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Ian MD


The Elephant's Graveyard

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Misheard lyrics
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For years i thought the Walking Downtown lyric went

10,000 streets under a Norwich sky!

I could never work out why Norwich, maybe i thought Bob and Pete wrote it whilst on tour in Norwich.

Then i saw the lyrics printed out in the re master cds and it was under an Orange sky not Norwich!

I still prefer Norwich though!

Any other confused lyrics you can hear in Rats songs?

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suss


In the Long Grass

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Until the Tonic for the Troops CD reissue with lyrics I always thought the line in Dun Laoghaire was 'lice edges and leery', even though I knew it made little or no sense. Just in case anyone else has suffered and doesn't have CD, it's 'licentious...'

As with all these lyric things, when you find out proper words you wonder how you never heard it correctly.


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noelindublin


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Ian MD wrote:

For years i thought the Walking Downtown lyric went

10,000 streets under a Norwich sky!

I could never work out why Norwich, maybe i thought Bob and Pete wrote it whilst on tour in Norwich.

Then i saw the lyrics printed out in the re master cds and it was under an Orange sky not Norwich!

I still prefer Norwich though!

Any other confused lyrics you can hear in Rats songs?


Before I got the full lyrics on the Long Grass reissue I thought the line was "under a Northern sky". There couldn't be ten thousand streets in Norwich - it isn't that big but there are four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire!  I've counted them.

I've got the lyrics I was missing for years with the reissues. The missing lyrics which bugged me were Real Different, Late Last Night and No Hiding Place with its Angkor Wat temple reference so I'm happy and educated.

 



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noelindublin


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suss wrote:

Until the Tonic for the Troops CD reissue with lyrics I always thought the line in Dun Laoghaire was 'lice edges and leery', even though I knew it made little or no sense. Just in case anyone else has suffered and doesn't have CD, it's 'licentious...'


As with all these lyric things, when you find out proper words you wonder how you never heard it correctly.

That must be the singular use of the word "licentious" in rock music history! The Kaiser Chiefs used the word "leery" in the brilliant I Predict a Riot, of course.

I'm glad to have the lyrics for Real Different which contains some great lines and is one of my favourite Rats songs- " I want to be different and I want to be dangerous / doctor what's the cure? etc.

 



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Mark L


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Until lyrics in pop mags or on album covers put me right, these howlers:

Did you slip the noose when the peace broke loose

Just incessant blind

Mirrors going cheap these days

It's only 8 o clock, but you're already bought

and i think and sing Like clockwork

 

....what was I thinking?



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noelindublin


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Rather than mishearing I've got an instance of 'false addition' where for years I used to think that the line was 'Put on the bright suit of red/ Head for the right side of town....'

The line is in fact 'Put on the bright suit Billy'.

All The Rage and Man At The Top have yet to have published lyrics. The former is hard to make out, pity because Geldof is a great lyricist and there are probably some great lines lost for posterity.



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Mark L


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Yes, I would love to understand the lyrices to IATR

I am lost particularly with 'don't talk to me 'bout teenage............and.........I don't believe it..........'



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ArrGee


Back To Boomtown

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"Silicon chips and spider heads get switched to overload"

I spent three to four weeks wondering why the first line of Mondays, sounded like Bowie had written it.



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noelindublin


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Before I bought the album I was ensure about the "Its Dale Carnegie gone wild..' bit , in Diamond Smiles.

My first introduction or knowledge of Dale Carnegie was though the Rats song. Of course this was in 1979, long before Wikipedia and instant information.

Dale Carnegie was an American writer who wrote a series of books on how to influence people, and general folk wisdom that could be applied in business and personal affairs. Carnegie lived from 1888 to 1955.

The line 'Oh everybody tries/Its Dale Carnegie gone wild' I suppose is about the debutante Diamond trying to gain attention is a somewhat artificial and obviously contrived way, straight out of Dale Carnegie's books.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Carnegie



-- Edited by noelindublin on Monday 7th of November 2011 01:50:17 PM

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suss


In the Long Grass

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I was wearing this t-shirt at gig recently which prompted Garry to remark that the Bromyard interpretation is 'the silicon chip in ciderhead' 

Boomtown Rats T-shirt I Don't Like Mondays lyric T-shirt



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suss


In the Long Grass

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Mark,

My interpretation of IATR is at http://boomtownrats.activeboard.com/t38454651/its-all-the-rage-lyrics/

although I struggled with same bits you did by looks of it. Maybe we need the Geldof bods on this forum to politely enquire at one of his gigs.



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jamieuka


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I can't believe no one has mentioned, "Maybe I'm a mothball"!

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Mark L


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Another TOTP performance of Lookin' after No 1 coming up tomorrow at 7.30pm on BBC4. Dave Lee Travis also introduces Hank the Knife & the Jets, the Stranglers, Baccara, Stardust, La Belle Epoque, Leo Sayer, Meri Wilson and a Legs & Co dance sequence.

For soime years I misheard the following lines in this song:

I am an island, I'll tie ya up myself and when I get old, old enough to die, I'll never leave anybody something anyway



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suss


In the Long Grass

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Mark L wrote:

I misheard the following lines in this song:

I am an island, I'll tie ya up myself and when I get old, old enough to die, I'll never leave anybody something anyway

 Not a Beatles fan then Mark?? Can understand not being a Donne fan maybe (don't know anyone who is)....



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suss


In the Long Grass

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Took me a while to realise the line in Tonight wasn't "if you feel a little itchy now you want my middle views".



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Mark L


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Ah, now I see the reversal of the relevant line from Help! You live and learn.

There's so many of these, aren't there? I never understood 'Boney what you see, fingers....' from House on Fire until the purchase of V Deep.

Or 'I think 'n sing, like clockwork'

It's embarrassing, really.

 



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suss


In the Long Grass

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Indeed. Can also remember merrily singing 'Cor Britain gets the cold' for a while until I saw the lyrics were 'coat buttoned 'gainst the cold' no.

Going back to Clockwork - not so much misheard as wasted on me but I didn't realise (nearly said 'clock' there) until relatively recent times that 'Time is a concept by which we measure our age' was based on Lennon's 'God is a concept by which we measure our pain'...or at least I assume it is.

Any other plagiarism from Bob we know of?



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Mark L


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Wished i could remember the Van Morrison song, but the double hand clap at the start of Mondays is definitely reminiscent some might say.



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Mark L


Loudmouth

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From Banana Republic:

Mirrors going cheap these days, prize, a bullet in the head



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Mark L


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...and from 'Mondays' courtesy of a mate down the pub at the week-end:

She once did play with her toys alright

 



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noelindublin


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For years I could never get the line from Bowie's Life On Mars "See the mice in their million ????, from ?????? to the Norfolk Broads". I used to think it was "mice in their million hearts" . It is in fact "million hordes" and the rest is "from Ibeza to the Norfork Broads".

I am currently listening to Dylans Blood On The Tracks and the lyrics are really good- but without looking them up you can miss so much, and get so much wrong as well.

 



-- Edited by noelindublin on Monday 11th of February 2013 04:27:35 PM

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Mark L


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The subtitles guys at the Beeb were at it last night on TOTP:

'Gonna get out of school, work in a silk factory'

there were a few others, but that made me laugh the most.

 



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Ian D


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Mark L wrote:

The subtitles guys at the Beeb were at it last night on TOTP:

'Gonna get out of school, work in a silk factory'

there were a few others, but that made me laugh the most.

 

 Sounds like the Beeb have lost the thread then.



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Lisa


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Ian D wrote:
Mark L wrote:

The subtitles guys at the Beeb were at it last night on TOTP:

'Gonna get out of school, work in a silk factory'

there were a few others, but that made me laugh the most.

 

 Sounds like the Beeb have lost the thread then.

 Tee hee!  Bet they can't worm their way out of that one!

smile



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Lisa


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They did another song about worms, green ones - Lime Clockworms .... I think there's a theme here ...

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Lisa


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They've definitely got a thing about worms - should we be worried?

"Squashed and squeezed like a dried-up, rinsed out worm" (Under their Thumb)

Boomtown Worms doesn't have quite the same ring to it though ..

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Mark L


Loudmouth

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No, but it's a play on worms



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Mark L


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I said: Wished i could remember the Van Morrison song, but the double hand clap at the start of Mondays is definitely reminiscent some might say

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally recalled it. It's called Wavelength and the similarity occurs at 1:45



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suss


In the Long Grass

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Made me laugh that...the thought of you trying to place it for over a year. No wonder you always post so late. That been keeping you awake all this time?? biggrin



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Mark L


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Up all night mate



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Mark L


Loudmouth

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'what did we give to ya all' for 'what are we guilty of' - A Hold of Me, 4th single from In the Long Grass, 1985.



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Mark L


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Listening to Back to Boomtown on the commute this evening and the opening line to Having my Picture taken, was for years misheard as:

'Howdy Phyllis - watch the beardie'

Which I gather is meant to be 'Hold it,  fellas - watch the birdie'

 

 



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manatthetop


In the Long Grass

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When I 1st heard Do the rat. I used to think he was singing, Do the rat until your in your grave (Do the rat until the break of day)



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Mark L


Loudmouth

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For years, I thought in Icicle in the Sun, Bob sang 'Listen mate, I don't want out' but this is officially given as 'Meet somebody going out'. Other errors I made:

'You're bursting out your time has come' is surprisingly 'You're bursting out and having fun'

'Number one here I come' is 'Number one rule of thumb'

Anyone else interpreted them like me?



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Mark L


Loudmouth

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Trash Glam Baby 

Dancing by herself at the Moscow tonight 

Is.. Dancing by herself at the Moth Club tonight 

A club for mainly emerging new bands in Hackney. 



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zippaguppis


I Don't Like Mondays

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I thought "Junkie town" in Walking Down Town was "Jumping down" for the longest time...



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