Making fun of music, one song at a time. Since the year 2000.
Check out the two amIright misheard lyrics books including one book devoted to misheard lyrics of the 1980s.
Misheard Song Lyrics -> Stories -> Rage Against The Machine
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!).
Evil Empire album at Amazon.com
Rage Against The Machine's, "Bombtrack"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Guess ya gonna burn porn,
Yes ya gonna burn
Burn porn
Yes ya gonna burn
Yes ya gonna burn
Burn porn
Yes ya gonna burn
The Real Lyrics:
Yes ya gonna burn, burn
Yes ya gonna burn
Burn, burn
Yes ya gonna burn
Yes ya gonna burn
Burn, burn
Yes ya gonna burn
The Story: I was in a voice chat karaoke, and everyone thought I was singing, 'Guess ya gonna burn porn...' and they're like, 'Dude, why would you want to do that?' I laughed at this for about 20 minutes. I've been listening to the song since 1992, now I will never listen to the song the same again. - Submitted by: The Desert of the Real
Rage Against The Machine's, "Bulls On Parade"
The Misheard Lyrics:
A willy wah!
The Real Lyrics:
A wit' it, now!
The Story: My husband doesn't like my music, so he makes fun of it with his own interpretations. - Submitted by: Teresa Smith
Rage Against The Machine's, "Bulls On Parade"
The Misheard Lyrics:
I'm glad I got no family
I got a pocket full of shells.
I got a pocket full of shells.
The Real Lyrics:
They rally around the family
With a pocket full of shells.
With a pocket full of shells.
The Story: I was riding around with my fiance a few days ago, when 'Bulls On Parade' came on the radio. He listened for a few minutes, then with a disgusted look, asked if I'd change the station to a song that wasn't about someone who wanted to throw his life away. I thought that was his opinion of most rock groups, so I changed it. A few minutes later, I really wanted to know why he thought it was about someone wanting to throw his life away, so I asked. He said, 'Well, the way he kept singing about being glad he's got no family because he's got a pocket full of shells...' I think I made him a little mad, because I couldn't help laughing. (Editor's note: Tell your fiance, if he's really that angry, to get over it. It's only a song and he screwed up.:)) - Submitted by: Glix Wasi
Rage Against The Machine's, "Bulls On Parade"
The Misheard Lyrics:
We're taking down the Kremlin
With a pocketful of shells.
With a pocketful of shells.
The Real Lyrics:
They rally 'round the family
With a pocket full of shells.
With a pocket full of shells.
The Story: I was kinda screaming along with those lyrics for a dance hall filled with people. One second of amazement at my mistake, and then just general laughter. I had fun, too. :D - Submitted by: Sander Van de Moortel
Rage Against The Machine's, "Clear the Lane - Demo"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Dawn! Get Dawn! And "Bear the lane" (<--- That was what I thought was a nickname)
The Real Lyrics:
Down! Get down! And clear the lane.
The Story: So I always thought they called at Dawn and then "Bear the lane" that I thought was a nickname for someone. - Submitted by: yeet
Rage Against The Machine's, "Down Rodeo"
The Misheard Lyrics:
With the shark card
The Real Lyrics:
With a shotgun
The Story: Could have sworn to play our cards right! - Submitted by: Cody Finke
Rage Against The Machine's, "Fistful of Steel"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Groovin', playin' that game called 'Survivor'
The Real Lyrics:
Groovin', playin' that game called survival
The Story: My friend questioned me about this lyric and thought that RATM was talking about the TV show 'Survivor', but I told him it would be impossible for them to mention the show because the song was released in 1992. - Submitted by: The Desert of the Real
Rage Against The Machine's, "Killing in the Name"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Some of those that brought forces
Were the same that brought crosses.
Were the same that brought crosses.
The Real Lyrics:
Some of those that work forces
Are the same that burn crosses.
Are the same that burn crosses.
The Story: I had heard this song years ago, and never really gave the lyrics much thought, just rocked along banging my head and proclaiming that the man should, indeed, be f***ed. It was only until a few weeks ago that I DL'd my old playlists and listened to it. I gave more thought to it, and doubted what I was hearing so I looked up the lyrics and said "that can't be right" - but, holy s***! I'm old and deaf now, I guess. It still doesn't make sense to me, but see below. Time to go do that hearing test thing they made me do in elementary school. I must've had a false negative result or something. - Submitted by: Obviouslysomedeafguy
Rage Against The Machine's, "Renegades Of Funk"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Get down to the Big Shell!
The Real Lyrics:
Get down to the beat, shout!
The Story: The Big Shell is a level on the video game Metal Gear Solid 2:Sons Of Liberty. I knew they weren't really singing this but I guess that's what I got for playing that game a little too often when I first had it. ;) - Submitted by: Ocean-Sirius
Rage Against The Machine's, "Renegades Of Funk"
The Misheard Lyrics:
We're the redneck gays who f***.
The Real Lyrics:
We're the renegades of funk.
The Story: It's actually pretty funny. I was at my friend's house (I'll call him Doro), and we were listening to his older brother's CD collections. Rage Against the Machine just happened to be in there, so Doro immediately put this on (even though I insisted to listen to Disturbed... But now, looking back on it, I'm glad he did it). Doro and I finally got to 'Renegades of funk' and all of a sudden, he begins laughing his head off. I turn to him like 'WTF, mate?' He doesn't answer for a few minutes, because he's laughing his head off and crashed his car in Gran Turismo into one of the buildings. When he finally calms down, he says to me, "They just said, 'We're the redneck gays who f***'" and continues laughing. I figured they couldn't be the right lyrics. So right there, I dragged him into the computer room and looked them up. But I think I like Doro's version better, and he sings it whenever we hear this song. - Submitted by: Chakram
Rage Against The Machine's, "Renegades Of Funk"
The Misheard Lyrics:
When a random needs a f***
The Real Lyrics:
We're the renegades of funk.
The Story: My girlfriend and I got into a fight. I told her, "I'm going to go out and pick up some random to f*** tonight." She drove home crying when the song came on. She told me about the song, "When a Random Needs a F**". I didn't know what she was talking about. The next time it came on the radio she said, 'This is it!'. I laughed my a** off. [Ed.'s note: It sounds like this was Mike's mishearing, and he's trying to pass it off to his girlfriend. But who am I to judge? :))] - Submitted by: Mike
Rage Against The Machine's, "Renegades Of Funk"
The Misheard Lyrics:
When the redneck needs a f***
The Real Lyrics:
We're the renagades of funk.
The Story: My girlfriend at the time thought this song was so funny, she couldn't believe they were singing: "When the redneck needs a f***." After she found out what thr real lyrics were, she thought the misheard ones were much better. - Submitted by: lguapo
Rage Against The Machine's, "Renegades of Funk"
The Misheard Lyrics:
We're the redneck gays who f***.
The Real Lyrics:
We're the Renegades of Funk.
The Story: Sitting with some freinds, listening to this song. My girlfreind said 'Are they saying the redneck gays who f***?' My buddies thought this was hysterical, and started coming up with the video, where there are a bunch of lumberjack-looking guys doing synchronized YMCA-style dancing to the song. (Say Jam sucker, jam! Say move sucker move!) Ah, the creativity the weed brings out. It still makes me smile whenever I hear the song all these years later. - Submitted by: Jeff
Rage Against The Machine's, "Take the Power Back"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Normalize
Normalize
Normalize
Normalize
Normalize
Normalize
Normalize
Normalize
Normalize
Normalize
Normalize
Normalize
Normalize
Normalize
Normalize
The Real Lyrics:
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
No more lies
The Story: These misheard lyrics also fits the scope of the song and thus why it was misheard that way, which is about how the government made the people numbed sheep by bombarding them with patriot educations that ultimately "normalizes" the people and slowly exploiting it to flush the concepts and relationships of the people, the power and the government down the toilet and laid the foundation to turn into authoritarian state. - Submitted by: Steve Fan
Rage Against the Machine's, "Bullet in the Head"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Just victims of the in-house tri fi
The Real Lyrics:
Just victims of the in-house drive by
The Story: It's always been like this! - Submitted by: Julia
Rage Against the Machine's, "Killing In The Name Of"
The Misheard Lyrics:
Remember the bags And your trophy wife!
The Real Lyrics:
By wearing the badge, They're the chosen whites!
The Story: I assumed this had something to do with the subjects of the song being fickle and only marrying women to be their trophy wives. Bags equalling old women, and such subjects refusing to be altruistic and take care of the elderly (specifically women). - Submitted by: Bobbie Souffle
Rage Against the Machine's, "Killing in the Name"
The Misheard Lyrics:
...for shaving your bag, cause you're not really white.
The Real Lyrics:
...for wearing the badge, they're the chosen whites.
The Story: This song came on while we were driving to my boyfriend's place and I said I agreed with the lyrics. Now he's not the type to actually listen to lyrics in any song so he looked at me puzzled, like why? And I said, "just listen to the lyrics." So he did...and he heard wrong, really, really wrong. And we laughed so hard I nearly pissed myself. - Submitted by: Tara
Rage Against the Machine's, "Renegades of Funk"
The Misheard Lyrics:
We're the redneck gays of funk.
The Real Lyrics:
We're the renegades of funk.
The Story: I was working at a garage and spoiled the song for all the guys there! It really does sound like that! - Submitted by: Laura H. aka agijane4u
There are more Rage Against The Machine misheard lyrics available.
| Indexes: | [#] | [A] | [B] | [C] | [D] | [E] | [F] | [G] | [H] | [I] | [J] | [K] | [L] | [M] | [N] | [O] | [P] | [Q] | [R] | [S] | [T] | [U] | [V] | [W] | [Y] | [Z] |
New entries in this section are currently reviewed by Brian Kelly. Previous editors (if any) are listed on the editors page.
Submissions!
Would you like to Submit some Misheard Lyrics for a song We're always looking for more entries.
Disclaimer
Disclaimer: amIright.com makes no claims to the accuracy of the correct lyrics. All correct lyrics are copyrighted, amIright.com does not claim ownership of the original lyrics.