Day 16 – Misheard Song Lyrics
Say that again?!
We received a great Livestream topic suggestion from Neil K. a couple of days ago! He suggested we could talk about all the ‘misheard lyrics’ we’ve encountered over the years. So words or lines in songs that we took for something completely different. Great idea, we can definitely think of a few and will share them with you tomorrow …
Would you mind sharing your own in the comments, too, so we can all have a good laugh about them together in the next Livestream? 😉
Neil started us off with the classic Beatles line from Penny Lane … “a pretty nurse was selling puppies from a tray” 🐶 🐶🐶
So … What are your favourite misheard lyrics?
See you all again soon!
Mona & Lisa
At one point in Wilbert Harrison’s recording of Kansas City he shouts, “Oh, but you know you must have!” But due to his rather odd cadence I always thought he was saying, “Oh, but you know, yeah! Mustache!”
I heard a song on the PA system at a store today that reminded me of another misheard lyric. In the Temptations song Beauty’s Only Skin Deep, for a long time I thought they were singing “beautiful skivvies”!
I thought of another one during the livestream. In the old Del Vikings song “Whispering Bells”, I heard it as “whispering madhouse”. The guy pronounced it as two syllables — “beh-hells” — which really threw me off!
The Livestream that just finished was wonderful with Mona, Lisa & Papa Rudi! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
Here’s something to add to the funny lyrics discussion. A hilarious SNL ABBA version of Christmas Songs!
ABBA Christmas – SNL – YouTube
I’ve heard many over the years, I guess. There are a couple that several others have mentioned. Another is “Forever in Blue Jeans.” I heard it as “Reverend Blue Jeans,” and I knew a couple girls who heard it that way, too. I thought the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” was “Goodbye Frenchy.”
I thought “Country Roads” mentioned “Mountain Parma,” but I could never find it on a map. Years later I discovered it was actually “Mountain Mama.” Though the song says “West Virginia,” it is really about western Virginia, and it was inspired by a back road in Maryland.
A guy put out at least 3 small books of these 20 or so years ago. One was strictly Xmas songs. They are also called mondegreens, after a character in a play.
I wasn’t familiar with the song at the time, but my mom once said that she also heard it as “the Reverend Blue Jeans”.
On the sitcom King of Kings the husband Doug argues with his wife, insisting the song is Reverend Blue Jeans. I never had trouble with that one. One I never understood was Come Together by the Beatles. I still mumble non-words when I’m singing along, Lol.
Apologies for seeming lazy, but has anyone mentioned the classic line “there’s a bathroom on the right” from that CCR song? I used to hear that one all the time in ‘Nam.
Mona and Lisa could do no wrong by covering the Paul Young-Clannad version of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’. (Really just Maire Brennan of Clannad). Their harmonies are just wonderful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob0mYdbFjdU Why mention that here? Because Paul Young had a solo song–title unknown–with a line which I just cannot forget = “every time you go away you take a piece of meat with you.”
Peter: you got the title of the Paul Young song without realising it – it’s “Every Time I Go Away !! – love the misheard part though 😄
Our bus driver loved Juice Newton’s Angel in the Morning. As the bus rattled along she played her 8 track continuously. With all the noise on the bus it was sometimes difficult to hear. Instead of ‘just touch my cheek before you leave me’ I heard, “Just brushed my teeth before you leave me.” I knew it was weird but I went with it for years.
When I used to listen to “Stayin’ Alive” by the BeeGees, I couldn’t understand most of the lyrics until the song got to “Ah…Ha…Ha… – Stayin Alive, Stayin Alive… I made up many wrong lyrics but I’ll see what other people thought
Yeah, I couldn’t really penetrate those lyrics either. I missed the apostrophe-“s” in the first line and heard, “You can tell by the way I use my walk, I’m a woman man”, and I pictured a guy in high heels.
I’m sure I have dozens of there, but none are coming to mind. Here’s a fun thought though; In the Beatles Song “All My Lovin'”, if you change the word “Lovin'” to “Laundry”, the song still makes sense. What do you say ladies? Next Duo Sessions? Eh?
I often thing about adding a character to my YouTube channel called the Song Wreaker, that intentionally sings the wrong lyrics to parts of songs, in an effort to get the wrong lyrics stuck in people’s head.
With Google, it’s been a long time since I’ve had this problem; there were plenty, but I don’t remember most of them.
Purple Haze from Jimi Hendrix — “Excuse me while I kiss this guy” (what?). Took a while before I got the real line, “Excuse me while I kiss the sky”. Not that that makes a lot of sense to me either.
There must be a Weird Al Yankovic joke in this topic someplace…
I remember a while back seeing a video on TV of kids singing the wrong or made-up words to “The Star-Spangled Banner.” I couldn’t find it, but to make up for it, here’s a poor guy who couldn’t remember the words to the same song.
National Anthem Epic Fail 7-3-2011 – YouTube
To be fair, here’s a story of me messing up lyrics. About 20 or so years ago I was playing & singing in a Rock/Funk/Motown Band. One of the covers I sang was “Only the Good Die Young.” I rarely slipped up, but this particular night I forgot the exact words to the song! (“Oh No!” I was thinking,) but somehow, I started spontaneously making up my own lyrics for a couple of lines. I don’t know how I did it, but all my improvised lyrics worked & made sense! The keyboard player looked at me in disbelief! I still don’t know how I pulled it off! (I think they call that “free forming” now.)
It reminds me of the time I was horseback riding in a class, ready to go over a jump, & the horse stopped dead in his tracks. I flew over the horse, doing a complete forward flip, & landed on my feet, legs bent with the reins still in my hands! Then I got back on, & made the horse go over the jump!
I posted that last story on the MLT’s “Horse Healing” video last Summer, & Mona commented on it! I wish there was a video of that!
When my dying day comes, (many years from now, I hope,) & I have my Life Review, I’m sure those two events will come up! (Ha–ha!) — Bud J.
A friend was in a band called ‘Willie and the Poorboys’, later the ‘Poorboys’ after founder Willie retired. Their first gig without Willie was a local battle-of-the-bands at a cool bandshell in a nice park. Their newest member was young and quite nervous, and in his 1 lead vocal number he forgot the lyrics to Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Just Called to Say I Love You’. The poor guy got stuck on the first verse and never made it thru all the months in the song. I really felt bad for him.
It was great to see Michaila! It was nice learning about her background and how she and Rudy lived in the same area, and some of her likes and dislikes. I too am not a city person. I grew up in a small gold mining town above Boulder called Salina. When I was in fifth grade we moved to a small town between Boulder and Longmont called Niwot. Then we moved to Boulder where I went through sixth thru twelfth grades. It was fun watching the three of you interacting and reminiscing. I would like to see Rudy with you and learn more about him. The behind the scenes videos and the pictures of your excursions are always fun to see. The world is such a mess that your family is a breath of fresh air. THANK YOU WAGNERS
I read all the comments & enjoyed hearing everyone’s funny take on incorrect lyrics! From reading a lot about the Beatles, I know that they enjoyed writing obscure lyrics with meanings that could go in different directions.
I found Lisa’s comment on “Fixing a Hole,” from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band very interesting. Since she said that, I’m hearing the lyrics BOTH ways now! When I WILL myself to hear “See the Beatles standing there,” I really hear that! But when I predetermine that I will hear “See the people standing there,” I hear it that way!
It’s very strange but shows the Power of Suggestion!
I don’t know if the following story is true, or just a joke, but it is funny, if not insulting!
Here goes: Two women were talking about the Beatles, and the song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” came up. One lady said, “I don’t like that song. The lyrics are so RUDE!” Her friend said, “What do you mean?” The other lady responded, “because he sings about A girl with COLITIS going by!” Her friend corrected her explaining, “No, it’s The girl with KALAIDESCOPE EYES!”
Hello Ladies.
In the song Big Girls Don’t Cry(Four Seasons) the common Misconception was that they were singing Big Girls eat Moon Pies instead of Big Girls Don’t Cry.
See you tomorrow.
Best
Rick Ross
I remember arguing with my college roommate about We Can Work It Out. I read the lyrics on the record sleeve and they said “Do I have to keep on talking till I CAN go on”.
Maybe someone can explain the Olde English grammar or whatever to me…
FromPenny Lane my brother always thought it was “I see the banker waiting for a TREND”… instead of “trim”. I guess he thought Paul was more into finance…
Funny, I heard “trend” at first too, instead of “trim.” Then I saw the correct lyrics years later! So your brother wasn’t the only one who heard that. And I thought that “trend” didn’t really fit in with the other lyrics. Or that maybe the banker was seeing a good sign, or trend in the economy! But I CAN understand almost every word that the Beatles sing.
Also, Mona & Lisa’s lyrics are very clear when they sing.
I had the Penny Lane lyrics all messed up. I never was sure of the correct lyrics on that song and many others until they started publishing lyrics on the web.
I never understood the line in “A Hard Day’s Night” in the 2nd verse “So why on Earth should I moan?” I only had the LP and nowhere to find the lyrics. All I could make out was “So what I nurtured I’m on” I suspected it wasn’t it, but it took me years to find the correct lyrics!
“Ain’t nothing gonna break my SPINE …”. By Matthew Wilder. Thirty years after release I found out it’s “Break my Stride”. But I used to sing it in the car with such assurance I knew the words…
Oh Lirdy …. You have me all laughing here , reading these, and I’m guilty if probably having heard same thing or something similar to my ears…. This is going to be a funny Livestream….May I suggest
# 1 : go to bathroom first to empty yer bladders before watching Livestream…
# 2 : Try not to eat/drink while Livestream is on fir safety of not choking on foid/drink ….lol 🙃🤪
When I first heard Hughie Lewis’ “I want a new drug” I thought he was saying “I want a new truck.” I thought what a strange thing to sing about. Later Weird Al Yankovic did a take off called “I want a new duck.”
Well…given the fact, my hearing hasn’t always been great and become worse as I’ve older, now been wearing hearing aids, going on 2 yrs now, it’s legitimate for me to say, too many songs, I’ve done this with but one part a song that still stands out from chilhood that I always song wrong lyrics too …. Paul Simon’s ” Kodachrome ” song from the 70s … As a kid back then , where sings ” dream ” or whatever the line part is in tge song, I sang ” Green ” ….lol
And in the ” Devil Went Down To Georgia ” song where it’s mentioned chickens pickin out dough , I’d sing… Dosey-Doe …. lol
.As I said and still do, have hearing issues with/without hearing aids and get messed up on lyrics …. 😉🙃🤣😂
Howdy Folks,
There was a song by Johnny Rivers called “Secret Agent Man”. Some people say that it sounds like he’s saying – Secret Asian Man.
Bobby S. 😎🎵🎵🎵🧛♂️
The song was recorded by Johnny Rivers for a British Spy TV Series.
Well, here in the US , it was referred to as an American spy-fi television series which aired in 2000. It was short-lived and only 12 episodes were seen. The lead character, played by Costas Mandylor, was named Monk on the program.
Bobby S.
Elton John, “tiny dancer” was misheard as “Hold me closer Tony Danza”
And the lyrics to “Louie Louie” were so obscene the FBI investigated the song for almost 2 years (no charges were filed)
And finally, “Blinded by the light” had nothing to do with “douche”, the words actually were “Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night” (Cut loose like a deuce in another version)
A deuce was a hot rod car, like in the song “Little Deuce Coupe”
Back in the day it seemed so difficult to understand the works to Louie Louie , although my rhythm guitarist wanted to play it lol.
Bobby S.
Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) immortalized this in Friends:
https://youtu.be/4o2u2RjEFHo?si=9tZZf8eHHCXqnc9d
I believe a deuce was a ’32 Ford. A lot of them were built into hot rods
You made me remember good ol’ Les Nessman on the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati. Regarding the Tiny Dancer/Tony Danza mixup he hilariously said something like ‘I had no idea Tony Danza was gay.’
A few more that I’ve been trying to remind myself of during today:
Madonna, La Isla Bonita has a “young girl with eyes like potatoes “
That still sounds more accurate than a “young girl with eyes like the desert”
Credence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising obviously needs a mention for the line “There’s a bathroom on the right “. (Bad moon on the rise)
In my Beatles version of Long Tall Sally there is a Thin Lizzy … “I’m gonna tell Aunt Mary ‘bout Uncle John, he said he had Thin Lizzy but he got a lot of fun “
I’ll be sure to listen in to the Livestream but sadly will have to sit quietly in the corner again; a combination of YouTube and Google and my technical incompetence leaves me unable to join in but I’ll enjoy the hour regardless
I allways hear mama appelsap Appelsap(= apple juice)in Michael Jacksons “Wanna be starting something”. In the netherlands the have a dj on the radio who every week ask his listeners for misheard lyrics. Believe me there is one every week.
this clip always makes me laugh
https://youtu.be/7my5baoCVv8?si=DxEocusibGVC2JHE
My cousin swore that John sang Mother Superior John Pagan in Happiness is a Warm Gun.
Also You Can’t Hide Hawaiian Eyes(Eagles “Lying Eyes”)
My friend always sang Salivate Like a Big Assed Dog(Rolling Stones “Bitch”)
That was good, strangely enough once he told you what he hears, you allways hear the same thing he heared,altough you know what the real lyric is…….
I always misheard the title lyrics to the Wild Cherry hit ” Play That Funky Music White Boy”. Maybe I did it on purpose!!
Didn’t the sing that, i heared the same!
Yeah the correct word is Funky. A lot of people use the naughty F word.
As a kid I thought for the longest time that Billy Joel was singing about a “weasel woman” (instead of “always a woman”) until someone set me straight.
The first time I heard the Beach Boys was in a grade 4 class room party. Our grade 4 teacher played the Beach Boys and taught us all to dance. I thought for the longest time the song said “Serving USA”. Later I learned it is “Surfin USA”. Regardless it sounded so cool, loved it forever.
That totally figures. You have a big servant heart Jung, so that just naturally made sense to you.
The Electric Prunes. Actual lyrics “I had too much to Dream last Night” but I thought for the longest time they were singing “I had too much to Drink last Night” which if you review the rest of the lyrics makes sense (I’m not ready to face the light”).
I always thought the chorus to Donna Summer’s I Feel Love sounded strangely like ‘nappy rash’ and The chorus to Mississippi by Pussycat like Leicester City!
I don’t know if it qualifies as “misheard” or just plain nobody really knows. But Elvis’ “Hound Dog” has been confused by both musicians and fans as well as radio jocks and record producers. Was the line actually “well, you ain’t never caught a rabbit”? or was it really something else…? I still don’t know for sure.
Daryl, I’m sure you’ve heard the original (I believe) version of Hound Dog by Big Mama Thornton. The lyrics are quite different. I’ll add a link to it. I think Elvis and Sam Phillips wanted to whiten it up a little. I like Elvis’ version but I love the pure gut wrench version by Big Mama.
https://youtu.be/yoHDrzw-RPg?feature=shared
Great point Tim! Smoky soulful blues always trumps the rock & roll it spawned. Wouldn’t it be a treat to be able to slip back in time and sneak into one of those old gin/juke joints and hear some of that incredible blues music?! To hear someone like Robert Johnson live and get a feel for what turned out the likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf and others that in turn were guiding influences of the Three Kings, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and the likes of Eric Clapton and Eddie Van Halen, virtually all of them.
Absolutely Daryl, I’ve heard Elvis and most certainly Jerry Lee Lewis used to sneak out to those clubs and listen to those artists. Les Paul said he would play a show at a swanky theatre in NYC then afterwards going up to a club in Harlem and play with them guys until dawn. Got to give credit to guys like Clapton and even George Thorogood for keeping that stuff alive.
This was a good one to bring up Dayrl. I always liked Elvis’s version of the song, but I wrongly assumed he wrote the song. Elvis grew up poor in the US south, so it made sense to me. After reading Tim’s comment, I looked it up and found a detailed history of the song: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hound_Dog_(song) — It’s easy to see where the confusion you saw comes from.
Dennis, many of the old blues, jazz songs came from the plantations and backwoods of the Southern U.S. The origins of many of the songs are really unknown and classified as tradition and can be recorded by anyone without paying royalties. The House of The Rising Sun and The Midnight Special are two classic examples of these songs. Many of the words have been lost or changed over the years being picked up by new generations. Some old country music songs(hillbilly music/bluegrass) originated the same way.
Here’s an entire song of misheard lyrics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nIwrgAnx6Q8
Good topic Neil, one for me is The Birds Mr. Tambourine Man. The line that goes. Take me on a trip upon your Magic Swirlin Ship and I thought they said the word that rhymes with Ship….LOL
😂
I’ll try to recall some song lyrics, but in the meantime, here’s this: A grad school friend’s fiance thought the expression “It’s a dog-eat-dog world” was really “It’s a doggie-dog world.” I’m not sure what a “doggie-dog world” is, but it sounds like a much nicer place to be.
I worked with this old guy who said,” I’m just talkin’ out loud instead of I’m just thinking out loud.”
Hey Dave, I’ve heard both .
Bobby S.
Two I can think of right off the bat. Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain and the line “I Had A Dream Their Were Clowns In My Coffee”. and Jimi Hendrix singing “Excuse Me While I Kiss This Guy”. Also, On the Beatles song She’s A Woman when I sing along I always sing “My Lover She’s No Present”
Clowns! Bwahahaha! Thanks for that. I’m scared to finish drinking the rest of my coffee now.
Damn clowns!!
In Waynes world they said Jimi Hendrix sang “Scuse me while I kiss this guy”.
The first one I remember is Hendrix, “Purple Haze”, ‘scuse me while I kiss this guy”…hey, I was nine.
Today it probably would be…Ooops, maybe I shouldn’t say that these days?
That was actually the title of a book of misheard lyrics that I ran across in a bookstore once.
Just a few random examples. I’d have to listen to all my music to remember any more:
ELO – Don’t Bring Me Down: When first listening to this one, I never knew what Jeff was singing at the end of the line “Don’t bring me down, groos”. Turns out it was a meaningless word just to make it sound right and not “Bruce” after all!
Britney Spears – Till The World Ends: I always hear “Just kicked in“ at the start when real lyrics are “This kitten got your tongue tied in knots, I see”.
Must say however that Mona and Lisa’s singing is always so clear and exact that I hear lyrics in their covers that I’d never properly heard before in the originals.
Just finished decorating my Christmas Tree whilst listening to the MLT Christmas album! What better way to get into the seasonal spirit!
I’ve been trying to remember the ELO song that I read about some time ago and this was it. Apparently when singing it live, Jeff Lynne switched to singing it as ‘Bruce’ rather than compete with his audience 🙂
Hi Allan,
Yes, from listening to some of Mona’s & Lisa’s cover songs, I have learned the actual words in some songs that were never clear to me before.
Bobby S. 😎🎵🧛♂️
Yes! In fact, they cleared up a lyric I’d been mishearing for decades. In “Stuck In The Middle With You” (Stealers Wheel), I always thought he said “Well I don’t know why I can’t eat tonight” instead of “came here tonight.”
i agree with David, Peter Kay comedian does a great sketch on stage which is on Youtube
For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out what the Eagles were saying in Hotel California until Google came along. I thought the “warm smell of calitas rising up through the air” was the nonsensical warm smell of police dust.
As a kid, I never understood what “collie dust” was. I just figured it was a local term. How does desert dust relate to dogs?
If only we had the internet back then.
Police dust makes more sense.
I think my favorite is in the song Winter Wonderland.
“Later on, we’ll PERSPIRE, as we sit by the fire”.
Or in Blinded by the Light.. “wracked up by a moose in holler in the night”.
I’m so bummed I missed Michaela yesterday. My wife and I were committed to attending a swanky Christmas party at a local country club. It was a good time but I would have rather been attending the Livestream. Hopefully she will return in the future. Merry Christmas Dear Lady!
Ooh, forgot about ‘Blinded by the Light’. I still don’t exactly understand what ‘Wrapped Up Like a Deuce, Another Runner in the Night’ means. Or maybe I still don’t have it right?
I think it’s revved up like a deuce…
That makes sense! Shoulda looked up the lyrics I guess.
Tim,
When I teach young students “Winter Wonderland,” I show them the correct lyrics, and then I tell them that instead of singing — “Later on we’ll conspire, as we dream by the fire,” it would be funnier to sing — “Later on we’ll perspire, as we sit by the fire.”
I thought that I came up with that idea, but I see that someone probably beat me to it!
That is one of my favorite Christmas songs though!
— Bud
My “favorite” misheard lyric is from the CCR song Lodi. Instead of “stuck in Lodi again”, I heard it as “stuck in a low dive again”. I marvelled at the ambiguity: was it literal, meaning that he was in a slum-area bar or pool hall or something, or was it metaphorical, as a representation of the frightening trajectory of his life? When I learned it was just the name of a town, I was rather disappointed.
Peter Kay – misheard song lyrics on YouTube- Absolutely hilarious 😂😂
WARNING: IF YOU’RE EASILY OFFENDED BY ahem… COLORFUL LANGUAGE, PLEASE DON’T READ THIS POST! NO, SERIOUSLY! I MEAN IT!
I also crack Mom up if I intentionally mis-sing the line from “Lola” as such:
‘She Walked Up to Me and She Asked Me to Dance, I Asked Her Her Name, and Nearly 💩 My Pants When She Said ‘Lola’.
I apologize. I almost talked myself out of posting this, but the li’l devil on my shoulder argued it’d be funny while the angel on my other shoulder argued I’d tarnish my clean reputation. Guess which one won this time. 😳
Working in machine shops and toolrooms since highschool, I unavoidably heard MUCH worse examples I refuse to repeat. In my defense, I believe those experiences have warped my mind. 🤪
I have heard or created myself many raunchy ones. We used to do it to make your friends laugh.
I often create my own lyrics while I’m singing along. Yep, many dirty ones as well.
Ohhhhh.. I’ve done that and still do.. checkout Shirley Serban on YouTube … I’m subscribed to her channel, she’s a female version of Weird Al for her frikkin Awesome funny parody lyrical songs – well in my opinion they’re funny …. I’ve got twisted warped sense of humour .. …
Geez Jacki, Lol. I checked out Shirley Serban and she very good and funny. I’ve been watching parody videos for an hour now, Lol. It might be a good forum discussion in the future, maybe not. There are a lot of good ones but there are a lot of bad ones, haha. I do enjoy some good comedy songs, very funny.
Then you’re probably an interesting person to be around!
Hi Jeff,
For many years, since I was a teenager, I occasionally changed the words to songs.Sometimes just a few words, sometimes a whole song. But not all were vulgar lol.
Bobby S.
I always heard the line “under her legs she came alive”. So sorry!
But I’m sure someone, somewhere really did that; more than once!
I don’t recall what the heck I thought John Sebastian was saying in ‘Daydream’, but it didn’t become clear to me until I heard you clearly sing that the pie-in-the-face was for being a ‘Sleepy Bull Toad’!
And I always thought it was “A pie in the face for being asleep before dawn”
I remember thinking as a kid that ‘IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA’ from Iron Butterfly was ‘In the Garden of Eden’, and I was torn between CCR telling me there was a bathroom on the right or possibly a baboon instead of a ‘Bad Moon on the Rise’s, but I suspect I sang that one wrong on purpose for fun. I always crack Mom up when I intentionally mis-sing the line from your and the Beatles’ song ‘I’m Looking Through You…In Your Underwear!’
The Simpsons have you covered, Jeffery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSCUhqsy4Nk
Thanks, Dave! I never saw that before. Love the candles at the end.
Jeffery, I have heard John Fogerty himself sing the line “There’s a Bathroom On The Right”. He does it sometimes as a joke.
I always thought the lyrics were “I see the baboon rising” and thought it was a reference to Planet of the Apes, where it’s the end of the world with trouble on the way, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. It wasn’t until I got the CD (I had only heard it on the radio) that a saw a track called “Bad Moon Rising” wondered if it was any good. Then I listened to it and realized “Oh! that’s what it was!“
You mean it’s not “puppies”?
I have one from Lola. Until there was you, I always thought the lyric was,”at the top of her voice she said Lola” Thank you for making her “dark brown voice” so clear.
JP
it was like this since the first time I heard it. It’s funny how the mind will just accept the substitute words
Poppies I got, but I guess the accent threw me, because I used to think it was a pretty girl named ‘Ness’.
Yes, for the longest time I heard “in a background voice.’ Figured it just meant she was mumbling.
And I thought I was hearing “in a dacron voice”, which makes absolutely no sense.