Songs with obviously changed lyrics

There are 3 criteria here:

A: The lyric(s) in question don't make sense in some crucial way. They just don't flow or have a reasonable meaning in context.
B: There should be a convincing replacement for the lyric(s) that makes a lot more sense than the published version.
C: There should be a compelling reason why the lyrics were changed.

I have two songs:

AC/DC: You Shook Me
1a. Sensicality: "You shook me all night long" doesn't make much literal or metaphorical sense. What's she doing, domestic abuse?
1b. Replacement: "fucked", because "you fucked me all night long" makes a ton of sense.
1c. Reason: You can't say "fucked" on the radio.

Spirit: I've Got a Line on You
2a. Sensicality: The lyrics sounds like the singer has some kind of secret supply on "you"s. It doesn't make any sense.
2b. Replacement: "I've got my eye on you, babe." Much more plausible.
2c. Reason: "I've got my eye on you babe" in the song sounds a bit creepy. They wanted to lessen the creep factor.

I'm thinking that AC/DC probably sang it as "you fucked me" live and I hadn't heard about it.

“Shook” is a long time synonym for getting fucked. It goes back to early blues recordings at least, and was probably in AAVE well before that.

Euphemism, not synonym.

Bon scott, blues scholar.

drinkin' wine, spo-dee-o-dee

yeah my thread a couple days ago about “loving” died a quick death but this is what I was getting at

ha -- i liked that thread, sad to see it has faded so quickly. should've posted something

Oh, yeah, I'll tell you something
I think you'll understand
When I say that something
I want to...

Billy Ocean's "Carribean Queen" always confused me as a kid because the title places the emphasis on the wrong syllable (americans generally say it "car-RIB-be-an" not "carr-i-BE-an"). It all made sense when i learned that he changed the title because "European Queen" wasn't working on American radio.

Also he's not American.

As a 12-year-old, I'm pretty sure this didn't occur to me.
(also, this is more for the Songs where the singer/protagonist comes off as a serious dick without meaning to thread, but that "Hey! You! Get into my car!" song might have benefitted from some changed lyrics)

It was changed from “get into my van”

Pretty sure Carri-BE-An is UK English?

And how it's pronounced in, er, the Caribbean too, I think.

But enochroot was 12 at the time, so fair enough.

Has AC/DC ever used profanity in their songs?

Unlikely a bunch of Scottish Australians would ever stoop to profanity.

I used to wonder whether 'Spies Like Us was some 'Loves like us' thing that McCartney had in the bottom drawer & reworked for the film (but presumably the film already had its name so he must have started from that?)

I'm working on a theory that Black Hole Sun is really "Asshole Sun" but I don't have all the details worked out yet.

my friend growing up thought it was "Black Old Son" but he also thought Billy Corgan was Chinese and sperm came out of your finger

I thought of another while walking my dog:

Baby Got Back says this: "And I'm thinkin' bout stickin' to the beanpole dames in the magazines. You ain't it, Miss Thing!"

It doesn't make sense. Why would SMAL "stick to" the beanpole dames he's not into? He was never with them in the first place!

It's clearly an edit of this: "And I'm thinkin' bout stickin' my dick in the beanpole dames in the magazines."

That makes more sense, like he's considering switching from booty to beanpole and deciding no. Also, "dick in" is a lot better rhyme. I'm sure that's the original, maybe edited because it seems a little gauche.

I always heard stickin as being the end of the previous lyric and "to the beanpole dames in magazines, you ain't it miss thang" being a completely separate thought

And by stickin I interpreted that as "I'm going to do a poppage with you"

ledriver I am intrigued by your premise but so far not-a-one of your examples passes the smell test…

I am trying to think of cases of my own. Probably good to focus on concept albums where songs that had been sitting around are tinkered with to fit a larger narrative or reference a character or something. Hmm

this did immediately make me think of the Adrienne Lenker/Big Thief song “Vampire Empire” which has been released in a couple different versions over the past year or so. After a lot of criticism from fans about some lyrics getting edited out from the Big Thief single (mostly because they changed rhyming lines to not), the Lenker solo version reinserts them. Not exactly what you’re talking about but related

It was changed from “get into my van”

― epistantophus

for the record if billy ocean asked me if i wanted to get into his sex van, i probably would

i find it highly unlikely that billy ocean would ask me into his sex van, if indeed he had one

in fact if i were billy ocean, i would not have a sex van. i mean, that would be dumb. me, billy ocean, going up to a girl and saying "hey, baby, get out of my dreams and get into my sex van?" it doesn't matter if that's the line he wrote, if that's the line he _meant_. it doesn't matter if a sex van is far more comfortable, if having sex in a car is bad for his sciatica. (this is all hypothetical. i don't know if billy ocean has sciatica.) if he ever wants to have sex in a motorized conveyance again, it pretty much has to be a car, doesn't it?

this is why _none_ of the many international #1 hit songs i have written contain a pickup line. those things can really be double-edged swords. lucky for me that i did, honestly. a lot of the possible pick-up lines i could use (for instance, anything referencing "double-edged swords") would simply not be applicable to my current situation.

oh, and also, i'm asexual. that probably plays into it.

Sex van probably have built-in sex chair inside like Edward VII's for some royal rockin' at 3-o-clock-in.