Song lyrics
 

Do you actually listen to the lyrics of some songs?

I've been looking up the lyrics from some songs that I can only remember a line or two of - -

And the Band Played on - written in 1895
Teacher's Pet - 1950's version
The Lion Sleeps Tonight
School Days
Mairzy Doats

I don't even try to understand what the rappers are saying - I can't hear that fast - and I probably would not like what i was hearing if I could understand it!

Have you ever been surprised by what the actual lyrics to a song are?

I was a trained musician and I typically hear lyrics very well. I also tend to understand heavily accented people better than many other people as well.

I'm always amazed when people think bitter break up songs are romantic! Or when they are confused on the meaning of the song Born in the USA.

As for Mairzy Doats...

Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy!
A kid will eat ivy too -- wouldn't you?

And yeah, that is off the top of my head so maybe minor mistake on the translation verse :)

Born in the USA - I just read all the lyrics. Oh. My.

IceBlossom, I remember those words from a song popular during WW2. Not too sure of the meaning of the words.

It took me years to get the words to the Flintstones theme🥴🥴😄. Still working on Louie, Louie🤭

usually, although I wouldn't win any radio contest! My husband routinely gets song lyrics stuck in his head for days.

Oh, Ice Blossom! You have started an ear worm memory today. Sang that song over and over in the car on road trips as a kid. Can you imagine the pain we caused our parents?

Ice blossom, you translated the line correctly. For those who are much younger than us, the word "does" is the plural of the word for female deer, doe. The song was popular when my older sister was away at college in the mid 40's. I was only a child just starting grade school when my sister taught it to me. I think someone had to tell me the meaning. I don't remember figuring it out on my own. My sis was 11 years older than me and has been in heaven for 10 years now. Mother lost two children at birth, hence the reason for the age gap.

I still sing mairzy doats to my great grands whenever I have a chance to rock them. My mama sang it to me. Precious memories.

Ear worms are serious business! One of my favorite bosses and I had this thing and when one of us would go by the other we'd plant an evil ear worm just as a statement or question, like "Hey Jim, you ever go dancing in the moonlight?" and that was enough. It might have been 8:30 in the morning and at 5:00 it's either still in your head or maybe you were lucky enough to switch to a marvelous night for a moondance or something else instead.

One way to get rid of ear worms is to write out the lyrics, preferably long hand. That activates a different part of the brain. Sometimes all I can do is switch it to something else, and maybe from there I can break the loop.

Me, I play it to death. Over and over with every beat and lyric correct. You never want to do that to another living person, I'm not quite sure how well the dogs take it some times. One of the bad things about that is when you have a bad/song you hate stuck in your head. warning: (hey can we do hidden text/spoiler stuff here??) Midnight at the Oasis by Maria Muldaur is a bad one for me, I have every note, inflection, pause down to a science and a snarl.

Not sure what an ear worm is? I haven't gone through all of this list but from the first 5 or so, I'd say they'd qualify but you have to know them.
https://etcanada.com/photos/163907/t.../#image-163942

I'm pleased to present you with one of my favorite life time ear worms, and it is in Spanish! Man, I hate it when a song I love is in another language. I figured it out phonetically back in the 1970s and got the general gist of it. Nowadays translations are easy to come by, but the problem comes when there are direct translations and what the metaphors and meanings are saying... This is the "remastered" version, a little more suited for listening than the AM transistor radio quality of the original.

Mocedades, "Eres Tu"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naAC37W42ro

Only click if you dare. Think I've done over 20 loops of this at a time. I've written out my own poetic translation. It's one of the most beautiful songs I know.

There are many mornings when I wake up with an ear worm - usually it’s a song I haven’t heard or thought of in years. I consider this a great way to start a day!!

Sandy in Mooresville,NC

Where are you looking up the song lyrics, would love to have that site as Iv'e got some wrong and/or missing lyrics of a couple of songs

There are many different places that offer song lyrics. Sometimes the lyrics are put in by fans -- and sometimes they are wrong so check out a couple before you agree with the interpretation.

I often end up at one of these sites here:
https://www.metrolyrics.com/
https://www.azlyrics.com/

Some songs have lyrics that show up on you-tube videos.

Either way if you do a search with as much as you know like "Iris Googoo Dolls Lyrics" you will get choices of sites or videos. Even if you just know part of the song it is amazing what you will find so the search would be something like: song and you bleed just to know you're alive" (which is from Iris, by the googoo dolls, yes in addition to being about relationships it's about cutting).
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=son...e+alive&ia=web
https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/googoodolls/iris.html

Sometimes (usually) I only know/remember a line or two - or what I think is a line or two - and do a search on that - or what I think might be the title - or who I think recorded it -

Like Iceblossom wrote - sometimes one can "reconstruct" with only fragments -

Several years ago some words just popped into my head and wouldn't let go. Not just words, they had a tune like lines from a song - "She lies 'neath the clover, Someone caught her bending over".
After 2 or 3 days of slowly going mad I googled those exact words and within seconds the complete lyrics to a hit song from my VERY early childhood were right in front of my eyes, "Feudin' Fussin' and a-Fightin'" by Bing Crosby. I had no reason to remember that song (but once I saw the words I did) and it made me wonder how much we have crammed in our heads that we haven't thought of since forever.

Funny how songs can get stuck in our heads. I found out quite accidentally that one of my brothers and I do the same thing: when we hear a lyric and can't remember which song it was we google it. Ha! We always send each other youtube music video links too. We have the same tastes.

Give me any Beatles song and I know the lyrics verbatim lol.

I think Born in the USA is misunderstood in more than one way. We used to go to the big 4th of July fireworks in Columbus and they had it blasting every year. It is about the plight of the Vietnam vet. Even the President didn't realize it at the time. Bruce gave a concert for the vets in 1981.

Here is one for you if you dare!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UALb0NLZM3M

When my DD was expecting she mentioned this song. I embroidered the lyrics and added embroidery designs to coordinate with the lyrics. The pages were made into a baby book for grandson. The book was presented at the baby shower. We all sang the song to the dad to be as it was his child-hood song.

The cake had a beach scene with a baby swinging in a palm tree.

Iceblossum, I think every song you named I know and have stuck in my head on occasion, lol. I'm glad to have your solution of writing out the lyrics. Lately I've been getting songs from the Blues Brothers movie stuck in my head. "She caught the Katy, and left me a mule to ride."

I remember my mom singing Mairzie Doats to me, and then explaining the lyrics. Good memories.

I just read the words to Born in the USA. I had no idea....

Willferg, there are worse things than having the Blues Brother in your head. From the album/before the movie "Rubber Biscuit" gets stuck in my head. From the movie, it's Think with Aretha Franklin more than She Caught the Katy. From Blues Brothers 2000 --- well, we try to forget but I'm a huge fan of Jonny Lang.

From what I understand, the Katy is a train-- Missouri Kansas Texas (K-T) line, and she headed out of the country and into town. Like Ruby (here comes another ear worm) you just don't want to take your love to town.

We sing the blues to rise above before we are pulled below.

My son is very musical and taught me the ultimate cure for an earworm. Sing the lyrics of America the Beautiful to the Gilligan's Island theme song. I admit, he had to demonstrate it for me, I just could not do it until he did. Now it is a handy tool for me.

Argh...earworms! All I have to do is hear/see that word and I can't get Lemon Tree by Trini Lopez out of my head. That song has tortured me off and on for years.

I'll have to try the "writing the lyrics out longhand" trick to see if I can make it stop!

iceblossom. Katy indeed was a train line. Now part of the old rail bed is a bike/hike trail that geos from St. Louis to almost Kansas City I've ridden parts of it. Each may there I s musical event on the Katy.

I remember hearing a discussion on the radio once about misunderstood song lyrics, the only example they gave that I can remember was the Steve Miller Band, the line goes "big ol jet airliner" but this person always thought it was "big old Jack had a light on". My husband and I had a long standing joke about that; before Covid he traveled a lot for his job, when he'd return, I'd always ask him about big ol Jack and whether his light was on.

The one that I get wrong every single time, to this day, is Abba's "Take A Chance On Me", when I was young I always thought the chorus was "Olly oxen free" instead of "honey I'm still free". 🤣

My favorite earworm is Sneaky Snake, because it brings back a lot of good memories of my childhood.

My favorite misheard song is the Rolling Stones "Start me up". When our son was young, 3-4 he would sign along to anything he could. He changed the first line to a repeat of "Gustavio's truck", and the chorus was "you make a ground plane fly". Most of the other lines were incoherent. We still giggle and laugh about it.

Not music but when my son was little he insisted the word awesome was "bossem".

I love some of the common misheard lyrics and have to sing them even though I know the real words...

I want to rock and roll all night and part of every day (party)
Kiss, I want to Rock and Roll
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFMD7Usflbg

There's a bathroom on the right (bad moon on the rise)
Credence Clearwater Revival, Bad Moon Rising
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUQiUFZ5RDw

And how can you not sing (and add in the Angela)
Hold me closer, Tony Danza (tiny dancer)
Sir Elton, Tiny Dancer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYcyacLRPNs