Great Mispronunciantions in Popular Music

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I'll start:

In "Dwyck," Smooth B clearly says "infallible" and pronouces it "in-Fawl-able" - as in The "Fall"

in "D Original" or "Come Clean" (I forget which but it was one of the singles from the first album) Jeru says "taoist" and pronounces it phonetically - "tay-o-ist"

and I can't stand when they say "eXpresso coffee tastes mighty good" in oldies classic "Sugar Shack"

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Saturday, 12 April 2003 03:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Geddy Lee calling a Barchetta a "bar-chet-a". It's "bar-ket-a". Ok, so it wasn't great.

― Bryan (Bryan), Saturday, 12 April 2003 03:21 (twenty-two years ago)

The RZA pronouncing what I'm pretty sure was "menstruate" as "ministrate" on Ghostface Killah's "Nutmeg".

In Blackalicious' "Passion", Gift of Gab pronounces heroin as "hero-wahn".

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Saturday, 12 April 2003 03:34 (twenty-two years ago)

That's how you pronounce "Barchetta"???

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Saturday, 12 April 2003 03:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Yup. And the popular bread with tomatoes, etc. is broo-sketta. I know that, but I can't pick up on Carruthers' sarcasm. Seriously Sundar, use some of your ninja moves and put me out of my misery next time you see me, ok?

― Bryan (Bryan), Saturday, 12 April 2003 03:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't remeber which song, but Gift of Gab also refers at one point to the "Count of Monte Crisco." No foolin'.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 12 April 2003 03:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Britney's pronunciation of "me".

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Saturday, 12 April 2003 03:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Bryan. This constant unprompted self-abuse is going to have to stop, OK?

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Saturday, 12 April 2003 03:54 (twenty-two years ago)

It wasn't unprompted. Go back to the pictures thread and you'll understand why! It's like I've been sniffing model glue all night!

― Bryan (Bryan), Saturday, 12 April 2003 03:56 (twenty-two years ago)

50 Cent's "simular" in "Patiently Waiting"

― adam west (adamwest), Saturday, 12 April 2003 04:02 (twenty-two years ago)

in "D Original" or "Come Clean" (I forget which but it was one of the singles from the first album) Jeru says "taoist" and pronounces it phonetically - "tay-o-ist"

I don't think that it's "Come Clean." And I'm pretty sure Afu Ra is the offender.

― JS Williams (js williams), Saturday, 12 April 2003 04:16 (twenty-two years ago)

keeping on the 'conscious' rapper jeru tip, dead prez sure do love their 'eye ching'

― st, Saturday, 12 April 2003 04:50 (twenty-two years ago)

The obvious one: Sting vs. Nabokov shockah.

― Douglas (Douglas), Saturday, 12 April 2003 05:08 (twenty-two years ago)

50 Cent's "simular" in "Patiently Waiting"

Maybe he's from Indiana. (For a while every time David Letterman said "similar" he'd follow with, "or as we say in Indiana, simular.")

― nickn (nickn), Saturday, 12 April 2003 07:33 (twenty-two years ago)

this is fucking weird.. i was just thinking of starting a thread like this today. no, really.

"genuine" (spelling?) in the manics' "the everlasting". i don't remember exactly how he mangles it, but it's awful enough that i have trouble listening to that otherwise good song.

― justin s. (John Paul Albin), Saturday, 12 April 2003 07:51 (twenty-two years ago)

not only did he spell 'cemetery' without its third 'e', morrissey managed to prounounce 'plagiarise' with a hard 'g'.

the smiths - cemetry gates

― RJG (RJG), Saturday, 12 April 2003 09:13 (twenty-two years ago)

i was *just* about to say that about plagiarise
but there's another - in 'what she said' he says
'prophesise' which can't be right surely to god.

― piscesboy, Saturday, 12 April 2003 09:16 (twenty-two years ago)

'prophesise' rhymes with 'eyes'.

― RJG (RJG), Saturday, 12 April 2003 09:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Otis Rush's "some of this generation is million-airies" always makes me laugh, but it's a good mispronunciation, airy millionaires don't have the blues and they got decent clothes to wear...

― Jess Hill (jesshill), Saturday, 12 April 2003 15:31 (twenty-two years ago)

biz markie covering "benny and the jets" with "you know i read it in a mag-a-mo-ziiiiine....." while supporting on the beastie boys' "hello nasty" tour. there is no peer.

― notfazed (notfazed), Saturday, 12 April 2003 18:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Gab is just stretching thw word out a bit so it'll fit the rhyme.

"Pop genres and shuch" is one of numerous mispronunciations on Original Pirate Material, but I think Skinner is just switching between accents and characters.

― David Beckhouse (David Beckhouse), Saturday, 12 April 2003 18:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I've probably noted this three times on ILM, but Sting made "failure" rhyme with "jail you" by changing it to "failya" and "jail ya." Two words mispronounced for a corny, but DEAD serious rhyme. Disgusting!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 12 April 2003 18:47 (twenty-two years ago)

"ni@@as act SUB-tile
but they FRA-gile"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Saturday, 12 April 2003 19:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Ugh, I'm stupid.
dead prez sure do love their 'eye ching'
How does one pronounce that then?
And how did Sting misdo "Nabokov"? How's that supposed to be pronounced? is the 2nd sylbl. "buh" or "bah" instead of "bow" (note: I really can't remember how he said it, but now I'm all paraniod that I've always said it wrong too).

― Dan I., Saturday, 12 April 2003 22:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Great, I hate it when self-deprecating posts come off as insults.

― Dan I., Saturday, 12 April 2003 22:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Suede, "She" -- "injecting MAR-I-JEW-WAH-NAAAAA!" (*guitar crunch*)

I want to hope everything about that line was intentional.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 12 April 2003 22:12 (twenty-two years ago)

A lot of people from Indiana do indeed say "simular". Though I can't think of any, there must be some offenders for "nukular"

― Adam A. (Keiko), Saturday, 12 April 2003 22:36 (twenty-two years ago)

"Ecscape" instead of escape - Sarah MacLachlan plus countless others.

― Kim (Kim), Saturday, 12 April 2003 22:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Rivers Cuomo on Weezer's "Pink Triangle": "Pink triangle on her SHLEEVE" (instead of "sleeve"). Irritating as hell.

― Jeanne Fury (Jeanne Fury), Saturday, 12 April 2003 23:09 (twenty-two years ago)

'ee jing'

― st, Saturday, 12 April 2003 23:27 (twenty-two years ago)

thanks

― Dan I., Sunday, 13 April 2003 01:12 (twenty-two years ago)

the clever and intentional 'whore d'oevues' mispronunciation on "area codes"

― ddd, Sunday, 13 April 2003 01:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, "nuh-BAWK-off", if I remember correctly -- definately should have the accent on the 2nd syllable. Nabokov was rather insistant on that, but apparently didn't care if you said "vla-DEEM-eer" correctly or not.

― Chris P (Chris P), Sunday, 13 April 2003 01:49 (twenty-two years ago)

scorpions...
"here i am -
rockin' like a hurr-i-can"
always makes me laugh

― bucky wunderlick (bucky), Sunday, 13 April 2003 02:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Jon Anderson says "Michigan" in Paul Simon's "America" with the ch sound instead of sh in the Yes cover.

― nickn (nickn), Sunday, 13 April 2003 07:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Manic Street Preachers - "I sold my medal, it paid a BL", "you will be buried in the same box as a keelar", to name but two.

― Damian (Damian), Sunday, 13 April 2003 09:39 (twenty-two years ago)

eight months pass...

How about when John Lennon sings, "I don't believe in eye ching" (in the song "God"). Is that how they say "I Ching" in England, or on the Upper West Side? It kind of distracts from the big list of things he doesn't believe in.

Also the way he makes "tarot" rhyme with "carrot" (but that one, at least, is a legit pronunciation, sez my dictionary).

― Sam J. (samjeff), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I cringe when I hear Lou Reed sing "wrecking havoc," but I'm not sure that's a mispronunciation problem, technically speaking.

― Salmon Pink (Salmon Pink), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 07:14 (twenty-one years ago)

And, in a similar vein, it bugs me slightly when the Mountain Goats sing "runs through him with a broadsword" when they really ought to sing "runs him through with a broadsword." But only slightly, because it's a helluva song. As is the Lou Reed song referenced in the previous post. Maybe this ought to be a new thread, but I can't come up with a catchy subject line for one right now. Because, well, I'm drunk.

― Salmon Pink (Salmon Pink), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 07:29 (twenty-one years ago)

lots of american singers pronounce their words weird. really weird.

― Jole, Wednesday, 24 December 2003 07:33 (twenty-one years ago)

And the popular bread with tomatoes, etc. is broo-sketta.

My Italian momma and grandmother pronounce it broo-shetta, with the final 'a' sound barely audible.

― Sean (Sean), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 08:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Michael Stipe bafflingly mispronouces the word "Cuyahoga" on Lifes Rich Pageant. Why write a song about the mistreatment of the Cuyahoga Indians if you can't even say their name correctly?

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 08:19 (twenty-one years ago)

"Can I kick it" Tribe called Quest

A long bunch of rhymes for ayer, "obeyer", "Conveyer"

And then "Do you like the garments that we wear?" pronounced correctly, i.e. not 'Weyar' to rhyme properly.

Or should that be on the "Missed Pronunciations in Popular Music" thread?

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 09:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't believe that no-one on this transatlantic website picked up on RJG's Morrissey criticism. Cemetery in North America is usually pronounced SEM-EH-TAIR-Y, whereas in the UK, it's SEM-A-TREE. So, Mozza was just spelling it phonetically, right?

― David A. (Davant), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 10:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, and funnier still -- the word "mispronunciations" in the header is misspelled. ;-)

― David A. (Davant), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 10:08 (twenty-one years ago)

< / smartarse>

― David A. (Davant), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 10:09 (twenty-one years ago)

'sematree gaytz'

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 11:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Johnny Rotten pronouncing "anarchist" as "anar-kyst" to make it rhyme with "antichrist" in "Anarchy in the UK".

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 11:59 (twenty-one years ago)

"She'll beat you if she's able" in the Langley Schools version of "Desperado." Sheila pronounces it "a bull" instead of "able."

Also, "here's the situation - idiodicy" in "Self Destruction.:

― mike a (mike a), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Backstreet's Back: "Everybody, everywhere/Don't be afraid, don't have no fee-air..."

Oh, and Chris De Burgh Lady In Red, where he inexplicably pronounces "dance" as "darnce", and then attempts to rhyme it with "romance", pronounced normally.

― Philip Alderman (Phil A), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

'cuyahoga' is about the river in cleveland that burned for a while due to pollution, not the native american tribe's mistreatment. i know this because i saw them in concert. still though, stipe pronounces like Everything wrong.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 20:02 (twenty-one years ago)

wayne newton - danke shane

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 20:11 (twenty-one years ago)

"pompitous"

― Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Eminem sez:
Know why I say these things?
'Cause ladies' screams keep poppin' up in Shady's dreams
And the way things seem, I shouldn't have to pay these shrinks
These eighty G's a week to say the same things TWEECE!
...twice, whatever

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Thursday, 25 December 2003 08:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Beth Orton:
"But mother mother some will never know,
The love that you have installed in my soul"

Maybe more a malapropism, but I'm 99% sure she meant instilled.

― bnw (bnw), Thursday, 25 December 2003 08:38 (twenty-one years ago)

"pompitous"

That's really a mishearing problem; there's a whole Straight Dope column on it. The guy in the song Steve Miller ripped the phrase off from actually said "puppetutes of love".

― Chris F. (servoret), Thursday, 25 December 2003 08:46 (twenty-one years ago)

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