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geodeticman.5 · 05-11-2013, 01:55 PM

Here is the whole point of this thread in a nutshell: I'm hoping others have also heard certain words or phrases in Gord's songs incorrectly, and for even years didn't know it. Do you have any like that too?.

Here is my first entry, a near 40-year error of mine in listening to one of my favorite songs of THE MAN'S:

I was listening to "All The Lovely Ladies" yesterday, and it occurred to me that there were a few words or phrases here or there that I've always thought were curious, and come to find out, after reading the lyrics, were entirely different.

This is not a new thread idea, but one on my mind lately. So I thought I'd own-up to words which I've always heard wrong, and see if I'm the only one. I doubt it

I'll start with this one, because there are many:

from "All The Lovely Ladies", in the following lines:

"To all the lovely ladies in their finery tonight
I wish that I could kiss you while you knit"

FOR A LAUGH RIGHT HERE ON THE ABOVE: I have knelt so hammered into my head I even wrote it at first in the above, where I meant to have the correct word knit. I corrected it. Duhh. Caught it today on Sunday, LOL

For almost 40 years I thought "knit" was knelt. And I pictured some lovely lady genuflecting at the site of Gord, LOL. While I thought it odd, I never questioned it, because it sounded like that word. I was very surprised to see "knit". What a word, that so many people, at least in the states, would consider an antiquated notion. Knitting. However innaccurate, it elicits images of ladies magically knitting scarfs and such, and doesn't seem to fit the image I had of the song's setting of what I thought was, well, a bordello (however fancy. Or, perhaps a more tasteful and refined, but not quite puritanical setting, of a sort of "high-end singles mixer", where finely-dressed ladies and gentlemen strolled in, all with prurient interests, picked out their date, and strolled out with arched eyebrows in sartorial splendor. After all, they are finely-dressed.

The other phrase from the same song that I've been wrong on for almost 40 years as well is in these lines:

To all the ones who learn to live with being second-guessed
Whose job it is to give more then they get

I've thought for all this time, in the same song, "second-guessed" was second-guest. While I know the song by heart, and the phrase second-guessed quite well, it didn't sound that way. The other was plausible, because it was, err.. Gord. And if he says so, its cool, you know what I mean?

I thought second-guest must have been a Canadian idiom, or colloquial term at least, for "a person who is farther back on the hand-out line", or used to being the second guest to, or at a function. I felt sympathy. It fit. I had no cause to question it. The other above, I should have questioned.

YOU WOULD THINK, in all this time, expecially when I did lyrics-quizzers for so long (that wasn't an ad for it

) I would have come across that. I probably did, but you know what they say about the mind's eye: we see what we want, or expect to see.

Anyone else want to own-up to being human on lyrics discernment?

I hope I'm not alone in this, LOL.

05-11-2013, 01:55 PM	#45
geodeticman.5 Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Eastern Slope urban corridor, Colo. USA Posts: 1,007	Lyrics I've always heard wrong until..... Here is the whole point of this thread in a nutshell: I'm hoping others have also heard certain words or phrases in Gord's songs incorrectly, and for even years didn't know it. Do you have any like that too?. Here is my first entry, a near 40-year error of mine in listening to one of my favorite songs of THE MAN'S: I was listening to "All The Lovely Ladies" yesterday, and it occurred to me that there were a few words or phrases here or there that I've always thought were curious, and come to find out, after reading the lyrics, were entirely different. This is not a new thread idea, but one on my mind lately. So I thought I'd own-up to words which I've always heard wrong, and see if I'm the only one. I doubt it I'll start with this one, because there are many: from "All The Lovely Ladies", in the following lines: "To all the lovely ladies in their finery tonight I wish that I could kiss you while you knit" FOR A LAUGH RIGHT HERE ON THE ABOVE: I have *knelt* so hammered into my head I even wrote it at first in the above, where I meant to have the correct word *knit. I corrected it. Duhh. Caught it today on Sunday, LOL For almost 40 years I thought "knit" was knelt. And I pictured some lovely lady genuflecting at the site of Gord, LOL. While I thought it odd, I never questioned it, because it sounded like that word. I was very surprised to see "knit". What a word, that so many people, at least in the states, would consider an antiquated notion. Knitting. However innaccurate, it elicits images of ladies magically knitting scarfs and such, and doesn't seem to fit the image I had of the song's setting of what I thought was, well, a bordello (however fancy. Or, perhaps a more tasteful and refined, but not quite* puritanical setting, of a sort of "high-end singles mixer", where finely-dressed ladies and gentlemen strolled in, all with prurient interests, picked out their date, and strolled out with arched eyebrows in sartorial splendor. After all, they are finely-dressed. The other phrase from the same song that I've been wrong on for almost 40 years as well is in these lines: To all the ones who learn to live with being second-guessed Whose job it is to give more then they get I've thought for all this time, in the same song, "second-guessed" was second-guest. While I know the song by heart, and the phrase second-guessed quite well, it didn't sound that way. The other was plausible, because it was, err.. Gord. And if he says so, its cool, you know what I mean? I thought second-guest must have been a Canadian idiom, or colloquial term at least, for "a person who is farther back on the hand-out line", or used to being the second guest to, or at a function. I felt sympathy. It fit. I had no cause to question it. The other above, I should have questioned. YOU WOULD THINK, in all this time, expecially when I did lyrics-quizzers for so long (that wasn't an ad for it ) I would have come across that. I probably did, but you know what they say about the mind's eye: we see what we want, or expect to see. Anyone else want to own-up to being human on lyrics discernment? I hope I'm not alone in this, LOL. __________________ ~geo Steve . :"I will leave my footprints there to lie beneath the snow" ~gl Quote to ponder: "A thousand words leave not the same deep impression as does a single deed." ~ Henrik Ibsen Last edited by geodeticman.5; 05-12-2013 at 01:48 PM.