Songs that didn't mean what I thought they did.

Dayum
That is some deep cerebral messaging for a rock song. :e-thinking:

Makes me feel so shallow for only wondering why the people were going to jump and shout when Quinn the Eskimo got there.
 
I am a BIG ELO fan. Knew all their songs.
OR thought I did . You know how back then you decided on lyrics and sang them without giving much thought?
So I always sang to "Dont bring me down"
Don't bring me down Bruce.
Never once wondered who Bruce was.
Yesterday it was being played on oldie station and I Finally asked myself who Bruce was so I looked up the lyrics
Turns out it is
Don't bring me down groos.
Must be a Brit thing.:idk:
Singing it won't ever be the same for me
 
Horn6721 said:
Turns out it is
Don't bring me down groos.
Click to expand...

I thought the same thing about the lyric.

A common mondegreen in the song is the perception that, following the title line, Lynne shouts "Bruce!" In the liner notes of the ELO compilation Flashback and elsewhere, Lynne has explained that he is singing a made-up word, "Groos", which some have suggested sounds like the German expression "Gruß", meaning "greeting."[9][7] Lynne has explained that originally he did not realize the meaning of the syllable, and he just used it as a temporary placekeeper to fill a gap in the lyrics, but upon learning the German meaning he decided to leave it in.[9] After the song's release, so many people had misinterpreted the word as "Bruce" that Lynne actually began to sing the word as "Bruce" for fun at live shows.
Don't Bring Me Down - Wikipedia
 
6721, I just talked to my wife about this. We both thought the same thing about the lyric. Back in the day, ELO played Six Flags for years.

Always wanted to go but never could. Underage driver without a license and Grandparents thought that Rock (It's ELO, for God's sake) would turn me into a Devil worshiper or druggie. Neither happened.
 
I was completely wrong on this one:

That kids' song from Kindergarten "Jimmy Crack Corn". I had always thought it was about making popcorn or something...

Turns out, it's an Antebellum song concerning a slave who jokes about his master dying, or even killing his master and getting away with it.
 
It seems we ALL have misheard lyrics. The hardest part is after singing it wrong for years it is hard to sing it right.
For years I thought the first line of Margaritaville was , " Living on sponge cake"
 
uta
THANK YOU>
I don't feel so stupid.
It is "Nibblin on sponge cake"
The person who corrected acted like I was really stupid to think that.
 
6721,

We have all been in the stupid department. Sometimes it gets crowded, think election time, but we survive. Getting lyrics wrong does not make you stupid. You are interpreting what you hear. I do this all the time aka Stevie Nicks. I still have a crush on her. Don't tell my wife.

Happy New Year everyone and Hook 'em Horns!

BTW, I love sponge cake.
 
I just figured this one out:

City of New Orleans, by Steve Goodman
Covers by Willie Nelson, Arlo Guthrie and others.

This is such a good song, and there are multiple layers to the meaning.

It's a 1970s song. Obviously, on the surface, it's about a passenger train that ran on the Illinois Central line from the Chicago area down to New Orleans, and its passengers. It's a nostalgic song about the unfortunate passing of an era of railroad travel. Goodman was upset that laws were being debated that would do away with most private rail and the government-run Amtrak (which sucks in comparison) would take that business over. Yeah, it's about all that.

But, I think Goodman also wrote it about the civil rights movement and it's waning and death. And it may even be about the civil rights workers who went down to Mississippi and were killed--featured in the movie Mississippi Burning.

The song starts out with much optimism, with the Blacks and the Whites riding together on the train and playing cards. Then there's a change that occurs at Memphis, Tennessee. After that, it turns into a nightmare. The lyrics are below, pay attention to the bolded lines:




Ridin' on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central Monday mornin' rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail
All along the south-bound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
And rolls along past houses, farms and fields
Passin' towns that have no names
And freight yards full of old black men
And the grave-yards of the rusted automobile

Good morning America...how are you?
Say don't you know me...I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
And I'll be gone five-hundred miles when the day is done

Dealin' cards with the old men in the club car
Penny a point ain't no one keepin' score
Won't you pass the paper bag that holds the bottle
Feel the wheels grumblin' 'neath the floor
And the sons of Pullman porters...and the sons of engineers
Ride their father's magic carpet made of steam
Mothers with their babes asleep...rockin' to the gentle beat
And the rhythm of the rails is all they dream

Good morning America how are you?
Say don't you know me I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
And I'll be gone five-hundred miles when the day is done

Night time on the City of New Orleans
Changin' cars in Memphis, Tennessee
Halfway home, and we'll be there by mornin'
Through the Mississippi darkness rollin' down to the sea
But all the towns and people seem to fade into a bad dream
And the steel rails still ain't heard the news
The conductor sings his songs again
The passengers will please refrain
This train's has got the disappearing railroad blues

Good morning America how are you?
Say don't you know me I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
And I'll be gone five-hundred miles when the day is done
 
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