Misheard Lyrics

(Very old)Anorak time...Iam at this moment looking at my original 7 inch version of Shirley Ellis's The Clapping Song (released 1965 in the UK). Yes, it's sad (me, I mean, the song's great) I thought Bananrama did the other version. My son used to bellow "I go to tea!" to X-Ray Spex's 'Identity', which was a nice middle class take on punk.

Hmmm Can I have a clue?

I think we'll all have to admit ignominious defeat and admit that it was Shirley Ellis and her old man (with the Belle Stars coming a close second). So much for the tarty blondes in the leathers, eh, Liana?

ohhhhhh is it 'pop music?? pop, pop, pop music

maybe the tarts you're thinking of ARE the belle stars...i seem to remember that they were terrifically tarty...i've got a poster somewhere, i think

grrr just listened to that...is not right.

Can't get it... However try this one..Woke up to reality, And found the future not so bright, I dreamt the impossible, That maybe things could work out right.

Will muse on that one... the one I've just given you is one you will certainly know. The band were made up of some very young children and some very gangly teenagers who danced as though their arms were made out of rubber. And it is supposedly about etiquette for dope smoking.

Yep Bobs....and as l was one year old at the time of the Shirley Ellis release, then l dont think she was the one l saw on TOTP doing it :o)

bugger..... wife rang (away on trip) while doing search. now have definitive (albeit delayed) ans: The Clapping Song lyrics by Aaron Carter sung by Shirley Ellis in 1964 ~perhaps I should start watching tv again~

Hot Chocolate had a song with the lyrics 'I believe in milko' (which I suppose made some sort of sense) and I used to love 'Fog on the Tyne' by Linda's Farm. Then there was the song with the chorus 'me ears are alight' (which was actually used by Kia Ora, I think).

In Trumpton or Camberwick Green, the fort song, 'Captain Snotter's a soldier man...' (Although Captain Snort IS a soldier man apparently) and Captain Slog is not another Captain on Star Trek. sorry for lowering the tone, but somebody else posted the milko one

Aaah Andrew, *oops, jumping 7 posts back* I thought it was 'I believe in Malcolm / Where you from / You sexy thing' always wondered what that was about!

Pass the dutchie?

I thought that was about the etiquette of drinking port.

I used to think The Pogues "Dirty Old Town" was Dirty Old Cow as in: I met my love by the gas works wall Dreamed a dream by the old canal Kissed a girl by the factory wall Dirty old cow Dirty old cow. Was only while singing it drunkenly to an audience that someone pointed out my mistake...

>> ..The Pogues "Dirty Old Town".. << Quite apart from the mis-heard bit Rachewl, the song is NOT The Pogues, as in they wrote it, but was the work of Ewan MacColl, father of Kirsty. It was written about Salford for a radio ballad which was part of a series broadcast by the Beeb and co-produced by himself and Charles parker. The series covered various aspects of working life and was an innovation in broadcasting by virtue of the fact it used 'real' people as opposed to actors, and the scripts were interspersed with songs written specially for the programmes. Ewan MacColls recorded version is vastly superior by the way. Nothing to do with dirty old cows, I know, but in the interests of accuracy...

John's was ace - Nirvana must be one of the hardest bands to decipher lyrics from. REM coming a close second, before they capitulated and put lyric sheets in. With the lights out, its less dangerous, here we are now, entertain us, I feel stupid, and contagious, here we are now, entertain us... Agree with Liana, the song takes on different flavour when you know that Teen Spirit is generic cheap deodorant rather than alcohol or exuberance. Kathryn, one of my all-time fave interview lines was someone from NME asking Ian Brown what the lyrics, 'sometimes I/fantasise/when the streets are cold and lonely' were supposed to symbolise, and Brown replying, 'that sometimes I fantasise when the streets are cold and lonely' Who sang 'Gonna write a classic / gonna write it in an attic' ? My second fave awful lyric, next to 'Abra/Abra/ Kadabra/ I wanna reach out and grab ya' Yours, thinking of tube stations and Mackerels...

Shirley Ellis? Shirley Ellis? 'Oo the hell's she? Could have sworn it was one of those girlie groups sporting long blonde manes and leather minis..oh well. *Crawls off upstairs in order to try and getta life*

I always think of something else as soon as I've posted on this thread. Deliberate mislyrics - whole theme in itself. I'll start us off with Terry Jacks poignant song of lost love and innnocence. 'We had joy we had fun / flicking bogeys at the sun / but the sun got too hot / and the bogeys turned to snot '

I stand corrected on both counts. Dirty old cow x

It was Andrea - definitely. Im now considering hypnotherapy. J/K

i wonder has anyone tried to play the wombles tune, on an instrument, or even hum it with any degree of success? I believe it is nearly impossible, and if managed, may even conjur up some very terrifying haemoglobin-quaffing reptilian shellsuit wearers.

of course, i don't mean the tune which goes along witht the words..."Underground overground..."...etc No. I mean the other bit...before and after the lyrics. And what the wombling-free is the instrument used??

been watching NickJr this morning fergus?

Re: Musical Youth 'Pass the Dutchie" They were interviewed on Blue Peter and asked what it meant. They understood that they couldn't admit it was about pot smoking but knew that pot had been mentioned and also that people were mishearing the lyrics as "Pass the dutchie PAN the left hand side" as opposed to "Pass the dutchie 'pon the left hand side" so they said it was a kind of cooking pot, (pot, pan) nice, neat answer kids. everyone went, "Oh right" (and they say smoking weed slows the brain).

Ok, I couldn't get a life so I'll pass on a bit of useless information instead... 'The Clapping Song' was originally written by Shirley Ellis' old man, Lincoln Chase, in the 60s. Doesn't help with the sylph-like blondes in the leathers though, does it Liana?

*applauds Liana*

the Belle Stars DID do it ...

yes they did ivy but it was a cover of the original. so did baccarra. pia. and a million others. including *cough* aaron carter who is a horrible 14yr old kid pop singer and not the writer as I 'pretended' above! perhaps shirley ellis had some backing singers that wore leathers?

what's that's one about "being in my trestle" or "being UP on your trestle" ... anyway it's very good (do apologise ... myrt has had a LOT of sloe gin) she adds ... or is it "being stood in my trestle"

I dont think anyone ever worked that one out...it was Wamdue Projects "King of my Castle" or something like that, wasnt it? I thought it was Queen in my trestle...but that cant be right either.....

yes liana!!!! that was it ... what about that madonna one that had "young girl with the desert in her eyes" she had eyes like potatoes according to myrt ... but then myrt is odd ... she says she might be thinking of the eyes IN potatoes ...

Excellent work, and yes, I remember that Blue Peter interview too. I suspect it was one of the many thousands of Blue Peter episodes in which they :- (a) had a child's steel band playing 'mellow bird' and (b) brought in a huge fork-lift truck or other industrial vehicle and had the presenter try to do the introduction to the dull worthy piece over the sound of the vehicle reversing... "This fork-lift truck.... used in Africa.... over two thousand tons! It really is.... Over to you, Leslie!" Try this one :- I heat up, I can't explain, I heat up like a burning flame. Round and round and round she goes, where she stops, nobody knows.

Ooh, or this one. I had this in a music quiz and was distraught that I hadn't got it. The overblownness tells you that it is Eighties, but it isn't a band you would associate with being so sombre. It was a number one hit. Please don't ask me to defend The shamefull lowlands Of the way I'm drifting Gloomily through time

"I heat up..." - well, the song is dead easy, but who it was originally by escapes me... I can point in you in the direction of a very good cover though...

Aha!! i know that one.

It's abra abra Cadabra, I wanna reach out and grab ya! wasn't it Hall and Oates? come on now, no googling everyone!

How about the song from Flash dance film Pull your pants down and make it happen. LOL hahaha it's true.

as for the second one andrew, well it's just too depressing to contemplate. Sounds like Marvin the Paranoid Android in one of his darker days.

Muzzy - I think thats marvellous! It should've been the real lyric :o)

Ohhh that one is easy Andrew....I was madly in love with Morten Harkett! Aha...The sun always shines on t.v.

Ok, Try this one...another 80s band that I had a huge crush on...well on the bass guitarist anyway! Girls will keep the secrets so alone the boys making noise Fools run rings to break up something they'll never destroy

I used to love The Special's 'Rude Boys Are Back In Town'. Unfortunately, my version was 'Food For The Pakistans', which I thought was correct. Abba's Chiquiquita (dubious spelling) became 'Take Your Teeth Out'. Ah, the joy of innocence.

read in a magazine today at work (yeah l know, coffee break, ok?) Aretha Franklins song, as sung by 11 year old girl... "You make me feel like a knackered old woman...."

an old school house tune "Base line kicking" became "bake my chicken" . Wasn't just me though...all my friends agreed it sounded like "Bake/baste my chicken"

It's abra abra Cadabra, I wanna reach out and grab ya! I know that without googling....Steve Miller Band of Paul Daniels when he first saw Debbie McGhee

'Tis not a misheard lyric but is the best lyric ever. " I'm gonna fry you in my wok" by The Beastie Boys

Whoever would have known that Aha could not only write lyrics that sound bleak as Nick Cave, but also a tune so cool that U2 nicked it lock stock and barrel twenty years later - and in the same song too? Is it "And we made our love on waste.......lands, through the barricades" by Spandau Ballet? I'm guessing this because the bass guitarist you had a crush on must have been Martin Kemp.

Michael "Wacko" Jackson's Thriller. "Mike Reid just crawled on the dance floor" (he was a radio 1 dj) instead of "night creatures"