Having only one wing makes it exeedingly difficult to fly

I didn’t really become familiar with Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks until I started working at Silver Screen Design, because I simply hadn’t heard it that much in my youth. And whenever I did hear it on the radio (which happened quite often), I always thought she was singing, “Just like the one-winged dove”, and I thought, “That’s weird, I guess”.

Then one day it clicked. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it before, being the avid bird nerd that I am. She was singing “WHITE-winged dove” (followed by a stellar bird call of “whoo whoo whoo”).

But apparently, I’m not the only one who heard that particular line wrong. A daughter of a co-worker of mine thought it was the same thing, among others.

Edge of Seventeen? More like Edge of Articulation, Stevie.

When I was young lad, I used to think that the chorus of John Cougar Mellencamp’s Authority Song contained the lyrics, “I fight with Dorothy and Dorothy always wins”. It was one of those things where I was too young to know what authority even was and that he was actually singing “I fight authority, authority always wins”.

I forget when the moment of realization occurred later in life, but I was reminded of this song yesterday while Kristen and I were walking around the Pioneer Valley Flea Market and it was playing on the radio.

I was reminded of this misheard lyric of mine from a few years ago when I heard Take a Picture by Filter while grocery shopping this weekend in Big Y.

When the song first came out, I thought Richard Patrick was singing, “Do you wanna take my picture, ’cause I won’t even move” in the chorus. It made sense, because not only is that what it sounds like he says, but who moves while they’re having their photo taken? No one likes blurry pictures.

Matt pointed out the error of my ways and made fun of me for making (what he thought) was such a ridiculous error. He told me how the actual line is “Do you wanna take my picture, ’cause I won’t remember”. True, this line also makes sense, but Matt was put in his place when a co-worker of ours came in on the conversation and agreed that he thought the lyrics were the same as what I thought.

If two people hear the same incorrect words, then the problem surely isn’t solely with the listener. Filter those marbles out of your mouth, guy!

This is just simply another misheard lyric, this time care of Bill. Apparently, back in his younger days, he thought the chorus to Caribbean Queen by Billy Ocean was, “Gary Busey, now we’re sharing the same dream”. He just thought Billy Ocean had similar ideals and goals as Gary Busey. And while that may indeed be true (no one can know for sure), Billy’s actually singing about his Caribbean Queen. I wish I had more to add, but, well…there it is.

Sweet dreams are made of Busey

Every time I hear 10,000 Maniacs version of Because The Night, I think of our friend Bill singing…”Because the night… belongs to bugs” which only makes sense if you also know this line:

Bill’s version: “Come on now, try and understand the way I feel, I’m the Orkin man”

The real words: “Come on now, try and understand the way I feel under your command”

Because The Night was originally written by Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith, and released by The Patti Smith Group in 1978 on their album, Easter. When 10,000 Maniacs played an episode of MTV Unplugged, a popular 90s acoustic show on MTV,  their cover of this song was notable. Today it’s still played on light rock and mix radio stations everywhere.

And what about The Orkin Man?

Well, it seems like they’ve retired the Orkin Man campaign in favor of these amusingly weird commercials featuring a giant bug creature devising clever ways of attempting to get into your house. Here’s one:

The Verve Pipe is one of the most talented and influential bands of this generation.

NOT.

But, they still were a band. This much is true. They had a small measure of success in the late 90’s, and one of their more popular songs was Cup of Tea.

And even though this was the name of the song, Matt somehow always thought Brian Vander Ark was singing, “this is not my kind of day” instead of “this is not my cup of tea”.

I mean, come on Matt. It’s the name of the song. Get with the program.

You know what’s not my cup of tea?

The Verve Pipe.

I'm so glad Mike Watt wrote that song for us!

Last night, my wife Jo and I were listening to Songspeak’s Greatest Hits Volume 9 in my car. This particular volume includes Piss-Bottle Man by Mike Watt. I would call this a somewhat obscure song, as it’s not a song you hear very often. Jo obviously wasn’t familiar with it, because as he was singing the chorus (”ooo, ooo, ooo, piss-bottle man”), she asked if he was singing “kissed by a man”. Perhaps she thought this 1995 song was a companion to Jill Sobule’s 1995 hit, I Kissed a Girl (and a precursor to Katy Perry’s recent lesbionic offering). I told her what the real line was, but honestly, it makes less sense than her misheard version, so who knows what the hell Mike Watt was thinking. Anyway, here’s the video. Decide for yourself.

Coincidentally, on a side note, Songspeak’s Greatest Hits Volume 9 also contains Invisible Touch by Genesis for the exact reasons stated in this post.

Remember that scene in Say Anything where John Cusack is holding a boom-box above his head an “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel is playing? I think people have a hard time not picturing this image whenever the song comes on the radio. I know I usually do.

Well, thanks to Bill’s recent comment on another misheard lyrics post about another member of Genesis, I will now also forever associate the word “fajita” with this song. Because, as Bill pointed out, it’s in the chorus.

That’s fine though, because fajitas are delicious. Jamie and I are big fans of chain-restaurant-i-fied tex-mex in general, and I think I speak for both of us when I say that we are big fans of On The Border. We’ve been known to go there on occasion. While he almost always orders the Superior Dinner, I almost always order the fajitas. His dinner thinks it’s so much better than mine,  but it’s so not.

By the transitive relation, I wonder now if eating fajitas will make me think of John Cusack, Peter Gabriel, and/or Say Anything.

Thanks a lot Bill.

"Why is Genesis singing about us Reeg?...Reeg? I can't see you!"

When I was a kid, whenever I heard Invisible Touch by Genesis, I always thought Phil Collins was singing, “She seems to have an invisible talk show”, and it never made much sense to me. Then, when I discovered the name of the song, it all became clear.

I can hardly be blamed, as he sings it like, “she seems to have an invisible touch-UH”. One of my pet peeves in music is when singers make one syllable words into multi-syllable words. “Touch” is one syllable, not two, so I always heard “talk show”.

Pat Dinizio from The Smithereens was famous for this. He was always making monosyllabic words into polysyllabic words. Take their song A Girl Like You, for instance. During the chorus, he somehow makes the word “you” a 5 syllable word. I mean, come on. Let’s get with it, Pat Dinizio and Phil Collins.

Let’s get the hell with it.

Watch the video and try NOT to hear “invisible talk show”. I DARE you.

This misheard lyric comes from an early episode of Friends. Phoebe is talking about the song by Elton John about Tony Danza, and starts singing, “Hold me closer, Tony Danza“.

I don’t think anyone had the heart to tell her it was “Hold me closer, tiny dancer“. But I like her version better.

The song also had a brief resurgence in the 2000 movie Almost Famous.

And speaking of Tony Danza, it’s a shame his short-lived talk show got canceled. I was a big fan of the Danzitions segments on The Soup. There’s an example in this clip: