<p>When I was home over Christmas, I was in the car with my dad, and he started singing “Come on Irene.”</p>
<p>Gladly The Cross-eyed Bear</p>
<p>When my D was little, she asked if Father Longenstein was a priest. Finally figured out that one was “for the longest time”. (Billy Joel)</p>
<p>TheDad: Couldn’t believe you had the lyrics right, so I looked them up and lo and behold discovered that I had another line wrong all these years as well. Could have sworn it was: “Said Jimmy don’t I know your name” not “said to me don’t I know your name.” So, I listened to the song tonight AFTER reading the lyrics. I actually can make out “on a dark sad night” (though I will continue to sing “on the docks that night”) but swear it still sounds like “said Jimmy…” to me.</p>
<p>Schoolmarm, I guess I never had trouble with the “said to me don’t I know your name” because I was always croggled by the image of the topless dancer bending down to tie the lace-es of his shoes.</p>
<p>Slightly OT, but Dylan’s rhyme schemes often startle me. See “Honolulu,” “Ashtabula” in “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go.” One of the few lyricists who’ll work in “Verlaine” and “Rimbaud,” too.</p>
<p>Also, if anyone can give an explication of the lyrics to “Changing of the Guards”, I’d be interested. The imagery wanders all over the place…Biblical, pagan, the palace at Versailles, possibly WW II collaborationists…it makes me dizzy without making explicit sense and yet “it works.”</p>
<p>a friend thought “Bernadette” by (4 Tops?) was “burn the dead”.</p>
<p>In Springsteen’s song “all that heaven will allow”, I hear the line “that sets me straight and walking proud” as “That’s Sesame Street and walking proud”.</p>
<p>Schoolmarm: I hear “Jimmy” too. Obviously, we are not listeining to the same song that Dylan wrote. :)</p>
<p>This is my favorite (occupational) lyirc mis-cue. A traditional hymn, “Lead On, O King Eternal” becomes (if not sung correctly and with good diction)</p>
<p>“Lee Don, O Kinky Turtle”.</p>
<p>Whole different thing.</p>
<p>I still haven’t been able to select that particular hymn to sing in church after reading that in an article recently…am afraid I would not be able to keep a straight face…</p>
<p>Not a song, but William Safire as a child heard the Pledge of Allegiance as
“I led the pigeons to the flag of the United States of America” and I heard “and to the republic, four witches stand” .</p>
<p>EK, I thought for years that Prince was singing, “Raspberry Parade.” Splashmom, I thought that “Blinded by the Light” was the nastiest song - I heard the same thing you did.</p>
<p>Good thing we have the internet, you can look up the words!</p>
<p>and to the Republican, Richard Stans</p>
<p>Oh, yeah…Richard, Maurice’s brother.</p>
<p>Fwiw, I had the same problem with the Manfred Mann lyric…until I read the correct version in this thread. I always figured there was something I wasn’t hearing correctly and didn’t get all het up about it.</p>
<p>When S was little, he claimed that “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” ended with “Life is butter dream.” He also said that the Jetsons theme song was “Jane is white” instead of “Jane, his wife.” (I have to admit that he wasn’t wrong about the statement.)</p>
<p>I also remember Linda Ronstadt’s “Love is a nose, but you better not pick it.” (should be rose)</p>