I heard my 6-year-old daughter proudly singing, "Burn-burn-burn! The ring of fire!"
This time, she got all the words right to that Johnny Cash song – unlike how she sang this same tune less than a year ago. Once, she proudly proclaimed, "The Ring’s On Fire!" And then she just looked at me, kind of like I was lying when I tried to tell her anything different.
A few months later, she had quite a time with Aerosmith’s "Sweet Emotion." With all the enthusiasm a kid can muster, she sang, "Swe-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-t Ocean!"
"No – wait!" I said.
"It’s about going to the beach, Daddy."
"No, that’s not –," I started to say but then just stopped, not wanting to put an end to her carefree smile.
Honestly, my kid is not alone. Such goofs could actually be new listings in "The Archive of Misheard Lyrics," a Web site devoted to songs that are often misunderstood.
Hundreds of songs are listed, including Don McLean’s "American Pie." For that, a contributor says he once heard a reference to a "machete" – not "a levy" – in the lyrics.
Another person says they can hear Robert Plant crooning "There’s a wino down the road" in Led Zeppelin’s "Stairway to Heaven." Perhaps the most famous of all misunderstood lyrics comes from Jimi Hendrix’s "Purple Haze." The real version goes: "Excuse me while I kiss the sky!"
But everybody hears: "Excuse me while I kiss this guy!"
Actually, that’s even the domain name of "The Archive of Misheard Lyrics" – kiss-thisguy.com. Another highly-misunderstood lyric comes from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s "Bad Moon Rising." Recently, for fun, I have tried to teach my daughter the wrong way – albeit, the most popular – to sing that song’s chorus.
The real version goes: "There’s a bad moon on the rise."
But everybody hears: "There’s a bathroom on the right."
"Bathroom," still, may not really be wrong.
Consider this: If the artist sings their own lyric the "wrong" way, especially on a recording, then that might make it "right" after all.
In the 1990s, Creedence Clearwater Revival singer John Fogerty did just that. Fogerty sang "There’s a bathroom on the right" on the live version of "Bad Moon Rising" and included it on his in-concert album "Premonition."
JOE TENNIS is a features writer for the Herald Courier. Call (276) 791-0704 or jtennis@bristolnews.com
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