CNN reports that Spotify has identified the most misinterpreted song lyric, in a survey that asks people which songs they hear other people misinterpreting while singing at places like concerts, and karaoke bars (with correct lyrics presumably on screen.)
And quoting the article, the winner from the survey is:
“Manfred Mann’s Earth Band confused the most folks with ‘Blinded By the Light,’ the 1976 hit written and first recorded by Bruce Springsteen. Fifty-two percent of respondents reported hearing ‘Wrapped up like a douche/when you’re rollin’ in the night’ instead of the correct lyric: ‘Revved up like a deuce/another runner in the night.’”
3 Questions That Arise From This Story
1. Seriously, according to the survey, there are really people confusing Van Halen’s “Panama” with the word “Animal?” The song is called Panama on the album! David Lee Roth accentuates the letter “a” as in “Panama-a-a-ah!” How can anyone think this is “Animal-al-al?” Our only assumption: taking so many drugs at the Van Halen concert, you thought you were at the Def Leppard concert listening to their song called “Animal.”
2. Does this mean that nobody is visiting the web site kissthisguy.com, or the book “‘Scuse Me While I Kiss This Guy And Other Misheard Lyrics,” or even the 365 day of misheard lyrics calendar with the latter name? In fairness, we don’t read these information sources, because if we are ever confused about a song lyric, we just do a web search. The song “Hotel California” is called “Expedia Has Found 354 Hotels For You In Los Angeles,” right?
3. Is it time to start putting the explicit lyric label on all songs on iTunes since people have no clue what the artists are saying anyway, and might be accidentally offended. Or is it time to eliminate all radio-edits since nobody has a clue what anyone is saying anyway? This is especially tricky, because to be able to read the words “clean” or “explicit” on iTunes, you also have to know how to read song titles like “Panama.” In the mean time, if you’re at a concert and don’t really know the lyrics, we suggest you sing our favorite lyric replacement: “Something something something…” Far more entertaining for whoever is paying to see Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in 2013.
