Misheard Song Lyrics -> Stories -> Duran Duran

The Story: I have had this album in various forms through the years. It is one of my favorite albums by Duran Duran. I have sung it the way that I heard it and one day it dawned on me that I couldn't make another line out so I looked up the lyrics, and to my surprise, found out that I was hearing this one wrong as well! 20 years I've been wrong! FUNNY! - Submitted by: Jennifer Sands

The Story: Kept thinking it had to do with the Beach Boys! - Submitted by: Cody Finke

The Story: I thought it said Beach Out! Because... The beach is out - Submitted by: karkat

The Story: I always thought it was Cheek instead of meet... WHAT THE HELL!? - Submitted by: DireStraitFan

The Story: In the live version on Arena, I always thought Simon was making a reference to guitarist Andy Taylor - Submitted by: Nick

The Story: Duran Duran would love to be the next contestants on the Price is Right! - Submitted by: Cody Finke

The Story: STORY TO BE DELETED - Submitted by: AZ

The Story: I though Simon was singing about not wanting to be a Republican. - Submitted by: Brit Boxx

The Story: I kept finding the misheard lyrics on various lyric websites. I can see what these folks were hearing, but I think the actual lyrics are much better. Yikes!! - Submitted by: VEGAS1354

The Story: I remember my sister having the album this was on and singing 'Chalkie Davies is coming out...' Chalkie Davies was a photographer whose work featured in now defunct rock weekly Sounds around the 1970's/1980's. - Submitted by: pickle*

The Story: I was with a group of co-workers when I heard this song come on the radio. As I sang the wrong lyrics and asked the platinum question, 'Why is Duran Duran singing about the villain in the Garfield cartoon?' [Ed. note: As everyone knows, Gargamel was the villian from 'The Smurfs', not 'Garfield'. Gargamel's sidekick is a cat.] - Submitted by: Susan Hardison

The Story: Another one I first heard at work on a poor quality MW radio. I remember thinking to myself, 'how do they get away with singing those words'? - Submitted by: Peter Denmark

The Story: Sung while dancing to the song in a club after discussing the band members' names with a friend who's a big fan. - Submitted by: Baby Cruz

The Story: This song was a great favourite of mine for at least fifteen years or so. I often sung it to myself with those misheard lyrics. On a whim, it occurred to me to Google the lyrics and I was amazed at how wrong I was. The strange thing is that my misheard lyrics make just as much sense as the actual ones! - Submitted by: Paul Epstein

The Story: I first heard this song on a DVD feature of Shrek 2 :PU8& - Submitted by: Imani

The Story: Okay so we were nieve, and we thought it was just the LeBon way, I mean have you ever really read the lyrics.... they are funny and sometimes they don't make sense unless you have a degree in psychology... - Submitted by: LeBon's Cane of Candy

The Story: That's just what it sounded like until I looked it up; not that the real lyrics are better. - Submitted by: Jeff

The Story: I was at the front row of a Duran Duran concert right in front of Warren when I sang this misheard lyric out loud, pointing at Warren. I SWEAR TO GOD he heard what I sang - he creased up laughing. It was then I realised.... - Submitted by: Soledad

The Story: This is just what I thought the lyrics were the first time I listened to it in 1983. - Submitted by: Bee

The Story: I thought, 'Is this about jack the ripper?'. What with there being themes of chase, and the rumours that Jack the ripper was a member of the british royal family. (Which has since been disproved, the police did know his identity.) Now i know the song is just about wild passionate love. Which is better than songs about murder (or is it.......) - Submitted by: chien

The Story: Still to this day, refer to this misheard lyric when something embarrassing is happening around me. - Submitted by: Roman

The Story: The girl who told me this really believed that Duran Duran had mentioned this small Northern UK town of Bolton where she originally came from on this song! - Submitted by: Laura Balshaw

The Story: LeBon really does strange things with vowels and I guess I really just couldn't shake "reach in a window" for the beginning of the line. - Submitted by: Fred

The Story: I know 'five days through the night' makes NO sense, but my friends and I really thought that was the lyric; we even nicknamed ourselves different days of the week! (I was Monday.) What can I say? We were about 12 years old at the time. :) Those nicknames stuck with us for a couple of years, even after someone finally corrected us! - Submitted by: Jenni

The Story: I was pretty young at the time I first heard this song and Capri Sun drinks had just come out. I honestly thought they were snging about them in this song. It wasn't until a few years later, when I discovered the lyrics, that I realized why I was being laughed at whenever I sang the song like that! - Submitted by: Gabrielle Payne-Cox

The Story: Kept thinking how they said things like "petroleum". I also compared this song how similar it sounded like "One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head (originally in the musical Chess). - Submitted by: Cody Finke

The Story: I thought Simon LeBon was referring to his wife Yasmin. - Submitted by: Doxxic

The Story: Listening to the song for the first time - it does sound like there is a constant farting noise on the track, so of course when this line hit...... - Submitted by: MCSEMan

The Story: "Carp" sometimes mean to yearn , bemuse or complain about something that is gone, and that's what it sounds like that's being said. This song is about putting the past behind so it all makes sense. - Submitted by: No - No - Notorious

The Story: It's funny if Simon Le Bon turn up his TV and his radio. He turn up his TV when he watching cartoon, soap opera, and football, and he also turn up his radio when he listen to the music, talk show, and puppet show. Thus, it is not refer to "Why Can't I?" from Liz Phair and its swear. About this song: After the follow-up singles fail to hit, they try to surviving their popularity. After the slow rock power ballad single success, they became one of several new wave pop rock bands that active to the present and have a greatest hit in the Grunge era with peaking at #3 on Billboard's Pop Chart. That success in the Seattle scene is similar to "I Live My Life for You" from FireHouse, a pop metal band where actually a Top 40 hit with peaking at #26 on Billboard's Pop Chart several years later. - Submitted by: Wisnu Aji

The Story: And this time, I thought that's what inspired Jewel. - Submitted by: Cody Finke

The Story: I actually thought the correct lyrics were funnier because it sounded like gibberish to me. I understand now why Seal (I think it was him) doesn't reveal his true lyrics. I think it was he who said that it can ruin the song for the listener. - Submitted by: Chris

The Story: The first time I heard this song was from a muffled megaphone speaker at a club pool. My mind was still on a nature documentary about deep sea fish at the time. - Submitted by: Ryan M Miller

The Story: just heard it lmao - Submitted by: keys

The Story: My friend Mitzi sang this often and loudly until we corrected her! - Submitted by: Annie

The Story: I sang it wrong... I said the replay... even though it was the reflex... - Evan Killer from bat country - Submitted by: BatCountry

The Story: When this song raced up the charts there was a peacekeeping force in Lebanon consisting of US, UK, French and Italian troops and they wound up being sucked into the anarchaic conflict that was engulfing Lebanon at the time. Many US and other allied trrops had lost their lives (a truck bomb killed over 200 Marines in one day alone) , one American pilot was held as a POW (he was later released) and many people in the U.S.A. wanted a pullout, feeling that the mission was a futile mistake. Since Duran Duran is a British band and their government had some of their soldiers killed there too it only seemed natural that what I heard was the band's feelings about all this. Yet, nothing in the rest of the lyrics make ANY sence at all. What does "Union Of The Snake" mean anyway? Any ideas? Still, I love this cool song anyway. - Submitted by: Major Tom Schilling

The Story: When this song came out in late October 1983, American Marines and soldiers from other countries were in Lebanon on a peacekeeping mission and several troops were killed by a suicide truck bomber in a single day. More troops were killed prior to that and many more would die. The multinational force had gotten enbroiled into a war and by the time when this song peaked during the Christmas season a U.S. pilot was shot down and held as a POW and the fighting escalated tremendously. So naturally my mind heard the words "American force, Lebanon" because of all these events and many people here were saying it was a "big mistake". - Submitted by: Wild Boy 1985

The Story: I was in high school at the time and my best friend Michelle was signing this in the lunch room. She really thought those were the words. - Submitted by: Jeffrey Glover

The Story: This song came out in late October 1983. At that time America was at war for the first time since Vietnam. Congress had put the War Powers Act into effect already and several U.S. Marines were killed in a single day by a suicide car bomber. There was ground fighting and air and sea attacks would soon follow. When this song peaked near the top of the charts around the Christmas holidays more GIs were killed and one pilot was held as a POW (he was later released). The Lebanon peace mission had sucked American, British, French and other nations' peacekeeping troops into the bloody Lebanese civil war charnel house. There was much anti-war sentiment and many people were saying that the peacekeeping mission was a fiasco - a big mistake. So phonetically it was easy to mishear the first verse of the song as such. However, the whole song's lyrics are a bit on the oblique side (a trait common to many DD songs), so if you look all the lyrics they don't really say anything. This ain't an anti-war song like I first thought. I love this hit song nonetheless. Duran Duran may have videogenic good looks but they also have great musicality and they have style, talent and class. They're cool. - Submitted by: Jas

The Story: It kind of sounded like someone DID call the cops. - Submitted by: Cody Finke

The Story: Being a huge fan of Duran Duran, I've always taught myself their lyrics by listening to the song and not looking online. And I had assumed that Simon was saying after the line "and your telephone been ringing while you're dancing in the rain" that the finger has a bell in relation to the telephone lyric. - Submitted by: Brandon Thompson

The Story: I misheard it on the radio many times. Then they played it once at the gym- and I finally heard it correctly! - Submitted by: Scandia

The Story: I don't know how I didn't think that I was singing this song wrong over the past 30 years that Muchmusic has aired it but I went to a lyrics site azlyrics.com and I found out that I was singing this song wrong for the past 30 years. :) - Submitted by: Celeste

The Story: I thought they were singing about some guy named Rob Loys. - Submitted by: Will

The Story: The first verse in the song and I get wrong. DUH and I call myself a Duranie? - Submitted by: Celeste