Just a small rant...

[rejobako]

This topic's worth a separate thread. My favorite two "mangled lyrics" examples are:

1) In the Beatles "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds", my mother-in-law thought that the line "the girl with kaleidescope eyes" was "the girl with colitis goes by". Ouch. (A friend told me this same mangled lyric was used in an episode of The Nanny by Fran Drescher)

2) I had a friend in college who hated Huey Lewis's Song "Heart of Rock and Roll" because he thought it was a put-down. Instead of "the heart of rock and roll is still beating", he thought it was "hard rock and roll is defeated". What, the heart-beat after the line didn't give it away?

 

[phamton]

Dessert and desert aren't even pronounced the same yet people interchange them.

It is pronounced the same in "just deserts" as pointed out by Rejobako.

http://www.snopes.com/language/notthink/deserts.htm

The noun "desert" (accent on the first syllable) is generally used to refer to an arid, barren expanse of land; the noun "dessert" (accent on the second syllable) is a sweet course or dish usually served at the end of a meal. However, the word "desert" -- when spelled like the former but pronounced like the latter -- also refers to a deserved reward or punishment. Therefore, someone who does wrong and is punished in a suitable manner has received his "just deserts."

Many people, unfamiliar with the "reward or punishment" meaning of the word "desert," mistakenly assume that the phrase "just deserts" is properly spelled "just desserts" because of its pronunciation. (The usual reasoning is that a dessert is a type of reward one is given at the end of a meal, so someone who receives suitable rewards or punishments for his actions has gotten his "just desserts.")

When one gets what one deserves, good or bad, one is getting one's "just deserts," accent on the second syllable but spelled like the arid, barren lands.

 

[TikiGoddess]

I grew up in Oklahoma - where *everyone* knows that "y'all" is singular. The plural is "all y'all"

I was just fixin' to tell all y'all that when you beat me to it! I too like the regional dialect stuff A LOT! It seems like a lot gets messed up A LOT! I agree on that one too. If it were up to me this thread would never end!

 

[mssocks]

I have issues with misuse and spelling errors in the business world. The rest of the time I just cringe. In fact, I think misuse is wrong, but I'm not going to look it up. I would rather tell you about a woman at the office. She gives me instructions to NOTATE something on my spreadsheet.

AAAHHHHH!!!! It's make a note or there is a notation, but NOTATE is not a verb!

 

[DebIreland]

This topic's worth a separate thread. My favorite two "mangled lyrics" examples are:

1) In the Beatles "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds", my mother-in-law thought that the line "the girl with kaleidescope eyes" was "the girl with colitis goes by". Ouch. (A friend told me this same mangled lyric was used in an episode of The Nanny by Fran Drescher)

2) I had a friend in college who hated Huey Lewis's Song "Heart of Rock and Roll" because he thought it was a put-down. Instead of "the heart of rock and roll is still beating", he thought it was "hard rock and roll is defeated". What, the heart-beat after the line didn't give it away?

Ah I have a couple of classics. Back in the 80s Jermaine Stewart had a huge hit with a song called 'We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off (to have a good time)'. My mother went around the house for weeks singing 'We Don't Have to Put Our Shoes On (to have a good time)' -

But the best ever was from my friend. She had heard a song quite a few times on the radio and just loved it so off she went to the music store and said to the shop assistant "I don't know the name of the song but the lyrics are 'I'm a tree, I'm a willow'". The shop assistant was stumped. Eventually she remembered the band name. It was of course Radiohead and the assistant just broke down laughing and said "Oh, I think you're thinking of the song 'Creep'. The lyrics are 'I'm a Creep, I'm a weirdo'". She was mortified!!! (Great song though, lol!). We still give her a hard time over that and sing it *her* way just to irritate her sometimes.

 

[MyGoofy26]

Ah I have a couple of classics. Back in the 80s Jermaine Stewart had a huge hit with a song called 'We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off (to have a good time)'. My mother went around the house for weeks singing 'We Don't Have to Put Our Shoes On (to have a good time)' -

But the best ever was from my friend. She had heard a song quite a few times on the radio and just loved it so off she went to the music store and said to the shop assistant "I don't know the name of the song but the lyrics are 'I'm a tree, I'm a willow'". The shop assistant was stumped. Eventually she remembered the band name. It was of course Radiohead and the assistant just broke down laughing and said "Oh, I think you're thinking of the song 'Creep'. The lyrics are 'I'm a Creep, I'm a weirdo'". She was mortified!!! (Great song though, lol!). We still give her a hard time over that and sing it *her* way just to irritate her sometimes.

That's hysterical.

Anyone ever know every word to a song and then one day you hear something different? There is this matchbox twenty song called "Damn" on their Yourself or Someone Like You record. . . This came out in 97 and out of nowhere a couple years ago I was listening and realized it sounded like Rob Thomas was singing the line "she's got all these reasons in her head" as "she's got all these raisins in her head" - I, of course, had to share it with all of my matchbox loving friends and they all yell at me because that's all they hear when they listen to that song now.

I always loved the song lyrics on Dharma and Greg - they were always messing up lyrics. Off the top of my head there was:

"I've got a black magic woman and she's gonna take a pebble out of me"
"I wanna rock and roll all night, and part of every day"
"I can see clearly now the rain is gone, I can see all popsicles in my way"

 

[FreshTressa]

Loose and lose drive me crazy. The airlines don't loose your luggage. They LOSE it.

I used to date this guy who would always write me emails that said "I don't want to 'loose' you.

I have to admit...it did contribute to the eventual death of the relationship.

I'm guilty of the definate and separate though!!!

 

[reesecup]

Had to add another mangled song lyric.

TLC. Real lyrics: "Don't go chasing waterfalls"
Friends version: "Long adjacent waterfalls."


I've got more.... but maybe we do need to start a new thread on this.

Back to this thread... When I was in about the second grade, I loved my teacher very much. On Valentine's Day, I put extra effort into her card . The final words: "You are so sweat!" hehe.... I still second guess that one . It really gave me a complex when I realized what I had done!