Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Misheard Lyrics, Footnotes, and Other Random Thoughts

So, if you've been a faithful reader of this blog back into the days of xanga (davebj912), you know that one of my favorite topics is misheard lyrics. Some of my favorites have been:

1. Paul Simon's "Kodachrome." I always thought that when he sang on the breakdown, "Mama don't take my kodachrome/Mama's don't take my kodachrome/Mama's don't take my kodachrome away," was "Mama's gonna take my coat and throw/Mama's gonna take my coat and throw/Mama's gonna take my coat and throw it away."

2. Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer." This was more a misinterpretation of what the lyrics meant. I heard "Asking only workmen's wages I go looking for a job,/but I get no offers/just a come on from the whores on 7th avenue./I do declare there were times when I was so lonesome,/I took some comfort there." I never made the connection that he took comfort in the whores. I thought he was taking comfort in his own loneliness, which was very existential and interesting when I was younger.

3. Third Eye Blind's "Jumper." Instead of "cut ties from all the lies that you've been living in," I heard "capsized by all the lies that you've been living in." I could just visualize that ship sinking under the weight of all the lies; it looked something like White Squall.

My latest one comes from Carole King's classic, "I Feel the Earth Move." Here's the YouTube video; fast-forward to 1:4o and listen.


What she actually sings in: "I know that my emotions are something I just can't tame./I've just got to have you, baby." What I always heard: "I know that my emotions are something I just can't tame/I've just got to have your baby." I think I figured this one out about a year ago, and it makes much more sense. I have to admit I always thought that it came across a little desperate to sing, "I've just got to have your baby." Not to mention, if the guy has any commitment issues, that line is certainly not going to curb his fears.

Yesterday I spent five hours correcting footnotes and bibliographic material. While this may seem laborious (and many parts of it were), there was something satisfying about this mindless work that could be checked off as I went through the paper. The biggest mistake I made was thinking that if one author quoted another in his/her book, I could footnote it by writing "qtd. in" followed by the info for the book that was quoting the other. Turns out you need to have the original information, which seems like cheating if I got it from a different source, but that's the rules! So, I had to go to all of those footnotes and try to find the original books that these various authors were quoting. It was kind of like a treasure hunt, a really boring and tedious treasure hunt that ends with you having a correct footnote instead of finding a bunch of gold doubloons or jewels. I ended up finishing all the footnotes and bibliographic citations up to the last chapter, so it was a good day's work even if my eyes were starting to cross towards the end. Hopefully I will have a rough draft done by the end of Spring Break!

Whenever I shave, I'm always a bit nervous when my razor crosses over the adam's apple. For some reason, I think if you nick that there's some type of reservoir that will burst.

You know what's ridiculous? These states that are passing or trying to pass anti-sharia laws (Alabama, Tennessee, Indiana). I doubt sharia law is going to take hold in Alabama anytime soon, just sayin'. Not to mention it seems crazy and racist.

In a little over an hour I'll be heading to Paw Paw, Michigan! I'm very excited to be at a cabin on a lake or, as Minnesotans call it, heaven. I need a few days out of the concrete jungle. So, I should probably pack, and by pack I mean watch episodes of Seinfeld until ten minutes before I leave, at which point I will scramble to get ready. Later.

6 comments:

  1. That's what I thought about the Boxer too (until now)...never knew he took comfort in the whores.

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  2. I had the same confusion about I Feel the Earth Move until very recently. Kyle still makes fun of me about it. And did you know that Kyle used to think the words to Kodachrome were "Momma, don't take my clothes and throw 'em" ?

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  3. Also, you may remember that Kodachrome was played during a part of Coneheads, the movie. And because of that I thought that instead of the words, "Please don't take my Kodachrome away," he was saying "The day my cone, cone grows big."

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  4. Sarah, I know! Doesn't it just kind of make the song a little dirtier or something?

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  5. Jenny, I knew none of this! Alos, I think one of my favorite posts of yours is still when you listened to Creedence's "Down on the Corner" and attempted to decipher the lyrics. Yes, I did go back to www.xanga.com/setter41 and find it. It is:
    "Down on the corner, howdy in the street/
    Whether the popo or the plains, grab a nickel, campy feet."

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  6. paw paw for Jesus!

    When I was little, my sisters and I thought that the line "pumping every minute, girl" from Bobby Brown's song Good Enough was "pumpernickel miracle." hahaha... now, looking at the lyrics to this song I see how entirely inappropriate it was for us to be listening to.

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