Last night on the way home, MP started singing to the 80s compilation CD [High School Musical 1986] my friend Finn put together for the Hawaii trip. Berlin’s “Metro” was on.
MP: Hey! Riding on the Milk Truck.
ME: Riding on the Milk Truck?
MP: No, MET Truck. Riding on the MET Truck. [Riding on the Met-ro]
ME: Met Truck?
MP: You know. Met. Like you MET someone? Like you go to the truck to meet people?
ME: Ooh, MET.
MP: Yeah. Met.
All the way home it was “Riding on the Met Truck, Riding on the Met Truck, Riding on the Met Truck” sung to her own tune and tempo, which got faster and faster the closer we got to home.
She also thinks “Sunglasses at Night” is Corey Hart singing about a Diet Shake. [ ... the Guy in Shades = Diet Shake]
My absolute favorite though, is “Row Your Boat.”
Row, row, row your boat
Gently through the stream
Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary
Like a butter dream.
I had a friend in high school who thought Sade’s “Smooth Operator” was actually “Oooooo Baba-retta.” Oh yeah. She was serious. She also thought the Clash’s “Rock the Casbah” was “Rock the Cat’s Paw” — the Cat’s Paw being a local bar.
And what’s that song with the line, “Blinded by the light … Dressed up like a douche-in in the middle of the night …?”
Douche-in? Is that like a Sit-in? Where we all sing douche protest songs and quote Gloria Steinem? And drink vinegar and water? Or maybe it’s a Halloween song? About trick-or-treating?
I never DID know what that meant.
36 Comments
August 27, 2008 at 7:00 am
OMG – There’s actually a book out called “Hold Me Closer Tony Danza”.
When I was a cocktail waitress at the Hilton in the 80’s, this group of old geezers used to request “Hit The B Square” from the DJ.
My HUSBAND (throwing him under the bus) sings Rudolph: “won’t you be my satellite” instead of won’t you guide my sleigh tonite.
August 27, 2008 at 7:28 am
This reminds me of those Ramona Quimby books I used to read as a kid . . . Ramona hears “by the dawn’s early light” in the Star Spangled Banner, and thinks, “what the heck’s a ‘dawnserly’?”
August 27, 2008 at 7:41 am
And the Book of Love song, who knew it was all about . . . . . . . Sex????
God, I was a square. A drunk square, but a square.
August 27, 2008 at 7:56 am
I have to admit I am one of those whe sings words wrong until I look at the lyrics in the case or online. Then I am all ‘WTH How come you didn’t tell me I was singing it wrong’ then they all just laugh…
August 27, 2008 at 8:26 am
Sorry, Mommie Pie. The douche lyric you have is ALMOST right:
“Blinded by the light, racked up like a douche another runner in the night.”
That makes MUCH more sense. Consider it my gift to you.
August 27, 2008 at 9:08 am
Don’t forget, from Grease, You’re the One that I Want: “I got shoes, they’re made of plywood!”
(I got tears, they’re multiplying)
August 27, 2008 at 9:14 am
Oh! And I almost forgot the one my daughter used to sing when she was tiny. From I Can See Clearly Now, she would sing, “I can see all lobster claws in my way!”
(instead of obstacles hehehe)
August 27, 2008 at 9:17 am
HAHA! I love misunderstood lyrics the best….they are soo funny…I never did get the blinded by the light song. For a while I was convinced they were singing it differently every time just to screw me up. LOL!
August 27, 2008 at 10:31 am
I love the photoshop pic. That is hilarious. I can’t think of anything funny to add to this discussion so I won’t even try.
August 27, 2008 at 10:41 am
standing still-wow, thanks so much! I, too, have been wondering all my life what a “douche-in” was. I know I have misinterpreted some songs, but I can’t think of any right now.
August 27, 2008 at 10:45 am
“She’s got electric boobs…” From Benny and the Jets. I never could understand what he was saying.
I am laughing so hard at your daughter singing Met Truck, that’s hilarious!
As is the picture of you, inside a Massengill box. Oh my freaking god. Too funny!
August 27, 2008 at 10:58 am
LMAO!! I love Jet Airliner by Steve Miller Band…”Big ol Jed left the light on!”
August 27, 2008 at 11:33 am
Until I was summarily corrected (and laughed at) by a music snob friend, I thought that it was “Rock the cash bar.”
In my defense, I think that at least makes some sort of sense. In my world, anyway.
August 27, 2008 at 11:51 am
I spent most of high school singing “You spin me right ’round, baby, right ’round, like a ragged baby…” until someone actually HEARD me senior year and corrected me.
Now I still sing it wrong, but I do it on purpose.
August 27, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I have a girlfriend who honestly thought that “rockin the Casbah” was “f**kin the cat box.” The first time I heard her sing those lyrics I just about fell of of the bar stool.
August 27, 2008 at 12:06 pm
LOL I too hang my head in shame that I sing the wrong lyrics all the time! One day I shall have to post what I believed were the lyrics to the Jam’s “That’s Enertainment.” Oh my!
August 27, 2008 at 1:45 pm
dressed up like a douche. I swore that what they were singing too. and I never understood why anyone would want to dress up like a douche.
August 27, 2008 at 1:55 pm
“Lock up the snack bar, lock up the snack bar”
One of my most brilliant (literally) friends from high school used to make up fake lyrics all the time and sing them under his breath J U S T L O U D E N O U G H for ME to hear them, but no one else could. I was constantly in trouble for laughing in class.
Also? Nice arms. You power lift?
August 27, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I almost forgot another of his songs . . . not “Love is a Battlefield” but “Love is a Cattle Truck.” I still sing it that way.
August 27, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Okay, I looked it up. I love Google
Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night.
It still doesn’t make sense.
August 27, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Its “Reved up like a DUCE and rollin in the night’
Okay so a DUCE is a hotrod. And it was reved up (the engine)…see?
And- I totally have a butter dream too!
August 27, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Douche, DUCE…either way…its pretty floggin’ ridiculously funny. Especially since the only definition of duce that I grew up with was either a gambling term or a big ole turd.
August 27, 2008 at 3:20 pm
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night…..
Deuce is a slang term for a car made in 1932. Like, Little Deuce Coup……….
My Boss is a music freak and we’ve actually discussed this before!
August 27, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Man, those are some serious arms you’ve got. You must work out. If I had those arms, I’d totally go sleeveless Massengil, too.
(I’ve screwed up WAY too many lyrics to pick just one and share here, sadly.)
August 27, 2008 at 5:59 pm
My husband’s best freind though thte words were Oooooo Baba-retta too!
I have always been confused by “rev’ed up like a douche” song too.
August 27, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I’m with you girlfriend…I NEVER understood that line! If you uncover the truth, do share.
August 27, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I used to think the Undercover Angel song from the 70s was Chocolate Covered Engine. Guess I had a thing for the cacao bean from a young age.
Also, my kids love the song Grease Lightning. I’m trying to clean up the lyrics. So far I’ve changed “the chicks’ll cream” to “the chicks’ll scream.” Any tips on the pussy wagon line? Maybe MP should take a listen.
August 27, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Oh Finn, I was a square too. I was 30 before I realized Afternoon Delight was about sex.
August 27, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Omagah, you guys are KILLIN’ me! Bahaha!
And @ilinap, I had NO IDEA Grease Lightning was so dirty! I went to see the movie in the theater with my parents and remember sitting next to my dad — SO embarrassed when Rizzo announces she’s “LATE.”
Had I known the lyrics to Greased Lightning I would have positively burst into flame.
August 28, 2008 at 7:37 am
After reading all these hilarious comments, I have nothing to add that’s even remotely witty. But I do think that a douche box makes a nice dress for an elbowless lady. And EVERYONE thought that line was about a douche, right?
August 28, 2008 at 11:10 pm
Reminds me of a kid in 8th grade who thought “Start Me Up” was “Doggy Yap.”
Um, close.
August 29, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Holy mother…I actually did a post about this…here’s the link:
http://lloydmountain.blogspot.com/2008/05/very-rarely.html
The song is by Manfred Mann…and he actually says the word douche. It sold more copies that way.
August 29, 2008 at 9:49 pm
How about “Secret Asian Man” instead of “Secret Agent Man”? I always thought that’s what he was saying.
You should check out this video about misunderstood song lyrics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0KXIQAT9FM It made me laugh out loud.
September 1, 2008 at 9:41 pm
In high school, one of my friends thought it was…”I lied about you, you lied about me, babe”
I used to laugh and laugh at her. I never did tell her it was really “I’m mad about you…”
Kids are funny too. My daughter heard (I think from my crazy neice who likes old songs) the song “Electric Avenue” it comes out something like: “I’m gonna rock down to eleckanaganu and then we’ll take it hi-yuh” and I recently posted about her rendition of Mary Poppins: “Superfralicagilisticgetmeoutofdocious.”
Hee hee…
September 3, 2008 at 5:14 pm
I’ve always wondered about that song! Yeah. It can’t possibly be douche could it? There’s a book called ‘Scuze Me While I Kiss This Guy” which is a misquoted line from Jimmy Hendrix’s Purple Haze (scuze me while I kiss the sky). It’s filled with other song lyrics that get misquoted.
September 5, 2008 at 2:56 am
I was laughing so hard at WaltzInExhile that my husband’s laptop almost bounced off my knees! The way my son sings Viva La Vida (Viva la Vida by Coldplay) is so funny and cute. I wish I could get in on video.