The first line of Elton John & Bernie Taupin‘s “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” (’74) is “I can’t light no more of your darkness.” I know this song well, but for decades I heard the line as follows: “I can’t line no more awwgey dogness.” And for decades I sang it that way in the shower or whenever the tune played on the car radio. Did I ever ask myself what “awwgey dogness” means? Yes, a few times, but I could never make heads or tails of it.

“Duhlivian,” posted on 4.1.18:

All my adult life I’ve been bothered by a garbled lyric in the chorus of “I’d Really Love To See You Tonight”, a loathsome soft-rock tune by England Dan & John Ford Coley. The printed lyrics: “I’m not talking ’bout movin’ in / And I don’t want to change your life / But there’s a warm wind blowing the stars around / And I’d really love to see you tonight.” The problem is that the singer doesn’t sing “movin’ in” — he sings “duhlivian.” If you don’t believe me, listen to this and then this. Listen to this a second time — there’s no question he’s not saying “movin’ in.” All my life I’ve been saying ‘what does ‘duhlivian’ mean?’ So in my head I changed it to “deliverance” because at least that made some kind of sense, but not really if you think about it. I just wanted to clear that up. It’s been bothering me since the mid ’70s.

Also: “Surreal Song Lyrics,” posted on 8.14.11.