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Misheard Song Lyrics -> Stories -> Black Sabbath
Misheard lyrics (also called mondegreens) occur when people misunderstand the lyrics in a song. These are NOT intentional rephrasing of lyrics, which is called parody. For more information about the misheard lyrics available on this site, please read our FAQ.
This page contains a list of the songs that have stories about their misheard lyrics submitted.
Song names are sorted by first letter, excluding A and The. This is sorted by song title only, not by song title and performer. So if two different performers preformed the same song, you'll see misheard lyrics for both on the same page (provided the song title was spelt the same both times, and misheard lyrics have been submitted for both!).
Black Box: The Complete Original Black Sabbath (1970-1978) album at Amazon.com
Black Sabbath's, "Behind The Wall Of Sleep"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Hey ol' army boys Touch your body to a corpse
The Real Lyrics:
If you want all remorse
Take your body to a corpse.
Take your body to a corpse.
The Story: The first time I heard this song I could swear that part was talking about soldiers touching corpses on the battlefield and...uh...you know. - Submitted by: Metalamor
Black Sabbath's, "Electric Funeral"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Turning people into clay,
radiation's mighty day
radiation's mighty day
The Real Lyrics:
Turns people into clay,
radiation minds decay
radiation minds decay
The Story: The misheard lyrics are from a booklet that was published locally (with translations) in the early 90s. The guys who published it made a really bad job with both, but in those pre-Internet age, it was actually a godsend for us poor kids who could at least get SOME of the lyrics right - Submitted by: Gwidon S. Naskrent
Black Sabbath's, "Ironman"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Ozzy lost his mind...
The Real Lyrics:
Has he lost his mind?
The Story: I was thinking about how Ozzy had turn weird after Black Sabbath and I was listening that song so i heard that. - Submitted by: benjo
Black Sabbath's, "NIB"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Your love for me has just got to be real
Before you know the way Rio. I'm going to Rio
Before you know the way Rio. I'm going to Rio
The Real Lyrics:
Your love for me has just got to be real
Before you know the way I'm going to feel.
Before you know the way I'm going to feel.
The Story: Actually I hard a friend sing the at work. We bet lunch he misheard it. Needless to say I won. - Submitted by: Wayne A (Swimmer Dad)
Black Sabbath's, "Paranoid"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Bill is with my woman.
The Real Lyrics:
finished with my woman
The Story: A mate of mine sang this for years without realizing it was wrong, thinking it was a reference to (Black Sabbath drummer) Bill Ward. - Submitted by: Gary Robinson
Black Sabbath's, "Paranoid"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Can you help me, not to blow my brain?
The Real Lyrics:
Can you help me, occupy my brain?
The Story: This was the first song I've heard from Black Sabbath. I think that there was not a single word I have understood correctly. - Submitted by: Ivan
Black Sabbath's, "Paranoid"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Can you help me, or do you want my brain?
or
Can you help me, or are you on my brain?
or
Can you help me, or are you on my brain?
The Real Lyrics:
Can you help me, occupy my brain?
The Story: I thought it was about maybe Ozzy had a concert in Roswell and he got abducted by aliens and wrote a song about it. Sorry, no story about 'Are you on my brain?' - Submitted by: Anonymous Bob
Black Sabbath's, "Paranoid"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Can you help me, thought you were my friend
The Real Lyrics:
Can you help me, occupy brain
The Story: I have always heard it this way and no one has ever corrected me when I sang it. - Submitted by: John Dowlen
Black Sabbath's, "Paranoid"
The Misheard Lyrics:
I tell you to end your life
I wish I could but it's too late.
I wish I could but it's too late.
The Real Lyrics:
I tell you to en-joy life
I wish I could but it's too late.
I wish I could but it's too late.
The Story: I got this one right, but some fool somewhere didn't, because this was used by some idiot as an argument for Ozzy being responsible for the death of that kid who killed himself and his parents blamed Suicide Solution instead of lousy parenting. If you watch the Don't Blame Me video, Ozzy talks about it. Someone came up to him and said, 'Isn't it true that in Paranoid you say, 'I tell you to end your life?!'' Ozzy corrected them immediately, citing his altered pronunciation as the reason for the screw up. But he left out the part about their lack of basic human intelligence. - Submitted by: Chris DeNicola
Black Sabbath's, "Paranoid"
The Misheard Lyrics:
I tell you to end your life
I wish I could but it's too late.
I wish I could but it's too late.
The Real Lyrics:
I tell you to enjoy life
I wish I could but it's too late.
I wish I could but it's too late.
The Story: I was at a seminar about the the history of rock and roll at a university I was attending at the time. It turned out to be a bashing of any song that the speaker thought was 'evil'. This is one he mentioned and talked about how Ozzy is telling kids to end their lives. After talking to a guy a couple years later who sang in a band, I found out the speaker was wrong. All those years I didn't think it made sense for Ozzy to say it was 'too late' for him to end his life! - Submitted by: Mark M
Black Sabbath's, "Paranoid"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Now I tell you to end your life
I wish I could perambulate.
I wish I could perambulate.
The Real Lyrics:
Now I tell you to enjoy life
I wish I could but it's too late.
I wish I could but it's too late.
The Story: I was so impressed that Ozzy busted out such a fancy word for 'walking' 'til my husband corrected me! - Submitted by: herna
Black Sabbath's, "Paranoid"
The Misheard Lyrics:
People think I'm insane
Because I eat brownies all the time. or
Because I am Browning all the time.
Because I eat brownies all the time. or
Because I am Browning all the time.
The Real Lyrics:
People think I'm insane
Because I am frowning all the time.
Because I am frowning all the time.
The Story: My friend Drew and I were driving around. I put the Black Sabbath CD in my CD player. I never heard it before, so we were listening to it. We heard this part and Drew asked, "Did he just say 'People think I'm insane because I eat brownies all the time?'" We thought that was the actual lyrics for a long time until we actually looked them up. - Submitted by: Brent Kagan
Black Sabbath's, "Supernaut"
The Misheard Lyrics:
And find the distant man a-waivin' his spoon.
The Real Lyrics:
And find the dish that ran away with the spoon.
The Story: Around 1996 or 1997, there was a very active Black Sabbath mailing list. This line was a topic for a while. One proponent for the wrong lyrics argued that the line was referring to people holding up their spoons to attest to their fondness for heroin. I've never heard of anyone doing this, but it may be true. - Submitted by: Colin
Black Sabbath's, "Symptom Of The Universe"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Mother mooch is calling me back to her silver womb.
The Real Lyrics:
Mother moon, she's calling me back to her silver womb.
The Story: Black Sabbath has very few authorized lyric transcriptions of their albums (any available transcriptions are mostly just guess work), and this particular lyric was debated on alt.music.black-sabbath for what seemed like weeks. One camp thought it was 'mother mooch is calling me', the others thought it was 'mother moon is calling me'. Although 'mooch' is a real word that means somebody who always wants money, people said it didn't make any sense, but then others argued that there was a distinctive 'ch' sound in the song. Finally I realized that both of them were wrong, and said 'Oh, I know: it's 'mother moon, SHE'S calling me'.' - Submitted by: Bill M
Black Sabbath's, "War Pigs"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Hey, lady! Eat that cheese!
or
Yes, pluck that banjo
or
You have very nice shoes, Miss.
or
Yes, pluck that banjo
or
You have very nice shoes, Miss.
The Real Lyrics:
Treating people just like pawns in chess.
The Story: Eight years ago, a friend of mine offered to sweeten up my diet soda for me. She gave me two sugar cubes and suggested that I drop them into my soda. Little did I know that I just drank two hits of concentrated LSD. Later, I noticed a beautiful woman walking toward me on a street. I wanted to say, 'Hello, beautiful,' but all that came out was, 'Hey, lady! Eat that cheese! Yes, pluck that banjo... You have very nice shoes, Miss.' Of course, this b**** slapped me and said, 'Don't you ever sing 'War Pigs' to me again.' - Submitted by: Don Super Great UAC 84244525
Black Sabbath's, "War Pigs"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Old lawn chair
The Real Lyrics:
Oh Lord, yeah!
The Story: It was the '70s what can I tell ya! - Submitted by: RJ
Black Sabbath's, "War Pigs"
The Misheard Lyrics:
oh lodger!
The Real Lyrics:
Oh Lord, yeah!
The Story: I would swear it said that on the lyric sheet when I was a kid. talk about misremembering. - Submitted by: Stu Dee
There are more Black Sabbath misheard lyrics available.
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