Prince Helped Establish My Teenage Nerd Status
When I was a teen and first heard “Little Red Corvette” on the radio I thought the words were “Live and Collect”. You know, like the girl in the song was living and collecting guys as she went along? There was no internet or Sound Hound to look up the lyrics back then. Music videos hadn’t even come on the scene yet. I didn’t buy the cassette; I just taped it off the radio like all my other allowance challenged friends did. So what you heard on the radio was all you got. “Live and Collect” totally made sense to me. I even convinced my friend Ryan that’s what it said.
So at a party surrounded by teen girls we wanted to impress, we were signing at the top of our lungs “LIVE AND COLLECT!” The girl throwing the party pulled out her Prince cassette case (her allowance was bigger than ours) and showed us the name of the song. She then proceeded to let everyone there know we were a couple of dorks. I was horrified and Ryan wouldn’t talk to me for weeks.
Somehow the knowledge of this little gaffe has managed to trail me all my life and I still sometimes catch hell from people in the know when the song comes on the radio. It’s OK though Prince. I don’t hold it against you. Rest in peace purple one.
10 thoughts on “Prince Helped Establish My Teenage Nerd Status”
My friends busted me for singing “Baby, I Was Blown Awaaaaay” when it was “Baby, I Was Born this Way”. Yeah, they don’t let me forget that.
halfa1000miles recently posted…Relationship Compatibility Question in a Jar
Ha! I guess that was a Lady GaGaffe?
When I was really young I thought the Pina Colada song was the Bean Enchilada song. “If you like bean enchiladas, and farting in the rain…”
The Australian national anthem starts with “Australians all let us rejoice….” I thought it was “Australians all let ostriches…” Do what, exactly? What were we going to let them do?!
Mrs Fancy-Pants recently posted…Brave Australians And Creepy Creatures
LOL! Now I want to know what you were going to let them do? Over here we should let them run for president. Would be a better choice than the clowns we have now. I would vote for your ostrich. Unless Tina the llama from Napoleon Dynamite was running. Then I would have to vote for Tina.
I want to know too!
Mrs Fancy-Pants recently posted…Brave Australians And Creepy Creatures
This is something I’ve never told anyone: for a long time I thought AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” was a song about a fake band called “Dirty Dan & The Thunder Chiefs”.
Sort of a heavy metal version of “Benny & The Jets”.
I’m confessing that for two reasons. First, anyone who tells you they’ve never misheard a song lyric is lying. Ryan should have been more sympathetic.
Second, “Live And Collect” is a much more interesting lyrically than “Little Red Corvette”. Instead of yet another song about a car you imagined something darker, deeper, and stranger.
And so did I. Hey, who wouldn’t want to hear about a band called “Dirty Dan & The Thunder Chiefs”?
Christopher recently posted…It’s All Plasma.
“Dirty Dan & The Thunder Chiefs” would be an awesome band name! Wonder what songs they would play?
Even after I found out the name was wrong I harbored a secret fantasy that Prince initially called the song “Live and Collect” but people accidently sang “Little Red Corvette” so he changed it.
Glad you first confessed here. Maybe we could get others to confess. About misheard lyrics, not things like theft and murder. Just thought I better clarify that.
Apparently there is a parody called Dirty Deeds Done With Sheep 😀
Mrs Fancy-Pants recently posted…Brave Australians And Creepy Creatures
Yea there is and it’s pretty funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-4lk2-UA_I
Sooooo many misheard lyrics growing up! Too young to understand the innuendo, usually. And also too innocent to sing along with the “bad” words.
Think of eight-year-olds in the backseat singing along with the Hotel California 8-track. “Life in the Fast Lane” comes to mind… and of course, the grown-ups in the front seat will NOT correct you!
emelle recently posted…A recipe I posted five years ago on the facebooks… updated?