Most misheard Pearl Jam lyrics

GivenToFly982

Eddie is notorious for mumbling and/or screaming lyrics, so its no surprise that PJs lyrics can be a bit hard to decipher sometimes. The last few albums, we have been blessed with having lyrics to all the songs published in the liner notes, but on the earlier albums we did not have this luxury. So, I'm pretty straight on the words to riot act and avacado, but i just recently came across one misheard lyric that made me laugh out loud.

There's a line in "No Way" that goes "Of my need to not disappear."

For years, I thought this line was "All I need tonight is a beer."

Personally, I like my interpretation better

Anyway, ever felt like an idiot when you were singing a Pearl Jam song out loud and got corrected for singing the wrong lyrics? Post your favorite misheard lyrics here.

gobrowns19

I always used to think in Alive "I'm glad we talked" was "I'm playing guitar." Lol.

There's soooo many I used to have, the only one that comes to mind at the moment was "pissed on my plate" in RVM instead of "fist on my plate." Haha.

markymark550

I always love these kinds of threads

a few of my favs are:
Go
Heard: turned to my missus and pulled out my fucking cock
Actual: turned to my nemesis, a fool not a fucking god

Glorified G
Heard: 4 or 5 virgins and a pelican
Actual: glorified version of a pellet gun
stole this one from someone here....will give credit if/when I remember (I wanna say Speedy, but not sure)

Even Flow
Heard: Heathen frog
Actual: Even flow
search youtube for "misheard lyrics Even Flow"

GivenToFly982

markymark550 wrote:

I always love these kinds of threads

a few of my favs are:
Go
Heard: turned to my missus and pulled out my fucking cock
Actual: turned to my nemesis, a fool not a fucking god

Glorified G
Heard: 4 or 5 virgins and a pelican
Actual: glorified version of a pellet gun
stole this one from someone here....will give credit if/when I remember (I wanna say Speedy, but not sure)

Even Flow
Heard: Heathen frog
Actual: Even flow
search youtube for "misheard lyrics Even Flow"

search for Yellow Ledbetter as well...hilarious

drlovemonkey

One of my friends always sings "soy beans" rather than "saw things" during RVM.

I was laughing my ass off the 1st time I heard it. Now it's a running joke amongst us

in_hiding79

Yellow ledbetter lyrics are so freakin weird, but I love it!!

markymark550

GivenToFly982 wrote:

search for Yellow Ledbetter as well...hilarious

Yes, that one was funny too....

Rachel Ann Goudreau

I can usually understand his lyrics,voice, intonations, screams, and mumbles, I just sometimes find myself on this message board having to "pick him up" a bit, put a smile on his face, erase some of those negative lyrics, and also the ones that don't quite make sense, though in the future we may encrypt them and find out some rhyme codes of his, so don't get too nosey :-

GivenToFly982 wrote:

Eddie is notorious for mumbling and/or screaming lyrics, so its no surprise that PJs lyrics can be a bit hard to decipher sometimes. The last few albums, we have been blessed with having lyrics to all the songs published in the liner notes, but on the earlier albums we did not have this luxury. So, I'm pretty straight on the words to riot act and avacado, but i just recently came across one misheard lyric that made me laugh out loud.

There's a line in "No Way" that goes "Of my need to not disappear."

For years, I thought this line was "All I need tonight is a beer."

Personally, I like my interpretation better

Anyway, ever felt like an idiot when you were singing a Pearl Jam song out loud and got corrected for singing the wrong lyrics? Post your favorite misheard lyrics here.

Teslarocker

gobrowns19 wrote:

I always used to think in Alive "I'm glad we talked" was "I'm playing guitar." Lol.

I always thought it was that too

AndiM

Well, instead of "Jeremy has spoken" I always heard something along the lines of "Tell me he's broken". Couldn't make it meaningful to myself, but still was surprised to find out the real lines .

Unbelievable21

For the longest time, I thought (from State of Love and Trust) it was "And I listen, from both sides of a friend", when in actuality it is "And I listen, from both sides of the bed." Well, I think the latter of the two is correct.

But, honestly, I kinda wish it was the first. Not a big deal, though.

risa

heard: her legs spread out before me (as her body once did)

actual: Were laid spread out before me (as her body once did)

LONGRD

I always thought it as,
"Discarded Angels"
in
No Way

cymbolic_music

My two favorite that I've come up with both have to do with names:

Off He Goes:
Noah, man...
Know a man

Of The Girl:
Howie makes his getaway
How he makes his getaway


Do you think those names would work if PJ did an Across the Universe type of thing? (where the characters are named Jude, Prudence, etc)

Ledbetterman10

RATS

real line:
"Lick the dirt off a larger one's feet"

what I thought it was the first time I heard it:
"Lick the dirt off Olajuwon's feet"
as in Hakeem Olajuwon from the Huston Rockets

Hard2IMAGINE2007VIC

Ledbetterman10 wrote:

RATS

real line:
"Lick the dirt off a larger one's feet"

what I thought it was the first time I heard it:
"Lick the dirt off Olajuwon's feet"
as in Hakeem Olajuwon from the Huston Rockets

I am buzzed from some captain and coke reading this thread after reading about the nightmare stories about the EV tour and ticket sales. This post above just made me laugh my ass off and spit my drink all over my keyboard! I am a huge PJ fan and I also love sports cards. Olajuwon is one of the many players I have collected. I have always thought the same thing since the reference to Mookie Blaylock. I was so disappointed many years ago to find out there was no love for Olajuwon in RATS. Thanks for the great post and making me laugh hard!

Hard2IMAGINE2007VIC

I really love this thread...I was just listening to the 13 consecutive years of Pearl Jam fan club singles from 1995-2007on my new record player and I was jamming out the the live version of Smile in Barcelona I think in 1996. When I was younger I always thought Ed was singing about a bad case of the munchies at the end of Smile.

What I thought I heard:
"Free Cookies with nuts and swirls all around"

What Ed actually was singing:
"three crooked hearts and swirls all around"

I might be the only one who thinks this is funny, but I thought I would post it....:)

JLeet24

Yellow Ledbetter does some good ones from the YouTube vid:
"Potato Wave", "But they don't wave"
"Make me fries", "Make me cry"
and my fav:
"Anna Nicole's mama said that I wont wanna see Anna fall down again."
"And they called and I said that I want what I said And then I call out again"
Although there are no "official" lyrics... that is the original.

marker_in_the_sand

gobrowns19 wrote:

I always used to think in Alive "I'm glad we talked" was "I'm playing guitar." Lol.

YES! I'm not the only one!
thought it was strange though:

"While you were sitting home-alone at age 13
Your real daddy was dying
Sorry you didn't see him
But I'm playing guitar"

Doesn't make sense... still I made the mistake:o

olivine

I hear "pussy dragons" in Severed Hand.

Shadow

I just came across a 1992 Ten Songbook/Lyrics/tab book and it's bugging me that some of the words for Black are different in the songbook than on the PJ website...when did these changes take place? Anybody know the history? Here's an example of what's in the book:

Sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets of clay,
Her legs spread out before me, as her body was there
Woh, all five horizons, revolved around the sun
I see earth through the sun.

What's on the PJ Song version (on the website):

Sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets of clay
Were laid spread out before me as her body once did
All five horizons revolved around her soul
As the earth to the sun.

This happens all through out the song.

halszka123

Unbelievable21 wrote:

For the longest time, I thought (from State of Love and Trust) it was "And I listen, from both sides of a friend", when in actuality it is "And I listen, from both sides of the bed." Well, I think the latter of the two is correct.

But, honestly, I kinda wish it was the first. Not a big deal, though.

Heh!
Where from did U get that: "And I listen, from both sides of the bed." is correct?
There is: "and I listen for the voice inside my head"

olivine

I think there are both "And I listen, from both sides of the bed" & "and I listen for the voice inside my head". Riiiight?

Drop The Leash 10

pissed on my plate, swallowed it down.....:p

velogator

In one of the concert boots I have on cd, or maybe its Benaroya?? Ed is talking about misheard lyrics and says that the funniest one to him is that Mike Mcready thought that in Kiss', "Rock and Roll all Night", were the real lyric is:

"I want to rock and roll all night and Party everyday"

Mike thought it was:

"I want to rock and roll all night, and part of everyday" :-)

Lone Wolf

risa wrote:

heard: her legs spread out before me (as her body once did)

actual: Were laid spread out before me (as her body once did)

Same mistake here.......

halszka123

olivine wrote:

I think there are both "And I listen, from both sides of the bed" & "and I listen for the voice inside my head". Riiiight?

Yes!!! I've just found it! (Can U believe it? at the same time when i was reading Your reply - I listened SOLAT and just heard it!!!
I've really never heard these words till now, i was sure there was only the first version.
Funny...

WalkingTightropeHigh

Shadow wrote:

I just came across a 1992 Ten Songbook/Lyrics/tab book and it's bugging me that some of the words for Black are different in the songbook than on the PJ website...when did these changes take place? Anybody know the history? Here's an example of what's in the book:

Sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets of clay,
Her legs spread out before me, as her body was there
Woh, all five horizons, revolved around the sun
I see earth through the sun.

What's on the PJ Song version (on the website):

Sheets of empty canvas, untouched sheets of clay
Were laid spread out before me as her body once did
All five horizons revolved around her soul
As the earth to the sun.

This happens all through out the song.

My impression (from looking at what I see listed on Amazon) is that the book is not directly produced by the band. Somebody just sat and wrote down what they thought the tabs and lyrics were.

Carlos D

I thought that the line,'Sorry I didn't see him but I'm glad we talked', in Alive was actually 'Sorry I didn't see him but I'm playing guitar'. I thought maybe Ed found out his Dad was dead from his mother and straight after was like,'Ah well,shit happens,nowif you don't mind I've to get back to playing guitar'. My friends had a good laugh about that one.

EDIT: I just read someone else thought the same thing in an earlier post,haha.I guess it does sound a bit like that,wasn't just me so...

I also thought that 'I gather speed from you fuckin with me' In Rearviewmirror was 'How could this be?The boy's cookin with speed' No idea what that was even supposed to mean,just thought Ed was trying to be mysterious.

Shadow

WalkingTightropeHigh wrote:

My impression (from looking at what I see listed on Amazon) is that the book is not directly produced by the band. Somebody just sat and wrote down what they thought the tabs and lyrics were.

Yeah, I'm sure that's what happened. At the front of the book, it said "Authentic", which would lead someone to believe it could/should be. Thanks.

MarylandTeacher

...clay spread out before me as her body once did became... ...her legs spread out before me....