Monday, January 29, 2007

What'd they say?

Years ago, a co-worker brought in one of those funnybooks about mistaken song lyrics. You've seen them. The co-worker laughed at one of them, a B-52's tune. "'Whoa, Nipsey Russell?'" he said, "Who the hell would come up with that." I replied, "That's not what they're saying?"

Well one song has bedeviled me (so to speak) for some time now: Blue Oyster Cult's "Burnin for You." This is a tune my old band actually worked on for a while, so it was semi-important to get the lyrics right. The first verse he ends with "I'm living for giving the devil his due," which is pretty straightforward, especially if you accept the double entendre of the title. Second time around it sounded to me like "I'm fall frezhun and frags do glock foo," which might not quite be 100% accurate.

Now, with the internet, it should be easy -- right?

A bunch of returns come up with "I've seen signs of what (freezing their eyes) went through"
...which makes about as much sense as my own 1982 interpretation.

Then I found this one: lyricsfreak.com says "Ive [sic] seen suns that were freezing and lives that were through"

And, singing along, it actually a) fits b) makes a little bit of sense.

Anybody have another theory about this 25-year-old mystery?

(I also note that a LOT of the lyrics sites miss the joke earlier in the verse; It's not "time to play besides," which makes no sense at all, but "Time to play B-sides."As in, the flip side of a popular 45 RPM single. Jeez. Kids today...)

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4 Comments:

At 8:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm not sure either, but, like other BOC tunes, it could have used a little more cowbell!

 
At 4:10 PM, Blogger eric said...

"The father of the mule is getting so excited.."

 
At 2:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

MORE COWBELL!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=71770844627024590&pr=goog-sl

 
At 1:52 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Home in the valley
Home in the city
Home isn't pretty
Ain't no home for me.
Home in the darkness
Home on the highway
Home isn't my way
Home I'll never be

Burn out the day
Burn out the night
I can't see no reason to put up a fight
I'm living for giving the devil his due

And I'm burning I'm burning I'm burning for you X2

Time is the essence
Time is the season
Time ain't no reason
Got no time to slow
Time everlasting
Time to play B-Sides
Time ain't on my side
Time I'll never know.

Burn Out the Day
Burn out the night
I'm not the one to tell you what's wrong or what's right
I've... yeah, you're right, this lyric is fucked up.

It sounds like what you said.

I dunno. Something about freezing and lives that are through.

 

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