Why do singers get the words wrong?

[GearFace]

When a singer is performing someone else's song, very often they make slight changes to the lyrics.

In some cases the reason is obvious, such as changes for the age or gender of the singer, removing offensive language, updates for the time period, etc. Or sometimes the singer is just terrible. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about good/professional singers making lyric changes that seem to serve no purpose and make me wonder if it was intentional.

One example is when watching the D.C. July 4th fireworks on TV, someone singing Respect said "give me what's proper" when the real lyrics are "give me my propers."

Why does this happen? Do they not know the words? Do they flub the lines? Do they think their version is somehow better?

 

[FeuerFrei]

I don't know, Gear Face. I just don't.

 

[Sgt. York]

It sounds like an international conspiracy to confuse you.

Are you confused?

 

[Perknose]

One example is when watching the D.C. July 4th fireworks on TV, someone singing Respect said "give me what's proper" when the real lyrics are "give me my propers."

Was the singer white?

 

[nakedfrog]

Booze.

 

[rh71]

Doesn't even qualify as a 1st-world problem. Zero-world problem.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Maybe the original lyrics were too hard to understand?
It happens a lot with bands like Death, Mortician, Carcass, Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death, Enslaved, Emperor, Einherjer, Broken Hope, Immortal, Abigor, Deicide, At the Gates, Posessed, Bolt Thrower, Entombed, Obituary, Gorguts, Cryptopsy, Kreator, Edge of Sanity, Darkthrone, Bathory, Amon Amarth, Autopsy, Dying Fetus, Gorgoroth, Bathory, Burzum, Mayhem, Behemoth, Rotting Christ, Graveland, Dark Funeral, Marduk, Dodheimsgard, Necromantia, Sigh, Sodom, Limbonic Art, Winder, Zyklon, and Blasphemy.

I'm not familiar with the band called "Respect" but, maybe they just had gutteral style vocals which can be difficult to understand?

 

[Perknose]

 

[FeuerFrei]

Lady, running down to the riptide
Taken away to the dark side
I wanna be your left hand man
I love you when you're singing that song and
I got a lump in my throat 'cause
You're gonna sing the words wrong

 

[spacejamz]

maybe you should try performing in front of a bunch people and then get back to us....better yet...make a career out of it and then let us know how it goes...

 

[BurnItDwn]

Ahhh, I know that song from the scene in the Blues Brothers

 

[who?]

Yeah, Manfred Mann what Bruce wrote was " Revved up like a deuce another runner in the night".

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Blame the teleprompter

 

[GearFace]

maybe you should try performing in front of a bunch people and then get back to us....better yet...make a career out of it and then let us know how it goes...

Because if I can't do it, no one can?

 

[KMFJD]

i think they do it because they know it annoys people

 

[spacejamz]

Because if I can't do it, no one can?

that wasn't the point of my reply....I can't speak from experience but I would guess that performing on stage in front of alot of people is a dynamic environment where you are feeding off the crowd which can make it harder to remember a song word for word. It is completely different than sitting in a recording studio where you can do as many takes as needed to get it right.

 

[GearFace]

that wasn't the point of my reply....I can't speak from experience but I would guess that performing on stage in front of alot of people is a dynamic environment where you are feeding off the crowd which can make it harder to remember a song word for word. It is completely different than sitting in a recording studio where you can do as many takes as needed to get it right.

I'm sure performing live is harder, but the kind of people who sign up for it should be good at it. Also I'm not sure the lyric changes are accidental.

You raise an interesting point, because this happens in recording studios too.

"Proud Mary"
CCR: "and I never lost one minute of sleeping worrying about the way thing's might've been"
Tina Turner: "and I never lost one minute of sleeping, I was worrying about the way thing's might've been"

"Pretty Woman"
Roy Orbison: "I don't believe you, you're not the truth"
Van Halen: "I don't believe you, you must be true"

In both cases the new versions have the opposite meaning of the originals, they don't appear to make sense, and they had plenty of attempts to get it right. So why?

 

[GearFace]

Was the singer white?

She was black.

 

[darkswordsman17]

They probably learned the song from some boiler plate lyrics sheet that is probably based on the original version that predates the most popular version by probably a decade, so the one you became familiar with was really one that was changed you just didn't know it.

A lot of that is just them adding their own character to the song. Which I prefer for the most part over them trying to mimic the popular version, wherein they probably would lack the character of the singer that is a large part of why it became popular.

Sometimes they'll change things for their own cadence versus what makes sense. Which is why we get so many fucked up songs that are catchy as hell, because the cadence of the song is catchy but the lyrics might be fucking crazy. Kinda like there's that children's book "Go the Fuck to Sleep" where its about the tone and cadence and not the actual words. If you read it in that soft sing-songy trying to get them to sleep voice, they'll never know you're telling them to just go the fuck to sleep.

I think some bands even knew that as long as they make a catchy cadence, people won't pay attention to the lyrics. Smells Like Teen Spirit was such a song, but it kinda bit Nirvana in the ass because then people wanted to hear it and they fucking hated it. There's a bunch of others (and ones that I think are that way although supposedly aren't, like My Sharona).