‘What songs did you completely misinterpret?’ – 23 people who got dazed and confused about music

If you’ve ever misheard the lyrics to a song, you’ll know how easy it is to then complete misunderstand what the whole thing is about, usually for years, until someone finally puts you right.

Over on the AskUK subreddit user angry2320 asked ‘What songs did you completely misinterpret?’ and followed up with a couple of good examples of their own:

When I was younger, I thought ‘I kissed a girl’ was about a gay man who was confused, because he kissed a girl and liked it. I also thought Dolly Parton was working 9pm to 5am, and that’s why she was so annoyed.

Lots of other people were keen to add the songs that had got them in a muddle, like these…

1.

‘As a kid, for a long time I didn’t hear the words ‘Pour some sugar on me’, instead I thought they were singing ‘Awesome Sugar Cookie’ so I just assumed the song was about a particularly tasty biscuit.’
–MeowSaysEllieTheCat

2.

‘No one ever listens to song lyrics properly. The amount of weddings I’ve been to where the first dance or the entrance song is wildly inappropriate is ridiculous. Ed Sheeran’s ‘The A Team’ song was my favourite.’
–weeble182

3.

‘I went to a wedding where a guest was annoyed because the DJ was given a list of banned songs and Bruno Mars’ ‘Marry You’ was on there. As if it’s unreasonable for newlyweds to not want a song about a drunken quicky Vegas wedding and quickie divorce at their reception.’
–KrytensNippleNuts

4.

‘When I was a kid I thought Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was about an alien that came to earth on holiday and got stuck here.’
–Fun-Membership-9795

5.

‘I always thought that Copacabana by Barry Manilow was just a harmless cheesy pop song, not a harrowing recount of a Brazilian showgirl who loses her mind and becomes an alcoholic after witnessing her boyfriend being murdered in the nightclub she worked at.’
–wordsfromlee

6.

‘I fell into the trap of only hearing the chorus of Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’, and thinking that she wants to find somebody who is similar to you, rather than that she wants to find somebody in the same way that you found somebody.

Perhaps the lyrics are meant to hint at both, but I originally only heard the former whereas if you read all of them, the latter is the main meaning.’
–cuccir

7.

‘I saw a car advert in recent times that used Green Day’s ‘Good Riddance (Time of your Life)’ which is a breakup song.’
–SamVimesBootTheory

8.

‘When I was a kid I thought ‘Under Pressure’ was ‘Oh, Refreshers’, as in the fizzy sweets. An 80s/90s ad man definitely missed a trick there.’
–KeyLog256

9.

‘I fully believed The Police were singing about Roxanne, the lady in charge of all traffic lights.’
–im_confused_always

10.

”I Don’t Like Mondays’ – Boomtown Rats. Used to think it was just a song about being pissed that the weekend was over, never really listened to the lyrics that deeply. I was way off.’
–INEKROMANTIKI

11.

‘I thought ‘Nights in White Satin’ was actually about knights who wore white satin instead of armour.’
–sunshinedeadhead

12.

”Total Eclipse of the Heart’ by Bonnie Tyler, I always thought it was about a woman who felt her romance with her partner was slipping away and she believed she could save it if he gave her one more night of passion.

At a pub quiz I learned that the song is actually about a female vampire in love with Count Orlok, the vampire in Nosferatu and was originally titled ‘Vampires in Love’ and was written for a musical production of Nosferatu.’
–LordJebusVII