon the man who sweeps the room
Brings the secret telegram:
'Emancipation interplanetary exploration'"

[edit] Doctor Worm 

 "My friend Rabbi Bull will play the solo"

I always thought the combination of the words rabbi and Bible (Rabbi Bull) was absolutely ingenious and it turns out the combination didn't even exist. Frankly, I like my lyric better their's. 

 "When I get intimate 
 I can't tell if you are watching me 
 Twirling the stick"

It seemed casual for TMBG to have a song that involved a worm being intimate with a stick.

[edit] Don't Let's Start 

 "Wake up
 Smell the caffeine
 in your bank account"

Wake up
Smell the caffeine 
In your back cow
Don't try to stop till
It wags the hound

(Personally, I think "smell the caffeine" fits the Johns better than "smell the cat food", even if it doesn't make as much sense in the context of the song!) 

Wake up
Smell the cat food
in your bag of chow

The world destruction
Over and overature
And do I need a part of this
Tedious destruction?

Do you world destruction?
Over an overture
And do I neat a pot's trophy
Does he need this stop shot?

"N, do I need
Apostrophe T, need this duck shot?"
"Everybody dies frustrated inside and that is beautiful"

Amazingly, though I have listened to this song regularly for over 20 years, I did not know until just now that "frustrated inside" were NOT the correct lyrics. Uncanny. 

"Don't try to stop until it... wags the hound."
"And don't try to stop until the wax burns out."


Wake up
And smell the cat poo
In your bank account
 This is the worst part
To believe for all the world
that you're my precious little girl

[edit] Everything Right Is Wrong Again 

"Tell me that you like my flat top screen"

"Tell me that you like my flow tapestry"

[edit] The Famous Polka 

"Her hair is blonde and mine is brown, they both start with a b,
But with the phone inside her it can't drink, it stops for me."

"Her hair is blonde and mine is brown, they both start with a V"

[edit] Feign Amnesia 

"With that crazy god damn thing behind us."

[edit] First Kiss 

"The black man, she's waiting"

[edit] Hearing Aid 

"Frosty the super-highway
lives by himself"

[edit] Hey, Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal 

"They saw a modest sun girl geometrically and then they had forgiven themselves"

This always made me thing of think of the girl on the Sun Maid raisins box.

[edit] Hot Cha 

"Never came back to tell his wife."

"Bond two books for everybody."

[edit] How Can I Sing Like A Girl?

"And all that ear of corn taught me"

[edit] I've Got A Match 

"I've got a match, you're embracin' my collapse."

Pretty much reverses the whole meaning of the song...XD


[edit] I Palindrome I 

"Man, Oh man!"

(I'm quite sure it does say "Man, Oh man!" it makes more sense than manonam, because it is a word palindrome, and that is what the song focuses on. It also seems to fit the story better.) If anyone says anything to the contrary, they will find themselves exactly as they do now. 

"Beloved acid washed mascara though, said she, able am I son."

I could have sworn: 

"Egad, a base tone denotes a bad age!"

was: 

"You gotta be stoned to be nuts about this."

Alternatively: 

"You've got to be stupid not to believe."

[edit] Istanbul (Not Constantinople) 

"Now it's Turkish delight on movie night"



"Even Old New York was once New Hampsterdam"

When I was younger I seemed to have repeatedly heard nonexistent H's in song lyrics...

[edit] It's Kickin' In 

"Shot to work in the middle of the day
In a fire overshadows of the night
And you wonder why the talk is so bold
When it's boring and the story's so cold, oh!

Panic call to her best friend on the phone
Won't sit down but she just can't sit alone
Hard to justify a pardon grand
To somebody with no potted plants, oh!"

"Going good up until we shot 'em down
Bubble wrapped to the other side of town
In a restaurant with so much class
If we'd stop laughing we could almost pass, oh!"

I like the song better like this. 

Shots wake in the middle of the day
In a fight over shadows in the night
And you wonder why it took you so old
When it's pouring and the sewer's so old, oh!

I've also been known to hear it as "When it's pouring in the suicide hole, oh-oh!".

[edit] It's Not My Birthday 

"It's not my birthday, so why do you lie? . . .
Set my hands on down, never-marble be around,
Though I wish you were there,
I was less than you could bear,
And I'm not the only dust-mop underage."

Alternately: 

I am not the only dust mite mother raised.

[edit] James K. Polk 

Mr. James K. Polk, the boyhood of the stump.

Young victory, Napoleon of the stump.

I actually heard it as sounding kind of like "vic-oh-ree", but seeing as how I had no idea what the heck THAT would mean, I just figured it was "victory".

[edit] Lucky Ball And Chain 

 "I lost my lucky ball and chain
 Now she's forty years gone"

 "Now I rock a barstool and I drink for two
 Just pondering this time I'm in my mind"

[edit] Make It The Same 

 
"It was the way you watched my weight!"

[edit] Meet James Ensor 

"Belgium's famous waiter"

"He lived with his mother and he hated himself"

[edit] Metal Detector 

Don't need no volleyball
Don't need no squacking dove
Don't need to look at any baby candy doll

(No, I have no idea what that would mean.) 

Don't need to look at any bathing, any doll.

I'm the inspector open your mind.

I'm the inspector over the mind.

[edit] Mink Car 

She is reaching past my hovercar

I actually think that in a way, this one makes a little more sense. Sort of. Okay, not really.

[edit] Nightgown Of The Sullen Moon 

"In the nightgown of the sun and moon"

"There's a feeling of boredom, of the decorum..."

"There's a feeling of boredom, one-two-three-four-dom"

(Here Come the 123s?)

[edit] Pictures Of Pandas Painting (Elegant Too Remix) 

"Pictures of Pandas Mating"
"Pictures of Pandas Mating"
"Pictures of Pandas Mating"
"Pictures of Pandas Mating Again"

It's manifestly easier to mishear this on the remix version, if you haven't heard the original. -- I've Got A Fang phi1ip@netscape·net

I just want you to know that that makes the song infinitely funnier. XD

[edit] Purple Toupee

I remember the year I went to camp
Learned about a lady called Salma and Hayek

[edit] Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head 

"Activate somewhere where the worker's son is trying to survive, Gossiping, dunno what he wants, just cruise somebody's head.
"And we'd better think for everyone involved, or you wouldn't have to cry"

[edit] Rhythm Section Want Ad 

"There's a place for those who love their poetry
It's just across from the sign that says, Prison Lee"

"So hit me with a band where the chicks here
Say grab you jesus at the wall with the Ramones
If you dig me into, or are NBC a loop to the way we know"

"On NBC with a note to the wayward gnome"

"plenty of time to turn the sticks into rhyme"

"So If you'd like a band with chicks here Say let me dig into the wallet. come on. Let me dig into the r & b. sing in the note to the way we know."

[edit] Road Movie To Berlin 

"Got this glass suburban"

[edit] Robert Lowell 

"Two-tone American flags, John is yellow, it's really tan"

[edit] Robot Parade 

"To build vagina sidewalk!"
(Admittedly, that was from a few rooms away)
Again, this makes the song a lot funnier...

[edit] Santa Claus 

"...a twenty guitar.."

I assumed he was talking about a 20-string guitar. I'm not even sure if those exist.


[edit] Sapphire Bullets Of Pure Love 

"Sapphire bullets
Bullets up your a..."

[This implied all kinds of interpretations...]

[edit] See The Constellation 

"No sigargle lady on his arm"

"Nosegarnalani on his arm"

I was 15, and obsessed with finding out what a "Nosegarnalani" might be. I imagined some sort of weapon. Oddly enough, it wasn't in the dictionary. 

"Stare at the sky, all painted black"

"Just a guy made of dancing lines"

"Just a guy made of dachsund lines"

"Just a guy and a thousand lights"

"Can you hear what's icy in the sky?"

"See the constellation right across the sky"

Just to guide little dots and lines

[edit] She's An Angel 

"When they sing you can't hear, there's no earth."

"When you're following an angel, physically you have to throw yourself off of a building.

[edit] Snail Shell 

"Sir hand
Opposite man"

"Sir hand
Arms and man"

"Or was it something where you acted when you sodomy"
"Or was it something where you acted while you sat on me?"

[edit] Someone Keeps Moving My Chair 

"Mr. Horrible, Mr. Horrible.
Tell a phone call for Mr. Horrible."

"You have to try on these pants so the Ugliness Man
Can decide if they're his as a matter of saying,
We think we have to be sure about this"

"Mrs. Horrible, Mrs. Horrible
It's the Ugliness Man, Mr. Horrible."

"...so the Ugliness Men
Can decide if you're just as embarassing as [[User:The thing|the thing]]."

I still think "the thing" sounds funnier. 

"You have to try on this bag so the Ugliness Men can decide if it's just as embarassing as we think."

[edit] Spy

"I wish I could break the spyware-set it free.."

[edit] Subliminal

As went through the windshield, I know this sounds lame

[edit] The Day 

The day, the modern day that Phil Ochs got married

And my planes hummed with fluffy pillows

[edit] The Mesopotamians 

So we'll scratch it all down into the pave
So we'll scratch it all down into the hay

I can't resist singing either of these two lyrics for some reason. I usually have to smack myself and say, "It's CLAY not HAY, you idiot!" 

So we'll scratch it all down into the play

[edit] The End Of The Tour 

I was bent metal, you were a flaming red

I like the real lyrics a LOT better...in fact, "I was bent metal, you were a flaming wreck when we kissed at the overpass" is my favorite TMBG quote! 

Then came a knock on the door, which was audible

[edit] The Statue Got Me High 

They failed before the monolith that towers over me

(makes so much more sense than "pale")~AgentChronon

[edit] Tippecanoe And Tyler Too 

And with him we'll beat little men

My mom heard this when first listening to the song. And look, it makes sense! - New Jazz To Settle 

Fantasy used a pen
Or, occasionally:
Fantasy, used-up hen

[edit] Toddler Hiway 

"Take your clothes and play"

[edit] Triops Has Three Eyes 

"And vermin have two legs"...


[edit] Turn Around 

"When I felt something happy and p'inted
Strike me in the back of my neck"

[edit] Twisting 

"She said you're goldfish-free
And now she's sighing"

[edit] Whistling In The Dark 

"And hit my head on the wall of the jail where the Tuvas live today."
"A worm came up to me and said 'I'd like to bosom your mind'"
"A wolf came up to me and said..."

[edit] Why Did You Grow A Beard? 

"Why did you go all weird?"

I kid you not. Listened to a friend's CD in the car, thought that was what he was saying the entire time, until I saw the title of the track.

[edit] With The Dark 

"Smashing, smashing, smashing pieces..."
"Smashes, smashes, smashes she said..."
"Of the phone.."

I'm too young to have ears this faulty!

As am I. I heard the following a lot, uhh, naughtier than the actual lyrics were. Because of mishearing a couple of lines, I heard the next couple ones correctly, but completely misinterpreted them. You'll see what I mean. 

I'm getting tired of all my naughty, cool dreams
I'm getting tired of all my naughty, cool things
Bustin' my pirate hump (!)
Rockin' my pirate stump (!)

And some that are just weird. 

Mama naturally turns to taxidermy
To taxidermy, yeah

And more naughty. 

Bash his, crash his, smash his pieces
Bash his, crash his, smash his pieces
Bash his, crash his, smash his pieces

[edit] Withered Hope 

...glued it to his arm...

[edit] Yeh Yeh 

"We'll play a melody and turn the lights down low
So that none can see
We got a tuba"

"We'll play a melody and turn the lights down low
So that no one can see
We gotta duwop! We gotta duwop!"

“We'll play a melody and turn the lights down low
So that you can see!”

Never made any sense to me...XD

[edit] See also

Retrieved from "http://tmbw.net/wiki/Misheard_Lyrics"