The first comment to my first post triggered a flood of thoughts on an age old problem: Singing the wrong lyrics to a song. This universal human trait was brought into broad daylight a few years ago in this Volkswagon commercial.
Several people take turns butchering the lyrics to Elton John’s “Rocket Man” before the last guy correctly belts out “burning out his fuse up here alone”. Very few media creations come close to capturing the true essence of a common phenomenon. This commercial came darn close. What a great commercial. Everybody butchers lyrics, and it’s great that NOT knowing the words to a song is NOT a big deal. But since the advent of karaoke, google, shazam, etc., people are now noticing that they’ve been getting it wrong, sometimes really wrong, with songs they would swear they knew all the words to.
The title of this blog entry is in reference to .38 Special’s hit song “Caught Up In You” from 1982. For years, I’m talking almost 20 years, I never quite knew what they were saying after “I’m so caught up in you”. There was no internet in the early ’80s. Looking up the lyrics wasn’t that easy. I didn’t have the album. I heard the song on the radio and saw the video on MTV. The rest was left to me…and my guess/placeholder was “de janeiro”. As in Rio de Janeiro.
Ok. Hold on. Before passing judgement on my lyrical competence, let me explain. I liken this horrific misuse of the english language to the way Paul McCartney writes songs. Specifically, the song “Yesterday”. (Come on, work with me here). While he was working on the music, he would sing the words “Scrambled Eggs” as a filler since it fit the musical path the song was taking. Only when he finished the music and starting writing the lyrics did “Yesterday” make it’s appearance. That’s what I like to think I do with most songs, and definitely was doing with “de janeiro”. The correct lyric (“Little Girl”) wouldn’t dawn on me until the dawn of a new century.
To end this post, I return to that blog comment that inspired this post. The comment came from my best friend, and if you read that thread you’ll see that he got the lyrics wrong to The Romantics best song. Another song, “Hey Jealousy” by The Gin Blossoms, lyrically asks a girl if he can stay at her place because he’s in “no shape for driving”. From 1992 until very recently, my buddy thought the singer was proclaiming his middle of the road status and telling his lady friend that he was “no sheep or dragon”.
It is, simply, my all time favorite incorrect lyric.
So as Dobie Gray once sang: Gimme the Beach Boys, and free my soul. I wanna get lost in your rock and roll, and drift away.
Someday, my friend, I will be in that awesome cover band I’ve always dreamed of and I will proudly belt out, “…you can see I’m no sheep or dragon, but anyway I’ve got no place to go!” Why? Because I think those are better lyrics! I think we are all entitled to our artistic interpretation. There are many forms of art. Paintings, sculptures, poetry, etc. are done once and remain static for all time. Live music can and does change every time. So must the lyrics! 😉
We must see through the darkness of our world. That’s why Steve Miller proclaimed, “Big ol’ Jed had a light on. Don’t carry me too far away.” – GG
In tribute to Tom Petty, who passed away a few days ago, here is one of my favorite mistaken lyrics. Although I’ve always known the real lyric, I swear he overtly says the alternative a few times. The song is Rebels off of Southern Accents.
The real line is: Hey hey hey…hey hey hey…I was born a rebel.
What I hear a few times throughout the song: Hey hey hey…hey hey hey…I was Barney Rubble.
RIP TP