Misheard Elvis lyrics and hello

[Altruistic bum]

Hi, only found this message board a few weeks back, but have been reading it regularly since then and have found much of it fascinating.

I still find it incredible that after years of being an isolated Elvis fan, who really only gets to see similarly minded others when tour time comes around, that there's a place which connects everbody like this !

Oh yeah I should have a point for posting other than saying hello I suppose , so misheard lyrics, i'm sure you've had discussions about them on here before but please humour me as i'm new.

A friend of mine was a big fan of This Year's Model and I was round her house one day as she was singing along to 'Lipstick Vogue' like this : "...... and you're not just another altruistic bum whoa whoa "
I thought it was brilliant and of course I always think of it whenever I play the song now.
My own mishear ,was from ' Black and white world', for years I was under the impression that it was- " i thought she was younger but oh I saw her last night in Bow St. Jail. "
I think my friends was a better mishear anyway, but I sort of miss the days when the lyrics weren't printed and the joys of straining an ear and discovering another EC gem that you'd hitherto missed or indeed your brain inventing something totally wrong !

[laughingcrow]

Greetings Bum!

I always thought in Olivers Army he was singing...

''There was a chip on Charlie''.....well it kinda makes sense, and I didn't really know anything about Checkpoint Charlies...

Doh!


Addendum: Any one notice that the two newest users are called The Wind and Altruistic Bum....there's a fart joke in there somewhere! Felicitations to you both!

[Altruistic bum]

Greetings Bum!

I always thought in Olivers Army he was singing...

''There was a chip on Charlie''.....well it kinda makes sense, and I didn't really know anything about Checkpoint Charlies...

Doh!

Hi Crow !

I like that one.

damn I never considered that when I chose the username....erm you can call me Al.

[spooky girlfriend]

Hey, Al!

[laughingcrow]

AB wrote:

you can call me Al.

Ok Al, hows Paul Simon these days then?

[PlaythingOrPet]

Hi Al. There's a thread about this knocking about somewhere here. I never read the lyrics until I absolutely have to.

Are you going to the Brum show?

[King_of_Spain]

It hasn´t much to do with EC (hasn´t?), but I specially dig the interpretation Jake Riviera used to do on Lennon´s "Strawberry Fields":

"...Living is easy with NICE CLOTHES..."

That´s a big damn truth, Jake, my friend.... You improved Lennon´s original one.

Hi, Al. Welcome. GUess now I´m a little bit less newbie.

[Altruistic bum]

Thanks for the welcome all.

I think Paul Simon is doing ok LC, how's Natasha ? ( taxi for me )

Yes Plaything I got my tickets for the Symphony Hall today so pleased about that.

That's a good one KoS .

[lapinsjolis]

Hello and welcome.

'Crimes of Paris'- ". . you're everywhere girl and your everywhere last."

'Spooky Girlfriend'-"I want a girl who simpers in French."

[Mr. Misery]

Hello and welcome, Al Bum.

In 'Just About Glad' I thought "There I was just standing there like a toe just aching to stub" was "There I was just standing there like a tortured pagan stud."

In 'Baby's Got A Brand New Hairdo' the line is "The pretty girls of Bleak Street sit there flattered" but I had always heard "Pretty as pigs feet sitting on a platter."

Thank goodness for reissues with lyric booklets! On the other hand all these misheard lines are fun!

[Misha]

Hiya Bum,

Welcome to the fray....

There are a lot of misheard lyrics in my bag of tricks, but luckily I only remember the wrong words when I'm singing, so I'm saved on this board....

I'm liking reading them!!

I like the new liner notes, turns out that:

A) Elvis is much more clever and smarter than I thought....

and ...

B) He is far less wierder now than he used to be...

[The imposter]

Jimmie Standing in the rain.

Having heard this a few times live before I got my hands on the lyric insert, I was surprised to read:

"Loose change lonely not the right amount" what's that mean?

I much preferred my imagined "Loose change rolling up the right amount" I picture some guy counting up his coins to buy something

[Jack of All Parades]

The lyric insert line is far more effective. Yet one more image of a life that is rapidly becoming obsolete-in this case the change not even adding up correctly for this artist.

[sulky lad]

From Big Boys, I always thought it was " I was down upon on knee, stroking a manatee"

- which fitted in with my aquarium fixation later in the song about being stuck on a hammer head (shark ) !

[Neil.]

My friend said "Ooh, Elvis Costello - I love that song of his called I Was Only Here To Stay"

[monkey2man]

The Imposter - "I just don't know why you can't see that he is only eating pasta."

[the_platypus]

The way he sings the chorus on the Honky Tonk demo version of "Mystery Dance" on the MIAT bonus tracks, it makes it sound like he's singing

"Why don't you tell me about the mystery Danson
I wanna know about the mystery Danson"

[SoulForHire]

In high school, I remember someone thought the words were "Why don't you tell me about the Mystery Man?" yet I'm pretty sure they knew the title of the song was "Mystery Dance." If you know the title, shouldn't that have clued you in that he is not singing "Mystery Man"?

[Natasha]

Welcome, Al! (Hey, I guess I'm not the newbie anymore )

This topic is so funny. lol

I'm brazilian so I spent many many years of my life singing pop songs in my own invented language. Even now that I can speak english a little bit it's hard to understand all the lyrics and sometimes I recur to my invented language again. Sometimes I just pick up a word and put it in the place of the word that I don't know. :p

That I can remember right now is the lyrics for Blue Chair. I used to sing "Your turn to cry, my turn to sing" and I think this makes a lot more sense. :p

[SoulForHire]

From same person who thought the lyrics were "Mystery Man":

Beyond Belief:

"Her body moves with manners."

[the_platypus]

on "Needle Time"

instead of:
"I wish I could be more like a saint is
Forgiving those who trespass against us"

I used to hear:
"I wish I could be more like a Satanist
forget remorse and just punch the gangsters"

If you listen back to the studio cut, it matches perfectly.
I thought it was a brilliant and confusing piece of nonsense.

[Jeremy Dylan]

I'm still not sure if the look he's giving is longing or long hard.