Confusing Yes Lyrics

jjoneski · Post: # 1554Post **jjoneski** Sun Sep 08, 2002 4:36 pm

To start with, I should say how much I love the lyrical quote box that rotates on each YesTalk webpage. I use a dial-up computer, so sometimes it takes a minute to get to the topics, but I can always read the little Yes lyric quotes to ponder while I wait. Sometimes the quotes really highlight a thought that I hadn't ever focused on while listening to the songs, and it makes them more powerful.

So, just now I saw a quote of some lyric from "Don't kill the whale" that I had misheard, and had been singing the wrong way all this time. The lyric was "Rejoice, they sing, they worship their own space". When I read that, I laughed, because this whole time I thought it was "they worship Pharaoh's face". How funny, that whales would worship the face of ancient Egyptian rulers in their sandy deserts. At first I thought it was a cool connection, like how some people theorize about ancient Egypt and UFO's. I created in my mind this image of a lost Egyptian civilization that was swallowed by the sea, pyramids & all, so that the whales could actually see and 'worship' Pharaoh's face on great statues under sea.

Another lyrical mix-up I have is from the song Siberian Khatru. I first heard this song on the Yes Tribute album "Tales from Yesterday". I was just getting into yes, so I kind of started backwards with greatest hits collections and tribute stuff, only recently retracked album by album. I was intrigued by Yes's music, so I would read everything I could in the CD liner notes. I don't recall this tribute album having the lyrics printed. The words "Gold stainless nail" never entered my mind. Instead I always heard "Go Stanley Snail", and I pictured a little smiling snail in a race, where he was "torn through the distance of man" to get to the finish line, with Roger Dean's cover art as the setting. They were words of encouragement for me, and I pictured large human fans standing behind the ropes and leaning over to cheer on their little snail super-star. -This post officially confirms my wierdness-<img src=pix/silly.gif border=0 align=middle>

Part of the reason I thought this was the actual lyric was because the name of the band that covered this song. I could swear that the band was called Stanley Snail, so that's what I thought the lyrics were. Then I bought Keys1, and heard Jon sing the same words, or so it sounded. I couldn't find my CD liner for the album, but Amazon.com lists the artist by name as Kevin Gilbert for that song. Which led me to his website, confirming what I thought. On this tribute album, the artist put his name as Stanley Snail. Maybe he heard the same thing that I did. But I doubt he formed the same mental imagery as I did.

Over the many yesyears I'm sure some of you fans out there have also come across confused lyrics. What are some of yours? (not just from Yes music)

<hr>Constant Doors Will Open Eyes

jjoneski · Post: # 29896Post **jjoneski** Sun Sep 08, 2002 4:47 pm

And another thing about the lyric quotes on each YesTalk page, sometimes they catch me off-guard and I can't tell what song they come from right away, until I do some thinking.



<hr>Constant Doors Will Open Eyes

jjoneski · Post: # 29897Post **jjoneski** Sun Sep 08, 2002 4:50 pm

I just came across another lyrical mix-up:

Close to the Edge, the line "And assessing points to nowhere, leading ev'ry single one." I thought it sounded like "An assasin points to nowhere, leading ev'ry single one.", which to me makes sense. An assasin, perhaps under incrimination for a crime misleads police, detectives, media, public -everyone- by giving false clues.

P.S. what song does the line "lonely forest trembling ground" come from?

<hr>Constant Doors Will Open Eyes

theproffet · Post: # 29899Post **theproffet** Sun Sep 08, 2002 5:18 pm

My favourite Yestalk top quote has to be "No clowns . . ." <img src=pix/jestera.gif border=0 align=middle>

I bought the albums during the 70's, when LPs came with lyrics, but the Yes Album puzzled me for years . . . given the lyrics, can anyone blame me? "Shining flying purple robots?" I still remember "the toads by the water," in the Disillusion segment of Starship Troopers . . . I still think of Jon singing "toads . . ." <img src=pix/jestera.gif border=0 align=middle>

<img src=pix/icon_smokin.gif border=0 align=middle>

<hr>"The lost spectacles were his own affair, and after all, Hare did have a spare pair . . ."

jjoneski · Post: # 29902Post **jjoneski** Sun Sep 08, 2002 5:40 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
I still remember "the toads by the water," in the Disillusion segment of Starship Troopers . . . I still think of Jon singing "toads . . ." <img src=pix/jestera.gif border=0 align=middle>

<img src=pix/icon_smokin.gif border=0 align=middle>

<hr>"The lost spectacles were his own affair, and after all, Hare did have a spare pair . . ." 
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

Ha! That's funny, until I read your post (and checked the lyrics to verify it) I also thought it was "toads"![/blue]

guilddigger · Post: # 29916Post **guilddigger** Sun Sep 08, 2002 7:56 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
jjoneski wrote:
what song does the line "lonely forest trembling ground" come from?
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>jj, that's from 'beyond and before' the first track on their debute album 'yes'.

<hr><img src="http://home.att.net/~dahni725/vampire.gif" border=0>

stay awaken

jackalz · Post: # 29944Post **jackalz** Sun Sep 08, 2002 10:59 pm

We had a thread cover this a year or more ago, and we got a kick out of someone admitting they thought the lyrics to Roundabout said "Momma's come out of the sky and stand there"

I can't remember any of my own, though I know there are some. It's just so rare that I misinterpret something.<img src=pix/silly.gif border=0 align=middle>

From Magnification, Dreamtime, occasionally I hear, "Dreamtime begins where every thong in the perfect place", which makes alot of sense. --to a pervert like me. <img src=pix/jestera.gif border=0 align=middle>

I really appreciate the quote at the top of the page, too.

<hr>Celebrate the moment, as it turns into one more.

HeartOfTheSunrise · Post: # 29972Post **HeartOfTheSunrise** Mon Sep 09, 2002 2:28 am

i like this topic
particularly the recognition of the quote on top of the YEStalk screan that changes every time you go from topic to topic etc

i was thinking of introducing a topic whereh that quote was the object

to say what the quote is and then continue the line/song and talk about the line or song for a bit

so right now it is "a dewdrop can exalt us like the music of the sun"
of course from Close To The Edge

which may be the song that has so much confusion in it's lyrics

thank god for lyric sheets with the vinyl

i don't even let newcomers to YESmusic listen to the music without giving them the lyric sheets

many i have to print out for them as the ones that come in the CDs are too small to read with one candle lit

(and i do a lot of YESmusic sharing with one candle lit)

Peace

HeartOfTheSunrise · Post: # 29973Post **HeartOfTheSunrise** Mon Sep 09, 2002 2:29 am

oh, and the most famous mishear lyric ever (nonYES)
has got to be

"'scuse me as i kiss this guy"

Peace

HeartOfTheSunrise · Post: # 29980Post **HeartOfTheSunrise** Mon Sep 09, 2002 2:50 am

"things are all in colours" and the size of others shall send you forward, a chance to send you toward peace of mind

will we reach
winds alow
other skylines
other skylines to hold you

(that's from memory and not knowing the right words)

but that's what i hear

innerPact · Post: # 29991Post **innerPact** Mon Sep 09, 2002 6:22 am

with all due respect to Paul and Art, i had never heard America until i bought Yesterdays. and i always thought Jon said, "Chicken seems like a dream to me now" when, in fact, Jon (and Paul) say "Michigan seems...".

but chicken made sense to me. i assumed they weren't eating too well on their cross-country journey...

jackalz · Post: # 30002Post **jackalz** Mon Sep 09, 2002 9:37 am

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>chicken<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><img src=pix/jestera.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=pix/jestera.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=pix/jestera.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=pix/jestera.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=pix/jestera.gif border=0 align=middle>

YesJo · Post: # 30005Post **YesJo** Mon Sep 09, 2002 9:48 am

I love this thread!!!!!!! <img src=pix/jestera.gif border=0 align=middle> I have always appreciated the quotes at the top of the pages, and...how they change all the time!! It's such an awesome touch!!!

In "The Meeting" my sister in law swore for the longest time that Jon is singing, "Jodi when we touched" instead of Surely when we touched, and she couldn't believe we found a song with my name in it.

I used to date someone with the last name Mateer, and he always thought that Aerosmith song Dream Weaver was saying Sing for my laughter, sing for Mateer instead of my tears.

I'm going to have to think about some other Yes ones, there has to be many!!

Roan's Lady · Post: # 30009Post **Roan's Lady** Mon Sep 09, 2002 9:53 am

I had been a Yes fan for a few months, and was in the process of exposing my best friend (who happens to still be my best friend 25 years later <img src=pix/icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>) to their music. I'd played for her "Yesterday and Today" (among other songs!) a bunch of times over the course of several weeks. One day at lunch in high school, I was singing it, and when I sang "watching your eyes, feeling your sighs", she looked a bit embarrassed - not over my singing, I could tell - something else. I asked her what was up, and she said said laughingly that "feeling your sighs" was pretty risque, and besides, why would Jon Anderson sing it?? Now my pal was (and is) no prude, and I asked what was so outrageous about this, and she repeated the line, emphasizing the word "sighs" It then occurred to me that she thought he was singing "SIZE", which of course would put a whole new, er, bent on the meaning of the song. We later came to realize that sighs is not everything...but that's another story <img src=pix/icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle>

<hr>I get amazed like a true believer...

HeartOfTheSunrise · Post: # 30025Post **HeartOfTheSunrise** Mon Sep 09, 2002 10:38 am

that last post may have been one of the funnier ones that wasn't trying to be funny

(a new , um, bent) you had be crackin up over here

aaaaanyway, there are tons of misheard lyrics and probably cause they are words that you wouldnt expect in that spot

(who feels SIGHS anyway)

jjoneski · Post: # 30043Post **jjoneski** Mon Sep 09, 2002 2:25 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
YesJo wrote:
I love this thread!!!!!!! <img src=pix/jestera.gif border=0 align=middle> I have always appreciated the quotes at the top of the pages, and...how they change all the time!! It's such an awesome touch!!!
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

Thanks! I never thought I'd come up with a topic that people would like so much. I'm sure it's been covered a time or two before.

Ha! Once again, I too thought that in America it said "Chicken seems like a dream to me now". It fits the theme of the song, in search of the American Dream, a chicken in every pot, a sign of wealth or prosperity? Funny though, it has nothing to do with chicken. I always make up stories that make sense, then I find out that it's wrong!

A non-Yes mix up I also heard when I was younger is a song by INXS (I think). "Suicidal Blonde" sounded like "Soup and salad bar". <img src=pix/jestera.gif border=0 align=middle>

<hr>Constant Doors Will Open Eyes

jjoneski · Post: # 30554Post **jjoneski** Sun Sep 15, 2002 2:51 pm

Hey, what happened to the rotating Yes Lyrics box at the top of all the YesTalk pages? That was one of my favorite things. Where did they go?

<hr>Constant Doors Will Open Eyes

InThePresenceOf · Post: # 30564Post **InThePresenceOf** Sun Sep 15, 2002 11:48 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
jjoneski wrote:
I just came across another lyrical mix-up:

P.S. what song does the line "lonely forest trembling ground" come from?

<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>
It's from "Beyond and Before," one of my very favorite Yes songs on the first, self-titled album.

InThePresenceOf · Post: # 30565Post **InThePresenceOf** Sun Sep 15, 2002 11:51 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
innerPact wrote:
with all due respect to Paul and Art, i had never heard America until i bought Yesterdays. and i always thought Jon said, "Chicken seems like a dream to me now" when, in fact, Jon (and Paul) say "Michigan seems...".

but chicken made sense to me. i assumed they weren't eating too well on their cross-country journey...
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

I always heard "Michigan," but if I had heard "chicken seems like a dream to me now," I would have thought it was because they were vegetarians and couldn't have any...

InThePresenceOf · Post: # 30568Post **InThePresenceOf** Mon Sep 16, 2002 12:26 am

Even though he sings it as clear as day, I thought I must be misunderstanding the line Jon sings in HOTS: "Sharp...distance...how can the wind with its arms around me." What does sharp have to do with distance, I thought, and doesn't he mean how can the wind WHIP its arms around me??

It took me a long time to realize in I've Seen All Good People that they were singing John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance." So many layers in there that I didn't catch that for a long time, even though I'm a big Beatles and solo Beatles fan.

I do have a question about the end of Tempus Fugit -- a song I still think should have been called YES, and for that reason alone I think it's a crime they won't perform it in concert -- at the VERY end, aren't they singing, "Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes", or is it just a repeated note? And as long as we're sharing imagined imagery to go with the songs, when I hear that part -- that very end -- I always picture a school of little cartoon fish (no Chris pun intended) laughing a la Yellow Submarine...

Wolf359 · Post: # 30721Post **Wolf359** Tue Sep 17, 2002 10:16 pm

Hello all. This is my first post and I just wanted to thank you all in advance for being interesting and understanding folk. jjoneski mentioned the line from CTTE "...And assessing points to nowhere..." being mistaken for "...An assassin points to nowhere...." I had, for a long time heard "...An assassin points to no one meaning ev'ry single one..." which, in my ears indicated the idea of redefinition via de-definition. This kinda got me thinking that Jon's lyric lends itself to flights of aural fancy and I wouldn't be surprised if he encourages listeners to allow their brains and minds to mutate the words in such a creative (or recreative) fashion.<img src=pix/icon_yes_fish1a.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=pix/icon_yes_yes.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=pix/icon_yes_fish3b.gif border=0 align=middle>

Astral traveller · Post: # 30725Post **Astral traveller** Tue Sep 17, 2002 11:12 pm

Welcome, Wolf. You joined the most fanatic Yesclub of the world. Sit back and post away. You'll like it here.


<hr>_______<img src=pix/icon_yes_new.gif border=0 align=middle>_______

guilddigger · Post: # 30743Post **guilddigger** Wed Sep 18, 2002 12:52 am

for a long time i thought jon was singing 'she hasn't got time to make you white'. it made sense to me since chess is a war, sort of. to make the black pawn white would mean winning him over to the white/good side, having him see and choose the right way.
i think it's better than 'make you a wife'. who'd want to marry a chess pawn?


<hr><img src="http://home.att.net/~dahni725/vampire.gif" border=0>

stay awaken

HeartOfTheSunrise · Post: # 30761Post **HeartOfTheSunrise** Wed Sep 18, 2002 5:44 am

GUILD, congrats on 1300
you sneaked up on it, lol

and Wolf, welcome, you will find that everyone is one here

peace

keystoanissan · Post: # 31995Post **keystoanissan** Thu Oct 03, 2002 9:55 pm

You know, for the longest time, when I heard "Don't Kill the Whale," I heard Jon (and Chris) singing "Bigot! Bigot!" I never thought much of it until I picked up the songbook "Yes: Complete" (which, of course, now, is anything but), and I saw, plain as daylight, "Dig it! Dig it!"

I didn't think they were saying "Bigot," but damn, that's sure as hell what it sounded like!

And on CTTE, I always heard "An assassin points to no one leading every single one."

...and now I can't get Stanley Snail out of my head...thanks, joneski!<img src=pix/icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>

jjoneski · Post: # 32002Post **jjoneski** Thu Oct 03, 2002 10:38 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
keystoanissan wrote:

...and now I can't get Stanley Snail out of my head...thanks, joneski!<img src=pix/icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

<img src=pix/icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>

your welcome!

<hr>Constant Doors Will Open Eyes

jjoneski · Post: # 32004Post **jjoneski** Thu Oct 03, 2002 10:41 pm

Hey look- I'm a Veteran Member!<img src=pix/icon_smile_approve.gif border=0 align=middle>

<hr>Constant Doors Will Open Eyes

fragilesi · Post: # 32013Post **fragilesi** Fri Oct 04, 2002 12:49 am

The lyric that caugh me by surprise is the backing to Going For The One, for some reason I never heard the repeating name until someone pointed it out to me. It seems so obvious now but somehow I sailed right past it for a while.

And it's been mentioned before but the best misheard lyric has to be from Mag . . .

I had a tough time with my dick

Simon.

The Yesbabe · Post: # 32027Post **The Yesbabe** Fri Oct 04, 2002 4:14 am

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
HeartOfTheSunrise wrote:
oh, and the most famous mishear lyric ever (nonYES)
has got to be

"'scuse me as i kiss this guy"

Peace
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

My fave has always been Elton John's "Hold me closer, Tony Danza..." <img src=pix/jestera.gif border=0 align=middle>

---Anastasia!

<hr>Habesne 'olyzam flictam'? Hae, hae, hae.

fragilesi · Post: # 32069Post **fragilesi** Fri Oct 04, 2002 3:21 pm

And for those in the UK, the Police's

"I feel Sue Lawley"

Simon.