Misheard Beatle Lyrics

[kontroller]

On the way a paperback was on my knee

[walrus gumboot]

I always thought it was body gun...so maybe not misheard at all

[bobzilla]

On the way a paperback was on my knee

When I was younger I thought it was "paperback" also. It's been quite a while now that I knew it was "paper bag", but after reading your comment, for some reason it finally clicked...

So yesterday I had the White Album Deluxe Edition playing and the Esher demo of Back in the USSR came on, and I don't know if it was because I had just recently read this comment or if it was the difference between the released "man I had a dreadful flight" and the Esher "man I had an awful flight" or a combination of all of it, but the lightbulb went off and I JUST realized that the paper bag in question is a barf bag.

[Lord Reith]

Back In The USSR was the first time I can remember hearing a song where I paid attention to the lyrics. Usually I just thought of lyrics as sounds devoid of meaning but as a 10 year old I can remember that line about "all the way the paper bag was on my knee, man I had a dreadful flight" and thinking how this strange lyric really jumped out. I didn't know what it meant of course, having never even been on a plane let alone seen a sick bag but it really caught my ear. It seemed more like a businessman singing about what he'd been up to rather than a rock and roll star.

In fact, I can remember getting into many of Paul lyrics long before I paid much attention to John's.

[4-track-mind]

Didn't you lot ever have good stereos by a certain age? My father was born in '39; so, by the '60s, he was old enough to already have had a full-time job (which: afforded him the ability to buy a component system I, eventually, inherited)....yet "young enough" (at that time) to have bought all the music of the era (from: Elvis to Beatles to Stones; as well as: a lot of soundtracks and instrumental "lounge").

I just don't get how, for example, the "vinyl community devotees" (especially) can pseudo-genuflect about audio while; so many of them can't seem to hear such obvious, clear as day things(?). I've known what it is to sit in front of floor-standing speakers; have Koss Pro 4AA and AKG 240 headphones; Marantz and Tandberg receivers; and reel to reel decks since I was 14 (never cared less for cassette garbage).

[mojofilter]

No. My family bought the cheapest possible items that were still legally allowed to be called "sound reproduction systems." Does the brand name "Candle" mean anything you? Record players with a flip-over stylus. I've only ever met a handful of people in the last 60 years who have had a decent stereo system. All the great stereo systems I've heard were in stereo shops in the '70s and in studios where I've recorded or worked. I've worked my way up from nothing to decent. I play my records on a Technics SP-10 with an SME tonearm and Stanton 881S cartridge. But I'll never be able to afford a system that's really great. My house isn't built to accommodate a stereo listening room with floor-standing speakers, nor a surround sound system with proper speaker placement. I've never heard surround sound. Even quad. Never known anyone who had 4 or 5.1 systems.

Lack of better than consumer-grade equipment hasn't caused or prevented me from mishearing lyrics in many, many songs, though. I've looked up a lot of them on Google and had my perceptions changed. "That's what he was singing? I'll be damned." But The Beatles? I made an effort to learn everything about their records that I could. If you're going to perform somebody's song in front of people, you'd better know how it goes and what the words are!

[Lord Reith]

When I was 5 our record player was a little battery powered plastic thing but the only record I had was this one

jonp.jpg (18.64 KiB) Viewed 2026 times

which I played incessantly. The thing I remember was the record was bigger than the player and hung over the sides. Some time after that my sister got a really expensive record player for her birthday. It had a full sized platter and a transparent plastic lid, and two small bookshelf speakers. I say "expensive" because we were dirt poor. That did me for years and was the one I used to play my first Beatles records. When I was 12 I made two largish speakers (about 30cm high) for it and that was the first time I ever heard bass. Finally when I was 17 my dad bought us a proper stereo system, one of those ones with speakers three foot high. I remember going into the city at night in the car to get it, and the whole thing was huge. It sounded okay but mainly because I had nothing to compare it to.

[paul62]

I've got the Toshiba Abbey Road Pro-Use LP (which has an insert with the lyrics included): I remember there are quite a few interesting interpretations/translations on that...!!!

[Vee-Jay]

Here's a dirty one that I remember from my early teens...

John Lennon
STAND BY ME
When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only flying P***y.



Not having heard the Ben E. King version yet, I was a little confused and slightly disgusted by the whole thing, so I went so far as to bring my father(!) into the room to play it for him to see what he heard. (I would never have DARED to tell him what I thought John was saying! LOL) Of course, he didn't hesitate to say "light we'll see," following it up with, "Why do you ask?" Of course, I quickly said "Nevermind!" and rushed him out of the room.

[Sid Burnsteen]

And I Love Her:

"A love like ours could never dine . . ."

Even with a decent sound system, at 8 years old, this is what I heard. Made sense to me! My mother provided the correction. Since I'd never thought of love as having a life of its own, how could it die?