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Sunday, July 3, 2011

Why I can never be a Studio Singer

One of the things that positively baffles my husband is the fact that I have extremely sensitive hearing and yet cannot understand approximately 85% of lyrics that I hear.  It's such a frequent occurrence that it's become a running joke with us on every car trip.

I wanted to share with you some of my greatest hits, so to speak:

"Lodi" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Original line: Oh lord, stuck in Lodi again.
Caitlin's line: Oh lord, sucking on old diaphragms.

(...the muscle, not the contraceptive, perverts)


"Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival
Original line: There's a bad moon on the rise.
Caitlin's line: There's a bathroom on the right.

(To be fair, I've heard that this is a pretty common one)


"Reach for the Sky" by Social Distortion
Original line: Reach for the sky, 'cause tomorrow may never come.
Caitlin's line: Reach for the sky, 'cause tomorrow, they never come.

(Listen to it here, around 0:57)


"Story of My Life" by Social Distortion
Original line: I didn't have much interest in sports or school elections
Caitlin's line: I didn't have much interest in sports or school erections


(haha...erection.)

(Listen to it here, 0:43)


"When She Begins" by Social Distortion*
Original line: Man I was just looking for a place for this raggedy ol' heart of mine.
Caitlin's line: Man I was just looking for a place a higgedy rattamine.

(Listen to it here, 3:23)

The last lyric in particular demonstrates the fact that if I can't understand a lyric I generally make up nonsense words that vaguely approximate the sounds of the words and belt that out just as loud as the rest of the song. And I find nothing wrong with that.

If Rob is listening and I don't want him to be made aware of the fact that I don't know a particular lyric, I'll simply start adding in my own lyrics about our dog or intentional nonsense lyrics based on our dog's nicknames, like "diddly derp derp scrab."  Then he does it back and I don't look like I'm the only idiot in the car.

Makes total sense, right?

As an aside, I put the query out on Twitter on Monday asking if anyone else had this issue, and my good friend Katie told me that she always thought that "Pour some sugar on me" was "First come to the I love." Rob and I were extremely skeptical until we listened to it and now we can't get the line out of our heads. If you don't believe me that it sounds exactly like "first come to the I love," here's proof at around 1:28...



Katie, I'm glad I'm not the only one!

Oh, and good luck trying to unhear any of these lyrics should you hear these songs in the near future.

P.S. Have you entered my handmade mobile giveaway yet?!

*Rob wants me to note that we performed "When She Begins" together at our wedding and at that time had no idea what the lyrics were.

16 comments:

  1. HAHA! I love that Def Leppard song and ... ruh roh... I can't get that line out!!! :P Fun post.

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  2. I had a friend who used to think John Melloncamp's "R-O-C-K in the USA" was "Honorary C-K in the USA". Which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. But I often sing nonsense lyrics when I don't know what they really are, so I really shouldn't talk.

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  3. Hahahaha I always get super embarrassed when I realize that I'm singing a song badly, especially if the lyrics are really far off. Love this post!!

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  4. hahah i am the WORST with lyrics! my boyfriend always makes fun of me. when i dont know lyrics i imitate static! haha

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  5. This is hilarious~! I do the exact same thing, constantly.

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  6. Hah, erections. My guy and and I struggle with lyrics from time to time too -- he looks to me for the right words since he's Cuban, and doesn't always hear the word well enough to understand it. But sometimes I end up telling him the wrong lyrics, just because I've been singing them wrong for so long ;-)

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  7. great post! i came over via 'four eyes rella' and am happy to be a new follower.

    xoxo
    http://tinylittlehappies.blogspot.com/

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  8. haha! the same thing happens to me...

    boyz II men: On bended knees: "stop pointing fingers, the blame is on me"..
    Ivelisse: "stomp on your fingers, the blame is on me."

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  9. All I can say is SAME WITH ME!!! Oh my gosh I never know the lines...so embaressing haha. So I just sing quietly...unless I am confidant and know I know the words haha. Hilarious girl! Also I better win the mobile ha. Oh and I'm having a giveaway on my blog, so enter if you want! :) Happy 4th lady!

    www.sloanbook.com

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  10. PS. I LOVE YOUR RUSSIAN DOLL BUTTON!!!!!!!

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  11. These are my most recent ones:

    The song Panama? I thought they were saying "animal! ANIMA-AL" and got busted singing it all loud in my sister's car. And Lodi? "Oh lord, sucking an old guy off, again" no joke.

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  12. haha :] i remember you telling me about this. it was worse when i was little, but i still do it now too.

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  13. haha I love reading lines like this. there are so many times I memorize a song and look up the lyrics for some reason or another and realize I was totally off!

    & Def Leppard = ♥

    PS I agree FASFA/STUDENT AID 101 would have been so much better than PHILOSOPHY 101. Thanks for understanding and grieving with me!

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  14. This cracks me up because I'm the exact same way!!! =D

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  15. HA!!!! CCR songs always get me. I never know what the hell they're saying. :D

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  16. I love this post so much! Usually I am the lyrics stickler, but I have been known to make some pretty good mistakes. My best one is from Empire State of Mind, with Jay-Z and Alicia Keys:

    Original line: In New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of.
    Molly's line: In New York, I become a red-green tomato.

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