'Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy...

[sisabet]

So when I was a kid I never really cared about learning the right lyrics to a song. Oh, I'd sing along for sure, but I never worried that I was singing the wrong lyrics.

Hell, for a good 5-8 years I thought the AC/DC song that my uncle always played in his Trans Am was Dirty Deeds, Gunga-Din. I thought when Steve Perry of Journey sang about his Open Arms he said And now that you've come back, to-mah-toes today, I need you stay and really - tomatoes today make just as much since to a nine year old as turned night into day. I figured he really liked salads. Maybe they were vegetarians together. I grew up in Kentucky. I thought California was full of vegetarians and I was always confusing Journey and Foreigner because Dawn stole a Journey album from the afore-mentioned Trans-Am driving uncle and it was called Frontiers and that looked a lot like the word Foreigner to me. Sadly, Foreigner never released an album called Journals or anything so this really is only related in my head. Hey! Did you know that Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy and Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln? Freaky, huh?

Side note: drdawn always said "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" and "Two More Bottles of Wine" were about her. I knew this was not true, though, the moment I heard "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) because dude - I figured someday love had to find her and break those chains that bind her because she was one scary and mean kid. That was the first time I ever felt a song I heard on the radio actually applied to a real life situation as at that time I had never met a Jesse or his girl.

But life was simpler back then - albums didn't typically come with extensive liner notes and when we made the technological jump to cassette tapes, it was a very big deal for the liner notes to have lyrics. We'd pass that shit around study hall. There was no elyrics or whatnot - there was you and your best friend and a note pad rewinding certain parts of a song until you broke the freaking tape.

Life was good.

On that note - I have no idea what the hell the lyrics to Radio Free Europe are and I don't want to know. I cherish my not knowing and I think part of my love for "What's The Frequency Kenneth" comes from not understanding more than a few words of the song. Oh Michael and your marble mouth, how I loved thee.

::sings::

What's the frequency Kenneth the shhhhh uh huhh, uuhh,humm
The smile, lalalala that you captured from mahahahaaa
Uh, huh

I hear it is about Dan Rather. I think that is precious.

So lyrics are what you make them and they tend to only intensely matter to music geeks and teenagers. And teenagers that will one day become music geeks. Back when I was in high school, the lyrics to Pearl Jam's "Black" were debated back and forth between my friends, because it sounds like Eddie Vedder is singing I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be the sun in somebody's else's sky but the published lyrics said the line said "star" not "sun" and while I am will always be on the side of "sun" (because it is more singular and special - and also - he totally says sun) I had sever pro-star associates that pointed as proof to the published lyrics and a live MTV special where it sounds like Eddie could be singing star. To be fair - dude changed a lot of lyrics in that live performance, so who knows. I had very little lyric credibility with my friends as I thought the line in "Jeremy" was knashed his teeth with the recesses they expressed, but I still maintain that I thought that only because I just totally never expected the line to actually be knashed his teeth and bit the recess lady's breast. I mean - come on. I should have been waiting for this lyric or something?

Recently, I was reminded of this phenomena again when I visited the Jay Farrar Boards. I was looking for a lyric that was kinda unclear and since I was vidding the song, I decided actually knowing what the song said might be a smidge important, and I discovered a freaking kerfuffle on the boards over whether or not Jay is singing about a "Mother road" or "Another road" in a song. Turns out - once the lyrcis were published - the "Mother road" people were right - but I know the song and I thought the another road people had a point and you know... it just isn't nice to gloat.

Fandom is really all the same and it is just all about the world. You can find microcosms of society and civilization all over the internet and it all follows a pattern and that pattern is very very set and the only thing different from this and ancient Greece is that the internet moves faster. But that is not the point of this post.

No, the point of this post is that I typically think a lyric is one thing and get attatched to what that is and then I am disheartened when I find out otherwise. And I wouldn't find out otherwise, except a small part of me believes that if you are going to vid a song, you at least should know what the lyrics say cause believe you me, someone else will go and look them up.

::nods::

And half the time, internet lyrics are as wrong as I was when I sang an ode to Gunga Din's Dirty Deeds. But sometimes I have to give the devil his due. And bet my soul against a fiddle of gold. Or something. And now is one of those times.

For the past week I have been rather morosely immersed in Richard Ashcroft's (shut up! I am obsessed) "On A Beach" mainly because I think the song would be really beautiful and moving visually -- I am a big fan of singing in the round (probably because as children it was the one thing Dawn could never do and I always was good at it - She still can't round without closing her eyes and covering her ears and just *singing* and heee!! I love it!) and the end of the song has that *feel* -- the lyrics -- well they are malleable. Obstensibly the song is about a man castaway on an island -- but metaphorically it works as a man isolated in his heart, as he is figuratively stranded and alone. I have a list of characters that fit this song and hell, Lex fits it metaphorically *and* literally, so already I like this song.

And I loved, loved, loved a line in the chorus that I thought went:

Saw the devil's servant
Sent her home
Said bring me your master
I don't want his dog

And dude. I can do so much with that. That could totally be Angel. Or anyone. But probably Angel.

And now I find out the line is actually supposedly

Saw the devil's servant
Sent her home
Said bring me a message
I don't want to starve

This crushes me. And yes - I am willing to admit that in some places in the song Ashcroft is singing the word "Starve" but!! He sings it all weird and does not pronounce the "r" and while that may just be because he is English, I think a small part of him knows that the song would be stronger if it was "I don't want his dog." I love the cockiness and the willingness to deal this line implies. The narrator is really and truly at the end of his rope and he still turns away his one offer of help because he does not deal with underlings. If the Devil wants to play, he needs to make the offer himself. So freaking cool. And I really think that in some parts of the song, Ashcroft is singing "Bring me your master" - this is a repeating line and I swear I hear a "t" in there. Also - at one point he refers to the devil's servant as a "he" (which I like cause it would allow for some gender neutrality in a vid) and the online lyrics do not address this gender change.

So they are wrong. And now I am happy again.

::sings::

Dirty deeds, Gun-Ga-DIN!

Comments

oooh, mondegreens!

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

How I love these. My sister, as a kid, used to think the lyrics to Olivia Newton-John's "Magic" were:

Capture the leaves, we are magic...

which I always thought was rather poetic.

My all-time favorite, which still cracks my shit up after years and years and years, comes from a friend in high school. The song is "Demolition Man" by The Police. The song concludes with the lines:

I'm a three line whip, I'm the sort of thing they ban
I'm a walking disaster, I'm a demolition man

Only Kate heard it as:

I'm a three line whip, I'm a sawed-off Ed McMahon
I'm a walking disaster, I'm a demolition man

::collapses with giggles::

BTW, the "What's the frequency?" thing is explained here. (http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20010619.html)

Re: oooh, mondegreens!

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I remember when "What's the frequency" came out and I was just all nostalgic for an REM song I couldn't understand at all. At the time I remember the Dan Rather associations, but I always thought it was a tribute to the time ACT-UP interupted the CBS News Broadcast. One of my stoner friends at the time swore that the only audio signal that got out after a certain point was this stage hand repeatedly asking "What's the frequency? Kenneth, what's the frequency."

I love our urban myths and legends. And capture the leaves, we are magic is beautiful. From now on, that is what I sing. That and a song about a Sawed Off Ed McMahon. That, that is just brilliant.

Re: oooh, mondegreens!

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Now you've got me wondering if your stoner friend is the one who's right. Maybe the *other* thing is the urban legend.

Geez. You can't trust any source of information anymore, can you? There's just too much...brain exploding...

Re: oooh, mondegreens!

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think you are right on that one. I've heard Rather talk about it on Letterman before.

Re: oooh, mondegreens!

[valancy.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's - I couldn't have made up a better story. Thanks for the link!

Re: oooh, mondegreens!

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Glad to help.

[heresluck]

Game Theory did a song called "Kenneth What's the Frequency," same allusion different take, back in... musta been '89 or thereabouts. Not as catchy, though.

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

I think part of my love for "What's The Frequency Kenneth" comes from not understanding more than a few words of the song

On one of the VH1 "I love the _0s" shows Hal Sparks points out that whenever people sing along to "It's the end of the world as we know it" they all shout out "Leonard Bernstein!" because it's one of the few lyrics in the song they can make out.

[wesleysgirl.livejournal.com]

I love you.

[chantal87.livejournal.com]

Hee! I'm notorious for mixing up lyrics. Until recently I thought the line to Depeche modes' Just cant get enough were
When I think about you, I dry my hair. I just cant get enough

Lets not even talk about The Pretenders Brass in Pocket.

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

Hail Mary
Full of Grapes.

I always thought she just REALLY liked fruit.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

"Our father, who rot in heaven ..."

"and deliver us from eagle ..."

Ah, Catholic childhood.

[valancy.livejournal.com]

For years I thought it was "kiss this guy," too. (Another famously misheard line, from the Strokes: "She's just a mudblood," actually "It's in my blood" ["The Modern Age"].) My best friend is one of those annoying and lovely people who hears a song once and knows the lyrics perfectly, always wincing when I cheerfully mumble along with a song I've heard a thousand times and still don't know. At least we can say we've got mystery on our side. And possibly the Devil's dog.

[deaver.livejournal.com]

Well, your thinking it was "Dirty deeds, Gun-ga-DIN" was no stranger than my thinking it was "Dirty deeds, thunder cheeks" Seriously thought the song was an ode to a fat woman. Was seriously bummed out when I realized it was otherwise. Thanks for making me giggle today!

[twistinside82.livejournal.com]

OMG I used to sing "Every time you go away, you take a piece of meat with you." And my sister always thought "Gonna let her in, mm, mm" was "David Letterman, mm, mm".

Also a Hole lyric that I think is really "Can't look you in the eye" but I always sing "Candle cue you in the eye". Don't ask me what I think that means, cos I surely don't know.

And Beck's "Loser"? "Soy un bendy toe" Oh yes.

[piper47.livejournal.com]

Fandom is really all the same and it is just all about the world. You can find microcosms of society and civilization all over the internet and it all follows a pattern and that pattern is very very set and the only thing different from this and ancient Greece is that the internet moves faster. But that is not the point of this post.

Can I get a whole post like that... because seriously, I want to hear more about that. ;)

Anyway, I was terrible with lyrics for a long time. I still am, I still sing lyrics wrong. Somehow I don't always care. Although, I'm in the age of the internet, I usually look up lyrics to songs I like now so I actually know what they are saying.

As for Richard Ashcroft. What is it about his music that is like... so powerful?

Seriously, I will listen to "Man on a Mission" the whole way walking to class. ( I *heart* my repeat button ) That song just gets me through a day. Especially when I have studio. If I have studio that day, you can bet that CD ends up in my player.

Thank you for that btw. ;) I owe it to you that I went and bought that CD. So thanks.

[jolielaide.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is a very funny post and all, but the important thing is that you have destroyed the very fabric of my reality with the Ashcroft thing. I refuse to believe that the lyrics aren't the master and dog thing, because like you, I have a modicum of sense and an appreciation for narrative skill and "message...starve" just doesn't cut the mustard.

::cries::

::clings stubbornly to the better lyrics::

[barkley.livejournal.com]

Back when I was in high school, the lyrics to Pearl Jam's "Black" were debated back and forth between my friends, because it sounds like Eddie Vedder is singing I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be the sun in somebody's else's sky

Eddie! The bane of my existence! I always want to vid Yellow Ledbetter to something, but I can never understand the lyrics, and then when I finally got around to looking them up, they were nothing like I wanted to vid, and I'm still tossing it back and forth in my head if the lyrics really do matter in that case. It's kind of a moot discussion with myself as I have no show to go with it yet, but I like to think about it from time to time (most recent time being two days ago.)

[hologrammatical.livejournal.com]

Oh skewed song lyrics...I too know their wrath...and their bizarre ways of transforming to speak about food...

For lo' when the Smashing Pumpkins played "Disarm", and Billy was singing all mournfully about how the years burn, I thought he was informing us that the "ooooh the meat is burned"...

Then in "Come Back To Me My Mistake" I thought "and give me my grateful repease" meant "and give me my bowl full of peas"...*is hungry*

[emstardust.livejournal.com]

Two things.

Thing one: REM's Crush with Eyeliner was my favorite slash song of ALL TIME.

Thing two: I used to think My Sharona was Mice are Rolling.

[ranalore.livejournal.com]

I wrote a story for which the title was misquoted lyrics, because I liked my version better than what I found online. I mean, aside from the whole lack of enunciation thing that singers have going on, some lyrics? Are just really, really dumb. And I think that if you're even halfway literate, your brain is often inclined to supply you with more meaning and...well, lyricism than a lot of lyrics actually contain.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Or rather, "A Cracking Voice and a Song of Love" is my story, and it's better than "a cracking voice and a song, oh lord."

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I always heard the chorus of Bowie's Life on Mars as "Look at those gay men go" instead of "Look at those cavemen go". Still prefer the misheard version.

[permetaform]

XD ::grins:: your posts are lovely and whirly.

also? pru's updated her Connor fic. thought you'd like to know =D

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

And of course, the ever popular Squeegee Kahika by Creedence Clearwater Revival.