Misheard/Misunderstood Song Lyrics
I grew up in a pretty conservative family. My parents didn’t listen to disco and R & B, but rather, the radio was tuned to either talk, easy listening or classical. It was just the way things were done. However, at school, the other children would bring snippets of songs that caught my interest and I would go home and twirl the FM dial, searching for these songs.
As a kid, you listen to the lyrics and interpret them through a child’s eyes/experience, which left me saying “huh?” to a lot of the songs. Read on, and you will see how a little Dahlia just didn’t get half the stuff she was listening to. Let’s begin, and don’t be afraid to laugh.
1. Pull up to the Bumper (Grace Jones) – “Pull up to the bumper baby, in your long black limousine.” – This song was about parking a car.
2. Ring My Bell (Anita Ward) – “You can ring my bell, any time, any way” – That’s going to be awful noisy after a while, all that bell ringing….
3. Push in the Bush – Why make a song about pushing people in to bushes? Who would like that?
4. Make it With You (Bread) – Make what exactly?
5. Lady Marmalade – So…..she wants to have a slumber party/sleepover???
And to show I wasn’t the only clueless child out there, here are some misheard lyrics:
- Toto: Africa :There’s nothing that a hundred men on Mars could ever do.
- Thompson Twins: Hold Me Now: Hold Me Now (In Your Loving Arms) Oh, Hold My Heart (My Whole Entire Heart)
- Manfred Mann’s Earth Band: Blinded by the Light: Wrapped up like a douche/Another runner in the night
What are some songs that turned out NOT to be about what you thought they were? I couldn’t have been the only clueless child out there….
Dahlia
I love hearing about how people mishear lyrics, always gives me a good chuckle 😀 Great post!
Girl… I was the queen of making up my own words when I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I did that for years until I started doing Karaoke and found out what the real words were! A little embarrassing. LOL In any case, it was fun because I loved/love to sing so it’s all good!
Thanks for sharing Dahlia! Loved the post.
Belinda G
Do you remember Atomic Dog by George Clinton? I thought this was about a guy messing up at work like he was supposed to catch dogs but could only catch cats. LOL!