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You're Singing the Wrong Words!


SoundWrangler

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An astounding percentage of what's posted on Internet "lyric" sites is incorrect. Also true of lyrics in published "piano/vocal/gtr" songbooks and fakebooks; or for that matter, sometimes what's printed on the CD/LP packaging itself. Also "with lyrics" YouTube videos, where someone has taken the considerable effort to time lyrics to audio playback, never noticing that the text onscreen doesn't match what they're hearing! Often the "wrong" lyric has become the new normal for cover versions...
Below are a couple of cases I bumped into recently. If you have any more, please post... not because singing the correct lyrics will make the world a better place (and if you must sing Brown-Eyed Girl or Sweet Home Alabama, etc., please make the effort to sing lyrics that are so wrong, you make the rest of your band laugh onstage; that will make the world a better place), but just because some of us find this sort of thing amusing. wink.gif

WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN: in the bridge, the as-recorded lyrics are: "Well, this man, loves you, woman

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Wierd. Otis Redding and Joe Cocker "High-Class" love, too. I just checked.

How the hell did "precious" sneak into my head??

I've seen wrong words on Karaoke, too. Born To Be Wild -- "Yeah, gotta go, make it happen; take the world in a love embrace". WTF?! LOL

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Quote Originally Posted by SoundWrangler View Post
Well, I just had a listen (ick), and Michael Bolton sang "precious" in his version. One MORE reason it sucked. rimshot.gif
I hate it when bands doing an "official" cover get the words wrong for no real apparent reason other than they just don't know the right ones.

Pet example of mine was on Motley Crue's cover of "Smokin' In The Boys Room". At the very end of the song the original version goes "Now teacher I am fully aware of the rules". Crue sang it "Teacher I'm not foolin' around with the rules". Which is a dumb line since the whole song is ABOUT 'fooling around' with the rules. facepalm.gif
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It was a bit of a revelation for me when I found out there is no such thing as a DEFINITIVE source for lyrics. Even any "official" version is usually by some grunt worker trying to figure it out after-the-fact.

Mistakes creep in, singers try different things, somebody adds overdubs, etc. etc.

By the time take after take is finished, double-tracked, processed, and mixed and matched into a final version, even the singer may not know what he "really" sang.

Plus a whole bunch of songs aren't really singable live anyway, exactly as recorded... so sing whatever seems to work for you, I guess.

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Quote Originally Posted by wesg View Post
Wierd. Otis Redding and Joe Cocker "High-Class" love, too. I just checked.

How the hell did "precious" sneak into my head??
I've always sung it as "heartless love". Pretty close to high-class and makes sense to me.

Another one that gets me is "Route 66". I watched a special on Netflix where the singer sang about "Kingston" (actually Kingman, Arizona) and "Barscow" (meaning Barstow, Calfornia). It's one thing to make up lyrics, but to make up names for actual towns?
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Quote Originally Posted by guido61

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That's what people get for being lazy and just downloading the lyrics rather than trusting their own ears.....

 

Well sometimes your ears are wrong too. In the rock band i play with we have been doing La Grange by ZZ Top. I first sang that song about 30 years ago when you had to try and pick the words by dropping the needle onto the album. Anyway the guitar player got the words off the internet and I Was singing at least apart of 3 lines wrong.
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And then you've got Willie Nelson changing the words to "Whiter Shade of Pale": "As the mirror told it's tale". Those words are better than the original, and Gary Booker gave him props for that.

So ya never know. Call it artistic license. I'm not opposed to that. The Crue reference fits in that category too I think. Just sounds better: simpler. Easier to understand. And still sensible.

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Quote Originally Posted by guido61

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That's what people get for being lazy and just downloading the lyrics rather than trusting their own ears.....

 

Well sometimes your ears are wrong too. In the rock band i play with we have been doing La Grange by ZZ Top. I first sang that song about 30 years ago when you had to try and pick the words by dropping the needle onto the album. Anyway the guitar player got the words off the internet and I Was singing at least apart of 3 lines wrong.
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Quote Originally Posted by wades_keys View Post

So ya never know. Call it artistic license. I'm not opposed to that. The Crue reference fits in that category too I think. Just sounds better: simpler. Easier to understand. And still sensible.
I disagree. I don't think it was a purposeful change. I think it was simply Vince Neil hearing the words wrong and singing what he thought they were. Because no, the new line isn't better and it isn't sensible. If anything, it just dumbs down the song. But it IS probably what most people thought the words were.
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Quote Originally Posted by modulusman View Post
Well sometimes your ears are wrong too. In the rock band i play with we have been doing La Grange by ZZ Top. I first sang that song about 30 years ago when you had to try and pick the words by dropping the needle onto the album. Anyway the guitar player got the words off the internet and I Was singing at least apart of 3 lines wrong.
Oh no doubt. There were countless songs we did back then that I KNEW we were singing the wrong words to. But there was no easy way to understand what was being sung or find out what the right words were. Had we ever officially recorded one of those songs, though, I almost certainly would have insisted we call up whoever-it-is-you-gotta-call-up (you have to get the permission to record and release the song anyway) and make sure we had the right words so we wouldn't be forever enshrined on a recording as dumb-asses.

The most memorable one for me was singing "We're An American Band" and I didn't find out until years later (after looking it up on the internet....) that the line I knew I was singing wrong went "Up all night with Freddie King. I got to tell you, poker is his game."

The closest I could get it was "Lowell Knight and Freddie King. I got to tell you, Focus even sang." icon_lol.gif
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Quote Originally Posted by guido61 View Post
I disagree. I don't think it was a purposeful change. I think it was simply Vince Neil hearing the words wrong and singing what he thought they were. Because no, the new line isn't better and it isn't sensible. If anything, it just dumbs down the song. But it IS probably what most people thought the words were.
Why would you think that? They WERE in the studio, with a producer. Recording a cover song intended for airplay. I kinda doubt it went down the way you think.

Hell, they even brought in Willie Nelson's long time harp player to cover the solo. Can't see Tom Werman letting Vince fly so loose on the track that would become Motley's first top 40 hit. In fact: I'd bet it was Werman's idea to change the words up. That's kind of what producers do, ya know. idn_smilie.gif

I disagree with your take too. The original line is a jumbled mess. Looks good on paper, doesn't come off so well vocally. Dumbing down? Yeah maybe but I still think the meaning comes across and it's easier to understand too. I don't interpret it the same way you do either. "not fooling around with" can mean you've got "nothing to do with": that's the way I've always understood it.
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Quote Originally Posted by wades_keys View Post
Why would you think that? They WERE in the studio, with a producer. Recording a cover song intended for airplay. I kinda doubt it went down the way you think.

Hell, they even brought in Willie Nelson's long time harp player to cover the solo. Can't see Tom Werman letting Vince fly so loose on the track that would become Motley's first top 40 hit. In fact: I'd bet it was Werman's idea to change the words up. That's kind of what producers do, ya know. idn_smilie.gif
I wasn't there. I don't know anything for CERTAIN about what went down any more than you do. But I THINK A) they probably didn't really give a {censored} if they got the words to a tag-line at the end of the song right or not. B) probably thought it WAS right.

And since the new line is dumb and doesn't really make sense with the lyrics of the song (using the original line, the singer acknowledges that he knows he's breaking the rules and is doing so anyway. Using the new line, the singer is saying he ISN'T breaking the rules after just singing for the last 3 minutes that he was???? Huh??) that is enough to make me believe they didn't know and/or didn't care. Because only a complete dumb-ass would PURPOSELY change the lyric? For WHAT purpose?

Then again, we ARE talking about Motley Crue, so maybe you're right and they DID do a dumbass thing on purpose. icon_lol.gif
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So you would have me believe that Tom Werman, in spite of bringing in a top notch harp player, sat back and let Vince change the words around in a stupid way?

 

No, I'm saying they probably didn't notice it was wrong and/or didn't care.

 

What else better explains the fact that they DID change them around in a stupid way? They changed them in a stupid way on PURPOSE? Talk about dogs that don't hunt! :lol:

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No, I'm saying they probably didn't notice it was wrong and/or didn't care.


What else better explains the fact that they DID change them around in a stupid way? They changed them in a stupid way on PURPOSE? Talk about dogs that don't hunt!
:lol:

All I got to say is: scoreboard. That song hit pay dirt for Motley Crue. Even had a movie tie in. And a big production video to boot. C'mon man, guys like Tom Werman didn't make their bones by not noticing what the guy in the booth is singing. :facepalm:

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All I got to say is: scoreboard. That song hit pay dirt for Motley Crue. Even had a movie tie in. And a big production video to boot. C'mon man, guys like Tom Werman didn't make their bones by not noticing what the guy in the booth is singing.
:facepalm:

 

Obviously the lyric change didn't affect the popularity of the track. Since most of their fans were probably just vaguely familiar with the original at best, how would they even know it was changed!

 

Maybe the wonderful, awesome, God-like Tom Werman knew they were changed or maybe he didn't. Who knows? Who cares? Maybe he's so smart he knew it wouldn't matter to the success of the record. When did I ever say it would have? Maybe he didn't notice at all. Maybe he noticed after the fact but didn't think it a big enough deal to go back and fix. Maybe he noticed it and liked it. Who knows? Who cares? Certainly it didn't ADD to the success of the record, so saying it didn't HURT it is kinda dumb. Obviously a small lyric change isn't going to affect the success of most ANY record.

 

All I said is it's a dumb lyric change and it bothers ME. If it doesn't bother you or Tom Werman, so what? Man...you can sure make a big deal out of nothing sometimes, Wades.

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I'm not the one resorting to name calling ("wonderful, awesome, God like"). Just playin the odds the way I see em. Hell, why even have a producer if you're just gonna go in the booth and make {censored} up as you go along? And why bring Willie's harp player into the mix. But like I said: whatever. Gotta go.

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