This post is very link intensive.. it's just in case you are unfamiliar with any of the songs I mention.
"I can't make out a word he is saying Ab" Said a not so elderly friend to me recently. I'd sent him some John Martyn to grease the wheels of study, thinking that the melodic quality and instrumental vocal application would be somewhat soothing to him, as he wrote the final chapters of his book. Sadly it was not to be, he found the slidey, imprecise annunciation frustrating rather than soothing. I was perplexed, "but its beautiful" I said, "how could you not love that 16 bar blues structure, altered from the traditional 12. And the way he uses his voice as an instrument? How? Not to mention the WORDS!” I stopped; fully aware I was in danger of geeking out completely. I do that a lot; very few people have the patience for it so I try not to get too carried away. "I like to know what he is singing about, he may as well be singing in the club style for all I know” was the simple response. (Incidentally and somewhat unrelated.. I personally think this is the best song sung in the club style)
I guess if words aren't important to you, or you have a penchant for foreign grooves, then you possibly won't have encountered the issue I am going to talk about. I am aware of at least two people whose approach to music is much more about the whole experience, the words, melody and tempo segue together without a dominant component, you might call it a purists enjoyment. We all listen to music differently, this is true. We all respond to various things when we listen. Some seek a beat they can bust a groove to, others blindly follow a manufactured formula of so-many-bpm's I cannot possibly hope to count in one go. For many though, and I mean this with particular onus on popular music- lyrics are a powerful draw. How many of us attach memory or meaning to a hook or an obscure line they heard once upon a time? I have been writing about music for a long time and have touched upon the topic of lyrists as modern day poets. It is however, FAR too serious a topic for me to talk about here. I wish to talk about the more pressing issue that means people spend large portions of their lives harbouring under the misguided notion that Kate Bush really did mean to sing "Heathcliff- it’s me, I’m a tree, I’m a wombat".
Ahh the misheard song lyric, how many of us have mumbled our way through verse and chorus of various songs only to have our suspicions confirmed that what we thought we were hearing was not the rantings of a questionable lyricist at all. Just recently my friend Neil confessed to spending most of his formative years under the misguided impression that Cornershop were singing about a "Green poodle basher on the M5" when it was in fact a song about Indian music film legend Asha Bhosle (it really is). A quick internet search yielded some pretty amusing misheard lyrics:
Robert Palmer's Addicted To Love becomes: Might as well face it, you're a d**k with a glove. The Oasis anthem Wonderwall also tops the list with "you're gonna be the one that saves me" becoming "you're gonna be the one at Sainsbury's". Fans of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody may be familiar with "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me..." being misinterpreted as “The algebra has a devil for a sidekick eeeeeeeeee”.... (not too sure about that one but it is apparently a very common mistake). An oft misheard line amongst a lot of people my age is a line from the Gala song – Freed from Desire- “My lovers got no money, he's got his strong beliefs”. “Beliefs in this instance becomes dungarees.. or more amusing is the totally made up word trombolees. Can I just question what exactly a Trombolee is?. I must admit there was a year or two back along where I thought it was a song about a dungaree wearing lover but to actually INVENT a word? This is not a theory based on one person, several people in my life have independently got "trombolee" from somewhere. The word will be in the Oxford English dictionary before you know it. I am actually going to tag this post trombolee and see what happens. I would love to hear your definitions in the comments please, if you have them.
It is one thing to get the words wrong in the safety of your own home, it is quite another to have the inevitable happen at a mixed gathering, or worse... a gig Where the decibel level is ultimately higher and the likelihood of the ego inflated singer letting the crowd do the work is greatly increased. Many a time I have wanted to turn to the guy or girl warbling along incorrectly (it’s usually guys incidentally, in my experience) and ask them to CEASE! For the love of god CEASE! You are ruining this for all of us! But those of you who read my music stuff regularly will know how I feel about spoiling anyone’s enjoyment of the live music experience, so I just let these things lie and sing louder (and I hope, more accurately).
Of course no one likes to get these things wrong. I like to think I have a pretty practiced ear for words and melody but even I screw up from time to time. I don’t think many people witnessed my spectacular gaffe singing along to Because of You by Kelly Clarkson who I assure you “never strays too far from a Cyborg”, but just know that it happened. I know she is American and so exempt from the Henry Higgins lament “oh why cant the English teach their children how to speak?” but really, she does sing Cyborg! And after reading this post, I hope you will too.
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