MORE MISHEARD LYRICS CLEARED UP...SORT OF

OR...I AM NIT-PICKINGLY THOROUGH SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE

"Daydream" The Lovin' Spoonful, 1966
"The Weight" The Band, 1968

I'm already on record about how frustrating it can be looking for answers to misheard lyrics on all those lyrics websites. It's definitely Believe At Your Own Risk, as far as I'm concerned. What some lyrics posters think are the correct lyrics are simply baffling. Sure, they may be right in a way - that's what it may sound like, but common sense should tell them it some meanings just don't work. For example, here's a line from "The Weight" by The Band: "He said I will fix your ___ if you'll take Jack my dog." Without much effort (my kind of research!) I found three postings for the missing word, claiming it was rack, rags, or rat. See what I mean - even if you are so certain that you would bet six months pay that he's singing rags or rat, what sense does either one make? How do you fix a rat (other that taking it to the vet to be neutered, like any responsible pet owner would do). And rags? How, and more importantly why, would you fix a rag? I think I've made my point. Personally, I always thought he might be saying wreck. That isn't too far fetched, right? But it also could be rack. Either one would be acceptable, if a little enigmatic, but hey, the whole song is a little bit strange. And of course I mean strange in a good way. After viewing the YouTube video, however, I think it's pretty clear he's singing rack. But maybe racks and wrecks are in the ear of the beholder. Make that belistener. Now on to the next.

The last time I heard this Spoonful song on the radio, it was a perfect warm spring day. Truly the kind of day that would make anyone want to skip out on work and go flop down in a field. But soon that one obscure phrase came along like a little dark raincloud to spoil the fun: "A pie in the face for being _____." Candidates I found for this include a sleepy bull toad, a sleep'n bull doag, and asleep before dawn. Hmm. I have to admit, back in the 60s I did think for a short while that it was asleep before dawn. But lately I've been starting to wonder. There are not, to my knowledge, any such things as bull toads (at least not on this continent), but that could be a case of artistic license to rhyme with "load." Ditto doag. I think that is a variation on "dog" only pronounced like what the cowboys call calves: doggies (dough-geys). Regardless, the best part for me, being a life-long Soupy Sales fan, is the pie-in-the-face. So that's the results for those two songs. Maybe I haven't totally solved they mystery in each case, now at least now when you sing along, and you come to those two places in question, and you have to sing something, you can make a more informed choice. I hope this has been helpful...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKl9ZmS0NmQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UF3Y1k2Q6g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As7MaQSc7qc
Soupy and White Fang. While you're waiting for the inevitable pie (which comes right at the very end) just savor the expressions on Soupy's face, especially when he's not even talking. What a comedic master!