I’m sure most people know of the common examples (“Hold me closer, Tony Danza”), but I’m interested in lyrics that you or someone you know has gotten wrong in the songs you regularly listen to.

Also, I’m interested in the story of how you found out it was a misheard lyric.

• How long had you heard the wrong thing?
• How did you find out the what the actual line was supposed to be?
• Was there a dawning realization or comedy wrapped up in it?
• Do you still sing it your way in spite of the actual lyrics?
• Is the song actually improved by your lyric swap?

If it’s not a burden, link to the timestamp of the song(s) where your misheard lyrics occurs.

If you want to prime people to hear things your way, feel free to put the actual lyrics in a <details> dropdown to hide them, so people can listen to the song with your words in mind first.

I’m calling a “sore thumb” lyric a bad line (or lines) in an otherwise good, well-written song. Something that sticks out like, well, a sore thumb.

It’s something that’s bad enough to be noteworthy, potentially even bad enough to ruin the entire song if it’s really potent. It is, of course, also entirely a matter of personal taste and preference. One person’s “sore thumb” lyric might be another person’s highlight.

Of note: it’s not a sore thumb lyric if you don’t like the song or think it’s poorly written in the first place. The point of the topic isn’t to highlight bad songwriting but to highlight misfires in otherwise good songwriting.

What are some examples of these lines in songs you like?

Explain why they stick out like a sore thumb for you personally.

We have a language learner in our household and I am tired of listening to J-pop at random on road trips. Do any of you music lovers have japanese language songs or even better artists or bands you really like?

Thank you very much

I'm interested in finding more great songwriters across different genres and I want to defeat my own bias, so don't tell me the artist or genre (or maybe put it in <details> tags).

Here are a few of mine -

Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds

If you're really as tough as your defenses, you'd let them fall

Tried to deceive me, you only deceived you; what you thought was invisible was only see-through

I said, "If you won't save me, please don't waste my time"

Emotional luggage, nothing of it, I don't check bags; I just carry on, leave that bullshit in the past

Nothing no scary like a gunman voice when people beg a gunman think twice, and him say no

To turn your sick soul inside out - so that the world, so that the world can watch you die

Coincidentally, not all those songs are necessarily at the top of my recommends, but they are the first memorable one-liners that came to mind. I won't mind if your picks aren't the greatest songs of all time either if the line still hits.

We had a discussion here last year about "Baby, It's Cold Outside", and whether the lyrics to this song encourage rape. This came after a radio station pulled the song from its playlist after people complained it was too "rapey".

Well, John Legend has re-written this song "to remove the 'date-rape' lyrics". Here is the song and here are Legend's new lyrics.

What do you think? Did the song need to be re-written? Is this an improvement? Is this the "Christmas" song we need for a post-#metoo era?

Two asides:

What's a song lyric that has recently jumped out at you, caught your attention, resonated, or made you think?

This doesn't have to be a favorite/best of all time topic, though feel free to post those if they speak to you. I'm more interested in something you encountered recently that you really like, appreciate, or find interesting, for whatever reason.

How important are lyrics to you?

For me, the words are probably as big a part of my experience of a song as the music itself. It's unlikely that I'll come back to a song if the lyrics don't speak to me. On the other hand, I know other people who claim not to care about the lyrics at all.

So, I was curious. If you are a person who cares a lot about the lyrics of a song, do you also read poetry? How do you feel about purely instrumental music?

Personally, I can appreciate instrumental music, but it's not something I tend to seek out. I enjoy poetry a lot (probably as much as music), both reading it and listening to it.

I'm interested to see if there's a pattern to this. :)