September 2007 - Posts
It seems that it's easy to mishear a lyric in almost any song out there. But some songs, and some singers, show up much more than others. Here are some of the songs that just come out as one big mumble. Call them songs in the key of slur, or maybe the misheard lyrics hall of fame.
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Taking another break from the song-lyric insanity to offer up a Multi-link Monday. Have a cool link to suggest? Post it in the comments.
• Remember when we were trying to find band names in that Virgin Atlantic poster? In a similar vein: Can you find all the "Seinfeld" references in this image? Answers are here. (Via the wonderful PopCandy.)
• Those of us who care about punctuation will either love or hate this site: The "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks highlights all those signs that were created by someone who obviously slept through English 101. "Why" do certain people feel the "need" to put "quotation marks" around "everything"? The "world" may never "know." This cake not only has extra quote marks, but completely unncessary parentheses. (Thanks to Kurt for the link!) And I couldn't leave this topic without also pointing out a classic link, the Gallery of "Misused" Quotation Marks.
• Have a song in your head that you just can't identify? If you can upload a sample of yourself humming or singing it to WatZatSong, the site's readers will try and help you figure out what it is.
• I'm terrible at this online game, but it's fun and addictive: See how far you can fling a paper airplane.
• The Warholizer lets you upload your own digital photos, and it turns them into the kind of multi-image, multi-color portrait that Andy Warhol made so famous. Very cool.
The misheard lyrics comments have been hilarious. Two songs especially have started debates -- Keith Urban's "You'll Think of Me" and Toto's "Africa." In Urban's song, he does indeed sing, "Take your CAT and leave my sweater," but a reader comment saying that he hears "take your CAP" has started a bunch of readers buzzing, thinking they've been hearing it wrong all this time. Now I'm no Keith Urban expert, but the "CAT' version is indeed given on his Web site as the correct lyrics for the song. Meow!
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We've been discussing made-up and just plain bad lyrics, death songs, and more, but one topic that keeps cropping up is the lair of the misheard lyric (as in "wrapped up like a douche"). From the numerous versions of popular songs that exist only in our heads, you'd think we were all half-deaf.
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Time for another time-wasting Multi-link Monday. Remember, you can suggest sites for inclusion -- just post them in the comments and I'll check them out.
• Did you grow up spending days poring over holiday catalogs from Sears, Penneys and the like, admiring the pages filled with toys and wishing for that Barbie Dream House/Evel Knievel Chopper Cycle/whatever? Now you can relive those days, because someone with an incredible amount of patience has scanned entire catalogs from our past online. Get prepared to spend hours at Wishbook Web, and share your favorite finds in the comments.
• I didn't discover this until after the Sept. 11 tributes last week, but there is a large, clear Webcam focused on the construction work at New York City's Ground Zero, the former World Trade Center site. One of the sharpest Webcams I've seen in a while.
• If roses took LSD, or hung out with the Grateful Dead and decided to tie-dye themselves, they might look a little something like these Rainbow Roses. Perfect for the bride who can't decide on just one or two wedding colors -- you gotta see them to believe them. (Link via my pal Ann in the UK.)
• I confess, I have a soft spot for Jelly Belly jellybeans and all their goofy flavors, from Buttered Popcorn to Chocolate Pudding. I actually entered their "recipe" contest, in which consumers suggest a number of flavors that, when eaten together, create a fun taste. Mine (Bahama Mama, like the tropical drink) didn't make the cut, but some other interesting ones did. You can read the recipes and vote for your favorite here. Caramel Pear Torte sounds darn good to me.
• Reader-submitted link: Writes Stephanie: "You've probably already linked this before, but I've never seen it and it's pretty cool: The World Clock." We haven't linked it, Stephanie, and it is indeed pretty cool. It tracks way more than time -- temperature, the world population, traffic accidents, diseases, the U.S. prison population, the number of cars made, and more.
While we're on the topic of wacky lyrics, let's talk about death. Specifically, the spate of teen death songs that had a real heyday in the 1950s. I wasn't around then, but I remember in the 1980s I bought a great Rhino Records compilation of them -- yes, on vinyl. It was called "Teen Tragedy" and the best part about it was that it had a built-in Kleenex box right in the record jacket, so if "Patches" or "Tell Laura I Love Her" made you start bawling on the spot, hey, at least facial tissue was easily at hand.
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Steve Miller's line about "the pompatus of love" is far from the only lyric to confuse readers. One of the songs that comes up over and over is "Blinded by the Light," written by Bruce Springsteen, but famously performed by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. You know the confusion: Wrapped up
like a douche? Little Early Pearly
with his anus curly wurly? A
Nutter Butter in the night? Just what the heck was going on in that song, anyway?
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The post on awful song lyrics garnered so much discussion while I was off for Labor Day that I'm not quite ready to leave the topic yet. Certain songs came up over and over again in your comments, one of which featured readers arguing about whether or not Steve Miller made up a word. Let's dig into the mystery of "the pompatus of love," and in the meantime, you can call me Maurice. Some people do.
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I was gone for much of Labor Day week, but now I'm back. Let's get back to our time-wasting Multi-link Mondays.
• Have I linked to this Intelligence Test before? It offers up an abbreviated phrase, such as "24 H in a D," and you have to figure out that it is short for "24 hours in a day." Warning: I wouldn't consider this a fair "intelligence" test -- some of the phrases are really out there -- but it's fun anyway.
• There are plenty of sites out there that will tell you what events happened on the day you were born, but Kakorama added a twist I hadn't seen before. Select your birthdate and the site will show you what the moon looked like that day. (On mine, it was a waxing gibbous moon.) The site also tells you your astrology sign in Celtic, Aztec, Egyptian and Chinese astrology, how old you are on Mars, and other fun tidbits. (Via Tech Space.)
• Think it must be hard to explain Einstein's theory of relativity? Now try explaining it in words of four letters or less. (Via Metafilter.)
• I love randomly discovered notes -- I sent a note in to Found Magazine once, and they included it on their site. There's now a site that gets even more specific, sharing only passive-aggressive notes. Dirty dishes in shared apartments bring out a good number of the notes, but I also love this roommate fight over some placemats featuring jolly chefs.
• Reader-submitted link o' the week: Cinbad sends Despair, Inc., that fun site parodying the so-called motivational posters that are found in too many offices these days. Cinbad writes: "There are really great. The sad thing is, I had to give serious thought to which of my friends would really 'get' the posters. I hope you enjoy them!" I think this one, Ambition, is my favorite.
