Misheard Lyrics: Oh, Is That What He Said?
Sometimes it’s hard to understand certain lyrics and what you hear may not be what the artist actually sang (or maybe you heard right and they’re just fooling everyone in the liner notes.) Someone I know, who shall remain nameless, thought a particular song said something about dust on the Bible, I’ll leave it to you to figure out which song. In another instance, I grew up thinking Tracy Lawrence was singing something about how he’ll “have room for you” insead of “hang the moon for you” in the song “Stars Over Texas.” And in yet another case, a group of lawyers I know somehow turned “faded love” into “perforated love.” They must have specialized in making divorces easier or somethin’. Anyways, leave a comment and let us know what lyrics you or “a friend” didn’t hear quite right. The funnier, the better.
If you enjoyed this article, be sure to subscribe to our feed or receive updates via email.
Popular Stuff
Sponsor
Tagged In This Article
Current Discussion
- Bubba: Over the weekend Angela was doing a show in Wrightsville Beach, NC. Just over he...
- Razor X: I've listened to it three times in a row. It's magnificent. This has got my vote...
- leeann: Razor X, That's pretty much how I felt about it....
- Razor X: OK, I'm listening to it now and I feel like I have died and gone to Hillbilly He...
- Stormy: Steve: We all know that Brady is a little strange and somewhat eccentric. WE d...
- Stormy: I’ve always wanted my music to sound like a good band And I want Russell ...
- Jake B.: This review is very harsh.. What do you expect out of someones second album? She...
- J.R. Journey: ... and let's not forget Tom Shapiro either. Another first-class songwriter who...
- Matt B.: WTF? "Steve"?...
- J.R. Journey: I'm pleased to see Matraca Berg getting the recognition she deserves. It's long...
Forgotten Artists: Bradley Kincaid In a manner similar to Alan Lomax, William Bradley “The Kentucky Mountain Boy” Kincaid was one of the great American musicologists and collectors of American folk, country and parlor songs.
Forgotten Artists: Goldie Hill Had Carl Smith and Goldie Hill been born 30 or 40 years later, they might have been like Faith Hill and Tim McGraw–the dominant married couple in country music.
Miranda Lambert - “More Like Her” This kind of material, as opposed to her tough-chick-done-wrong romps like “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and “Gunpowder and Lead,” is where her real promise lies
Joey Rory - “Cheater, Cheater” It’s actually downright frivolous, but that just makes it all the more fun. And really, are you allowed to say “ho” on country radio?
Josh Gracin - “Unbelievable (Ann Marie)” Despite initial marketing that touted the album as deep and personal, “Unbelievable (Ann Marie)” is anything but deep or personal.
Josh Turner - "Everything Is Fine" Turner is the rare example of an artist who records material that’s both quality and trademark.
Darryl Worley - "Tequila On Ice" A groovy mid-tempo that sways, a refreshing reprieve from the exhausting pace of a format that clamors for loud music and swelling choruses.
Blake Shelton - "She Wouldn't Be Gone" It’s all about nailing the melody rather than providing a legitimate interpretation that accentuates the lyrical content, although Shelton does do a pretty good job of injecting what limited emotion he can.
Don’t look now, but Darius Rucker, lead singer of 90s rock group Hootie & The Blowfish, has a country hit on his hands. What you probably haven’t heard is that Rucker is the first black artist to chart a single in the country top 20 since Charley Pride last did it in 1988.
News that former Sugarland member and co-founder Kristen Hall is suing her ex-mates, to the tune of $1.5 million, goes a long way towards providing a bit of context regarding the Atlanta singer/songwriter’s sudden departure from the group.
In Memory of Don Helms (1927 - 2008) Helms dated back to a time when an excellent four or five piece band and a good singer were all that were needed to make great country music. No drums, no light shows, no production tricks in the recording studio–just good music.







1 Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URI for this postJuly 8, 2008
[…] results from a mishearing of something said or sung. A few months back, readers here at The 9513 shared some of their own mondegreens. Here’s one of my favorite, submitted by Roger: Going back a few years to John Anderson’s […]
27 Comments
RSS for comments on this post | Trackback URI for this post
March 8, 2008 at 9:51 am Permalink
I thought for a while that the Dixie Chicks were sang in Long Time Gone that they “ain’t looked at porn since I don’t know when”!
March 8, 2008 at 10:07 am Permalink
Hillarious, Jack!
When I was a kid, I thought John Michael was singing “sink won’t swim” instead of “sink or swim.”
For the longest time, I didn’t understand all of the words in the chorus of Garth’s “American Honky Tonk Bar Association.” Also, I had no idea what Garth was saying when he sang “men” in “Papa Loved Mama.” To this day, it doesn’t sound like “men” to me.
I have a friend who can never interpret or understand lyrics accurately. She is offended by Diamond Rio’s “Beautiful Mess” because she thinks the singer is complaining about how his life is a mess since the woman came into it. Even after a thorough explanation of the song, she is steadfast in her offense. This same friend is sure that John Mayer is singing “Balance in wonderland” instead of “your body’s a wonderland.” When I told her the real lyrics, she said “oh, well, I like my words better”…because she is very prudish about matters of intimacy.
March 8, 2008 at 11:25 am Permalink
my sister thought the the song “we should be at an end” by mary chapin carpenter said “i know we should piatahead”
March 8, 2008 at 12:59 pm Permalink
My little cousin didn’t know what Birmingham was like in the song “Paint Me A Birmingham”, so she sang “Paint Me A Burning Ham”
March 8, 2008 at 4:15 pm Permalink
A little girl I know sings Gary Allan’s new song a lot (Watching Airplanes) except she says “I’m just sitting out here watching deer play” instead of the correct way, “I’m just sitting out here watching airplanes.” It’s cute, don’t know if they have corrected her.
March 8, 2008 at 4:20 pm Permalink
They were discussing this topic on some morning show I was listening to a while back and one woman called in and said she thought Doug Stone was singing “I’d be better off in a pie box” rather than “pine box.”
March 8, 2008 at 6:22 pm Permalink
I remember when I was younger, I thought Toby Keith was singing “…wearing my sex shoes…” instead of “wearing my six shooter…” in “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” haha.
I remember reading one mishead lyric on one site that made me laugh out loud. In “Boot Scootin’ Boogie” by Brooks & Dunn, the person thought that B&D sang (and this may be too graphic, I don’t know):
“Oh, get her down
Turn her around
Go to town
Boot scootin’ boogie”
That “her” makes a huge difference lol…
March 8, 2008 at 7:54 pm Permalink
I’ll admit I was kind of let-down to find out (about halfway through the single’s run) that Toby Keith wasn’t singing, “Get Drunk and Beat Somebody.”
March 8, 2008 at 10:21 pm Permalink
They say the line in Fancy is, “but Fancy was my name.” but every time I hear the song I hear “but Fancy wasn’t my name.”
March 8, 2008 at 10:46 pm Permalink
Along the lines of CF’s “Boot Scootin Boogie” lyric, I once read that a listener complained to a radio station about the song “Dumas Walker” by the Kentucky Headhunters. Apparently, the listener thought the lyric was “lets all go, down to do Miss Walker.”
Country singers often sing about sex, but that one listener was not ready for a song about an orgy.
March 9, 2008 at 12:08 am Permalink
I always thought that the second verse, leading into the chorus, of The Good Stuff (by Kenny Chesney) went:
“cuz the one things stronger than the whiskey
Was A SHOT of her holding out baby girl”
when its actually, “THE SIGHT of her holding our baby girl”
However, I still sing my version, because I think its a more clever lyric (because it goes along with the drinking/getting sober theme of the second verse)!!
March 9, 2008 at 9:39 am Permalink
I always thought in Wave on Wave Pat Green was singing “you’re the reason I say hell yeah,” instead of “you’re the reason I’m still here, yeah.”
March 9, 2008 at 1:16 pm Permalink
In Shania’s “I’m Gonna Getcha” there’s a line that goes “There’s no need to be alone when you find that someone” but I always heard “towel” instead of someone. Also In Katrina Elam’s “No End In Sight” when she sings “so kick your shoes off stay a while” I always hear “so cake your shoes off. Most people think I’m crazy.
March 9, 2008 at 9:19 pm Permalink
I just realized last week that I’ve been butchering one line in Phil Vassar’s “Love is a Beautiful Thing”. It’s a pretty dumb line to mess up because it’s so obvious… but everytime I hear the chorus of the song, I hear:
Throw the rice in the air
Let the church bells ring
Tie the KIDS to the back of that limosine
Of course, the real song is “cans”, not “kids”, and when I finally thought about what I kept hearing, I felt pretty stupid.
March 9, 2008 at 9:23 pm Permalink
I always hear the exact same thing, Zach.
March 10, 2008 at 2:30 pm Permalink
While DJing at the local club many years ago, I had a gal once ask for me Shania’s lyrics for Man I Feel Like A Woman - she told me her boyfriend was convinced that she was singing “Cum in my hair, do what I dare”. Seriously. I always thought (in that same song), she was singing “Rearrange my boys” instead of “really raise my voice”
March 10, 2008 at 3:07 pm Permalink
okay, who let this guy post comments??
March 10, 2008 at 3:29 pm Permalink
sorry if you were offended Kelly; it honestly happened and was funny enough that I thought it deserved sharing….apparenlty not for some.
March 10, 2008 at 3:52 pm Permalink
ironic really, coming for the so-called Gobbler’s Knob LOL
March 11, 2008 at 7:30 am Permalink
I was just playin’ around. Also, the Gobblers Knob title isnt referring to what you are referring to, just so you know (not that there’s anythign wrong with that).
March 11, 2008 at 9:43 am Permalink
Haha OK then Kelly…I was kidding too! Keep on gobblin!
March 11, 2008 at 10:50 pm Permalink
Going back a few years to John Anderson’s “Seminole Wind” - In the chorus when he sings “Blow, blow, Seminole Wind” My sister nearly wrecked her car when she heard my 10 year old niece singing along loudly with “Blow, blow, seven old men”!!
March 12, 2008 at 10:04 am Permalink
Roger - That one definitely takes the cake.
March 13, 2008 at 10:19 am Permalink
One I still mis-hear to this day. Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffet in “5 o’clock Somewhere” When Alan says “Keep it between the bouyies” I hear “between the boobies”
March 18, 2008 at 6:23 am Permalink
My little brother used to think that when George Strait sang “check yes or no,” he was actually saying “Chet has to know.”
April 5, 2008 at 2:49 pm Permalink
my sister thought in mountains by lonestar, they said “but the Good Lord gave us smiling time, so we can learn how to climb” instead of “but the Good Lord gave us mountains so we can learn how to climb.
she also thought in all american girl she said “Devona tell me what” like Devona was a name instead of “be honest tell me what you want”
April 15, 2008 at 11:43 pm Permalink
I always wondered why they all wanted to go down and Do Miss Walker, until I read this tonight. I knew that couldn’t be what they were talking about, but I really had no idea what else it could be. I love lyric mix-ups, thanks for the great laughs. “Seven Old Men” is my favorite I think.
I had cousins who thought Jimmy Buffet was singing “I wish I had a PENCILTON mustache in Pencil Thin Mustache, and when I tried to correct them, they said it was one of those long curled up ones, (a handlebar). I finally convinced them, but we always sing pencilton now…Also I used to have my little brothers fooled that Brooks and Dunn were singing I am Batman, instead of I am that man…
Leave a Comment