music

I used to believe…

Misheard lyric in Sam Cooke's "Twisting The Night Away": it's actually supposed to be "dancing with the chicken slats". Chicken slats are the boards that make up the framework of a chicken coop. This would have been familiar to Cooke who was from rural Mississippi. Also it's crucial to the song: as in "Another Saturday Night" the protagonist didn't have a girl, thus he was dancing with "Chicken slats ".

I thought the song Smooth Operator by Sade sounded like Rudolph the Reindeer. Also thought Betty Davis Eyes by Kim Carne sounded like 'Better days to decide'.

I thought that "toony" was a slang term for a part of your body of which you had two, as in the song "Ballin' the Jack" (First you put your toonies close up tight). (OUCH!)

I used to believe…

My mom was a prude who thought everything was "dirty"or bad.She thought "Killing me softly with his song " was about a murder.First the murderer strummed the victim s face with his fingers not strummed his fate.She was messed up.

I used to believe part of the lyrics to Fall Out Boy's "Centuries" went:
"You look so pretty, but your gun's so soon."
When, really, it's
"You look so pretty, but YOU'RE GONE so soon."

I thought the lyrics to "Single Ladies" were "If you liked it, then you should've put your name on it."

I used to believe that the lyrics to Mull of Kintyre were bollocking time

I used to believe…

There's a song which has lyrics that are basically just a bunch of actions followed by "Rawhide" and then it starts again.
Up until I was *seventeen*, I had only heard of rawhide as that stuff you give dogs to chew on, so I thought that it was akin to have a song where you shout, "Dog food!" at random intervals, so the song made no sense to me.

I used to listen to this song at school, and the lyrics were things like "Welcome back" and "We're proud of you". I thought it was about a girl (no idea why I specifically thought she was a girl) graduating a boarding high school, and it was sung by her parents.

Later, I learned that it was about welcoming soldiers back after a war, but I thought my version was better.

I used to believe…

When I was a child, I used to believe the singer or the music group lived in my CD's and they allowed to sing (and live) only when I wanted.

I used to believe…

"Achy Breaky Heart" by Billy Ray Cyrus was popular when I was a kid. However, I misunderstood the line "He might blow up and kill this man." I thought "this man" was referring to some other specific man - in short, that his heart would explode so violently as to cause collateral damage.

I thought Total Eclipse of the Heart went "nothing I can see, total eclipse of the sun".

I used to believe…

When I heard the song "Oh Susanna" as a very little kid I was very confused about the verse about coming from Alabama with "a banjo on my knee".I literally thought it meant the guy had limped a long distance with a banjo tied or strapped to his knee, which must have made his knee really sore and raw! My belief in this idiotic idea was further confirmed by my grandmother who for some reason didn't think it was very Ladylike to play a banjo.When she heard me singing the song ( we learned it it school) she commented sharply that she hoped she would never see me with a banjo on my knee.I quickly agreed with her.Who wanted to do anything as stupid and painful as to strap a banjo on my knee and go hiking to another state until my skin rubbed off? It was several years before I figured out the actual meaning of the song and the snobby attitude behind Grandmother's comment.

I used to believe…

When I was young I did not asscociate the Danny Boy song with Scotland, and with the words "... the pipes the pipes are ca-alling"; the image I had was of vague industrial water pipes - and wondered why someone was being called by them, but song lyrics were often pretty strange, so I just left it at that.

I used to think that the lyric "boiled or stewed, whole or chewed" in Cookie Monster's healthy food song was "almond stew, polo chew".

I thought my parents had written "Don't Worry, Be Happy".