Misheard prog lyrics

[veteranof1000psychicwars]

I remember an interview with Jesse Colin Young on NPR years ago talking about "Get Together". He heard Dino Valenti's version with the line "When the wind that left us here" -he misheard it and sang " When the One that left us here", which l think is a much more powerful lyric.

Anyway, kind of a cool story.

[veteranof1000psychicwars]

Another cool story...around 1983 l heard an Italian version of 'Get Together' on KBCO in Denver and never forgot about it. When the internet came along l emailed 'contact' on his website to ask about it. His wife Connie wrote me back and said, "Jesse has no idea what you are talking about". So l did some poking around and found a guy who had blogged about it, and got him to send me an mp3. I forwarded it to his wife and Jesse wrote me back a nice email thanking me and swore up and down he had no memory of recording it.
So that was pretty neat. It is all over YouTube now but it wasn't at the time.

[Batchman]

I remember an interview with Jesse Colin Young on NPR years ago talking about "Get Together". He heard Dino Valenti's version with the line "When the wind that left us here" -he misheard it and sang " When the One that left us here", which l think is a much more powerful lyric.

Anyway, kind of a cool story.

The following line "returns for us at last" makes a lot less sense if it's the wind. And the two main sources of Googled lyrics both have "one."

[Mister Triscuits]

The Dino Valenti version that I found on YouTube doesn’t use either word: he sings “When that which has left us here returns for us at last.”

[veteranof1000psychicwars]

Wow, l guess Jesse misheard it twice! He said it was "wind".

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

I remember an interview with Jesse Colin Young on NPR years ago talking about "Get Together". He heard Dino Valenti's version with the line "When the wind that left us here" -he misheard it and sang " When the One that left us here", which l think is a much more powerful lyric.

Anyway, kind of a cool story.

I've always heard it as "the One who left us here." The wind returning makes no sense at all.

[Batchman]

I've always heard it as "the One who left us here." The wind returning makes no sense at all.

Even worse, when I first heard it when it was a hit in 1969, I thought the second line was "returns for her sad last."

[veteranof1000psychicwars]

I've always heard it as "the One who left us here." The wind returning makes no sense at all.

If you are referring to the Youngbloods' version, yes, he does sing "the One".
I agree if he heard "wind" that makes no sense.
But Valenti's line "When that which has left us here returns for us at last" scans horribly!

[Mister Triscuits]

But Valenti's line "When that which has left us here returns for us at last" scans horribly!

It really does…it sounds as if he were saying “That witch has left us here”!

[Czyszy]

Got a whole buncha misheard lyrics from Moon Safari - We Spin The World.

Sitting on cloud, making yolks to the crowd

Sitting on cloud, making jokes to the crowd

The road to the goal is what matters, what now we're taking on

The road to the goal is what matters and now we're taking off

Sunshine sheeple, you carry the wind

Sunshine people, you carry the wind

We spin the world around, with love and fate

We spin the world around, with love and faith

[Czyszy]

The Revealing Science of God

Talk to the sunlight collar
So some will move a distant smile

Talk to the sunlight caller
Soft summer mover distance mine

Both actually make equally as much sense. xD Ahh, the good old Jon Anderson babble!

UPDATE:
some misheard lyrics from The Fountain Beyond the Sunrise by Kyrie Eleison. Their lead singer had IMHO one of the most bizarre foreign English accents I've ever heard.

Engine muss of eternity veritable, veritable...

Enigmas of eternity buried somewhere, buried somewhere...

[Czyszy]

During my first listening of Machine Messiah I was gonna assume they were singing:
"The mindless search for a hire..."
Until the next part came along: "...controller"
I was like: Oh! A higher controller!

[vmartell]

"Marmots come out of the sky and they stand there". Roundabout by Yes

I both cases I was disappointed when I found out the real lyrics.

HAHA! Soooo funny you heard that - everyone knows that the correct lyric is "MAMMOTHS COME OUT OF THE SKY" !

[Rarebird]

HAHA! Soooo funny you heard that - everyone knows that the correct lyric is "MAMMOTHS COME OUT OF THE SKY" !

Is that a Yes / Kayak mash-up?

[Digital_Man]

Listening to Talk by Yes yesterday it struck me how the line in "The Calling" always could be interpreted as "head into the head lice...." but of course it's "head light."

[Progbear]

HAHA! Soooo funny you heard that - everyone knows that the correct lyric is "MAMMOTHS COME OUT OF THE SKY" !

I heard "martins come out of the sky," as in the bird: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swallow

[vmartell]

Is that a Yes / Kayak mash-up?

[Vic2012]

"A weevil in the web that he made". Tarkus by ELP

I always heard it as......the weeble and the weapons he made....

[Dan Maske]

In Rush’s 1977 song “Closer to the Heart,” the line is “Sailing into destiny.” We always sing “Satan is your destiny.”

[Digital_Man]

In Rush’s 1977 song “Closer to the Heart,” the line is “Sailing into destiny.” We always sing “Satan is your destiny.”

It's funny you mention that because I heard it as "satin into destiny." I always knew it was wrong because it didn't make sense but it does sound like satin is in there.

[Progbear]

Currently listening to "Turn the Tide" by Kayak.

Actual lyric: "I'd rather lose all I had..."

I heard: "I'd rather lose all my hair..."

[Czyszy]

In Roundabout, the lyrics are supposed to go "the muses dance and sing", but I clearly hear "the music dance and sing". The former is more logically and grammatically correct but I dunno. You can never be sure when it comes to the good ol' Andersonbabble™. Anybody else?

[Mister Triscuits]

In Roundabout, the lyrics are supposed to go "the muses dance and sing"

What makes you say it's "supposed" to be that? The printed lyrics in the albums sleeve have it as "music."

[Czyszy]

What makes you say it's "supposed" to be that? The printed lyrics in the albums sleeve have it as "music."

Oh shit! So I guess the lyrics website on which I spotted that phrase featured de facto misheard lyrics! Haha. But honestly, "muses" would've made more sense, because the verb form (dance and sing) isn't in singular (dances and sings). Also muses are animate characters and not a general concept, like in the case of music. So logically, you'd assume, that "muses" should be the right word. xd

[Czyszy]

I can totally take for granted the displaced singular verb form. I mean, Roine Stolt makes this mistake all the time, because Swedish doesn't really have that linguistic feature. (a great example of this quirk can be seen in Big Puzzle: "Man build big machines, sail across the skies" and Don't Let the Devil In: "Look like your neighbour and talk like a friend; he's the Duke of Dust, run his mining men")

So in Swedish, both variations of Roundabout would go like so:

Musiken dansar och sjunger
Muserna dansar och sjunger

Both are literarily correct.

English, unfortunately has that pesky little singular verb form (-s). Whatever. Even if we take that verb inflection out of the equation, I'm convinced the lyrics to Roundabout must've been different before they were eventually rewritten.

When you look closer, the next line introduces another agent: "the children". And they, just like "muses", are animate characters. And what do they do? They're made "really ring".

Think about it. 'The music plays, the music sounds, the music rings...' And on the other hand: 'The children dance, the children sing'...

So maybe (it's just my speculation) the original version went more like:

The music really ring(s)
It makes the children dance and sing