Jessie Foreigners language failures

Got any interesting thoughts on a set of lyrics? Any that don't involve the word "indeed"? Find yourself struggling to decipher all those obtuse references Von makes? Read "1959 And All That" and still no clearer? Nope, us neither. Postcards found lying in a skip around the back of the Chemists can be found here... Don't say you weren't warned.
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mh
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stufarq wrote:For years I used to think that Walk Away included the line "If you don't really know or understand the serpent's dance". Very goth!
Blimey! So did I!

"The flames of justice, souvenirs" in SKOS was another. :oops:
If I told them once, I told them a hundred times to put 'Spinal Tap' first and 'Puppet Show' last.
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stufarq
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James Blast wrote:"Had monkey and stuff"
Was it a shaved monkey?
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Jeremiah
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stufarq wrote:For years I used to think that Walk Away included the line "If you don't really know or understand the serpent's dance". Very goth!

And I was worries that Andrew was having an alien baby because, in Body & Soul, he sang "Heaven and I hope it's human".

My favourite source for misheard lyrics is Japanese releases. They always come with a lyric sheet but for some reason, instead of getting the official lyrics they get someone (who's brave enough to identify themselves - in the case of FALAA, take a bow Linda Hennrick) to write down what they think are the lyrics.

Apart from the gaps left for the bits she couldn't work out, and the German lyric to Marian, which simply read "Not in English", the best is in A Rock And A Hard Place, where the poor girl is "swung from the church". And, despite printing the full title, there's still a chorus ending with "In fact I mean logic".

I seem to remember the Ultravox lyrics being particularly hilarious.
So what ARE the real lyrics for this bit of A Rock and a Hard Place? I haven't seen any official lyrics for this song but it does sound like 'swung from the church'.

My own best mis-hearing is probably "count the fake daughters of the English slot" instead of 'counterfeit dollars or the English zloty' in More.

On a related topic, I always used to mistake some of the synth sounds in Flood I for the sound of the phone ringing. Eventually I got a new phone.
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James Blast wrote:"Had monkey and stuff"
So it's not just the looks that were like Michael Jackson back then? :lol:
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Instead of "Hand of God" in this corrosion I always heard "End of God" - wishful thinking :D
made in the 80s
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stufarq
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Jeremiah wrote:So what ARE the real lyrics for this bit of A Rock and a Hard Place? I haven't seen any official lyrics for this song but it does sound like 'swung from the church'.
Isn't it "Sworn from the church and the body of love"?

Edit: Just checked Postcards and the actual lyric is "One from the church, from the valley of the" (having just followed me down from igor with her bangles and her reference). The valley of what precisely is left to our imaginations.

At least mine made sense!
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There's a demo I had where he does actually say "from the valley of the <something>" but I could never actually hear what exactly properly.
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stufarq
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Considering Igor's involvement, it's probably not a good valley, anyway. Definitely one to venture into armed with pitch forks and flaming torches.

And I shudder to think what job he gave her a reference for.
Any more of that and we'll be round your front door with the quick-setting whitewash and the shaved monkey.
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Dark wrote:Used to be Gary Naylor's site, the Fourth Floor.

And I hear it as "fourth floor". There's no reason why it shouldn't be so.
Oh dear christ, I DO hear it as "four-four" now. :eek:

(I still prefer "fourth floor" though ;))
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Izzy HaveMercy
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SINsister wrote:I've always found it hard to believe that ol' Von would've been sloppy enough to repeat words in "the Damage Done," (i.e., 'floor') creating lyrics that, imho, make no sense.

[Somebody tell me about the rhythm of the 4th floor.
Somebody tell me about the rhythm of the dance floor.]

WTF is this "4th floor," and why has it got rhythm, anyway?

I've always heard the lyrics as "rhythm of the four-four" (or 4-4) - as in time signature, which *would* make sense.
Year and a half after this, and after reading DARK's comment, I always liked the '4-4' interpretation better, and indeed makes much more sense.

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Being645
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:lol: ... very funny topic, full of jokes ...
so, I feel inclined to confess I'm still convinced that (apart from this year) :von: always sang
- and repeatedly so for years -

... another she is waiting ... (instead of another shade of empty)

whenever he detected my face in the crowd ... :urff: :: :evil: :: :lol:


Not so this year, giving me hope for a little progress in impartiality ... but no, all ended up in something like ...

the summer is over ... :? :: :roll: :: :? :: :urff: :urff: :urff:

no wonder, certain papers would ask the next morning
why some people seemed to be unable to retire in dignity ... :urff: :: :evil: :: :urff: :: :evil: : : : :lol:


Fortunately, that frustrating attitude dissolved in the following concerts ... :: ;D :: :D :: ;D ::

ending Flood II with words like: Yes, please ... or ... NOO!!! : ;D : ;D : :notworthy: : :notworthy: : :notworthy: : ...
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Okay: Here's some more, I just had a session of FALAA remaster.
On a Wire:
Wall to wall to where you dwell
:?: ..naaah! Skipp, it's "Walter, Walter where you dwell?"

In Poison Door I misheard one refrain start with "Where we shed our smiles". Somehow I like that line, one can read into it.
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Being645
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:lol: ... so, a nice composition in terms of ... Walter ... waiting for the delinquent ... :lol:

Btw, the original line is in fact
Wall to wall to where you tread
much better than a neighborhood thread ... ;D :lol:
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Debi
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Izzy HaveMercy wrote:'Lights': thought for quite some years I heard 'And the brand new darkness will arrive; we wait'.

'Dominion': heard this song for the first time years ago, on a tape without title or artist mentioned, and I really believed for years after that the lyrics were 'someday, someday, someday, dumb Indian'.

IZ.
LMAO :lol:
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UTG - used to hear 'my, my, my simmer down' instead of the more pedestrian '999 singer down'
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"Another shade of flu, another shade of yellow..."
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Being645
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:lol:

When I heard This Corrosion on the radio for the first time, I didn't realize it's The Sisters and wondered:

Who's that crazy singer guy transferring these somewhat French standards to English roller coaster pop ...

Not, that I didn't like it ... :lol:
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