Lyrically speaking

Posted by Annie | April 8, 2010 | 63 Comments

We were in the car on the way to my daughter’s flute lesson. The sunroof was open to the balmy, lovely sky. Music played on the radio and we sang along to Jason Mraz’s I’m Yours.

Daughter: “…listen to the music of the Mormon people dance and sing. We’re just one big family…”
Me: What did you just say?
D: What?
M: Did you say “Mormon people”?
D: Um, yeah. Those are the words, Mom.
M: (chuckling) Really? So is he telling people to listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir? Or David Archuleta? What music of the Mormon people do you think he’s talking about?
D: (laughing) I know, right? I just think it’s cool.
M: Honey, I don’t think that’s what he’s saying.
D: Really? Oh, that’s sad. And embarrassing.
M: I’ve got your back.

. . . .

Some song misunderstandings are even more embarrassing. My sister-in-law was sitting in primary with her son one week, helping out for the day. It was singing time and the leader asked the kids for their favorite song. Her six-year-old son shot his hand in the air and he got called on.
“J, what’s your favorite primary song?”
“Roxanne,” he said with enthusiasm but kind of quietly.
“What song? I couldn’t hear you.”
“Roxanne,” he said loudly, singing the two notes of the Police song as he said it.
“Oh, I don’t think I know that one.” Which, I’m sure, is how the primary escaped a close call of having to sing the words “you don’t have to put on the red light” and other loaded lyrics.

. . . .

Can anyone else remember being perplexed by the As I Have Loved You lyrics? “By this shallmenno, ye are my disciples” sounded like I was supposed to be very near a shallmenno but what and where was it?

. . . .

Have you ever misheard/misunderstood hymns or song lyrics?
Do share…

Category: Daily Special

Comments

63 Responses to “Lyrically speaking”

Selwyn
April 8th, 2010 @ 4:23 am

There’s a fun music-based show here called Spicks ‘n’ Specks and one of the games is “Mondegreens” – which is actually the name for misheard lyrics.

Funniest one lately in my house was from my eldest son Hatro (who is 12). Last year he was singing along to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” (If you Like It Then You Should Have Put a Ring on it). He was bopping around singing “I’m a cigarette, I’m a cigarette..” He thought the words he was singing didn’t make sense! Then last month he was singing along with it again, but this time it was “I wear a singlet, I wear a singlet..” I managed to tell him the words amongst my giggles, then he started again “I’m a single la- I’m not singing that anymore.”

My youngest son wanted to know if his grandfather was a Lamanite – “You know, our fathers who came far across the seas.”

Thanks for the giggle!
traci
April 8th, 2010 @ 6:01 am

Forever! I sang “Bringing in the Sheaves” as…….

“Bringing in the Sheep”

hehehehehehehehehe
Christie
April 8th, 2010 @ 6:29 am

“You can call me out” by Paul Simon, I later embarassingly learned, was “You can call me AL.”

Whatever. Lame husband who always has to be right…
Nate
April 8th, 2010 @ 6:55 am

I always wondered what the “Lansome Welcome Doll” was and why a doll was in captivity. (“And the land soon welcomed all who wanted to be free” from Book of Mormon Stories.) To this day I can’t ever remember the correct lyrics. I had to look them up on the church website.
April
April 8th, 2010 @ 7:33 am

I like your daughter’s version of the song!
Listen to the Music of the Mormon people
Dance and sing!
We’re just one big family and it’s our God forsaken right to be loved, loved, loved!
It fits nicely!
I’m still laughing over the Roxanne song in Primary!
When I was young my sister and I got lots of lyrics wrong and those are some of my funniest memories!
Angie f
April 8th, 2010 @ 7:46 am

My uncle once went home aghast from primary: “mom, they’re making us sing songs about underwear!” “what! she said”–”yes, “little purple panties touched with yellow gold”

Mine was the Golden Plates. I think they’ve actually changed the lyrics. It used to be “nephi, a Godly man of old” I thought it was “nephi, ugh! ugly man of old” So, for years I pictured Nephi, not as the Arnold Friberg strapping young man, but as an extremely ugly old man.

And then you have Seal songs–I’ve heard he won’t publish lyrics because he wants people to be right, whatever they happen to be singing, so no mondegreens possible (I love that word Selwyn!)
Tiffany W.
April 8th, 2010 @ 7:50 am

My mother thought one of the hymns went “Jesus wants a hamburger” when it was actually “Jesus Once of Humble Birth.”
kyles
April 8th, 2010 @ 8:11 am

When Jesus Christ was baptised, down in the river Jordan, three members of the Godhead were present there in love

became (to my 5yr old son)

When Jesus Christ was baptised, down in the river Jordan…three men were in the garden and presents that I love!

This is not a song one, but for so many years I used to say “Jealousy occurs!!” to anyone I thought was acting remotely jealous in any way…or if I was jealous of something…. little did I know the phrase is actually ‘jealousy’s a curse’ oops!
Matt
April 8th, 2010 @ 8:24 am

I’m in the “shallmenno” boat. And I always thought that the last line of, “I Am a Child of God” went, “Teach me all that I’m a stew…”
wendy
April 8th, 2010 @ 8:25 am

I had to dig up a really old blog entry to remember what some of my mistakes were. My favorite mondegreen was from the song One Night in Bangkok. The song said, “I get my kicks above the waistline.” What I heard: “I hit my kids above the waistline.” Yikes!

My earliest mondegreen was from Samantha Sang’s Emotion. The opening words are, “It’s over and done.” I thought it was “Silver Rainbow.”

Fun post!
Fairchild
April 8th, 2010 @ 8:32 am

Ah, I too spent my young years wondering what a “shalmeno” was. It wasn’t until I was a teen and read it in the hymn book that I realized what it really said.
Nancy R.
April 8th, 2010 @ 8:34 am

I had issues with “shallmenno” too.
Annie
April 8th, 2010 @ 8:36 am

Oh, I needed these laughs today.

Selwyn, thank you for giving us a word for this craziness: mondegreens (although even that word seems ripe for misunderstanding!).

Sometimes I think our mistaken lyrics work even better. I love “bringing in the sheep” even better, Traci. And Nate, I don’t know what a Landsome Welcome Doll is but I want one.

And these almost have me in tears: little purple panties, Nephi ugly man of old, three men were in the garden there with presents that I love (so hopeful!).

Thanks for playing along and keep ‘em coming.
Laurie
April 8th, 2010 @ 9:11 am

Haha this is a great post. I always thought “Bringing in the Sheaves” was “bringing in the cheese.

I also thought that the song “home home on the range” was singing to my dad. His name was Seldon, and where the lyrics read “where seldom is heard…” I always thought it said Seldon.
April M
April 8th, 2010 @ 9:19 am

Remember the Flashdance song? “Take your passion, and make it happen”. I used to think she was saying “take you pants down”. I couldn’t believe they were playing that on the radio!

And not a song lyric, but for the longest time I thought filet mignon was flaming yon.
Heidi T.
April 8th, 2010 @ 9:47 am

I always sang, “By this shall meno, ye are Mighty Siples.” My uncle still gives me grief about it.
Annie
April 8th, 2010 @ 9:55 am

I had forgotten this until just now: my daughter thought she was moving up to the Violent 9 class (instead of the Valiant 9s). She was understandably nervous!
Jordan
April 8th, 2010 @ 10:12 am

The most famous church mondegreen in our family was my little sister who sang, “Can you name the three opossums? Call them special friends of Je . . . Jesus.”

To this day she has a hard time remember how many members are in the Quorum of the Twelve. (Just kidding.)

Apparently as a little girl, I entered the YW talent show at the last minute singing “Hot Time Lava” (my mom says the real song was “Part Time Lover”; afraid I don’t know either of them now). I gave myself three and three-quarter stars.

I also sang “Stop in the Name of Love,” as “Stop in the neighborhood.” Thought it was about a traffic stop. But again, I was five.
Kimarie
April 8th, 2010 @ 10:39 am

I looked up the Jason Mraz song to see what it actually said and was embarrassed to see that the lyric at the beginning is “Well you done done me and you bet I felt it”. I thought it was “Well you done done me in your bed, I felt it” and thought it was a bit risque.

I’m a convert so I never had any primary song misunderstood lyrics, but I am notoriously bad at distinguishing song lyrics. Thank goodness for google nowadays. I remember in second grade I told a girl I knew the words to “Venus” and sang it for her, after which she gathered some more kids around and had me repeat it. It wasn’t until years later that I realized they were laughing at me because I had the lyrics totally wrong. “I’m your venus, I’m your fire, show me, sire” is apparently not in the song.
My mom used to say “In ten years you won’t even remember or care about this (whatever problem I had at the time)”. So not true, I still get embarrassed over things I did in elementary school and I’m 31 years old.
Michelle
April 8th, 2010 @ 11:22 am

What a great topic! One of my favorites, from my 3rd son, is from “My Heavenly Father Loves Me.” Instead of “velvet rose”, he sings it, “Whenever I touch a velvet toad. . . ”

I have a sister-in-law who had issues with “I Am A Child of God” as well. To her it was “Teach me all the diamond stew.”
Barbara
April 8th, 2010 @ 11:25 am

One of my cousins used to sing, “Come, come, ye saints, no toilet paper here.” Still makes me laugh.
Christa
April 8th, 2010 @ 11:36 am

this made me laugh out loud.
your daughter is adorable.

for me it’s Princes song, “Little Red Corvette”
I always thought it was, “Baby, Come Back” personally I think my lyrics make more sense and are much more romantic.
Sue
April 8th, 2010 @ 12:22 pm

My eldest son, 6 or 7 at the time, was once belting out the words to the Four Tops’ rendition of “Bernadette,” when I realized he was saying something rather strange.

“What are the words, Matt?” I asked benignly. Looking at me as if I should certainly know at least that much after all my years of living, he answered pointedly, “Burned to death, Mom.”

Therapist, anyone? (Oh, I forgot. Now HE is a therapist. Scary, eh?)

Now, whenever a family member misunderstands words in any context, we all yell out, “Burned to death.”

heehee
Michelle Glauser
April 8th, 2010 @ 12:34 pm

That’s so funny! I haven’t run into anyone yet who was also perplexed by “by thisshallmenknow.” When I was little I thought it was a Spanish word. Ha ha.
Rose
April 8th, 2010 @ 12:38 pm

Okay this isn’t a case of messing up the words, but its close enough.
When I was in primary, the commandment “thou shalt not take the Lords Name in vain” was drilled into me so completely that when we sang “I am a child of God” I would always sing quietly,
“I am a child of Gosh”
Lol!
Thanks for the laugh ;D
Kris
April 8th, 2010 @ 12:49 pm

Ha! These are a riot. This isn’t a song lyric, but when I was a kid, my grandmother used the phrase “three sheets to the wind” to describe someone who wasn’t thinking clearly. Before we knew it, my younger sister was proudly informing people that they were “three papers in a breeze.”

Also, did anyone else play the extremely irreverent game of adding “in the bathroom” after the names of hymns in the hymnbook? “Through Deepening Trials” always made us laugh until we cried.
bekah
April 8th, 2010 @ 1:11 pm

I always thought the song “Secret Agent Man” was “Secret Asian Man”, although I did find it odd that he was able to keep his ethnicity a secret.

Apparently, this wasn’t just my mistake–my husband and I grew up on opposite sides of the country, and both remember thinking the song said the same thing during our childhoods.
Annie
April 8th, 2010 @ 1:25 pm

Wow, who knew there were so many rampant mondegreens in Primary?

All of this brings home the reality of the trust that children have in us as we teach them songs and new words and concepts. Sometimes they might wonder what it is but if you say so (or if they *think* you say so), they’ll sing it and with gusto!
Amber
April 8th, 2010 @ 1:30 pm

You may not be familiar with it but there is a country song titled- “Single White Female” (the song is like a want ad) and those words are in the song. My DH thought she was singing about a Single WIDE Female. As opposed to a double wide. He’s always getting funny words out of songs.
Angela
April 8th, 2010 @ 1:36 pm

When I was a kid, the song “I Wonder When He Comes Again” made me afraid of the millennium. The line, “Will earth be white with drifted snow / or will the world know spring?” I interpreted as “or will the world NO spring” and I concluded from this that it would be winter for 1,000 years during the second coming, much like Narnia during the reign of the White Witch. Needless to say, I was NOT looking forward to the millennium.

Just yesterday, my 3-year-old caboose baby was singing the chorus of “It’s Too Late to Apologize” by One Republic, but he sang, “It’s too late to have a child / It’s too late!” My husband said, “You’re darn right about that!” Pretty funny.
Angela
April 8th, 2010 @ 1:38 pm

Oh, and I also heard “Mormon people” on that Mraz song. I knew it couldn’t be right, of course–but I wanted it to be.
Andrea R.
April 8th, 2010 @ 2:07 pm

When I was growing up, my friend Colleen thought the Blondie song “Call Me” was about her — “Collen! On the line!” It still cracks me up.
eljee
April 8th, 2010 @ 2:44 pm

My son came home after learning the second verse of I am a Child of God in primary (“I am a child of God, and so my needs are great…”) and asked me, “What’s so great about my knees anyway?”

My name is Lisa, and when I was a child, I thought my mother went to “Lisa-sitey” every week, rather than Relief Society.
Cissy
April 8th, 2010 @ 2:46 pm

I had the problem with “I Am a Child of God” too: Teach me all that I must stew…

My kids have all independently sung: “When your heart is filled with love, MOTHERS will love you.” Still works, right?
Heather
April 8th, 2010 @ 3:09 pm

Thank you so much — I needed that! I have tears in my eyes from laughing so hard!
Having Karaoke-type game shows has opened my eyes to words I never knew — or sung!
Jennie
April 8th, 2010 @ 4:02 pm

My son came home from primary one week telling me how he sang a song about the evil eye. I couldn’t figure out what he was talking about until he sang me “The Still Small Voice” (“to save me from the evil I may see”).

I used to love the theme song from “Fame”. Especially the part where they say “remember, remember”. Only I thought it was “cream of puff”. Yeah, that doesn’t make even a little bit of sense.
Mary P.
April 8th, 2010 @ 4:30 pm

My cousin thought it was, “High on the mountain top, a Badger Chased a Squirrel.”

And my friend sang, “I belong to the church of Cheese and Rice, and Rattly Snakes!”
kyliemm
April 8th, 2010 @ 5:36 pm

I also never understood “filet mignon”–I thought it was “flaming yom,” as in Yom Kippur.

I also sometimes get the lyrics to “Praise to the Man” stuck in my head. I only recently realized that my mind is playing the words, “Traitors and pirates now fight him in vain.”

I also knew a girl once who thought Enya’s “Sail Away” was “Save the Whales.”
nita
April 8th, 2010 @ 6:49 pm

so timely..one such moment occured just today. I was half listening to “O My Father” en route to work. All of a sudden I heard the words “evil childhood” and for the briefest of moments, those words jumped out at me, and I did a doubletake. What? “Evil childhood??” In a hymn? OF course I immedietely realized the words were “[first primeveal childhood was I nurtured near Thy side?]

here’s another:
several years ago I listed to “We Are Sowing” quite often on my commute. I kept wondering what the heck a “lapadonia” was. Then I finally looked at the lyrics and saw it was “level lowlands”. I do have a very mild hearing problem which could be part of the challenge.
Jill Shelley
April 8th, 2010 @ 7:49 pm

Growing up, for years, I thought “Ere you left your room this morning, did you think to pray?” was about a little boy named Ere who was always forgetting to say his prayers. I remember sitting there during in Sacrament meeting thinking…why can’t Ere think of some way to remind himself to pray??
Gabrielle
April 8th, 2010 @ 8:48 pm

Yeah, I also was confused about the “shalmano” in Love One Another. So funny that I’m not the only one!
Cath
April 8th, 2010 @ 9:56 pm

I cannot believe someone else out there thought “shallmenno” was a word of its own! I was positive it was one long beautiful word that meant a kind of fish (minnow?) or good deed that involved fish. I felt so silly when I finally read the words and separated them out.

I’m notorious for singing the wrong words to songs. My sisters tease me all the time. They’ll never let me forget the David Lee Murphy (country) song “Dust on the Bottle.” I religiously though it was “There might be a little dust on the BIBLE. But don’t let it fool you about what’s inside!” Sounded good to me. I sang it like that for months. Had no idea it was a drinking song!

This was a great post. Refreshing to just laugh some days. Thanks for sharing your sense of humor!
christine
April 8th, 2010 @ 10:26 pm

Ummmm, yeah. I JUST found out that the song isn’t about dust on the Bible! Thanks for clarifying Cath!
plutarch
April 9th, 2010 @ 9:34 am

One of my favorite Christmas characters is still Round John Virgin, from “Silent Night.” As in “Round John Virgin, mother and child.” He was obviously a good friend of the family, there to help out.
sunny
April 9th, 2010 @ 10:34 am

Someone please fill in the blank for me here:

“Blinded by the light. Revved up like a ____ another runner in the night.”

All I here is douche. Help me.
JENM
April 9th, 2010 @ 11:15 am

Sunny, you’re close. It’s “deuce.”
sunny
April 9th, 2010 @ 11:49 am

JENM,

Ah, that’s a lot better.
wendy
April 9th, 2010 @ 12:59 pm

I’ve always wondered what in the world they were saying there!
Strollerblader
April 9th, 2010 @ 3:46 pm

Not that it makes sense with “douce” either!
Strollerblader
April 9th, 2010 @ 3:47 pm

…uh, that would be “deuce”
meggle
April 9th, 2010 @ 4:44 pm

Sunny- I burst out laughing! My 15 year old son is very into classic/older rock/music- and so I heard Blinded by the Light just the other day, and I was really disturbed. Thanks for clearing it up, guys, but yeah, I agree, deuce doesn’t make much sense there either.
My brother thought it was “teach me all that I’m a stu…” as in student. Until today I thought he was the only goofball out there. I’ll have to let him know.
meggle
April 9th, 2010 @ 4:46 pm

Oh, that last line was referring to I am a Child of God, in case you all got confused. It doesn’t occur in Blinded by the Light.
Katie E
April 9th, 2010 @ 5:02 pm

My husband said one of his companions on his mission would sing “High on a Mountain Top, a badger chased a squirrel..”

Then there was the time that we were singing “Have I done any good” and I changed it while singing the line “have I cheered up the glad, made someone feel sad…”

My 2 younger sisters and I used to sing to the Michael Jackson Billy Jean song…”a piece of cheese is not my lover” instead of Billy Jean is not my lover.

My husband and I love hearing our 7 year old sing… especially to the song “Don’t you want me.” So instead of the chorus “Don’t you want me baby, don’t you want me ohhhh” he sings “Don’t you want your baby, don’t you want your ohhhh”
Angie f
April 9th, 2010 @ 5:52 pm

Isn’t a deuce a kind of engine? Like the “little deuce coup” of the Beach boys song?
Carol
April 9th, 2010 @ 7:35 pm

Several years ago a VERY pregnant woman in our ward named Hope was leading the singing, smiling as she always did when we sang. When we were singing “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet” and we came to the line “There is hope smiling brightly before us and we know that deliv-rance is nigh,” the congregation burst out laughing.
Cat
April 9th, 2010 @ 10:18 pm

I’m really good at getting song lyrics wrong (though not as good as my husband, who is constantly belting out the wrong words!). When I was a kid, I always thought Bon Jovi sang about “Livin’ on a Prairie” (instead of “Livin’ on a Prayer”). And I knew good Mormon girls didn’t swear, so I always sang, “Take my hand and we’ll make it – I *don’t* swear! Oh-oh, livin’ on a prairie!” Another one I always got wrong was the Beach Boys’ “Kokomo.” I always thought it was a little redundant to say, “We’ll get there fast UNLESS we take it slow.” When I realized they were actually singing, “We’ll get there fast AND THEN we’ll take it slow,” it made a lot more sense!
m&m
April 10th, 2010 @ 3:27 am

With I Love to See the Temple, my son used to sing, “I’ll *repair* myself while I am young” rather than ‘prepare.’ That might work for when we are older, but when they are young?

All of this brings home the reality of the trust that children have in us as we teach them songs and new words and concepts. Sometimes they might wonder what it is but if you say so (or if they *think* you say so), they’ll sing it and with gusto!

That really hit me. Ah, to be as a child, no?
Thomas Parkin
April 10th, 2010 @ 4:03 am

Juice Newton’s song “Angel of the Morning” – she sings ‘just touch my cheek before you leave me … ‘ I thought she sang ‘just brush my teeth before you leave me … ‘ I thought that well into my adulthood. ~
Emily
April 10th, 2010 @ 12:44 pm

In 5th grade we had a patriotic program and learned “God Bless the USA” and it wasn’t until years later I realized “I won’t forget the men who died who gave that right to me” was about soldiers. I thought the lyric said “man” and was referring to Jesus.
Sarah A
April 10th, 2010 @ 10:52 pm

My uncle belts out the chorus of “Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel” by singing, “…We all have work, don’t be a jerk…” I like these words so much better that I can’t sing it properly now. It has got me in trouble on a number of occasions!
Valerie
April 11th, 2010 @ 8:55 am

Sarah A reminded me of how my son’s friend used to say the Thirteenth Article of Faith. “We believe in being honest, true, chased by an elephant, ….”
That comes to my mind every time I say it, dang it!
Kim
April 11th, 2010 @ 7:23 pm

Thanks for the laugh!

I’m also in the shallmenno camp–I thought it was a beautiful, shiny stone in a river (don’t ask me why–some combo of the images from a minnow and shallow)–I guess like a prayer rock or something I still can’t sing it without picturing my beautiful stone.

When the Nirvana song, Smells Like Teen Spirit came out, I was in high school with a principal named Larry Ratto and we all thought the chorus was about him–”A mulatto”/Larry Ratto–still sounds the same to me when I hear it!

I’m so bad about getting lyrics wrong and mixing up lyrics from different songs. DH just about died laughing at me the first time he heard me singing along with the Bee Gees More Than A Woman but usuing Whitney Houston’s I’m Every Woman lyrics. “I’m every woman, I’m every woman to me” (I never could figure out why the guy thought he was a woman.)
Janet
April 13th, 2010 @ 5:55 pm

“Chased by an elephant” – Singing the 13th Article of Faith. Always makes my older children laugh. Unfortunately, they’re passing along the long honored lyrics to the 5 year old too.