Knife Edge is a track from the debut Emerson, Lake & Palmer LP. The words added by Greg Lake deal with madness and desperation.
ELP – Knife Edge – Beat-Club 1970
Category: Lyrics
Covers – La Grange by ZZ Top
La Grange, by ZZ Top, was on their 1973 album Tres Hombres and reached number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was written by Billy Gibbons, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard. Here it is covered by “that little ole band from Peanuts”, Charlie Brown (Guitar and Vocals), Snoopy (Bass) and Pig-Pen (Drums).
Mondegreen
A mondegreen is simply the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase in a way that gives it a new meaning. Sylvia Wright coined the term in 1954, writing that as a girl she had misheard the lyric “laid him on the green”
in the Scottish ballad “The Bonny Earl of Murray” as “Lady Mondegreen”. Most of my mondegreens are from song lyrics with my favorite being Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising that I still hear “There’s a bathroom on the right” with the correct line being “There’s a Bad Moon on the Rise”.
I believe that a lot of lyric misinterpretations come from mumbling singers, hard to hear sections of a song and accents of the lyricist. In the good ole days, you couldn’t just look up the correct lyrics in Google or even know a song title unless you happened to catch the DJ introducing the song.
Jellyfish – The King is Half-Undressed (1990)
“She dots her i’s
with a smiley face”
The King is Half-Undressed was the first song I heard by this incredible band, Jellyfish. This was the video I saw and knew I was going to like them. None of their music ever disappointed!
Written by Andy Sturmer and Roger Manning
So this is where she stands at night
On this cold avenue of lights
The red and greens but mostly reds
For you he’s stopping
In seeing him she knows him less
His stick is wet, she’s half undressed
And all and all they’re both obsessed
With so much nothing
I know it’s hard for you to see
What lies behind’s a mystery
If words could speak they’d mean even less
When the king is half undressed
She dots her “I’s” with a smiley face
A work of art in all but taste
The fool deserves the bed he’s made
Where idiots slumber
Divine she is to aire this fate
A crack of smile through all this hate
Means nothing more in this nervous state
Of so much nothing
I know it’s hard for you to see
The truth behind is misery
If words could speak they’d mean even less
When the king is half undressed
Blue autumns
Sunshine kisses
Hearts and flowers
And broken wishes
I know it’s hard for you to see
What lies behind’s a mystery
If words could speak they’d mean even less
When the king is half undressed
I know it’s hard for you to see
The truth behind is misery
If words could speak they’d mean even less
When the king is half undressed
[…] “Universal Soldier: Regeneration on Netflix DVD. It is an alternative sequel to the original Universal Soldier (1992), ignoring the…
These guys are awesome!
What a great story! This makes me never want to eat a Nathan’s hotdog!
[…] hot dogs because he wanted people to experience the best hot dog ever. I was skeptical, being a Varsity…
Covers – Baby, Now That I Found You
“Baby, Now That I Found You” was written by Tony Macaulay and John MacLeod and released, as their debut, by The Foundations in 1967. It hit #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 in the UK.
Covers – Oh Well
“Oh Well” is the 1969 Peter Green written song for Fleetwood Mac. In the UK the single reached #2 and in the US, while only making it to #55, it was Fleetwood Macs first song in the Hot 100.
Covers – The Word
The Word was written by Lennon and McCartney and was released on December the 3rd, 1965 on their Rubber Soul LP.
Covers – Summertime Blues
Summertime Blues was wriiten by Eddie Cochran and his manager Jerry Capehart. It was released in 1958 and peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald was owned by the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and was registerd in the Port of Milwaukee. She first launched in 1958, built by Great Lakes Engineering Works.
She was a lake freighter 729 feet in length, 75 feet wide, and carried taconite ore pellets from mines near Duluth, Minnesota to ports in Detroit, Toledo and others. She was the largest ship to haul iron ore on the Great Lakes.
On her final voyage the Edmund Fitzgerald left Superior, Wisconsin (Nov 9, 1975) with a full load (25,400 tons). With a seasoned crew and Captain (Ernest M. McSorley) on board, they were joined by a second freighter, SS Arthur M. Anderson. The weather turned bad the next day.
The Arthur M. Anderson received two messages from the Edmund Fitzgerald. The first “I have a bad list, lost both radars. And am taking heavy seas over the deck. One of the worst seas I’ve ever been in.” and the second, and last, was “We are holding our own.”
Only two empty lifeboats were found and no crew. A U.S. Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion aircraft found the sunken ship 4 days later. The Edmund Fitzgerald was broken in half and some have recently speculated that the front was on a giant wave and the rear on another tearing the hull in half.
I’m Not Gonna Let It Bother Me Tonight
Writers: Buddy Buie, Robert Nix, Dean Daughtry
I picked up the paper this morning
And read all the daily blues
The world is one big tragedy
I wonder what I can do
About all the pain and injustice
About all of the sorrow
We’re living in a danger zone
The world could end tomorrow
But I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
Tomorrow I might go as far as suicide
But I won’t let it bother me tonight
Life on the street is a jungle
A struggle to keep up the pace
I just can’t beat that old dog eat dog
The rats keep winnin’ the rat race
But I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
The world is in an uproar and I see no end in sight
But I won’t let it bother me tonight
I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
Tomorrow I might go as far as suicide
But I won’t let it bother me tonight
Lord, Lord, Lord
We got nothing but trouble
I’ve done all I can do today
So bartender pour me a double, right now
But I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
The world is in an uproar and I see no end in sight
But I won’t let it bother me tonight
I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
No I’m not gonna let it bother me tonight
Tomorrow I might go as far as suicide
But I will not let it bother me tonight
[…] Dixie Dregs on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno January 7, 1993. They throw in some Eddie Cochran, Lynyrd…